Interviews

1. Mother's immigration to U.S. as a treaty merchant

2. Ransacking of family home by FBI following the bombing of Pearl Harbor

3. Witnessing father's arrest through a child's eyes

4. Memories of trip to Japan on the exchange ships

5. Living in Japan during the war, preparing for U.S. bombings

6. Witnessing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

7. Participating in military drills in school in Japan during the war

8. Hearing anti-American war propaganda from a teacher

9. The hardships of life in Japan during World War II

Marion Tsutakawa Kanemoto

(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.

Living in Japan during the war, preparing for U.S. bombings

Well, I remember seeing, Okayama came before Hiroshima, so Okayama was being bombed, the city of Okayama, we lived just on the outskirts where we could see the B-29s, in those days, it was B nijuu kyu, B-29s circling around. And you can actually see the American insignia on the plane. And before this, we used to have air shelter practices, you know, the air raids. And by the time Okayama came, I mean, we heard in the news that oh, Tokyo, Kobe, they were all being bombed. But then by the time they came to Okayama, we no longer had those air raids, I mean, practices. We never even went into the air shelters because -- we had them in our backyard, but we never did that. We just, just stood outside and saw the plane just circling right above us and going back to drop more bombs on Okayama. That's how long it (continued) -- it kinda desensitized us. I mean, the fear, or whatever, you just have to live it. And otherwise you'd be living in the hole, constantly.

B-29 (bombers) bombers bombings bombs Japan

Date: August 3 & 4, 2003

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Alice Ito

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei female. Born December 30, 1927 in Seattle, Washington. Lived in Japan for fifteen months as a child, before returning to Seattle to attend junior high school. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, father was picked up by the FBI and taken to the Department of Justice camp at Missoula, Montana. Removed to the Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington, before being reunited with father at the Minidoka incarceration camp, Idaho. Family volunteered to leave for Japan in 1943 on the U.S. government's exchange ship, the USS Gripsholm. Attended high school in Japan, and participated in military and air raid drills. During the U.S.'s postwar occupation of Japan, attended Doshisha University and worked for a U.S. army station hospital library. Returned to the U.S. and enrolled at St. Mary's teaching hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. Denied redress because of expatriation to Japan, but succeeded in obtaining redress in 1996 after filing a class-action lawsuit.

*The full interview is available Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.