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Excerpt, Oral History Interview, Spring Haruye (Nakamoto) Yamamoto
No full textExcerpt, summary, and index of an oral history interview of Spring Haruye (Nakamoto) Yamamoto. Conducted by Wesley Ueunten and Grace Shimizu on September 17, 2011, in Penryn, CA. Transcribed by Alejandro Ochoa.
Excerpt available online at https://vimeo.com/413334832This transcript was created as part of Secrets Revealed: The Presidio Project, produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. The project reveals untold stories of Nisei former camp inmates, including U.S. Army enlistees, during World War 2.NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, California 94115-3604
An Interview on September 16, 2011 with
Spring Haruye (Nakamoto) Yamamoto
Conducted by Wesley Ueunten Grace Shimizu
Oral History Summary, Keywords, Excerpt, and Index
“Secrets Revealed: The Presidio Project”
© 2011 NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, California 94115-3604
Interviewee: Spring Haruye (Nakamoto) Yamamoto Interviewers: Wesley Ueunten, and Grace Shimizu Transcriber: Alejandro Ochoa
Editor: Grace Shimizu
Location: Placer Buddhist Church, Penryn, California Date: September 17, 2011
Summary: Haruye Yamamoto recalls how life changed for her and her family friends in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. She describes the psychological distress she experienced at Marysville Temporary WCCA “Assembly Center” and how being incarcerated impacted her physically and emotionally. Yamamoto also discusses her incarceration at Tule Lake WRA Concentration Camp, including getting married and her experiences with the camp’s medical staff and facilities during and after her pregnancy. Yamamoto reflects on how she generally avoids discussing her experiences during the war and shares some difficult memories.
Keywords: Pre-WWII: education - Japanese language school, grade school; community – Penryn | Pearl Harbor: war hysteria | Forced Removal | Marysville Temporary WCCA “Assembly Center” | Tule Lake WRA Concentration Camp | Life in Camp: family structure, psychological impact, living conditions, activities, food, healthcare, guard interaction, employment | “Loyalty” questionnaire | Resistance / Dissidence: dissident groups – Hoshidan | Leaving Camp: resettlement, racism | Effects of WWII Experience: trauma
Oral History Excerpt:
00:42:58.74 Then, coming back to the dentist, (laughs) this is some other story. My molar got infected, … after I had my daughter. … [W]hen you go to the dentist there, first-come-first-serve. You’re lined up. I don’t know how many doctors, but I just knew two doctors, Kumamoto and Muramoto. Then, they got me with Dr. Kumamoto. He looked at my molar, and he says, “Okay. Hang on to your jaw.” I said, “What in the world is he telling me? Hang on to my jaw.” With my both hands, I hung on to my jaw. They put some kind of chisel in there. … He hammers it…to break my molar, and he dug it out.…Underneath, there was … wisdom teeth. Oyashirazu [wisdom teeth] was in there. Dug that out. Stitches, all this went on. By the time I was ready to move, my whole face was black and blue. Ohhh! …
Index:
00:00:00.00 Basic biographical information; born in Hiroshima
00:01:06.06 Parents’ story of sharecropping in the United States, visiting their parents in Japan
00:04:26.19 Growing up in Newcastle, Placer County; not knowing much of Japan
00:05:33.40 Many Japanese Americans in Placer County, at school
00:05:58.32 Attending Japanese School; learning Japanese from mother
00:07:05.75 Japanese American community in Penryn
00:09:42.62 Using Japanese and English languages
00:10:13.47 National origins of other people in Placer County; getting along well with others
00:12:26.01 The aftermath of Pearl Harbor
00:14:36.88 Restrictions on Japanese Americans; racist sign in Auburn
00:16:28.65 Father did not discuss many concerns after Pearl Harbor; Japanese American organizations and FBI arrests
00:19:13.35 Receiving her high school diploma at the Marysville Temporary WCCA “Assembly Center”; preparing for life at Marysville
00:21:24.78 Marysville Temporary WCCA “Assembly Center”; emotional difficulties and being sick; food and living conditions
00:24:42.18 Leaving behind pets
00:25:25.85 Forced removal to Marysville; being transported by train to Tule Lake WRA Concentration Camp; bringing belongings to camp
00:29:21.65 Living conditions in Tule Lake
00:31:09.26 Living in Tule Lake when people who answered “no-no” on the “loyalty” questionnaire were moved to the segregation center; the Hoshidan organization
00:34:40.87 Fight at Tule Lake; guards shot a man; classes in camp
00:36:04.79 Marriage in camp
00:39:55.59 Activities in camp; working as a waitress; going on dates and leaving the camp perimeter to visit the Modoc Indian museum
00:42:52.40 Being ill while pregnant and staying at the hospital; experience with medical facilities in camp
00:49:23.49 Father’s protective nature; raising her without her mother
00:50:14.54 Japanese farmers’ positive and negative experiences trusting others with their land and crops
00:52:47.56 Resettlement; avoiding Auburn; story of racial discrimination at barbershop in Newcastle
00:56:08.19 Avoiding talking about her wartime experience; reflections and remembering difficult moments
01:01:04.39 Getting married in camp; living as newlyweds between her parents and in- laws
01:06:03.11 Commentary on modern marriage
01:08:18.36 Being a young woman in camp; father worries about he
Excerpt, Oral History Interview, Blanca Sadako (Maoki) Katsura
No full textExcerpt, summary, and index of an oral history interview of Blanca Sadako (Maoki) Katsura. Conducted by Grace Shimizu on September 28, 2011, in Berkeley, CA. Transcribed by Julie Keiko Beal.
Excerpt available online at https://vimeo.com/412951627This transcript was created as part of Secrets Revealed: The Presidio Project, produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. The project reveals untold stories of Nisei former camp inmates, including U.S. Army enlistees, during World War 2.NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, California 94115-3604
An Interview on September 16, 2011 with
Blanca Sadako (Maoki) Katsura
Conducted by Wesley Ueunten Grace Shimizu
Oral History Summary, Keywords, Excerpt, and Index
“Secrets Revealed: The Presidio Project”
© 2011 NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, California 94115-3604
Interviewee: Blanca Sadako (Maoki) Katsura
Interviewer: Grace Shimizu Transcriber: Julie Keiko Beal Editor: Grace Shimizu
Location: Berkeley, California
Date: September 28, 2011
Summary: Blanca Sadako (Maoki) Katsura was born and raised in Peru, where her parents operated a general store. After World War II began, Katsura’s father and uncle were arrested and jailed, and the family traveled by boat from their home country of Peru to the United States, where they were interned at the Crystal City Department of Justice Internment Camp in Texas. She describes what it was like to be a teenager in camp and reflects on the hardship her family faced when starting over after leaving Crystal City. Despite living comfortably before the war, all the progress the family had made from their hard work was lost due to the internment. Katsura ends the interview discussing the importance of reparations payments for Latin Americans who faced these injustices during the 1940s.
Keywords: Immigration | Japanese Latin Americans | Pre-WWII: Employment - small business | Community Activities and Organizations | Forced Removal | Crystal City DOJ Internment Camp | Life in Camp: living conditions, activities, education, food | resettlement
Oral History Excerpt:
00:39:27.78 After all the men folks left…They were taken on a truck. They were all put on the back of the truck, and they left Chiclayo. … [T]hat was the last
thing we knew. We didn't know where they were taken, where they went.… In December…the year before which was 1942, our Japanese school principal and a couple of men folks that lived in … the harbor were taken before anybody else. I think, maybe, because they [the government] were afraid; maybe they, these Japanese men, were trying to have connection with Japan, or Japanese or whatever, since they were in the harbor. So, they were taken and the families didn’t know where they had gone. … Later, we found out that they were put together in the jail in Lima, and they were put in boats and sent out from Peru.
