Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/217/

Prom during the war

I was sophomore when the war broke out. All of the sophomores, we had hardly any social life. Our first junior prom that we had, we were… We had our prom in our cafeteria. We had moved all of our tables off to the side. And the cafeteria there was a very old cafeteria. The floor was very worn, so you know, it wasn’t very smooth—lumps along the lumber there. But we tried to darken the room as best as we can, and that was our junior prom.

I recall our senior prom. We still had curfew, we still had to be off the street by 6 o’clock. And we went to the Mormon Tabernacle on Beretania Street. And we pulled all of the drapes so that it was completely dark and a very dim light. And our senior prom was from 1 o’clock to 3:30.

And so, that’s the kind of social life that we had. We didn’t have very much activities going on. And so a lot of us, our friends that got together and we’d spend time together from one friend's house to another friend's house on weekends. So we developed a closeness among some of the friends that we had in high school.


dance social life World War II

Date: December 15, 2003

Location: Hawai`i, US

Interviewer: Art Hansen

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

Interviewee Bio

George Ariyoshi was born in Honolulu in 1926. He overcame a childhood speech defect to enter the Military Intelligence Service language school after World War II and served the United States in Tokyo’s ruins. Returning home from occupied Japan, he moved to Michigan where he received undergraduate and law degrees.

He married Jean Hayashi in Hawai`i and, between 1954 and 1986, held elective offices there as a Democrat. He served three terms as Hawai`i’s governor, the first Japanese American nationwide to govern a state. By his own definition, Governor Ariyoshi was “a social liberal and a fiscal conservative.” The title of his 1997 memoir, With Obligation to All, summed up his personal and political philosophies. (December 2003)

Willie Ito
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Ito,Willie

The Dopey bank that survived the war

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

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Sawako Ashizawa Uchimura
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Uchimura,Sawako Ashizawa

Evacuated to the Jungle

(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.

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Sawako Ashizawa Uchimura
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Uchimura,Sawako Ashizawa

Captured by Guerillas after bombing of Pearl Harbor

(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.

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Robert T. Fujioka
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Fujioka,Robert T.

Grandfather picked up by US Army

(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii

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Tom Yuki
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Yuki,Tom

Father's business partner operated their farming business during WWII

(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.

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Tom Yuki
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Yuki,Tom

Father was convinced the constitution would protect him

(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.

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Fumiko Hachiya Wasserman
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Wasserman,Fumiko Hachiya

The lack of discussion about family’s incarceration in Amache

Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

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Kay Sekimachi
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Sekimachi,Kay

Family that saved her belongings during World War II

(b. 1926) Artist

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Mitsuye Yamada
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Yamada,Mitsuye

Her brother’s reasons as a No-No Boy

(b. 1923) Japanese American poet, activist

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Holly J. Fujie
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Fujie,Holly J.

Her grandfather was pressured to teach Japanese

Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

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Holly J. Fujie
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Fujie,Holly J.

Neighbor took care of her mother after grandfather was taken by FBI

Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

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Howard Kakita
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Kakita,Howard

Immediately after the bombing

(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor

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Howard Kakita
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Kakita,Howard

Other family members not as lucky

(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor

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Howard Kakita
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Kakita,Howard

His parents had little hope that he had survived the atomic bomb

(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor

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Howard Kakita
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Kakita,Howard

His views on nuclear weapons

(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor

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