Interviews
Basic Training
I did extremely well in basic training; I think I was born with the attributes to be a soldier…but I was the best shot in the whole group and I never had a gun in my hand before I joined the army and so like the sarge says,” what are you doing?” you know, cause I hit 10 bulls eyes in a row. I said, “I don’t know what I’m doing, just what you people told me to do!” [laughs] But despite that record, when I finished, you know, the first sergeant told me I could be a cook or clerk or a mechanic. I said,” well why can’t I be a regular soldier? I did very, very well, and I think I came out second in the whole group and I says, out of all of us in basic training” and I says, “why can’t I be a regular soldier?” He says," now, now, now, wake up, wake up," he says, “you got the wrong shaped eyes, you got the wrong skin”, he says," everything is wrong, he says,” you can’t be a soldier, people like you aren’t soldiers.”
Date: August 28, 1995
Location: California, US
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
The role of the media in influencing people's opinions
(b. 1925) Draft resister
Reaction to a 1942 speech by Mike Masaoka, Japanese American Citizen League's National Secretary
(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement
Deciding whether to answer "yes-yes" on the loyalty questionnaire in order to leave camp
(b. 1925) Draft resister
First learning about the incarceration experience in college
(b. 1955) Lawyer
Feeling angry upon reading of Supreme Court case, 'Korematsu v. United States'
(b. 1955) Lawyer
Reasons for conformity and competitiveness in Gardena, California
(b. 1946) Lawyer
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
Losing job with railroad because of being Japanese American
(b. 1923) Chick sexer
On the Impact of the Camp Experience
(b. 1942) The first Asian American woman judge
Impressions of student relocation in South Dakota
Judge, only Japanese American to serve on CWRIC.