William Toshio Yasutake was interviewed together with his sister Mitsuye (Yasutake) Yamada and surviving brother, Joseph Yasutake, in group sessions on October 8-9, 2002. He was interviewed individually on November 14, 2002.
Before being contacted by Densho, the Yasutake siblings had planned to conduct their own family history interviews. Individually and jointly, they and other family members had written and gathered material documenting their family history. They shared much of this with me to assist with research and preparation for the Densho interview. Mitsuye's daughter Jeni had coordinated much of the family history work. Jeni participated as a secondary interviewer during the group sessions, October 8-9, 2002.The group interview sessions were conducted in Seattle at the home of Tom Ikeda, executive director of Densho. The oldest Yasutake sibling, Reverend Seiichi Michael Yasutake, had passed away less than a year before the Densho interviewing, in December, 2001. The remaining siblings emphasized that his absence left a gap in their discussion of family history. In addition to Jeni Yamada and videographers Dana Hoshide and John Pai, also present during some portions of the group interview were Tom Ikeda, and Mitsuye Yamada's son Kai Yamada.","extent":"00:05:51","links_children":"ddr-densho-1000-138-11","creators":[{"role":"narrator","oh_id":131,"namepart":"Tosh Yasutake"},{"role":"interviewer","namepart":"Alice Ito"},{"role":"interviewer","namepart":"Tom Ikeda"},{"role":"videographer","namepart":"Dana Hoshide"}],"topics":[{"term":"World War II -- Military service -- 442nd Regimental Combat Team","id":"89"}],"format":"vh","language":["eng"],"contributor":"Densho","geography":[{"term":"Mississippi","id":"\"http://vocab.getty.edu/tgn/7007522\""}],"rights":"cc","genre":"interview","location":"Seattle, Washington","creation":"November 14, 2002","status":"completed","search_hidden":"Tosh Yasutake narrator \nAlice Ito interviewer \nTom Ikeda interviewer \nDana Hoshide videographer","download_large":"denshovh-ytosh-01-a.jpg"},{"id":"ddr-csujad-38-161","model":"entity","index":"3 1978/{'value': 1979, 'relation': 'eq'}","links":{"html":"https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-csujad-38-161/","json":"https://ddr.densho.org/api/0.2/ddr-csujad-38-161/","img":"https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-csujad-38/ddr-csujad-38-161-mezzanine-658cadf412-a.jpg","thumb":"http://ddrmedia.local/media/ddr-csujad-38/ddr-csujad-38-161-mezzanine-658cadf412-a.jpg"},"title":"George Naohara's handwritten annotations","description":"English translation of the annotations from \"George Naohara photo album\" (csudh_nao_0001), page 12: [Right] Japan declared a war, and Japanese Imperial Army attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. When the war broke out, Yuta Masukawa was visiting Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. He rode on a streetcar to get to Little Tokyo and bought a record, \"Shina no yoru,\" for his sister, Mitsuko. [Left] Alameda Street was a busy street and streetcars were running alongside the street. There was a Japanese school, which was called \"Banguru,\" on the west side of the street. I visited the post office to check my incoming mails. There was nothing for me. I came here, following my uncle, Koichi Naohara, who had been already settled in the United States. Although I came to the U.S. all the way from Japan traveling by a big ship called \"Kamakura-maru,\" there were no jobs available for me because of the Great Depression. I had a decent job in Japan, working for a post office, which was a Japanese government job, near the Hiroshima Station, and it was difficult for me to accept a job which paid me only 30 cents per hour in the U.S. While I was spending time alone and feeling lonely, I met Masukawa family which had eight children. I was pleased to learn that Mrs. Masukawa was Shuzo Myoren's sister who was from Karuga Asa-gun, Hiroshima. Once I met Mitzi, one of the Maskawa family's daughters, I fell in love. See this object in the California State Universities Japanese American Digitization project site: nao_01_012","extent":"1 page, 8 x 8.75 inches, handwritten","links_children":"ddr-csujad-38-161","creators":[{"role":"author","namepart":"Naohara, George, 1919-2014"}],"topics":[{"term":"Identity and values -- Kibei","id":"45"},{"term":"Geographic communities -- California -- Los Angeles","id":"272"},{"term":"Immigration and citizenship -- Life in Japan and reasons for leaving","id":"2"}],"format":"doc","language":["jpn"],"contributor":"CSU Dominguez Hills Department of Archives and Special Collections","rights":"nocc","genre":"misc_document","status":"completed","search_hidden":"Naohara, George, 1919-2014 author","download_large":"ddr-csujad-38-161-mezzanine-658cadf412-a.jpg"}],"query":{"query":{"query_string":{"query":"Hawaii","fields":["id","model","links_html","links_json","links_img","links_thumb","links_children","status","public","title","description","contributor","creators","creators.namepart","facility","format","genre","geography","label","language","creation","location","persons","rights","topics","image_url","display_name","bio","extent","search_hidden"],"analyze_wildcard":false,"allow_leading_wildcard":false,"default_operator":"AND"}},"aggs":{"facility":{"nested":{"path":"facility"},"aggs":{"facility_ids":{"terms":{"field":"facility.id","size":1000}}}},"format":{"terms":{"field":"format"}},"genre":{"terms":{"field":"genre"}},"rights":{"terms":{"field":"rights"}},"topics":{"nested":{"path":"topics"},"aggs":{"topics_ids":{"terms":{"field":"topics.id","size":1000}}}}},"_source":["id","model","links_html","links_json","links_img","links_thumb","links_children","status","public","title","description","contributor","creators","creators.namepart","facility","format","genre","geography","label","language","creation","location","persons","rights","topics","image_url","display_name","bio","extent","search_hidden"]}}