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Talks about his father's friendship with Ray Yasui, the effects his father's experiences at the Fresno Assembly Center and how it has affected his family, particularly his son's decision to study in Japan.
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Talks about his father, Walter Pollock senior's experiences as service director for the Fresno Assembly Center and how it profoundly affected him for the remainder of his life. He discusses his fathers papers and how Walter Pollock senior collected information on the incarceration of Japanese Americans and had planned to write a book based on his experiences at the assembly center during World War II.
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Robert Ogata talks about his family, how his father's side came from Fukuoka in Japan and his mother's from Hiroshima and how they immigrated to the United States, how his parents met and married, first farming strawberries in Anaheim before moving to Selma. He discusses how his mother lost her citizenship by marrying an Issei, who were ineligible for citizenship at the time due to the Alien Land Laws. He talks about his family's samurai origins, his education at Reedley College, Fresno State and joining the Army and his experiences in the Southern United States. He describes telling his experiences with the incarceration to others for the first time, how his family hid valuables before leaving for the camp and the experience of traveling to the Gila River War Relocation Center and their experience in camp. He talks about his family's return to Selma after the war and the horrible discrimination they faced, how he never asked his father what happened to their dog when they were incarcerated, how his family closed down their restaurant during the war and assembled for the train to Gila and were given a number that basically became their name. He discusses his family's barracks in the canal camp, the lack of privacy and the temperature extremes in the desert, and the fort he and his friends built near the canal that we was able to find upon returning to the camp years later. He talks about the younger generations of Japanese Americans and whether they will struggle to connect with their heritage and the experiences the incarcerees went through, and also discusses his drawings he exhibited of the camp for the 9066 exhibition and other exhibitions he has participated in and the need for people that lived through incarceration to speak about their experiences in order for it to not be forgotten and for the younger generations of Japanese Americans to learn where they come from.
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Ken Taniguchi talks about being born in Fresno in 1951, attending Roeding Elementary, Cooper Junior High School and Fresno High School, then UC San Diego, UC Davis and then law school. He talks about his siblings, then about his paternal grandparents and how they immigrated from Wakayama Ken in Japan, and where his maternal grandparents were from in Saitama Ken. He further discusses his maternal grandfather's history in the United States, how he worked for Theodore Kearney, and traveled through the Southern US in the era of segregation. He describes how his paternal grandparents married and immigrated to Seattle and how his father and aunts and uncle were born there, how they ran a hotel and how his grandparents ended up separating and his grandfather returned to Japan with the children. He talks about how his father was raised in Japan and lived there during World War II, ending up being in the Japanese Merchant Marine as an officer during the war. He discusses how his mother was also born in the US but raised in Japan and was stuck there during the war, how his father survived two ship sinkings during the war and his mother worked in a munitions factory and how both of them were individually able to return to the United States after the war, meeting and getting together on the trip on the same ship. He talks about how his family members on both sides that remained in the United States were incarcerated in the Granada War Relocation Center and had befriended each other, independently of his parents meeting each other. He describes how his father was sent to grammar school in his 20's to learn English and ended up being kicked out for smoking, then his family's store and how his parents got married with his mother moving to Fresno, when he was born as well as his siblings and how he grew up speaking Japanese as his first language. He talks about his passion for fishing, and how he became a wildlife fisheries lawyer and public defender, and becoming bar president of Fresno County. He discusses the sister cities program and Fresno's sister city, Kochi, Japan and his family members experiences in camp and his passion for baseball.
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Ralph Kumano talks about his family origins in Japan and being born in the Gila River Relocation Center, working in the farm industry growing up, before working for the National Park Service and as a teacher. He discusses teaching in Southern California for 18 years before moving back to Fresno and teaching at Kings Canyon Middle School, Tenaya Middle School and McLane High School before retiring. He dives further into his family history, discussing how his grandfather immigrated from Hiroshima, Japan to Hawaii before moving on to Sanger, California and marrying a "picture bride", how his father and mother met and married and about his brothers and sisters. He talks about the Pearl Harbor attack and Executive Order 9066 and the evacuation, how his family received permission to drive their car to Arizona to the Gila camp, and how life in the camp was. He discusses his father refusing to work for the extremely low wages that were offered in the camps and focusing on hobbies instead. The loyalty questionnaire is discussed, along with No-No Boys and them being sent to Tule Lake Segregation Center with some renouncing their citizenships under strained circumstances and being forced to fight to get them restored. He states how his father was the last Japanese American to leave the Gila River camp and talks about how his grandfather died in 1943 in the camp. He talks about being fortunate to have someone watch their property and being able to come back to it and life after the war, his education and facing discrimination in the 1950's. He talks about his involvement in the Japanese American community, the Civil Liberties Act and redress and reparations.
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Debbie Ikeda talks about her family and educational background, the Valley's educational needs, how her grandfather immigrated to the United States, settling in Santa Monica and starting a nursery. She talks about how her family was sent to the Manzanar War Relocation Center, the photographer Toyo Miyatake, and Mexican American Ralph Lazzo who decided to accompany his friend to Manzanar. She talks about how her husband, Dale Ikeda's family was sent to the Fresno Assembly Center and then the Jerome War Relocation Center, how three of her uncles joined the 442nd and were wounded in action, her family leaving camp and moving to Chicago and her being born there. She discusses her college education and the Vietnam War protests. She discusses her early career in education, her joining the JACL and meeting her husband through that organization and raising a family in the Fresno area and the benefits of it. She describes her involvement in the JACL's redress and reparations efforts and the importance of giving back to the community.
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Yutaka Yamamoto talks about his grandparents immigrating to the United States from Hiroshima, Japan, how his grandfather was a carpenter who fixed the doors of Fresno's Chinatown's gambling dens after police raids, Alien Land Laws and how they affected his father being able to buy a farm, the family's laundry business, the Pearl Harbor attack, Executive Order 9066 and the evacuations, being incarcerated in the Fresno Assembly Center and later the Jerome War Relocation Center, how members of the Japanese American community were interrogated by the FBI, the loyalty questionnaire and the conflict it sparked within the Japanese American community, being sent to the Tule Lake Segregation Center. He talks about visiting Japan after the war and joining the Navy during the Korean War, meeting his wife in Japan and losing her later to cancer due to the Hiroshima bombing, experiencing racism in Fresno after the war, his children and the pilgrimage some incarcerees take to the Tule Lake camp site.
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Paul Saito talks about his family history starting with his grandparents and their immigrating to the United States, where they were from in Japan, how some of his uncles were educated in Japan as Kibeis, the Pearl Harbor attack and the subsequent evacuation, his experiences in the Santa Anita Assembly Center, the journey from there to Arkansas and life in the Rowher War Relocation Center. He discusses the loyalty questionnaire and returning to California after the war, studying at Cal Poly Pomona, joining the Air National Guard and becoming a landscape architect and designing the Shinzen Garden in Fresno and later starting his own firm doing architecture in Fresno, his work regarding memorials for the assembly centers in Fresno and redress and reparation efforts and his hope for a Japanese Cultural Center to be built in Fresno.
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Ted Shigyo talks about the different generations of Japanese Americans in the United States, being born in the Tule Lake camp, the state of the camp in the present, his education and work as a medical doctor, his family's history of immigrating and living in the United States before the war. He discusses the incarceration, his family being sent to Gila River, the loyalty questionnaire, family members' service in the military during World War II, moving to Japan after the war and returning to the U.S. and their life in Parlier after moving back and redress and reparations.
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Kerry Yo Nakagawa talks about growing up in Fowler, his education, family, his family's business in Fresno's Chinatown and how their Danish neighbors looked after their farm and stood up for them against discrimination during World War II. He discusses how his family went to the Fresno Assembly Center, baseball in the Japanese American community, his family's experiences at the Jerome War Relocation Center, the loss of his grandmother in the camp, xenophobia then and now, and how he started in the film industry, both in front of and behind the camera.
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Diane Honda talks about how her grandparents immigrated from Japan, settling first in Watsonville and then Cressey, her parents' experiences at the Merced Assembly Center and Granada War Relocation Center, her parents life after the war and growing up in the Japanese American community and her family history after the war up to the present.
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Japanese American incarceration from the perspective of Saburo and Marion Masada
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Rumiko Arakawa relates her personal and family history, including her parents immigration from Japan, living in Dinuba before World War II, her family's incarceration in the Poston War Relocation Center and life in Detroit during and after the war before returning to California.
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Naomi Tagawa relates her life story, her experiences before, during and after World War II and Japanese-American incarceration, discrimination and the redress and reparations movement.
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Richard Imamura talks about his family history, his father growing up in Korea and Japan before moving to the United States, his mother experiencing incarceration during World War II and he and his family's experiences with Judo.
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Gary Tsudama discusses his life before, during and after World War II, including his time incarcerated at the Stockton Assembly Center and the Gila River War Relocation Center.
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Talks about her life before the war in Salinas, her incarceration with her family at the Salinas Assembly Center and later Poston War Relocation Center during World War II, getting support from the Quaker community during the war and life after the war.
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Recounts growing up in Spreckels and Salinas, as the oldest of eight children. Discusses going from the Salinas Assembly Center to the Poston Relocation Center, and the conditions in Poston when she arrived. After her release from the camp she relocated to Philadelphia. When her father and mother were released they ended up with a Quaker family in Riverton, New Jersey, and eventually settled in Princeton. She talks about marrying her husband, George, whom she had met ten years earlier in San Anselmo, California. After their marriage, she describes moving back to California, then to Utah, Montana and Idaho over the next forty years. They retired in San Francisco. Recalls having four children and learning Japanese from her mother. Gives her opinion on reparations, and relates the importance of religion to the Shimomura family.
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Talks about being born in San Francisco, growing up in Cressey working on his family's farm with his sisters. He discusses the evacuation and being sent to the Granada War Relocation Center before attending the University of Wyoming briefly before returning to farming as a sharecropper in Colorado. He talks about attending Japanese school and learning Kendo growing up, and how he was a less than model student and constantly getting in trouble. He talks about facing discrimination in school and getting in fights with other students. He also talks about he and his father's shared love of football and how his parents met in Japan and immigrated to the U.S. He relates how he heard about the Pearl Harbor attack while attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and how his family's bank accounts were frozen following the attack and his father was arrested. He talks about how he managed to keep their farm by hiring someone to take care of it while they were evacuated, and the experience of packing all of their belongings and reporting to the Merced Assembly Center. He discusses the loyalty questionnaire, farming during and after the war and his experience with racism once he returned home.
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Both talk about growing up and their life before World War II, being incarcerated at Amache and Gila River respectively during the war, Johnny's time in the Military Intelligence Service and meeting each other after the war, getting married and their life since.
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Talks about how his parents immigrated from Japan and settled in Livingston, how many siblings he has, growing up in Cressey, attending Livingston High School and Modesto Junior College prior to World War II breaking out. He discusses farming and the Great Depression, and hearing about Pearl Harbor. He talks about the evacuation, being sent to the Merced Assembly Center and then on to the Granada War Relocation Center. He talks about getting out of Amache as soon as possible and working as a farm laborer before volunteering for the Army Air Corps. He talks about his service and getting married during the war before returning to his family's farm in Cressey after the war. He also discusses redress and reparation, his children and starting to sell portions of his farm.
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Sherman Kishi is the fourth of five children. His father failed to get into Officer Candidate School in Japan, and so decided to come to the United States, bringing his wife with him from an arranged marriage. He talks about church and watching movies during the Great Depression, of playing sports, and community rivalries. While in high school he dated a Caucasian girl, and notes that he did not encounter racial bias in doing so. When the war began, he was sent to the Merced Assembly Center, and then to the Granada War Relocation Center. Toward the end of the war he joined the 442nd Regiment and became a translator, first in the Philippines and later in Tokyo, under Douglas MacArthur. Following the war he went to the University of California at Berkeley, and eventually married and raised two sons.
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Discusses his parents from Fukuoka, Japan, and being one of nine children, seven of whom survived. He reminisces about his friendship with Henry Harry Welsh, a retired lawyer, and talks about several legal issues ranging from property taxes and eviction to labor laws and Oliver Wendel Holmes. Imparts the difficulties of getting into school politics because of race at Selma High School. Joined the Rotary Club in Selma. He recounts attending UCLA and UC Berkeley and being offered a job with the FBI. He discusses his service with the U.S. Army's 442nd Infantry Regiment. He also discusses practicing law since 1946. Handled one of the first workers compensation lawsuits in Fresno. He discusses raising his children and talks about his grandchildren. Imparts the difficulties he encountered when attempting to join various organizations over the years, including becoming a Mason, joining the American Legion, and the United Japanese Christian Church.
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Talks about how he was born and raised in Reedley, his siblings, and the death of his mother while still a young child. He talks about going to Japan with his father to take his mother's ashes back to her homeland when he was six years old and staying for nearly a year before returning to the United States, leaving his youngest brother in Japan. He discusses doing farm work and attending Reedley High School, his father getting remarried and gaining stepsisters. He talks about working as a machinist and in chick sexing before and during the war. He discusses how Reedley residents weren't forced to report to the assembly centers, but did get sent to Poston War Relocation Center eventually, though he didn't have to report there due to already working in the Mid-West at the time. He talks about the difficulties of traveling for his chick sexing work during the war and facing discrimination and suspicion and later relates about joining the army during the war and serving in the Counter Intelligence Corps. He also discusses meeting and marrying his wife, his children's' education and careers.
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Talks about his father immigrating to the U.S. in 1902, experiencing the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, returning to Japan to marry his wife and moving to Oakland. He discusses his siblings, his family's move to Livingston in 1919 and difficulties buying land to farm under the Alien Land Law. He discusses growing up and playing sports, making friends, and participation in church and Boy Scouts. He talks about attending Japanese school, having mixed feelings on being Japanese vs. American and prejudice he faced when younger. He discusses hearing about Pearl Harbor, being sent to the Merced Assembly Center where he served as a policeman before being sent to the Granada War Relocation Center in Colorado. He tells how he got a job picking potatoes during the war and then permanently got out of the camp by working as a janitor before joining the army. He talks about serving in the 442nd in France and Italy and some of the battles he was involved in, how he got home after the war and returned to farming and got married.
