Interviews
Making craft items from shells found at Tule Lake
Then it was up to whoever was gonna make the flowers or little birds or pins or earrings or whatever they're gonna make, it was up to the person to use their talent in making different things. But mostly, what was selling was the corsages. They were roughly made at first. I don't know what other people used, because I wasn't really interested in what other people was doing. I got interested in finding ways to make the shell flowers myself, and I didn't want just clumsy-looking corsages. I wanted them to look real neat, and I wanted to be sure the stems were wrapped real fine. And I had experience wrapping fishing poles, so I knew how to wrap the wires. And, of course, the wires was the screens that my dad took apart, and they were kind of crinkly and he tried to straighten 'em, but you couldn't straighten 'em very well.
But it worked out pretty good, and then people found out about my corsages, so I kept getting orders from the, mainly from the Caucasian personnel that worked in the hospital in the administration department. So I was really busy; I got so involved that I'd wake up in the middle of the night and draw a sketch and then make it the next day. And I sold a lot of 'em and had orders when I got transferred to Idaho.
Date: September 15-17, 2004
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.
Explore More Videos
Writing a novel on the 442nd
Jewish Japanese American journalist
Meeting Hamako in Japan
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Meeting Mr. Amano
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Marriage and Returning to US
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Feeling prejudice while looking for jobs
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Generosity of the Italians
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Invited to teach at Harvard by his boss
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
The riot in Manzanar
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
The Dopey bank that survived the war
(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII
Evacuated to the Jungle
(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.
Captured by Guerillas after bombing of Pearl Harbor
(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.
Grandfather picked up by US Army
(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii
Father's business partner operated their farming business during WWII
(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.