Index:
00:00:03.27 Basic biographical information; father’s migration from Japan to Peru
00:03:52.66 Father working on a sugarcane plantation in Peru, then moving to Pimentel and working as a cook at a monastery
00:06:13.54 Father opens a coffee shop with business partner; leaves temporarily to find a bride
00:11:36.74 Story of parents’ meeting and marriage; mother’s background in Fukuoka, Japan
00:17:34.65 Siblings; growing up on the ranch; parents turn the coffee shop into a general store; attending boarding school in Chiclayo
00:25:03.93 National identity: being both Japanese and Peruvian; Japanese language ability
00:27:39.45 Japanese community before the war; no problems with local civilians
00:29:10.71 How life changed after the war began; Japanese Peruvians being put on the “blacklist”
00:32:01.15 Anti-Japanese sentiment in Peru before the war; jealousy of the success of Japanese Peruvian business rivals
00:33:46.32 Father, uncle, and other men in the community taken by officials
00:38:12.12 Confusion following the arrests; not knowing father’s condition or whereabouts; the first group of people arrested were used by the United States in prisoner of war exchanges
00:44:35.70 Leaving Peru to come to the United States by boat; arriving in New Orleans
00:48:45.79 Arriving at Crystal City Department of Justice Internment Camp; living
situation; rationed food supplies
00:51:37.33 Other Japanese Peruvians in Crystal City
00:52:21.34 Her family was supposed to be sent to Japan; lost belongings
00:53:01.14 Life in camp: living around German and Italian families; going to Japanese school
00:55:00.70 Activities for young people in camp
00:57:08.31 Feelings about camp experience; learning Japanese language
01:00:02.33 Parents do not talk about their experiences during the war; leaving camp to stay with mother’s family in California; father’s poor health
01:01:46.23 Interacting with Japanese Americans
01:03:06.15 Decreasing population as people are sent to Japan and Germans leave camp; single men from Tule Lake segregation center arrive at Crystal City; talent shows and programs
01:07:26.89 Life in Peru before camp was comfortable; life after camp was difficult. Decreased livelihood, increased financial hardship because of wartime experience
01:12:15.83 Reflecting on her life and what she learned
01:14:53.18 Call for reparations payment to Latin Americans for the injustice they faced during the wa
Excerpt, Oral History Interview, Shizue “May” (Nakamatsu) Mukai
No full textExcerpt, summary, and index of an oral history interview of Shizue “May” (Nakamatsu) Mukai. Conducted by Wesley Ueunten and Grace Shimizu on September 23, 2011, in Sacramento, CA. Transcribed by Aidan Noda and j e umamoto.
Excerpt available online at https://vimeo.com/412944513This transcript was created as part of Secrets Revealed: The Presidio Project, produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. The project reveals untold stories of Nisei former camp inmates, including U.S. Army enlistees, during World War 2.NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, California 94115-3604
An Interview on September 23, 2011 with
Shizue “May” (Nakamatsu) Mukai
Conducted by Wesley Ueunten Grace Shimizu
Oral History Summary, Keywords, Excerpt, and Index
“Secrets Revealed: The Presidio Project”
© 2011 NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, California 94115-3604
Interviewee: Shizue “May” (Nakatsukasa) Mukai Interviewers: Wesley Ueunten and Grace Shimizu Transcribers: Aidan Noda and j e umamoto
Editors: Grace Shimizu and j e umamoto
Location: United Japanese Christian Church, Clovis, California Date: September 23, 2011
Summary: Shizue “May” Mukai, a Nisei and native of California, discusses her upbringing in a farming family and her experiences at Poston WRA Concentration Camp. Although her family faced multiple hardships, including the loss of two siblings in accidents, her mother giving birth in camp, and financial adversity during the Great Depression and after the war, Mukai also describes positive experiences she had in camp and beyond, and stresses the importance of enjoying work and making the most of life.
Keywords: Immigration | Pre-WWII: education - Japanese language school, grade school; employment - agriculture | Pearl Harbor: war hysteria | Forced Removal: personal, property, and financial loss | Poston WRA Concentration Camp | Life in Camp: psychological impact, living conditions - dust storms; activities
– sports, dances; education, security, employment – camp newspaper | “Loyalty” questionnaire | Japanese Americans in the U.S. Military | Leaving Camp: work leave – share cropping; resettlement, racism
Oral History Excerpt:
00:16:24.78 When we got on the train and then when we got to…San Bernardino, "Pull the shade down! Pull the…." We had to pull all the shades down so nobody could see us. I don't know if it was [for] our [protection] or I don't know what, but we had to pull the shades down…in San Bernardino. … [W]e got to Parker, and they loaded us up on a cattle truck, big ol’ truck, standing up like sardines. (Laughs) And then they took us to camp, and then there's this big stacks of straw. … They give you a canvas bag. … Do you know how they pick cotton? That long… (gestures with her hands) Well, they give you one of those and say, "Fill it up. That's your mattress." So, we used those as mattress. Scorpions used to come out of the hay. (Laughs) … It was awful! Scary.
Index:
00:00:00.00 Basic biographical information
00:00:44.81 Parents’ immigration story
00:02:14.78 Growing up on a strawberry farm
00:02:50.51 Parents’ age when they immigrated to the U.S.
