Interviews
Developing Art Skills in Camp
She gave me a job which I had to drive teachers who taught at the elementary level school which was located halfway up the hill where the camp was situated. For lunch I’d drive, pick up the teacher, bring them down, and drive them back, et cetera. In the meantime, I hung around the office and I guess I did a certain amount of sketching for personal amusement and she thought it was a nice thing for me to be doing and she was kind enough to take me into the storehouse for school supplies and showed me the section where all the art supplies were and just help yourself to whatever you want. So that’s what I spent an awful lot of time doing, just doing that plus doing this job of driving teachers up and down the hill.
Date: August 6, 1998
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Janice Tanaka
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Receiving a negative reaction from father upon asking about World War II experience
(b. 1939) Japanese American painter, printmaker & professor
Memories of dusty conditions at Minidoka incarceration camp
(b. 1923) Nisei from Washington. Resisted draft during WWII.
Ransacking of family home by FBI following the bombing of Pearl Harbor
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
Witnessing father's arrest through a child's eyes
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
Participating in military drills in school in Japan during the war
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
Hearing anti-American war propaganda from a teacher
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
The hardships of life in Japan during World War II
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
Neighbor took care of hotel business during the World War II
(1918-2023) Nisei Japanese kabuki dancer
Anti-Japanese sentiment at the time of World War II
(b. 1918) Issei businessman in Canada
Family life in a Japanese Canadian internment camp in Slocan
(b. 1920) Incarcerated during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community
Lack of political power led to camps
(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist
Choice to move east or go to Japan
(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto
Institutionalization as a bad aspect of camp
(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist