A child's memories of activities at Crystal City, Texas
Oh, night and day, just night and day. For one, our family was back together. That meant a lot to everybody in the family. So my mom was out of bed. She was happy. She was just great. My father, he was not -- he never turned into the stern man my mom said that he was going turn into. [Laughs] One of the first things that the kids did was open up his suitcase and found that he had comic books, and that was so delightful because my mom says my father is so serious. He's not going to tolerate us reading comic books anymore, and he had comic books. [Laughs]
The entire atmosphere was different. There really was a sense of community. There was all kinds of activities. We had sumo wrestling. We had shiginkai, we had... I was involved in Japanese shibai, plays. The schools were involved in stuff. The churches were involved. My sister used to wake up at 5:00, 5:30 in the morning, and go to taisou classes where they would exercise and keep their body fit. It was, my memory of Crystal City actually is a happy, happy memory. The family was happy, everybody, the surrounding seemed to be functioning. There was no gloom and despair and ugliness that there was in Minidoka. To me, it was a fun time.
Date: May 27, 1998
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Lori Hoshino
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.
Explore More Videos
Writing a novel on the 442nd
Jewish Japanese American journalist
Meeting Hamako in Japan
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Meeting Mr. Amano
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Marriage and Returning to US
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Feeling prejudice while looking for jobs
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Generosity of the Italians
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Invited to teach at Harvard by his boss
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
The riot in Manzanar
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
The Dopey bank that survived the war
(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII
Evacuated to the Jungle
(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.
Captured by Guerillas after bombing of Pearl Harbor
(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.
Grandfather picked up by US Army
(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii
Father's business partner operated their farming business during WWII
(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.