00:03:09.86 Siblings; role as second oldest child
00:03:39.21 Moving frequently as a child; places she lived
00:05:03.51 Which grades she attended at school in each location
00:05:47.64 Growing crops in four-year periods
00:06:31.19 Role on the farm: driving a truck
00:07:10.59 Sibling dynamics and receiving moxibustion
00:07:50.88 Working on the farm and learning to cook at a young age
00:09:00.37 Younger brother’s drowning
00:10:07.77 Working throughout the week; attending school; Japanese as first language and learning English
00:11:09.10 Comfortable environment changes to one of hostility after Pearl Harbor
00:12:01.55 Reactions to the attack on Pearl Harbor and changes in the aftermath; preparing and
leaving for camp
00:13:52.96 Leaving San Marcos; having to abandon possessions.
00:14:40.79 Father building house; experience with haunting
00:16:16.83 Eviction and imprisonment at Poston WRA Concentration Camp; transportation by train and truck; building and using mattresses made out of hay
00:17:41.99 Arriving at an unfinished camp; dust storms in Poston
00:18:29.64 Going to school in camp; building catches on fire
00:19:51.62 Enjoying camp and being around other Japanese people; making friends
00:20:58.22 Activities in camp: girl’s ball league
00:21:52.91 Camp dances; making your own dresses
00:22:20.60 Working in camp; job at the Poston Chronicle
00:22:50.20 Mother gives birth to younger sister in Poston; sister’s disability and life story
00:25:26.09 Getting a job as a maid after camp, in Brentwood, California
00:27:07.99 Quitting maid job
00:27:51.67 Working with family as farm labor; starting from nothing
00:29:14.33 Experience with poverty during the Great Depression
00:29:51.35 Sharecropping for Driscoll
00:30:44.77 Parents’ occupations after the war, Mukai’s marriage
00:31:37.65 Loyalty questionnaire; brothers join the Army
00:32:06.82 Brother gets hit by a car and passes away in camp
00:32:06.82 Brother’s funeral service
00:33:47.52 Other brothers’ life stories and time in service
00:35:06.08 Parents do not complain about being incarcerated; their reaction to brother’s accident and death
00:36:09.63 Mukai’s positive feelings about camp, not having to work
00:37:05.47 Building the camp school; impression of teachers in camp
00:38:39.89 Spending time with friends in camp
00:39:00.38 Japanese American reactions to hostility; shikata ga nai; having a strike outside of the jail
00:40:04.26 Aftermath of Pearl Harbor; Caucasian friends; school and other children not discussing the attack
00:40:04.26 Not expressing feelings after Pearl Harbor; communication with her children about the camp experience
00:44:01.60 Children and grandchildren
00:44:33.23 Leaving San Marcos; taking what you could carry and sewing clothes, participating in hobbies in camp
00:46:23.18 How fires were handled in camp
00:48:28.08 Information about Gila River; dust storms
00:49:26.30 Coming out of her shell; being shy as a child
00:50:18.08 Singular experience breaking the rules
00:51:11.71 Having a boyfriend in camp; seeing movies
00:52:54.71 Feeling unsafe in camp at night
00:54:02.68 More on camp dances; boyfriend moves to Utah for school
00:55:38.26 Message for young people: enjoying life
00:57:27.54 The impact of camp on her personalit
Excerpt, Oral History Interview, Kaoru “Kay” (Higashi) Oshima
No full textExcerpt, summary, and index of an oral history interview of Kaoru “Kay” (Higashi) Oshima. Conducted by Wesley Ueunten on August 19, 2011, in San Jose, CA. Transcribed by Christopher Zacarias.This transcript was created as part of Secrets Revealed: The Presidio Project, produced by the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc. The project reveals untold stories of Nisei former camp inmates, including U.S. Army enlistees, during World War 2.NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, California 94115-3604
An Interview on August 19, 2011 with
Kaoru “Kay” (Higashi) Oshima
Conducted by Wesley Ueunten Grace Shimizu
Oral History Summary, Keywords, Excerpt, and Index
“Secrets Revealed: The Presidio Project”
© 2011 NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, California 94115-3604
Interviewee: Kaoru “Kay” (Higashi) Oshima
Interviewer: Wesley Ueunten Transcriber: Christopher Zacarias
Editor: Julie Keiko Beal, Grace Shimizu
Location: Wesley United Methodist Church, San Jose, California Date: August 19, 2011
Summary: Kaoru “Kay” Oshima recalls her experiences as a young Kibei Nisei, a Japanese American born in the United States but educated in Japan. Oshima describes her experience coming back to the United States from Japan and how she and her family moved to avoid camp before eventually being forced into Gila River WRA Concentration Camp. She reflects on how the wartime experience was a great loss and tragedy for Japanese Americans, the incarceration’s psychological impacts on her well-being, and how things could have been different for her and her family if the incarceration had never happened.
Keywords: Immigration: picture brides | Japan: Pre-WWII | Pearl Harbor: war hysteria | Forced Removal: personal, property, and financial loss | Gila River WRA Concentration Camp | Life in Camp: family structure, activities | “Loyalty” questionnaire | Leaving Camp: resettlement | Effects of WWII Experience: trauma
Oral History Excerpt:
00:56:00.83 Going back, I mean, then…advance nothing. I didn't get anything. Lost everything. Just stop. My life stopped (laughs) and lost everything. That’s the way I felt. Maybe I shouldn't have thought that way.
00:47:09.81 No, we never did. We have to hustle and earn money, so never mentioned about it. We don't look back. We had no moment. Since everybody’s asking me questions, so I had to dig it out and think it hard, you know. But there’s no time for us to think back. And we don't regret it, or we don't cry over it. But, you know, when you think about it, we really waste our time, didn't we? We could’ve earned lot of money but had to go here and there and waste our time.
…
Index:
00:00:00.00 Basic biographical information
00:01:52.12 Siblings
00:02:33.51 Family’s background in Japan
00:03:09.21 Parents’ occupation as melon farmers and immigration story; mother as picture bride
00:05:08.25 Growing up in the Imperial Valley; moving frequently; moving to Japan
00:08:23.61 No experience with discrimination in Torrance; going to school in Kumamoto
00:11:09.98 Mother brings her back to America
00:12:01.81 Noticing signs that Japan was changing before the war but not being directly affected
00:13:22.12 Coming back to the United States and learning English slowly
00:16:12.59 Memories from around the time of Pearl Harbor; neighborhood searches; camp conditions
00:22:30.47 Going directly to camp, not going to a Temporary WCCA “Assembly Center”
00:23:57.59 Desire to contact friends from camp; wishes to not return to camp (on pilgrimages)
00:24:40.69 Moving to Fresno to avoid the “Assembly Center”; meeting new people from different areas in camp
00:27:19.09 Eviction and imprisonment at Gila River WRA Concentration Camp late compared to other prisoners
00:28:12.23 Loyalty questionnaire; knowing people who answered “no-no” and their stories
00:29:30.51 Being left with nothing in the United States; belief that Japanese Americans would be sent to Japan
00:31:25.97 Activities in camp; dances and singing
00:34:17.03 Relationship with parents while in camp; leaving camp and resettling in Sanger; getting married
00:38:37.50 What would happen if she and her family had not gone to camp; being threatened; being unhappy in camp
00:41:18.19 Not truly recovering from the experience of going to camp
00:42:09.50 How young peoples’ experiences today differ from her own
00:44:57.09 Father’s time in Mexico; his first wife’s death, remarriage
00:46:58.96 No communication with parents about camp experience; reflecting on how she views her camp experience; how camp was a great loss to Japanese Americans
00:48:37.61 Brother’s induction into the U.S. Army
00:49:21.58 No experience with discrimination before Pearl Harbor
00:51:50.38 Traveling to Gila River from Fresno; not treated like criminals on the train
00:52:42.90 First impressions of Gila River; father making furniture; thoughts during incarceration
00:54:30.52 Thinking about her future while in camp
00:55:48.58 Reflecting on incarceration experience overall; losing everything
00:57:26.97 Learning about redress; belief that government apology was not enoug
Excerpt, Oral History Interview, Mamoru Tanimoto
No full textExcerpt, summary, and index of an oral history interview of Mamoru Tanimoto. Conducted by Lina Hoshino on July 4, 2010, in Klamath Falls, OR. Transcribed by Mary Nicholson and Roberto Kosaka. Edited by Tadao Uyeno, Kevin O’Donnell, and Catie Sakurai.The Tule Lake Pilgrimage Oral History Project is a series of oral history interviews of participants of the Tule Lake Pilgrimage from 1994 - 2010. The project was conducted by the National Japanese American Historical Society, Inc., in collaboration with the Tule Lake Committee
