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Coming back from camp

In fact, coming back from camp, San Bernardino was like…Emerald City. I can, because all my recollections start in camp. I don’t remember before camp at all.

But I can remember taking the train to the station there. They looked, it’s kind of Moorish looking, but it was so exotic to me. I can still remember as a kid, saying wow, this is like, a wonderful place.

There’s that department store called the Harris Company, it’s only three stories high, but they had flags on it, draping stuff on it. I remember looking up, we took a cab from there to our store and looking at that building and saying, wow, you know, this is, this is the big city here.


California imprisonment incarceration postwar San Bernardino United States World War II World War II camps

Date: September 8, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki, Kris Kuramitsu

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

Interviewee Bio

Ben Sakoguchi, born in 1938, is a painter and printmaker who has lived in the Los Angeles area his entire life, except for the time when he and his family were incarcerated in Poston Arizona. After studying painting in the 1960s at the University of California, Los Angeles, he developed a distinctive style that is rooted in pairing a narrative painting tradition with a pop culture vocabulary. He is best known for his long running “Orange Crate Label” series, using the classic crate label format to explore diverse subject matter and to combine them in a way that allows for both sharp critique and wry humor. His work is deeply and politically engaged, and he takes a deep delight in the craft and beauty of painting itself. Sakoguchi was a professor at Pasadena City College for nearly 35 years. Visit his website at bensakoguchi.com. (Oct. 2011)

Bain,Peggie Nishimura
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Bain,Peggie Nishimura

Response to loyalty questionnaire

(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII

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Bain,Peggie Nishimura
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Bain,Peggie Nishimura

Move from Tule Lake to Minidoka

(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII

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Bain,Peggie Nishimura
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Bain,Peggie Nishimura

Apprehension about leaving camp

(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII

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Kosaki,Richard
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Kosaki,Richard

442 soldiers visiting U.S. concentration camps

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

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Shimomura,Roger
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Shimomura,Roger

Receiving a negative reaction from father upon asking about World War II experience

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

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Kadoguchi,Shizuko
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Kadoguchi,Shizuko

Social activities in Tashme

(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto

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Terasaki,Paul
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Terasaki,Paul

Difference between experiences of youth and older people in WWII camps

(b.1929) Pioneer medical researcher in tissue transfer and organ transplantation.

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Nakamura,Eric
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Nakamura,Eric

Father in camp but learning from history books

Giant Robot co-founder and publisher

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Nakamura,Eric
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Nakamura,Eric

Skateboarding at Manzanar

Giant Robot co-founder and publisher

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Shinoda,Mike
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Shinoda,Mike

Insights from family on Japanese American internment

(b. 1977) Musician, Producer, Artist

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Kodani,Mas
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Kodani,Mas

Fun at concentration camp

Senshin Buddhist Temple minister and co-founder of Kinnara Taiko.

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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki
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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki

Initial impact on life at camp

(b. 1934) Writer

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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki
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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki

Mixed blood people at camp from a child's point of view

(b. 1934) Writer

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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki
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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki

Embarrassed to talk about camp

(b. 1934) Writer

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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki
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Houston,Jeanne Wakatsuki

The birth of a novel through a conversation with her nephew

(b. 1934) Writer

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