Jim Hirabayashi Interview Segment 2

Growing up in small town of Thomas, Washington (ddr-densho-1002-5-1) - 00:05:13
Memories of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and attending school the next day: being identified with Japan (ddr-densho-1002-5-2) - 00:07:44
Community life prewar: picnics, Japanese language school, church group (ddr-densho-1002-5-3) - 00:05:03
Discussion of family's legal case involving the alien land law (ddr-densho-1002-5-4) - 00:10:23
Learning father's life story (ddr-densho-1002-5-5) - 00:05:09
Discussion of prewar legal cases involving Issei (ddr-densho-1002-5-6) - 00:03:38
Issei life: community associations, cultural traditions (ddr-densho-1002-5-7) - 00:08:27
The journey to Pinedale Assembly Center, California (ddr-densho-1002-5-8) - 00:02:09
Memories of Pinedale Assembly Center: playing sports, attending school (ddr-densho-1002-5-9) - 00:08:28
Getting into mischief as a young person (ddr-densho-1002-5-10) - 00:04:31
Description of brother Gordon Hirabayashi's wartime stand and trial (ddr-densho-1002-5-11) - 00:08:32
Postwar life: "I was bent on becoming as assimilated as possible" (ddr-densho-1002-5-12) - 00:05:54
Discussion of the effects of incarceration on Japanese Americans (ddr-densho-1002-5-13) - 00:04:56
The changing Japanese American communities after World War II; the silence of Japanese Americans about their experiences (ddr-densho-1002-5-14) - 00:04:04
Shifting roles of the Issei and Nisei as a result of the incarceration experience (ddr-densho-1002-5-15) - 00:04:38
Postwar studies of Japanese Americans (ddr-densho-1002-5-16) - 00:05:07
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ddr-densho-1002-5-2 (Legacy UID: denshovh-hjim-01-0002)

Memories of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and attending school the next day: being identified with Japan

This interview was conducted by sisters Emiko and Chizuko Omori for their 1999 documentary, Rabbit in the Moon, about the Japanese American resisters of conscience in the World War II incarceration camps. As a result, the interviews in this collection are typically not life histories, instead primarily focusing on issues surrounding the resistance movement itself.

00:07:44 — Segment 2 of 16

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October 2, 1992

Emiko and Chizuko Omori Collection

Emiko and Chizuko Omori Collection

Courtesy of Emiko and Chizuko Omori

ddr-densho-1002-5

Jim Hirabayashi

Jim Hirabayashi Interview

01:33:56 — 16 segments

October 2, 1992

San Francisco, California

Nisei male. Born October 30, 1926, in small town of Thomas, Washington, on family farm. Attended school in Auburn, Washington, before being removed to the Pinedale Assembly Center and Tule Lake concentration camp, California. Left camp to work in Idaho, and was subsequently joined by family. Postwar, became a social anthropologist, and later became only the second Nisei to teach at San Francisco State University. Instrumental in the struggle to establish the field of Ethnic Studies. Brother of Gordon Hirabayashi, who defied the curfew and removal orders in 1942, and was arrested, convicted, and imprisoned. Gordon Hirabayashi's conviction was vacated in 1986.

(This interview was conducted by sisters Emiko and Chizuko Omori for their 1999 documentary, Rabbit in the Moon, about the Japanese American resisters of conscience in the World War II incarceration camps. As a result, the interviews in this collection are typically not life histories, instead primarily focusing on issues surrounding the resistance movement itself.)

Chizu Omori, interviewer; Emiko Omori, interviewer; Emiko Omori and Witt Mons, videographer

Emiko and Chizuko Omori Collection

Courtesy of Emiko and Chizuko Omori

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