Interviews
Initial impact on life at camp
I think it’s according to the age that people have these different experiences because of what you know – your consciousness of what was happening to you and what you were missing out in “the outs”, the outside life. But, you know, at my age – 7 years old and so forth – you just continued playing with your friends and going to school. The difference for me was that everybody looked like me and then of course…
I think for me the biggest, biggest, harshest change was having to eat in the mess hall because the dinner table in our home was the center of life, our social life, was to eat at this big round table with all of us eating together. And that changed drastically when we went to camp because we ate like we were in the Army.
And I remember longing for, like, Thanksgiving or Christmas because we didn’t have that anymore. But I remember that feeling of emptiness because that had changed. I knew something had changed in our life, but I didn’t know why. And then of course when my father came back, and he was totally changed, it was like my world had turned upside-down.
Date: December 27, 2005
Location: California, US
Interviewer: John Esaki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Parents
(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII
The Dopey bank that survived the war
(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII
My daughter couldn’t fit in Japan, so I decided to go back to America (Japanese)
(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner
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.
Father was convinced the constitution would protect him
(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.
The lack of discussion about family’s incarceration in Amache
Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California
Her brother’s reasons as a No-No Boy
(b. 1923) Japanese American poet, activist
Her grandfather was pressured to teach Japanese
Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California
Neighbor took care of her mother after grandfather was taken by FBI
Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California
Immediately after the bombing
(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor
Other family members not as lucky
(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor