Interviews
Volunteering to serve for the U.S. military in Japan
Well I had good grades and Japanese was easy because that time I could memorize. Japanese language is memory, that’s all. You memorize words and characters so it was very easy for me. I taught Japanese until the end of the war. The war ended in forty-five, and I was hoping to get back to school. But I wanted to visit my relatives in Japan having heard from my mother about them all the years I was in Kona. So I decided to volunteer to serve in Japan, and the requirement for us was to be commissioned as Second Lieutenant to go over to Japan. To become an officer, I had to go through basic training for three months in Fort McClellan, Alabama. And after that I was commissioned and went to Japan in 1946.
Date: May 29, 2006
Location: Hawai`i, US
Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Little interaction with parents
(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline
Father as prisoner of war in hospital
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Lack of language skills
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Acculturation
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Japanese are more accustomed to foreigners
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Difficulties understanding different Japanese dialects
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
Teaching at the military language school during World War II
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i
Family's deportation from Peru to U.S. after the bombing of Pearl Harbor
(1930-2018) Nisei born in Peru. Taken to the United States during WWII.
Learning English upon discovering that family could not return to Peru
(1930-2018) Nisei born in Peru. Taken to the United States during WWII.
Playing baseball along with American Nisei and Kibei
(1930-2018) Nisei born in Peru. Taken to the United States during WWII.
Dealing with racism within army unit in Korea
(b. 1939) Japanese American painter, printmaker & professor
Her early life in Canada
(b.1912) Japanese Canadian Issei. Immigrated with husband to Canada in 1931
Japanese school
(b.1924) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Interpreter for British Army in Japan after WWII. Active in Japanese Canadian community
Laid off for being Canadian
(b. 1922) Canadian Nisei who was unable to return to Canada from Japan until 1952
Learning Japanese at school and at home with family
(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.