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Allyship after camp

When we came back from camp, um, San Bernardino does not have a Japanese community, right, but there was a Chinese market, and it was run by a family called the Kwoks. We could not have our store without them because they were the only butcher and they had a, a butcher store on, uh, a butcher thing, and they eventually opened up what is, a, a pretty big market, there used to be, called Palace Market, real supermarket, which is one of the first ones out there and everyone in our family, me, my brother, my sisters, both of them, all worked there.

But after the war, there were certain companies that wouldn’t sell. You know, my father, still does not like, um, it’s Langendorf, or Pepsi. Because they asked to, to get their products in the store and they said, we don’t sell to Japs. We could not get meat.

So, they said, we’re here, you know. So, we got to be friends, my sister especially became friends with Rosemary Kwok, and they became good friends. But we would have to walk, it must have been over a mile, I can’t remember, we had to go through a meadow get up into a thing. And my father would order the meat and we’d then put the meat on our shoulders. And we were relatively small kids, all of us had to kind of lug it through the hot sun to our store. And that’s how we got our meat products there, you know.

 


California discrimination imprisonment incarceration interpersonal relations Palace Market postwar San Bernardino supermarkets United States World War II World War II camps

Date: September 8, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki, Kris Kuramitsu

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

Interviewee Bio

Ben Sakoguchi, born in 1938, is a painter and printmaker who has lived in the Los Angeles area his entire life, except for the time when he and his family were incarcerated in Poston Arizona. After studying painting in the 1960s at the University of California, Los Angeles, he developed a distinctive style that is rooted in pairing a narrative painting tradition with a pop culture vocabulary. He is best known for his long running “Orange Crate Label” series, using the classic crate label format to explore diverse subject matter and to combine them in a way that allows for both sharp critique and wry humor. His work is deeply and politically engaged, and he takes a deep delight in the craft and beauty of painting itself. Sakoguchi was a professor at Pasadena City College for nearly 35 years. Visit his website at bensakoguchi.com. (Oct. 2011)

Henry Shimizu
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Shimizu,Henry

Sneaking out of the Hastings Park camp during World War II

(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.

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Henry Shimizu
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Shimizu,Henry

Government sold Japanese Canadian properties for little money

(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.

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Venancio Shinki
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Hiding out to avoid the concentration camps (Spanish)

(b. 1932-2016) Peruvian painter

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Gordon Hirabayashi
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Questioning Curfew

(1918-2012) Fought the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

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Gordon Hirabayashi
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A Dutiful Son

(1918-2012) Fought the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

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Gordon Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,Gordon

Bypassing the Constitution

(1918-2012) Fought the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

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Bill Hosokawa
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Hosokawa,Bill

A Reporter’s Responsibility

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Cherry Kinoshita
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Kinoshita,Cherry

Erasing the Bitterness

(1923–2008) One of the leaders behind the redress movement.

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William Marutani
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Marutani,William

Challenges of finding a summer job

Judge, only Japanese American to serve on CWRIC.

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Frank Emi
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Emi,Frank

Speaking out in camp

(1916-2010) draft resister, helped form the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee

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Frank Emi
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Emi,Frank

Would do the same again

(1916-2010) draft resister, helped form the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee

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Young O. Kim
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Kim,Young O.

Basic Training

(1919 - 2006) World War II and Korean War veteran

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Young O. Kim
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Kim,Young O.

Do it for all Asians

(1919 - 2006) World War II and Korean War veteran

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Sakaye Shigekawa
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Shigekawa, Sakaye

Traumatic experiences before camp

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

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Sakaye Shigekawa
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Shigekawa, Sakaye

“Everybody went in like sheep”

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

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