Interviews
His mother’s money belt
We were inland a little bit so there wasn’t a big Japanese community there so the people in LA I think got to Manzanar and they sent us to um, to Poston Arizona.
Literally they had to stuff um, straw into mattresses to make a, you know, to make the mattress. My mother uh, really was quite brilliant, alright? She took a money belt, made it herself, put a thousand dollars in cash in it, and wore it for three and a half years.
Without that money, we come back from camp, we could not start the store and luckily, my mother was a citizen. If she wasn’t a citizen, people understand this, she could not, we could not own property.
Date: September 8, 2011
Location: California, US
Interviewer: John Esaki, Kris Kuramitsu
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Life in camp as teenager
(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline
Didn't have rights that whites had
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Californians didn't know about evacuation
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Conditions of assembly centers
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Visit to assembly centers by E. Stanley Jones
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Hiding what happened in camp
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Camp as a positive thing
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Involvement in JACL
(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.
Finding work in the assembly center
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
Train ride to Jerome Relocation Center
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
Evacuation
(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII
Conditions at Pinedale Assembly Center
(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII
Making craft items from shells found at Tule Lake
(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII