337 items
337 items
Narrator Kenji Suematsu
Nisei male. Born April 29, 1934, in Brawley, California. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Father was arrested by the FBI and mother had a nervous breakdown. Kenji and his sister were sent to stay at the Shonien orphanage in Los Angeles. During mass removal, taken to Manzanar with other orphans and placed in the Manzanar …
Narrator George Matsumoto
Nisei male. Born July 19, 1924, in San Francisco, California. At a young age, family moved to Ocean Park, California, where father ran a concession stand in an amusement park. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, removed with family to the Manzanar concentration camp, California. While in camp, had numerous jobs, including as part of the …
Narrator Sarah Sato
Sansei female. (Mother and father born in Hawaii.) Born February 1925 in Peru. Spent prewar childhood in Peru and Hawaii. Father picked up by the FBI and detained after bombing of Pearl Harbor. Was incarcerated at Jerome concentration camp, Arkansas, and Tule Lake concentration camp, California. Renounced citizenship in order to stay with parents, and was …
Narrator Grace Watanabe Kimura
Nisei female. Born May 2, 1925, in Los Angeles, California. Grew up in Boyle Heights, where father was a prominent Baptist minister, establishing his own church. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, removed with family to the Poston concentration camp, Arizona. Obtained student leave to finish high school in Abilene, Texas. Post-World …
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Tomiye Terasaki Interview (ddr-densho-1000-122)
Kibei female. Born October 5, 1910, in San Francisco, California. At age three, sent to live with grandfather and receive education in Fukuoka, Japan. After high school, temporarily moved to Tokyo and assisted family-owned business. In 1929, returned to U.S. to join parents in Sacramento. After arranged marriage to Mr. Tadao Sakita, moved to Los Angeles, …
Narrator Charles Oihe Hamasaki
Nisei male. Born October 7, 1922, in Japan, while parents were visiting family. Came to the U.S. at three months old, and grew up in Terminal Island, California. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, picked up along with Issei father and taken to Fort Lincoln (Bismarck), North Dakota. Transferred from Fort Lincoln to the Santa Anita …
Narrator Hikaru Morohoshi
Kibei Nisei male. Born October 4, 1915, in Stockton, California. As a young child, sent to Japan to live with grandparents and attend school. Returned to California at age eighteen, and drafted into the U.S. military. Discharged from the army after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Removed to the Tanforan Assembly Center, Washington, and the Topaz concentration …
Narrator Grace Hata
Nisei female. Born December 5, 1930, in Gardena, California. Grew up in Gardena where parents ran a restaurant. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, father was arrested and taken away by the FBI. During mass removal, family was sent to the Manzanar concentration camp, California, and reunited with father. Following the Leave Clearance questionnaire in 1943, …
Narrator Eddie M. Inaba
Nisei male. Born May 9, 1917, in Walnut Grove, California. Parents worked at Canal Ranch, an agricultural community, where they grew produce for Libby, McNeill & Libby. Parents also owned and ran a bar in Walnut Grove. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, removed to the Merced Assembly Center, California, and Granada (Amache) concentration camp, Colorado. …
Narrator Sam Mihara
Nisei male. Born February 1, 1933, in San Francisco, California. Grew up in San Francisco's Japantown, where father edited a bilingual newspaper. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, removed to the Pomona Assembly Center, California, and the Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming. After leaving camp, lived for a time in Salt Lake City, Utah, before returning …
Narrator Nelson Takeo Akagi
Nisei male. Born July 27, 1923, in Lindsay, California. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, moved with family to Idaho for "voluntary evacuation," where they worked harvesting sugar beets for the U&I Sugar Company. Volunteered for the army during World War II. Served with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, and was present at the liberation of …
Narrator Edward K. Honda
Sansei male. Born July 7, 1945, in the Tule Lake concentration camp, California. Parents were from Hawaii, but father was picked up by the FBI following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and mother went to rejoin him on the mainland. After leaving camp, lived briefly in New York City before returning to Hawaii, where parents separated. …
Narrator Hisaji Q. Sakai
Nisei male. Born February 28, 1925, in San Francisco, California. Grew up in San Francisco, where parents had a grocery store business. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, moved to Iowa to attend college and avoid the mass incarceration. Attended college in Nebraska and Michigan. Drafted into the Military Intelligence Service and served in Japan during …
Narrator Chizuko Judy Sugita de Quieiroz
Nisei female. Born September 15, 1932, in Lodi, California. Grew up in Jersey Island, a small island in the Sacramento Delta. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, removed to the Poston concentration camp, Arizona. After leaving camp, returned with family to Los Angeles, California. Graduated from Long Beach State and earned a …
Narrator Richard E. Yamashiro
Nisei male. Born February 13, 1929, in Seattle, Washington. Grew up in Hollywood, California, and was living there when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. Removed to the Manzanar concentration camp, California. Parents signed "no-no" on the so-called "loyalty questionnaire" and the family was transferred to the Tule Lake concentration camp, California, then designated as a …
Narrator Sam Araki
Nisei male. Born July 12, 1931, in Saratoga, California. Grew up in Saratoga, where father worked as a gardener on a large estate. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, father moved the family inland to Reedley in an attempt to avoid mass removal. Eventually removed to Poston concentration camp, Arizona. After leaving camp, returned to California …
Narrator Fumino Tsuchiya-Knox
Sansei female. Born February 20, 1945, at the Manzanar concentration camp, California. Prior to the war, her father, an Issei, was a curator at the Harding Museum in Chicago. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her parents decided to volunteer to go early to Manzanar to help set up the camp. After leaving Manzanar, the family …
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Masamizu Kitajima Interview (ddr-densho-1000-287)
Nisei male. Born August 1, 1933, in Ookala, Hawaii. At a young age, sent to Japan to live with grandfather and begin ministry training, but returned to the U.S. just before the onset of World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, father, a prominent Buddhist minister, was picked up and arrested by the FBI. …
Narrator James A. Nakano
Nisei male. Born November 12, 1933, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Grew up in Honolulu, and was nine years old when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Father was arrested by the FBI, and family went to the concentration camp at Jerome, Arkansas, to reunite with him. Transferred to Tule Lake, California, following the so-called "loyalty questionnaire." After the war, …
Narrator Takashi Hoshizaki
Nisei male. Born October 3, 1925, in Los Angeles, California. Grew up in Los Angeles, where parents owned and operated a produce store. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, removed to the Pomona Assembly Center, California, and the Heart Mountain concentration camp, Wyoming. While in Heart Mountain, decided to resist the draft, and attended meetings of …
Narrator Diana Morita Cole
Nisei female. Born May 26, 1944, in the Minidoka concentration camp, Idaho. Prior to World War II, parents lived in Hood River, Oregon. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they were removed to the Pinedale Assembly Center, California, and the Tule Lake concentration camp, California, before transferring to Minidoka. After leaving camp, the family resettled in …
Narrator Hiroshi Uyehara
Nisei male. Born January 1, 1916, in Oakland, California. Grew up in the Los Angeles area where father started a fish cake factory. Attended UCLA and UC Berkeley and then worked as an electrical draftsman for the Department of Water and Power for the City of Los Angeles. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, …
Narrator Kenneth Narahara
Sansei male. Born December 16, 1936, in Oakland, California. Grew up in Alameda, California, where parents had a florist business. Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were forced to leave Alameda, so the family split up and moved to Oakland. Removed to the Tanforan Assembly Center, California, and the Topaz concentration camp, Utah. …
Narrator Sumiko M. Yamamoto
Nisei female. Born May 12, 1925, in Spreckels, California. Moved frequently with family as a child, eventually settling in Gilroy, California. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, removed to the Salinas Assembly Center, California, and the Poston concentration camp, Arizona. Following father's desire to repatriate to Japan, transferred to Tule Lake concentration camp, California, when it …
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An Oral History with Margaret Masuoka (ddr-csujad-29-25)
An interview with Margaret Masuoka, a volunteer at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), conducted for the Japanese American Project at California State Fullerton's Center for Oral and Public History. Specifically, this interview provides insight to Masuoka's personal history dealing with the prejudice that she and her family faced due their Japanese ancestry; her family's settlement …