Interviews

1. Marriage during anti-miscegenation laws

2. Tomboy

3. Growing Up in Japan

4. Memories of Poston

5. Postwar school-life

6. Father's Service in WWII

7. Moving to Upland Post-Camp

8. Arriving at Poston

Janzen,Terry

(b. 1930) Half Japanese and grew up in both Japan and the United States.

Father's Service in WWII

I think he was drafted I’m not sure. He must have been about forty four but maybe he volunteered. He might’ve because it might’ve been easier way to get us out. I never really asked him about that by that time. Anyway, they sent him to language school and I had all his papers from there. He was correcting all the papers that they were giving out to teach them the Japanese language to the teachers, so they got rid of him naturally. Anyway he ended up as an interpreter then. MacArthur had I believe eight interpreters and they were all kept separate so he always had an interpreter. So when they signed the peace treaty they had each of the interpreters all on a different boat. So my father was on the wrong boat, but he had asked me, did I want General MacArthur’s autograph? Who want the autograph of a general? It was dumb I should’ve said “Yeah!” [laughter] And I said, “no.”

World War II

Date: August 27, 2012

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Cindy Nakashima, Emily Anderson

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum with support of NITTO Tires Life History Project. Courtesy of the USC Hapa Japan Database Project.

Interviewee Bio

Terry Janzen was born in Tokyo, Japan on July 15, 1930. She is half Japanese and grew up in both Japan and the United States. She was incarcerated at Poston for 6 months during World War II. She has been a teacher and a Chair for the Adams County Democratic Party in Washington. (April 2013)

* Terry Janzen interviewed by Cindy Nakashima and Emily Anderson for the exhibition, Visible & Invisible: A Hapa Japanese American History. A Collaboration with the USC Hapa Japan Database Project, videographer, Evan Kodani with support of NITTO Tires Life History Project.