Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/513/

First impression of New York City during war time

Well, I am from the big city so I felt very much at home. The only thing that bothered me was that we were at war with Japan. And the Chinese people wore their tight fit ones and had big badges that said, “I am Chinese.” So we wouldn’t be mistaken as Japanese. And there was a brown out in effect, not a blackout but a brown out. And everything was going on as usual.


discrimination interpersonal relations racism World War II

Date: November 15, 2000

Location: New York, United States

Interviewer: John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

George Katsumi Yuzawa was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915. He and his family were incarcerated at the Amache concentration camp in Colorado in 1942 through 1943. After their release in 1943, Yuzawa resettled in New York City. His family joined him in New York City in 1944. Soon after, he volunteered to join the United States Army for which he served two years in the Military Intelligence sector. After his discharge, he operated an import and export business in New York City. Eventually, he closed his business to assist his father?s florist business.

Yuzawa was an active civil rights activist in the 1970s and '80s in the New York chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) where he protested and filed lawsuits against people who denigrated the Japanese with signs in front of businesses and public transportation. Two major campaigns that Yuzawa spearheaded was the Kenzo Takada controversy and the ILGWU (International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union) anti-Japanese subway poster campaign. As a result of these campaigns, Yuzawa and other fellow Nisei activists formed the Asian Americans for Fair Media, Inc. He was also active in the Redress Movement and helped coordinate the 1981 CWRIC (Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians) hearings in New York City.

Yuzawa helped organize the first sakura matsuri (cherry blossom festival) at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He also founded the non-profit organization, Japanese American Help for the Aging, Inc. (JAHFA) to provide seniors with bilingual assistance, in senior housing and other services. He has devoted the last quarter of the 20th century to supporting the needs of senior citizens in his community.

He passed away on October 2011.(October 2011)

Cedrick Shimo
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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.

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Jimmy Murakami
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Murakami,Jimmy

Losing his sister in camp

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Frances Midori Tashiro Kaji
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Kaji,Frances Midori Tashiro

Discrimination for Nisei doctors

(1928–2016) Daughter of an Issei doctor 

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William Hohri
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Hohri,William

Going to camp with the Terminal Island people

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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William Hohri
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Hohri,William

Outhouses and showers at camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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William Hohri
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Hohri,William

Interned at age fifteen, I saw camp as an adventure

(1927-2010) Political Activist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Kozawa,Sumiko

Coming back to America from Japan before the war

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Kozawa,Sumiko

Her experience of Japanese American Evacuation

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Kozawa,Sumiko

Working in the camp hospital

(1916-2016) Florist

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Sumiko Kozawa
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Kozawa,Sumiko

Experiencing prejudice after the war

(1916-2016) Florist

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Rose Ochi
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Ochi,Rose

Incarceration, Deportation, and Lawyers

(1938-2020) Japanese American attorney and civil rights activist

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Jimmy Murakami
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Murakami,Jimmy

Leaving Tule Lake

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Jimmy Murakami
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Murakami,Jimmy

Introduction to Film

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Jimmy Murakami
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Murakami,Jimmy

Seagulls

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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A. Wallace Tashima
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Tashima,A. Wallace

Being Denied as a Japanese American Lawyer

(b. 1934) The First Japanese American Appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals. 

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