Born in Los Angeles on Sept. 23, 1916, Frank Emi graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1934. He attended Long Beach and Los Angeles Junior Colleges until his father was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Emi left school to help operate the family's retail market. In 1942, he, his wife and an infant daughter were forcibly moved to the Heart Mt. concentration camp. In the summer of 1943, when the War Relocation Authority (WRA) imposed the controversial "loyalty questionnaire'' onto the camps, Emi and six other like-minded inmates formed the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee (FPC) to try and inject some semblance of justice into their lives.

The army imposed the military draft into the camps in January 1944. The FPC organized to protect and uphold the Constitution and Bill of Rights and challenged the drafting of Nisei internees until their constitutional rights were restored. They fought the government on the grounds that the concentration camps were unconstitutional and drafting of men from these camps was not only immoral but illegal. Through the FPC'S leadership, 85 young men from Heart Mt. refused to comply with their draft orders and were subsequently tried and convicted on draft evasion charges. They were sentenced to 3 years in a federal penitentiary.

The seven leaders, indicted on conspiracy charges of Raiding and abetting and counseling others to evade the draft's were tried and convicted. Of the seven, only three men were actually eligible for the draft. By then, Emi had two small children and the military was not drafting fathers with children. He and another FPC leader could have remained quiet, but the injustice, unfairness, and illegality of the whole experience compelled them to take a stand for justice! The convictions of the FPC "7" were overturned by the Appellate Court in December 1945 and the majority of the men were released in February 1946. President Harry Truman granted a full pardon to all Nisei draft resisters in December 1947.

Emi joined NCRR in their fight for redress and reparations in 1982 and was a member of the historic lobbying delegation that went to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress on behalf of the redress bill. He has continued to be an active NCRR member and speaks at colleges and historical forums all across the country.