Interviews
Meeting Mr. Amano
After I arrived in Japan the second time, I went to her father's home in Fujisawa, which was a high-end resort—it was then—high-end resort town south of Tokyo, about 60 miles I think. Anyway, I went to the house and Hamako was inside with her father and she said," There's a GI waiting out there at the gate, wants to talk with you." And the father, of course, knew I was an enemy and he said, "Send him away. We don't want anything to do with him." And Hamako said, "I can't do that, he came here 2 years and he wanted to marry me."
And so the father came to the door—he's a big, tall, fine-looking, serious-looking, scary, Japanese man and I...of course he stood above - the house with floor was up and the mon where you came in was blowing and I looked up at him and I thought, uh oh this is gonna be terrible. And he came with a very serious face and I said, "Sir, I have come back from California to marry to your daughter—for your permission to marry your daughter." Well, his expression changed right away and he said, "Come in" and he showed me to a nice room with a tokonoma and all kinds of Japanese stuff.
Anyway, I was happy as a lark; I could take off my shoes and leave them in the mon and walk on tatami and he was very nice to me.
Date: January 26, 2012
Location: California, US
Interviewer: John Esaki, Yoko Nishimura
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Prom during the war
(b.1926) Democratic politician and three-term Governor of Hawai'i
Laid off for being Canadian
(b. 1922) Canadian Nisei who was unable to return to Canada from Japan until 1952
Life in camp as teenager
(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline
Being ordered to keep a diary that was later confiscated, ostensibly by the FBI
Hawaiian Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.
Helping soldiers
An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.
Fun at concentration camp
Senshin Buddhist Temple minister and co-founder of Kinnara Taiko.
Father as prisoner of war in hospital
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Patriotism versus loyalty
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Postcards to Nisei soldiers
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Hiding what happened in camp
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Camp as a positive thing
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Rounding up Issei and Nikkei
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.