Discover Nikkei Logo

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1477/

Celebrating his birthday on December 7, 1941

Well I will never forget the time that I heard about December 7th, the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I remember running home from a movie, and it was all kind of clamor out in the streets. It’s something that hits you and yet you are not sure what the future is going to hold, so you don’t know. But you know that something important had happened, something that is going to change your life happened. You didn’t know what is going to happen, but you knew something happened. And that was my feeling.

I always kind of kid about it, and I say, yeah I was celebrating my birthday with a bang. But it was our first pre-emptive strike by Japan to our own nation, to our own land. That had kind of a scary feeling for me, also, a kind of unknown future. You just had to wait and see.


Pearl Harbor attack, Hawaii, 1941 World War II

Date: March 4, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Florence Ochi, Art Hansen, Yoko Nishimura

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

Interviewee Bio

Fred Yaichio Hoshiyama was the first of six children born to Issei immigrant farm workers who were members of the pioneering Yamato Colony of Livingston, California. His father died when he was only eight, and his family struggled to keep their farm, eventually losing it and moving to San Francisco in 1929. After earning a BA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1941, he was confined at the Tanforan Assembly Center in San Francisco and the Topaz “Relocation Center” in Utah in 1942 with thousands of other innocent Japanese Americans—victims of their racial similarity to the enemy that had attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i.

Even in confinement, Fred continued his lifelong association with the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association), helping to establish much needed recreational, educational and social programs. After obtaining an early release from Topaz to earn his Masters Degree at Springfield College in Massachusetts, he served as a YMCA youth program director in Honolulu before returning to California where he continued to work in urban youth programs. From 1976 to 1983 he helped to form the National Association of Student YMCAs. In retirement, he contributed his expertise and knowledge of financial planning, development and management to several non-profit organizations. (February 2016)

Rose Ochi
en
ja
es
pt
Rose Ochi

Incarceration, Deportation, and Lawyers

(1938-2020) Japanese American attorney and civil rights activist

en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami
en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami

Leaving Tule Lake

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami
en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami

Introduction to Film

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami
en
ja
es
pt
Jimmy Murakami

Seagulls

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

en
ja
es
pt
Willie Ito
en
ja
es
pt
Willie Ito

Father’s Optimism

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

en
ja
es
pt
Willie Ito
en
ja
es
pt
Willie Ito

Tanforan Assembly Center

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

en
ja
es
pt
Willie Ito
en
ja
es
pt
Willie Ito

Father making shell brooches at Topaz

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

en
ja
es
pt
Sawako Ashizawa Uchimura
en
ja
es
pt
Sawako Ashizawa Uchimura

Captured by Guerillas after bombing of Pearl Harbor

(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.

en
ja
es
pt
Haruo Kasahara
en
ja
es
pt
Haruo Kasahara

How we were treated on plantation after the attack on Pearl Harbor (Japanese)

(b.1900) Issei plantation worker in Hawai'i.

en
ja
es
pt
Masato Ninomiya
en
ja
es
pt
Masato Ninomiya

Foreign language education was severely restricted during the war

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

en
ja
es
pt

Discover Nikkei Updates

NIKKEI NAMES 2
Vote for Nima-kai Favorite!
Read the stories and give a star to the ones you like the most! Help select our Community Favorite.
NIMA VOICES
Episode 17
November 12
5pm PDT | 7pm PET
Featured Nima:
Graciela Nakachi
Guest Host:
Enrique Higa

Presented in Spanish
NEW SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT
We’re on Instagram!
Follow us @discovernikkei for new site content, program announcements, and more!