Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1811/

Camouflage Net Weaving in Manzanar

The first job that I got was the weaving of camouflage nets and immediately managed to get ourselves into trouble. A lot of criticism from people assigned by the military to check the nets after we had woven it. We had the patterns underneath and there were two things that if you weren’t very good at it, which I wasn’t, that you did—one was to weave through both nets, the pattern net/reference net and the one you were weaving so they wouldn’t come apart once you were finished, and the other was to make mistakes. I could see them take the net we worked on and put it on the ground and these men would stride around and look at it, finding mistakes all over the place. That was my first job.


California camouflage concentration camps Manzanar concentration camp United States World War II World War II camps

Date: August 6, 1998

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Janice Tanaka

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

Interviewee Bio
Iwao Takamoto (April 29, 1925 – January 8, 2007) was a legendary animator for Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera, most famously designing Scooby Doo in the late sixties. Incarcerated at Manzanar after graduating high school, Iwao leveraged his art skills into a job at Disney upon returning to Los Angeles, working on classic animated films like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. He would go on to mentor other Japanese American animators such as Willie Ito, who worked with him on Lady and the Tramp. After leaving Disney for Hanna-Barbera in 1962, Iwao continued animating, as well as producing and directing films like Charlotte's Web (1973) until his retirement. (June 2021)
Teisher,Monica

Her grandfather in a concentration camp in Fusagasuga (Spanish)

(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States

Naganuma,Jimmy

Family welcomed at Crystal City

(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

Naganuma,Jimmy

First meal at Crystal City

(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

Naganuma,George Kazuharu

Thunder in Crystal City

(b. 1938) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

Naganuma,Kazumu

His sister Kiyo was like a second mother to him

(b. 1942) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

Yamamoto,Mia

Impact of her father

(b. 1943) Japanese American transgender attorney