Interviews
Camp as a positive thing
Everything in camp could be a positive thing. Every person you meet, you know, that you never met before or you hear what town they came from, or if they were farmers or fisherman or what, you know. I mean, to me I didn’t think of that experience as being such a negative thing. I thought, everybody goes through changes through life—after all, look at what our parents, they left their home country and came here. And here, we just went from our hometown to this camp that I didn’t think… and I had told all the Sunday school kids, “Your life hasn’t even begun yet. You don’t even know what you’re gonna go through five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now…” And so, I mean, I thought it’s good to prepare them that this isn’t the worst thing that could happen. And then, of course, afterward when I learned about slavery and the way blacks were treated, I thought to myself, “My God! I mean, how can we complain where others have been treated so much worse…”
Date: June 16, 2003
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Karen Ishizuka, Akira Boch
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.
Explore More Videos
Okinawan discrimination
An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.
Experiencing discrimination as a child
Co-founder and creative director of San Jose Taiko
His father describes the importance of photographing camp life
(1924-2016) Photographer and businessman.
Importance of education in achieving redress for incarceration
(1919-2014) Activist for civil rights and redress for World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.
His parents' experience with Japanese resistance toward intermarriage with Okinawans
(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.
The birth of a novel through a conversation with her nephew
(b. 1934) Writer
Treatment of Kibei after return to United States
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
Mixed emotions after declaration of war on Japan
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
Train ride to Jerome Relocation Center
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
Atmosphere in his Merrill’s Marauders unit when surrounded by Japanese soldiers
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
Getting citizenship back
(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII