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Personal Narratives of the Forced Removal and Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

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Series I: Formerly Incarcerated People (continued)
Michael Honda Collection
Collection ID: 30550
Digital content available
Honda was incarcerated at the Granada Relocation Center, Colorado (a.k.a. "Amache"), as a child. He went on to serve in the Peace Corps in El Salvador, followed by a career in education and politics, including serving in Congress from 2001 to 2017.
BOX miniDV Video Interview with Michael Honda, July 26, 2005
63 minutes
MV01: Topics covered include: introduction; grandparents from Japan, father served in Military Intelligence Service, birth, incarceration at Amache, Colorado, camp life, family resettled in Chicago; returned to California 1953, strawberry sharecroppers in Blossom Valley, San Jose, California; 1965, volunteered for the Peace Corps, wanted to do something, served two years in El Salvador, privileges of living in America, education, social changes; development of Silicon Valley; Peace Corps influence, helping young people to accomplish objectives; tribute to Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation, San Jose Planning Commission and Unified School Board; election to Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, election to California State Assembly; American government distrust of Japanese Americans, heroism and loyalty of Japanese American soldiers helped change attitudes; election to House of Representatives in 2000, role in the House; changes in outlook on ethnic differences; new generation of Japanese Americans maintain heritage.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-981/1 Biography, August 8, 2005
1 folder
MS01: A biography of Michael Honda.
Noboru Richard Horikawa Collection
Collection ID: 69966
Digital content available
Horikawa was incarcerated at Salinas Assembly Center, California, and Poston Relocation Center, Arizona, until December 1943, when he was released to attend Westtown Friends School in Pennsylvania. After graduating, he was drafted into the United States Army and served with Allied Translator and Interpreter Service, General Headquarters, Army Forces Pacific.
BOX CD/DVD-174 Video Interview with Noboru Richard Horikawa, March 9, 2010
102 minutes
MV01: Topics covered include: Early life and family; father immigrated to Canada in 1924; father attended San Francisco college; mother immigrated to the United States; father was a solicitor for farmers, printer; mother did embroidery; parents married 1924; one brother, psychologist; memories of San Francisco, friends of mixed race; YMCA, camping; high school, grammar school, Presbyterian church; parental guidance, Japanese language and reading schools; sports; discrimination; city attractions; attack on Pearl Harbor, reactions of family and community; detention of Japanese people, opening of camps; concerns for family's future; plans to protect family and assets; friends arrested; days after attack on Pearl Harbor; 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt law on incarceration; preparations to leave; father not allowed to become citizen; citizen's children bought assets; difference in treatment of Japanese immigrants and German, Italian immigrants; movement to temporary incarceration camp camps; permanent detention center in Arizona, July 1942; family held for three years; assembly camp in Salinas (Salinas Assembly Center); accommodations in Arizona camp (Poston Relocation Center); living conditions and family space; difference in climates, California to Arizona; building construction; family adjustment to conditions; daily family life; schools, residents constructed adobe building; resident interns served as teachers; camp morale, interest in sports; social activities; access to national news; different national areas of incarceration; lenience of laws; Quakers offered schooling; left camp in December 1943 to attend Westtown Friends school; family separation; absence of discrimination; studies at Westtown and social life; draft status; Japanese American combat team; 1945 inducted in Army in Philadelphia; loyalty questionnaire; Tule Lake, separation; accelerated education; graduated Westtown Friends, May 1945; Army assignment based on language skills; west to Fort Snelling, basic training, intelligence training; pup tent friend; drill instructors, no discrimination; Army plans without war; shipped to Japan, December 1945; father wrote letter to relative explaining him being in the Army; continued studies on ship in reading and writing Japanese; poorest students sent to Korea; emotion on being in Japan; visiting relatives in Shirakawa; assignment to Allied service Translation, British area; translated documents concerning Japanese attack plans were sent to Washington; enlisted quarters; historic documents; memories of Japan, Buddhist memorial service; social times in USO (United Services Organization); deported Niseis asked for help in returning to United States; Tokyo bombed; questions by Japanese soldier; 1946 return to United States scheduled; AWOL (absent without leave) visit to relatives in Nara; leave in special hotel north of Tokyo; promoted to Technician Five, asked to stay as civilian; discharge in San Francisco; meeting wife at Japanese Social Club, she worked at Smith, Kline and French, worked at Philadelphia Quartz; studied at Mary Lyons School, Swarthmore College; two children, five grandchildren; parents not bitter about incarceration; mother naturalized under new law; disturbed at denial of constitutional rights; children did not understand war; apology and payment did not cover losses; 1942 public attitude fostered by Governor Earl Warren; Letters from Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; photographs of family.
Noboru Richard Horikawa Collection
Collection ID: 71781
Digital content available
Horikawa was incarcerated at Poston Relocation Center, Arizona, until December 1943, when he was released to attend Westtown Friends School in Pennsylvania. After graduating, he was drafted into the Army and served with Allied Translator and Interpreter Service, General Headquarters, Army Forces Pacific.
BOX CD/DVD-182 Audio Interview with Noboru Richard Horikawa, March 2010
145 minutes
SR01: Topics covered include: family background; life in San Francisco, California, school, church, sports; attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; preparing for incarceration; Executive Order 9066; incarceration at Salinas Assembly Center and Poston Relocation Center; Santa Cruz, California; left Poston camp to attend Westtown Friend School, Pennsylvania; veteran drafted into the Army; loyalty questionnaire; graduation from high school; boot camp; Military Intelligence Service Language School; orders to Japan, duties; attended Buddhist memorial service for his Uncle who was killed fighting for Japan at the Battle of Saipan; left Japan and the Army; meeting his wife; college at Penn State University, Pennsylvania; children; parents became United States citizens; reflections on incarceration life; National Japanese American Memorial in Washington, DC; Civil Liberties Act of 1988; growing up during the Great Depression; religious life, relationship to parents; Japanese school; Japanese customs upheld in San Francisco; life at Salinas and Poston; incarceration; ordering clothes for camp through the mail; news from the outside, camp newspaper; thoughts about the war during incarceration; friend from California in Japan; 442nd Regimental Combat Team; racial slurs; brother; death of parents; thoughts about constitutional rights, pledge of allegiance, incarceration of people based upon race.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-2182/1 Biographical information, April 17, 2010
1 folder
MS01: Interviewer's student paper including information about the veteran's military experiences (4/17/2010).
BOX-FOLDER MSS-2182/2 Transcript, March 2010
1 folder
MS02: Transcript of SR01.
Grant Hayao Ichikawa Collection
Collection ID: 10685
Digital content available
Ichikawa was incarcerated at Turlock Assembly Center (Stanislaus County Fairgrounds), California, and Gila River Relocation Center, Arizona. In November 1942, he enlisted in the United States Army and served as a linguist with the Military Intelligence Service (MIS). He served at Camp Savage, Minnesota; Camp Shelby, Mississippi; Brisbane, Australia; Manila, Philippines; Tokyo, Japan; and Hokkaido, Japan. He was discharged in 1947, but was recalled to active duty during the Korean War and served with the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) in Japan for two years. Following his discharge, he began a career with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
BOX miniDV Video Interview with Grant Hayao Ichikawa, August 29, 2003
111 minutes
MV01-MV02: Topics covered include: family background; early education; attending University of California, Berkeley; job discrimination against Japanese Americans; curfew, forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans; family housed in horse stalls at a racetrack; volunteering for the Military Intelligence Service as a linguist; segregation in the Army, Japanese not considered white or black; working for the Allied Translator and Interpreter Services in Australia; assigned to interrogation section; transferred to the Philippines; rounding up Japanese prisoners; surveying the damage in Hiroshima after the war; courtship and marriage to Millie Yamamoto; head of the linguist section in ATIS; discharged Inactive Reserve; resumed farming career; recalled for second tour of military service during the Korean War; sent to Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC); civilian employee of the Agency; 1955 Acting Base Chief in Tokyo; the 20 safes; a year in the States for training, then sent to Tokyo as a GS-11; 1961 assignment at Japan desk in Washington, DC; 1962 assigned to Indonesia; facing a demonstration, Communists; saved by the Blue Helmets; 1966 Jakarta; life with a Vespa; next assignment, head of the Korean desk; the most significant tour Vietnam; April 29, 1975 the day of forced removal; burned out and retiring; sponsored a Vietnamese family for resettlement; teaching how to become a "do-it-yourselfer", the MISLS Registry and Supplementary Registry.
BOX AC-224 Audio Interview with Grant Hayao Ichikawa, April 12, 2008
60 minutes
SR01: Topics covered include: family and background; working his way through college; studied to be an accountant at University of California, Berkeley, graduated in 1941; couldn't find a job as an accountant so went into farming; memories of learning about attack on Pearl Harbor; experiencing prejudice and discrimination; no desire to join Army; curfew imposed; forced to turn in radios and firearms; forced reomoval orders; friend took over the lease on his farm; relocated to Turlock Assembly Center (Stanislaus County Fairgrounds), California, shared horse stall with another family; feelings upon being incarcerated; after three months, moved to Gila River; got job as chief accountant for a farm project; volunteered for Army three months later; trained in military intelligence at Camp Savage; locals treated them well; basic training in Mississippi, trained with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team; experiencing the segregated south; Allied Translator Interpreter Service in Brisbane, Australia; interrogating prisoners; Philippines; stocking the non-commissioned officers' club with liquor; receiving a field commission; negotiating a surrender with Japanese troops; serving in Occupation Force, atomic bombing survey unit, assignment officer; met wife in Japan; left Army in 1947, went back to farming; recalled to service during Korean War; given a choice between Korea and an intelligence position in Hokkaido, Japan, choose Hokkaido; interrogated suspected spies; offered civilian job in intelligence, worked in Indonesia, Vietnam; reflecting on life and service; family's feelings post-war.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-483/1 Printed Matter, 2000
1 folder
MS01: Publication of the Military Intelligence Corps Association in which Japanese American intelligence veterans discuss their motivations for fighting for a country which imprisoned their family in detention centers and refused to treat them like American citizens (2000).
BOX-FOLDER MSS-483/2 Transcript, undated
1 folder
MS02: Transcript of MV01 and MV02.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-483/3 Photograph, 1943
1 folder
PH01: Copy of photograph of the veteran posing with his brother upon completion of linguist training at Camp Savage, Minnesota (1943).
PH02: Copy of photograph of the veteran with his wife.
Joseph Ichiuji Collection
Collection ID: 13535
Digital content available
Ichiuji was incarcerated at Poston Relocation Center, Arizona. In September 1941, he was drafted into the United States Army, and completed Field Artillery Basic Training at Camp Roberts, California. However, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was discharged due to his Japanese ancestry. While incarcerated, he volunteered to reenlist, and served with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy, France, and Germany.
BOX MoM Audio Interview with Joseph Ichiuji, May 27, 2004
13 minutes
This interview was conducted by Veterans History Project volunteers on the National Mall in Washington, DC during the National World War II Reunion: Tribute to a Generation, May 27-30, 2004. Topics covered include: Japanese American; served with the army in Battery A, 442nd Regimental Combat Team; served in Europe; Italy and Germany; drafted in 1941 after Pearl Harbor; discharged because of Japanese ancestry and reclassified as 4-C, enemy ineligible for service; family evacuated to Poston, Arizona; volunteered for combat while in camp; wanted to prove he was an American citizen; 10/1944 rescued the Lost Battalion, a group of Allied troops surrounded by the Germans; rescued 211 men and suffered 800 casualties; sent to invade Germany in 3/1945; Germans surrendered; present during the release of concentration camp prisoners; condition of concentration camp prisoners.
BOX MoM Photograph, 1943
1 folder
PH01: Ichiuji before going to France for the invasion of Germany (1943).
John Atsumi Ikeda Collection
Collection ID: 83268
Digital content available
Ikeda was incarcerated at Santa Anita Assembly Center (Santa Anita Race Track), California, and Granada Relocation Center, Colorado (a.k.a. "Amache"), before relocating to Chicago, Illinois, in 1944. In 1945 he was drafted into the United States Army and served with the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), 6th Army, at Fort McClellan, Alabama; Fort Holabird, Maryland; Presidio, San Francisco, California; and Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
BOX CDDVD-265 Video Interview with John Atsumi Ikeda, February 28, 2012
75 minutes
MV01: Topics covered include: Childhood in Los Angeles; youngest of four siblings; parents' work in barbershop; family's bathhouse used by Swedish lumberjacks; father's move to San Francisco to work on railroad; move to Juneau, Alaska and Yukon Territory to work as a cook; gold prospecting using dog sleds; rejection from Canadian Army; parents only spoke Japanese; Japanese school; attack on Pearl Harbor; brother devastated by beginning of war; incarceration; father's work as cook; orders to Santa Anita Assembly Center 9Santa Anita Race Track), California; Granada Relocation Center, Colorado (a.k.a. "Amache"); brother's ulcer operation extreme anger over incarceration; move to Chicago after high school; draft reserve status; sister a nurse cadet; parents in detention center for four years; boot camp at Fort McClellan; court martial for not cleaning up someone else's mess KP duty; captain who defended him; not good with guns; Minneapolis in winter; Fort Snelling for counter intelligence training; transfer to 6th Army; early release at end of war; work at defense factory; difficulty of post-war adjustment; Washington University; math degree; living with brother in Cleveland; work as quality control manager for General Electric 33 year career; meeting wife at school; marriage; four children; effect of military experience on life; desire to find captain who saved him from court martial; life lessons; forgiveness; hatred at President Franklin Roosevelt and then forgiveness; a good life.
Minoru Imamura Collection
Collection ID: 46548
Digital content available
Imamura was incarcerated at Granada Relocation Center, Colorado (a.k.a. "Amache"), before being drafted into the United States Army in 1944. He trained as an infantryman and served in the European Theater.
BOX Hi8 Video Interview with Minoru Imamura, January 6, 2006
41 minutes
MV01: Topics covered include: introduction; family background; Pearl Harbor attack; Holocaust reflection; United States Government taking away property; racism toward Japanese; relocated to Granada Relocation Center (a.k.a. "Amache"); views on President Franklin Roosevelt; getting drafted; training as infantryman; recreational time; living conditions; thoughts on being shipped out to war; technology; daily load; sightseeing; scariest experience; fears; worst scene; discharged; feelings at end of war; post-war experiences; closing.
Shigeru Sam Imoto Collection
Collection ID: 65048
Imoto was incarcerated at Poston Relocation Center, Arizona, as a teenager. In 1946 he was drafted into the United States Army and served with Headquarters Company, European Command, in Heidelberg, Germany.
BOX Hi8 Video Interview with Shigeru Sam Imoto, March 29, 2008
49 minutes
MV01: Topics covered include: introduction; being drafted, had to go into Army, in an detention center at time of draft; friends and family being drafted, brothers; no career plans; going through training, real war; unit, treated badly at first; assignment in Germany, desk job; weapons, rifle; sergeant rank, taking two years, better pay; committing his time, time in service; life after service, farming, working in Tulare County Probation Department; prejudice towards Japanese; coming back from incarceration, still had a home to go to; life in detention center, older sister living in a different block, brothers drafted; job at headquarters; picked-on because he was Japanese; awards; education in detention center; stories, fights, incidents; knowledge of judo; Army Boxing Team; racial fights, judo was a life saver; German prisoner of war (POW) experience; guarding Russian prisoners; glad to be at headquarters, advice to stay out of infantry; family.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-1879 Photographs, 1948-2008
1 folder
PH01: A black and white print of Imoto standing on a balcony in Paris, France (1948).
PH02: A black and white print of Imoto crouching in uniform, Heidelberg, Germany (1948).
PH03: A color print of Imoto standing outside his house in Lindsay, California (3/29/2008).
Masaji Inoshita Collection
Collection ID: 47655
Digital content available
Inoshita was incarcerated at Tulare Assembly Center, California, and Gila River Relocation Center, Arizona. In 1942, he enlisted in the United States Army and served as a translator and interpreter with the Military Intelligence Services (MIS) in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater.
BOX CDDVD-60 Video Interview with Masaji Inoshita, July 12, 2004
182 minutes
MV01-MV02: Topics covered include: father immigrated in 1900, became a hog farmer, built roads, and surveyed land; older brother died in infancy; mother came to the United States as a "picture bride"; put in care of Apache family until he was six; failed first year of school, only spoke Apache and Japanese; learned English; father started farming again in 1927; grew up in farm country of Santa Maria, California; parents advised him he was a "second class citizen," still better than first class in Japan; told him he would lead family; parents said he could not succeed as a Japanese American due to racism; childhood ambition and accomplishments; always aware of dangers of contact between Japanese male and Caucasian female; isolated to Japanese community; attended Hancock Junior College (Allan Hancock College); father's stroke; left school to run farm with brother; was still not a citizen; had to have someone else "run" the farm; at age 21 inherited farm leases; drafted; classed 1A at Army exam; then as a farmer classified 3A; war was good for business; Japan's military aggression; anti-Japanese feeling in United States; after naval losses in Pearl Harbor, clear that Japanese Americans would be affected; five days after war started, FBI arrested his father; no reason given; other families in the valley raided; more than 4,000 people picked up by Department of Justice (DOJ); questioned in Missoula; father and others sent to Fort Lincoln Internment Camp; travel restrictions, curfew; firearms and radios seized; bank accounts frozen; evacuated with "what you can carry in your two hands"; huge problem for property owners; had to sell their expensive horses cheaply; could not sell crops, gave them to Filipinos to harvest; wiped out the family farm financially; put money in frozen bank account; sold trucks; friend of father's offered his empty barn for storage; told the friend that he would face abuse for helping Japanese Americans; agreed to store belongings in barn; barber offers him a farm in Wichita, Kansas, but he could not accept; broader community afraid to help for fear of being ostracized; taken to train station in Guadalupe, CA; windows of train nailed shut; taken to Tulare Assembly Center; guards with rifles; 10 family members in row 7 stall 12; no space for the cots; inadequate facilities; septic tank overflowing, told to use bathroom and shower less; disastrous food supply, lack of food; protested, wrote letters to politicians over conditions; had to include family number (like in prison); no one answered mail; got extra food once due to council visit; August 21,1942, 500 put on train to Los Angeles; heard they were going to Arizona; rumors of being killed in Arizona; relief on arriving in Casa Grande (Gila River Relocation Center); civilians ran camps; farming near Gila River; asked to raise seeds; Seed Farm Road; supplied produce to other camps; veteran first served as a cook, then picked cotton; Army's need for Japanese translators; 4C classification for Japanese, could only "volunteer"; 29 at Gila River volunteered, including Inoshita; sent to Camp Savage, Minnesota; resentment over volunteers in Japanese community; brother was socially isolated, became mentally ill; Army wanted to draft Japanese Americans; sent loyalty questionnaires; questions 27 and 28; implications of questions; bring "Yes-No" and "No-No" to Tule Lake; people expatriated to Japan (Gripsholm); Gordon Hirabayashi and others sent to camp on Mount Lemmon, near Tucson, including 10 Hopi people; most people wound up serving in 442nd Regimental Combat Team; Mark Clark in Italy; Sgt. Kazuo Masuda's bravery; Masuda's cremated remains; Ronald Reagan, redress, and Civil Liberties Act; medals of honor for 442nd Regimental Combat Team; story of the Lost Battalion; President Harry Truman's honor for 442nd Regimental Combat Team; 442nd Regimental Combat Team's impact on American attitudes towards Japanese; Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952; presidential apology; Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS); graduated language school in 1943 but couldn't leave until 1944 due to Liberty ship delays; roundabout route around Australia; discussion of war tactics abroad; Burma campaign; Joseph Stillwell and General Haydon Boatner; Inoshita served under a British Unit; interrogation work; was selected to go to headquarters in Delhi; assigned to Queensway barrack; given American uniforms; trying to learn Hindi; wound up on front line in Burma; bodies of Japanese soldiers who committed suicide; interrogated survivor; gave him anti-malarial pill, Lucky Strike cigarette; received commendation for his work with the survivor; working as translator with fourth grade reading level, asks prisoner for help; questioning Japanese prisoner; asking prisoner to read documents to help with translation; British need for interrogators after end of the war; flown with partner to Chabua, India; unit transferred to China; flown over “Himalayan Hump” in C-46 airplane; very dangerous for pilots; job was to find landing places for troops in China to attack Japan; not successful; playing bridge at night while sailing; attacked by Chinese pirates; fired only shot in overseas duty at pirate ship; threatened with charge for discharging firearms without orders; saved ship from pirates; charge dropped; took part in surrender ceremonies; wound up in Okinawa; sent to Hiroshima to assess atomic bomb damage in 1945; examining the beach in Hiroshima; locals not prepared for invasion; report on beaches was buried; opinion that atomic bombs were not necessary; requested to go home; discharged in early January of 1946; worked as migrant farm laborer across Arizona for two and a half years; bought own farm; married wife Betty, raised three children; retirement at 72; community education work about experiences with incarceration, in Arizona and beyond; work honoring veterans; work with Japanese American Citizens League of Arizona; awards, medals, and certificates awarded to Inoshita; working with Native American (Gila River Indian) communities to memorialize former detention centers; non-Japanese people who wound up in detention centers; discrimination against Mexican woman who wound up in a camp with her husband; baseball games at the Gila River Relocation Center (Nisei Leagues); helped establish Buddhist church at the detention center; getting searched by other enlisted man (non-Japanese) entering and exiting camp; asked to translate surrender from Japanese to English; wound up being delivered in English; speaking to Chinese people in Japanese; goal of convincing people that incarceration should never be repeated in the future.
Frank Kageta Collection
Collection ID: 68430
Digital content available
Kageta was incarcerated at Tule Lake Relocation Center, California. In 1944, he enlisted in the United States Army and served with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in France and Italy.
BOX CDDVD-162 Video Interview with Frank Kageta, August 6, 2009
64 minutes
MV01: Topics covered include: introduction; early years, growing up in Northern California; discrimination in Sacramento, California; moved to Loomis, California, large Japanese American community; after war, incarceration at Tule Lake Relocation Center in California; loyalty questionnaire, father said "Don't sign"; after signing, was reclassified from 1-A to 4-C; Omaha, worked on large ranch; boot camp; Fort Lansing, Florida, "Happy to be wanted"; all Japanese American boot camp; boot camp cut short, needed for Replacement Unit; overseas to Marseille, France; 442nd Regimental Combat Team; R & R; Champaign Campaign; Gothic Line of defense in Italy, 5th Army; "Ike didn't want Japanese Americans"; first combat at Gothic Line; gas mask story; left machine gun, had to get German POWs; Italian family took into house, cellar; bombed out homes and cities; mentions book on 442nd Regimental Combat Team; no communication with parents; brother wounded, passed each other; autograph of movie star; duties: processed prisoners of war (POWs), guarded supply depot; German stole trucks; shipped back to New York; discharged; GI loans, bought farm with brother; worked for County Water Agency; joined American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW); should have draft today, for discipline; would do all over again; devastation of Italy was terrible; Italian people were good to them.
Norman Noboru Kamada collection
Collection ID: 83256
Digital content available
Kamada was incarcerated at Poston Relocation Center, Arizona. In 1944 he was drafted into the United States Army and served with the 2nd Squad, 2nd Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, 5th Army Division, in France and Italy.
BOX CDDVD-265 Video Interview with Norman Noboru Kamada, January 30, 2012
27 minutes
MV01: Topics covered include: childhood in Dinuba, California, on a farm; family was sent to Poston Relocation Center, Arizona; drafted into Army at Fort Douglas; basic training in Florida; sent to Italy as a replacement; chased Germans in the Apennines; most terrifying experience involved the "screaming meemies"; hit with shrapnel but still dug fox hole; discussion of medals; deloused German prisoners of war (POWs); one day of rest in France; got Jinx Falkenburg's autograph on Italian lira; had good relationships with fellow G.I.'s and officers; re-enlisted into the Army; sent to Fort Lewis, Washington; used G.I. Bill to attend trade school; became a big rig driver for 30 years; good friends with men from unit; joined veterans organization; marriage and children; retired to "take it easy"; "positive" service experience; earned Congressional gold medal in 2011.
Kiyo Jean Kariya Collection
Collection ID: 27142
Digital content available
Kiyo Jean Kariya, née Ito, was incarcerated at Tanforan Assembly Center (Tanforan Racetrack), California, Central Utah Relocation Center (a.k.a. “Topaz”), and at Crystal City Internment Camp, Texas, as a teenager. Following World War II, her parents elected to move the family to Japan, and she worked as a civilian employee of the 720th Military Police Battalion, United States Army, in Sendai, Japan. She later worked for IBM, and returned to the United States.
BOX miniDV Video Interview with Kiyo Jean Kariya, February 16, 2004
98 minutes
MV01-MV02: Topics covered include: father arrived in the United States in the early 1900s; wanted an education; mother came to the United States in the early 1920s and worked for the Japanese Consul General in San Francisco; settled in Oakland, California; spoke Japanese at home; petrified after attack on Pearl Harbor; father's home and office ransacked by the FBI; description of forced removal; Tanforan Assembly Center (Tanforan Racetrack), California; conditions at Tanforan; schooling at Tanforan; father arrested and taken to jail, eventually sent to Bismarck, North Dakota; moved from Tanforan to Central Utah Relocation Center (a.k.a. "Topaz"); life at Topaz; people could leave the camp for education or jobs; spent three years at Topaz and Crystal City Internment Camp, Texas; joined father in Texas; life in Crystal City; graduated from high school while at Topaz; parents elected to repatriate to Japan 12/25/1945; landed at Uraga Bay, near Tokyo; worked for United States Army in Sendai; job with 720th Military Police Battalion; treated well by military personnel, but not by civil service workers; took a job with IBM as a secretary, interpreter/translator; bought house in Yokohama for parents; taught English to prominent family; General Douglas MacArthur's accomplishments; Japanese view of MacArthur; transferred to IBM New York; joined Japanese American Citizens League (JACL); married.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-888/1 Memoirs, undated
1 folder
MS01: Autobiography covering Kariya's early life and her return to the United States after World War II.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-888/2 Other Manuscript Material, 1998-2001
1 folder
MS02: Text of two Speeches: Speech on Prejudice given on 09/30/2001; Living in Occupied Japan (Dec. 1945--June 1951) given to the Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA) on 03/14/1998.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-888/2 Transcript, undated
1 folder
MS03: Non-verbatim transcript of MV01-MV02.
BOX-FOLDER MSS-2959/1 Transcript, February 16, 2004
1 folder
MS04: Transcript of MV01-MV02.
Haruo Kato Collection
Collection ID: 113634
Kato was incarcerated at Central Utah Relocation Center (a.k.a. “Topaz”), as a child. Following their release, his family returned to Hayward, California. Kato eventually attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he pursued a degree in social welfare, and trained with the Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps. After failing his flight physical due to allergies, he was drafted into the United States Navy in 1955, and served for 22 years, retiring as a Lieutenant Commander.
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