Frank Emi was a second-generation Japanese American (Nisei) from Los Angeles, California, who, like countless other Japanese Americans in 1942, was forcibly moved into a “relocation center” by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) as a result of Executive Order 9066. Emi was incarcerated at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, where he was then obliged by the WRA to fill out a so called “Loyalty Questionnaire” – which was administered to all Japanese American internees to assess their loyalty to the United States. In response to two infamous questions on the questionnaire, questions 27 and 28, Emi responded that “under the present conditions I am unable to answer these questions.”

Along with ACLU member Kiyoshi Okomoto, Frank Emi formed the Heart Mountain Fair Play committee in protest of the questionnaire. The committee maintained that if the government restored full citizenship to the Heart Mountain Nisei internees, such as due process before the law, they would gladly comply with selective service requirements. As a result, Frank Emi was among 7 individuals indicted by Judge Eugene Rice on counts of conspiracy to violate the Selective Service Act and imprisoned at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary; a group of 63 other Heart Mountain Nisei would later be indicted through mass trial of draft resistance. On December 24th, 1947, President Harry S. Truman would grant a pardon to all Nisei draft resisters, restoring all of their political and civil rights.