Interviews
Loss of happy-go-lucky adolescence in Puyallup Assembly Center
During that period was there an experience I had that was very revealing to me. One day a messenger came and said that there was someone who wanted to see me, not a Japanese, someone from the outside. And so I was curious, and I'm thinking gee, could it be Norm Peterson, could it be Tony, could it be...?
So I go, and here it is, my teacher. And I, we shook hand and kind of walked. And he is still quiet, and he says, Is there someplace we can sit and talk? And I said, Yeah. And I'd been up on the grandstand with some date, girls. before, there's, on the fairground, the grandstand still exists. So we went up there, and all of a sudden I just feel that the atmosphere has changed. All of the sudden I had a perspective view of the whole camp area and I never dreamed the rows of barrack that was there. It was kind of a shocking view. Because in the other area there's no, we're all ground level, and all of a sudden you get up in this grandstand and you look and you see all the rows and rows of barracks. They were built in this area where they would have the horse racing and all that.
And this guy, the teacher said, he was telling me about his experience during World War I. And he's German and his father was interned. And so he went through a similar experience, and he said that it was a dirty rotten shame that this kind of thing had happened. And for the first time I really felt the impact of what was going on. It made quite an impression on me. Just prior to then I was a happy-go-lucky, carefree teenager.
Date: August 18, 1997
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Lori Hoshino, Stephen Fugita
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.
Explore More Videos
Thoughts on relationship between Japanese Peruvians and Japanese Americans at Crystal City, Texas
(1937 - 2021) Teacher
Japanese American railroad workers are fired following the bombing of Pearl Harbor
(b. 1923) Chick sexer
A racist encounter at a movie theater following the bombing of Pearl Harbor
(b. 1923) Chick sexer
Encountering a train full of Japanese Americans being transported to a concentration camp
(b. 1923) Chick sexer
Joined Japanese Imperial Army during the WWII (Spanish)
(b. 1929) Nisei Argentinean
Donating clothes to the Japanese interns (Japanese)
(1900–1996) The mother of Nikkei Brazilian immigration
Relief fund to support Japanese communities (Japanese)
(1900–1996) The mother of Nikkei Brazilian immigration
Role of Assistancia Social dom Jose Gaspar (Japanese)
(1900–1996) The mother of Nikkei Brazilian immigration
Interrogation by police (Japanese)
(1900–1996) The mother of Nikkei Brazilian immigration
Concentration camp from a Japanese mother’s point of view (Japanese)
Shin-Issei from Gifu. Recently received U.S. citizenship
No immediate impact after Pearl Harbor
(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.
Treatment of Japanese fishermen in Canada during World War II
(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.
Government's permission to publish Japanese newspaper in Canada during World War II
(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.