Paul Nakadate
Paul Nakadate was born August 18, 1914 in Montebello, California, grew up in San Diego, and attended San Diego State College. After graduation he got a job as an insurance salesman in Los Angeles, and was regarded as an excellent speaker.
He was 29 years old when he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Fair Play Committee. As a married man with one child, he was one of three leaders of the draft resistance who was not even eligible for the draft. When not taking care of his baby son, he spoke at mess hall meetings, talking about what he knew of American history and reading from such books as "Are We Fit for a Democracy?" by Reverend Fosdick and "Basic Manual of Individualism" by Amy Lind. Nakadate did not agree with the FPC's refusal to comply with Selective Service, but he still believed in their mission of fair play for camp inmates and assumed the chair of the FPC after founder Kiyoshi Okamoto's removal to Tule Lake.
Nakadate passed away in Los Angeles in 1964 at the age of 49. His grandson recently found a poem that Nakadate wrote for one of the Christmases he spent in camp:
Tho' the cold Wyoming winds may blow
The dust of ages o'er this desolate expanse;
Tho' overcast the sky and nary an inch o'sno,
Still in our hearts we firmly hold
Despite our circumstance:
Christmas tidings for the folks
That's done so much for us while journeying
Across life's rubicon
-- Nakadate and family
Paul - Alice - Tomio
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