Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Bert Nakano Interview
Narrator: Bert Nakano
Interviewer: Larry Hashima
Location: University of California, Los Angeles
Date: September 13, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-nbert-01-0001

<Begin Segment 1>

LH: Densho interview with Mr. Bert Nakano on Saturday, September 13, 1997, Larry Hashima interviewer, and it's at Los Angeles, California. Thank you very much for coming to speak with us today. I want to start with some background information. A lot of people in the redress movement have a lot of personal ties to it and they, a lot of people also have misperceptions about the redress in terms of the fact that only the people who were interned were the ones who got involved. What was your personal experience during the war?

BN: Far from it, the Sansei, most of 'em were not born at that time, they were the backbone of at least our organization. They were the professionals, they had the know-how, they had the tools to help the whole redress movement. Without them, there's no way Niseis would be able to do it.

LH: But what about your own personal experience during the war, I mean, how did that sort of...

BN: Well, I was born and raised in Hawaii, in the city of Honolulu. My dad was a building contractor and he was one of the largest, in fact, M. Nakano Contracting. And he had quite a few equipment and during the war they picked him up because he's an alien. Alien only because he couldn't become a citizen, not until 1957, I guess. But they picked him up, because I suppose not only an alien, but he was a community leader and FBI knew who to pick up right away when December 7th came around. So that's my dad who had a third-grade education, but was a master craftsman. And my mother, who is a typical Japanese lady... [Cries]

LH: Are you okay? We can stop if you like.

BN: Yeah, I think we better stop.

[Interruption]

BN: So my mother, who was a Japanese lady, brought up in Japan, didn't speak English, and all she knew was taking care of the kids, feeding them, clothing them and when it came to financial stuff she didn't know a thing. And at that time when they took my dad away, Mom was completely confused. She didn't know what to do. My older brother, who was sixteen at that time -- and I was fourteen -- he became, all of a sudden, he grew up, he had to be the, the head of the family. And then when the army or the authorities decided that they no longer can keep the family here in the islands, they sent us on the first boat, first family boat, that left Honolulu to Jerome concentration camp in Arkansas.

And we were the first group leaving the islands, and it was a horrible trip. I mean, we were in a small boat, everybody got seasick because it was going up and down we had to zig-zag all over the Pacific because they are afraid that, you know, the Japanese were gonna either torpedo us or whatever. When we got to San Francisco, we got off, we saw a line of M.P.s all lined up and we had to walk through them. And when we got into the train itself, the shades were all drawn and they said, "That's it, you're gonna be here." We didn't know where we were gonna go. In fact, my mother was so worried that maybe they're gonna get rid of us or something. And we were on the train headed for Jerome, Arkansas, but we didn't know where we're gonna go. And on the train itself, as a young boy, fourteen, you know, very active and this M.P. came around, I stood up and I mocked a salute at the M.P., everybody in the train was laughing because I did that, and the M.P. turned around and he started to get after me. But Dr. Miyamoto at that time stood up and said, "You leave that kid alone!" And he gave a tongue lashing to the M.P.s and we, when we got to Jerome, Arkansas, it was almost December. In fact we left Honolulu in November, so December when we got there it was completely, it was a mud puddle. And most of the people from Hawaii didn't have proper clothing for cold weather in Arkansas. And Arkansas can be cold. They have snow, hail and bugs that big.

So we got off, we had to go to our assigned apartments and my mother and three boys were sent to a certain apartment. And here was a pot bellied stove right in the center of the, of the apartment. And we didn't know what the hell to do with it. What is this stove for? And we had people in the camp, mainland people, come in and told us, "Well, you have to burn the wood first and then put the coal on top of it, then it will keep you warm." Without their knowledge and their helping us, we would have probably froze to death in the apartment. And the bunk bed that they supplied -- if you hit the bunk bed you can see the dust flying. I mean, the, it was tarpaper barracks and there was hole in the tarpaper, through the cracks so wind used to come through there and it wasn't a very healthy situation, definitely. Anyway, this is how we got into the concentration camp.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.