Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/390/

Loss of happy-go-lucky adolescence in Puyallup Assembly Center

During that period was there an experience I had that was very revealing to me. One day a messenger came and said that there was someone who wanted to see me, not a Japanese, someone from the outside. And so I was curious, and I'm thinking gee, could it be Norm Peterson, could it be Tony, could it be...?

So I go, and here it is, my teacher. And I, we shook hand and kind of walked. And he is still quiet, and he says, Is there someplace we can sit and talk? And I said, Yeah. And I'd been up on the grandstand with some date, girls. before, there's, on the fairground, the grandstand still exists. So we went up there, and all of a sudden I just feel that the atmosphere has changed. All of the sudden I had a perspective view of the whole camp area and I never dreamed the rows of barrack that was there. It was kind of a shocking view. Because in the other area there's no, we're all ground level, and all of a sudden you get up in this grandstand and you look and you see all the rows and rows of barracks. They were built in this area where they would have the horse racing and all that.

And this guy, the teacher said, he was telling me about his experience during World War I. And he's German and his father was interned. And so he went through a similar experience, and he said that it was a dirty rotten shame that this kind of thing had happened. And for the first time I really felt the impact of what was going on. It made quite an impression on me. Just prior to then I was a happy-go-lucky, carefree teenager.


Puyallup temporary detention center temporary detention centers United States Washington World War II World War II camps

Date: August 18, 1997

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Lori Hoshino, Stephen Fugita

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei male. Born 1923 in Seattle, Washington. Spent prewar childhood in South Park and Belltown areas of Seattle. Incarcerated at Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington, and Minidoka incarceration camp, Idaho. Refused to participate in draft, imprisoned at McNeil Island Penitentiary, Washington, for resisting the draft. Resettled in Seattle.

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

Sakaye Shigekawa
en
ja
es
pt
Shigekawa, Sakaye

Joining the hospital unit in Santa Anita Race Track

(1913-2013) Doctor specializing in obstetrics in Southern California

en
ja
es
pt
Sakaye Shigekawa
en
ja
es
pt
Shigekawa, Sakaye

“Everybody went in like sheep”

(1913-2013) Doctor specializing in obstetrics in Southern California

en
ja
es
pt
Henry Suto
en
ja
es
pt
Suto,Henry

The horror of Hiroshima after the atomic bombing (Japanese)

(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.

en
ja
es
pt
Cedrick Shimo
en
ja
es
pt
Shimo,Cedrick

Finding out Roosevelt wanted Japan to attack

(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.

en
ja
es
pt
Cedrick Shimo
en
ja
es
pt
Shimo,Cedrick

Parents expected to be taken by the FBI

(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.

en
ja
es
pt
Cedrick Shimo
en
ja
es
pt
Shimo,Cedrick

525 Quartermaster Corps

(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.

en
ja
es
pt
Cedrick Shimo
en
ja
es
pt
Shimo,Cedrick

Fort McClellan soldiers

(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.

en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami
en
ja
es
pt
Murakami,Jimmy

Losing his sister in camp

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Going to camp with the Terminal Island people

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Outhouses and showers at camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Interned at age fifteen, I saw camp as an adventure

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
Sumiko Kozawa
en
ja
es
pt
Kozawa,Sumiko

Coming back to America from Japan before the war

(1916-2016) Florist

en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami
en
ja
es
pt
Murakami,Jimmy

Paintings reflecting on camp

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

en
ja
es
pt
Sumiko Kozawa
en
ja
es
pt
Kozawa,Sumiko

Her experience of Japanese American Evacuation

(1916-2016) Florist

en
ja
es
pt
Sumiko Kozawa
en
ja
es
pt
Kozawa,Sumiko

Working in the camp hospital

(1916-2016) Florist

en
ja
es
pt