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How we were treated on plantation after the attack on Pearl Harbor (Japanese)

(Japanese) I don’t know how to describe it. I was just sad. But they treated us well on the plantation. Every day they would give us face masks first. And every morning when we gathered, the plantation owner, our boss would hand this note to gaijin (non-Japanese foreigners). I thought, they wouldn’t give us the note because we are Japanese, so I asked them. Then they told me, don’t say anything bad to these Japanese people because they are good Japanese people, different from the ones in Japan, that’s what they wrote. I felt so thankful. Just a few moments ago I was thinking, they treated us that way because we were Japanese. But it wasn’t like that.


generations Hawaii immigrants immigration Issei Japan migration Pearl Harbor attack, Hawaii, 1941 United States

Date: June and July, 1991

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Robert Nakamura, Karen Ishizuka

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

Interviewee Bio

Haruo Kasahara was born in 1900 in Japan and left Fukushima-ken for Hawaii in 1919 to join her parents. She recalled being so homesick for Japan, she cried every day. She worked on a plantation in the fields cutting grass and watering the sugar cane for a wage of 55 cents a day.

Mrs. Kasahara was married in 1922. She met her husband by Omiai. He also worked at the plantation. For him, it was his second marriage. His first wife had died and left him with two children. When Mrs. Kasahara married him, his children were in Japan. Mrs. Kasahara gave birth to six children, however two died at very young ages. (July 1991)

Yamauchi,Wakako Nakamura

Her experience as a Japanese-American schoolchild in Oceanside, California, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

(1924-2018) Artist and playwright.

Inouye,Daniel K.

Recalling Pearl Harbor

(1924-2012) Senator of Hawaii

Moromisato, Doris

The myth of the sacrifice of immigrants (Spanish)

(b. 1962) Peruvian Poet, Okinawan descendant

Sakane,Hiroshi

A strong Japanese identity (Japanese)

(b. 1948) Executive Director of Amano Museum

Hohri,William

Japanese American, not Japanese

(1927-2010) Political Activist

Horikiri,Edward Toru

Longing to be an imperial soldier as a youth (Japanese)

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

Horikiri,Edward Toru

Boarding house life and the Issei (Japanese)

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

Horikiri,Edward Toru

My father’s venture into the hotel business (Japanese)

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

Horikiri,Edward Toru

“Junior Issei” (Japanese)

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

Hoshiyama,Fred Y.

Celebrating his birthday on December 7, 1941

(1914–2015) Nisei YMCA and Japanese American community leader

Hoshiyama,Fred Y.

Getting a job in Honolulu

(1914–2015) Nisei YMCA and Japanese American community leader

Hoshiyama,Fred Y.

Feeling free and accepted in Hawaii

(1914–2015) Nisei YMCA and Japanese American community leader

Fukuhara,Jimmy Ko

Hearing about Pearl Harbor

(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan

Ito,Willie

December 7th, 1941

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII