Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1499/

Discrimination faced in San Francisco (Japanese)

(Japanese) Upon arriving in San Francisco, we would go look for an apartment. But they wouldn’t rent us right away. They rejected us. I thought to myself then that they wouldn’t like to rent to black or Japanese people. When they saw us, they looked troubled and said no. When we talked on the phone, they would say O.K. So my husband and I would show up along with our two kids. When we got there, they would tell us different stories and reject us.

Luckily, my husband had a younger sister. So my sister-in-law and her husband had an apartment where we could live. Then after a while we moved into our own apartment.


California discrimination interpersonal relations postwar San Francisco United States World War II

Date: February 6, 2015

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Izumi Tanaka

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Terumi Hisamatsu Calloway was born in 1937 in Yokohama as the 5th of 10 children and grew up in the suburb of Tokyo during the war. She met her husband, Edward E. Calloway, who was a civilian engineer working at American military base in Tokyo and married him. In 1960, after having 2 children, Terumi moved to the U.S. with her family and settled in the Bay Area and had two more children. Later they moved to the Lompoc area where all of her 4 children - 2 girls and 2 boys - grew up. In 1977, they moved to Inglewood where she resides now. Terumi was widowed in 2009, and she currently works as a caregiver. (April 2016)

Masato Ninomiya
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Ninomiya,Masato

The winners who remained at the beginning of the migration

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

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Fujima Kansuma
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Kansuma,Fujima

Dancing in Japan as an American, in the US as Japanese

(1918-2023) Nisei Japanese kabuki dancer

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Fred Y. Hoshiyama
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Hoshiyama,Fred Y.

Discrimination in San Francisco

(1914–2015) Nisei YMCA and Japanese American community leader

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Roger Shimomura
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Shimomura,Roger

Collection of artifacts depicting racial stereotypes influences art

(b. 1939) Japanese American painter, printmaker & professor

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Frank Yamasaki
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Yamasaki,Frank

Encountering racial discrimination at a public swimming pool

(b. 1923) Nisei from Washington. Resisted draft during WWII.

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Jack Herzig
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Herzig,Jack

His testimony has more credibility because of his race

(1922 - 2005) Former U.S. Army counterintelligence officer

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Margaret Oda
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Oda,Margaret

Gender discrimination in education field

(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i

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Fred Y. Hoshiyama
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Hoshiyama,Fred Y.

Early Childhood

(1914–2015) Nisei YMCA and Japanese American community leader

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George Katsumi Yuzawa
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Yuzawa,George Katsumi

First impression of New York City during war time

(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement

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James Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,James

Not bringing shame to family

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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James Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,James

Past ties to present situation in Middle East

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Kochiyama,Yuri

Didn't have rights that whites had

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Kochiyama,Yuri

Californians didn't know about evacuation

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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Wakako Nakamura Yamauchi
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Yamauchi,Wakako Nakamura

Her experience as a Japanese-American schoolchild in Oceanside, California, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor

(1924-2018) Artist and playwright.

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Richard Kosaki
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Kosaki,Richard

Change in attitudes after World War II

(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i

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