Interviews

1. Marriage during anti-miscegenation laws

2. Tomboy

3. Growing Up in Japan

4. Memories of Poston

5. Postwar school-life

6. Father's Service in WWII

7. Moving to Upland Post-Camp

8. Arriving at Poston

Terry Janzen

(b. 1930) Half Japanese and grew up in both Japan and the United States.

Memories of Poston

Well, there were a lot of scorpions, which to this day I think they’re the worst. I can hold a snake, it doesn’t bother me as long as I know it’s a safe snake and I can hold spiders I take outside, but just thinking of scorpions, it always gave me the creeps. They had some terrible storms, so I remember how hot it was and also the fact that the roofs would, they had these whirlwinds and the roofs would fall, they would pull the roof off. Yeah, I went with a couple of boys to watch a couple of storms. Dumb, you going to watch the roof go off.

Arizona United States World War II World War II camps

Date: August 27, 2012

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Cindy Nakashima, Emily Anderson

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum with support of NITTO Tires Life History Project. Courtesy of the USC Hapa Japan Database Project.

Interviewee Bio

Terry Janzen was born in Tokyo, Japan on July 15, 1930. She is half Japanese and grew up in both Japan and the United States. She was incarcerated at Poston for 6 months during World War II. She has been a teacher and a Chair for the Adams County Democratic Party in Washington. (April 2013)

* Terry Janzen interviewed by Cindy Nakashima and Emily Anderson for the exhibition, Visible & Invisible: A Hapa Japanese American History. A Collaboration with the USC Hapa Japan Database Project, videographer, Evan Kodani with support of NITTO Tires Life History Project.

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