Interviews

1. Family nursery business

2. Living through the Great Depression

3. Hearing about Pearl Harbor

4. Traveling to Manzanar

5. Jobs in Manzanar

6. The riot in Manzanar

7. Sugar beet and potato farming in Idaho

8. Sugar beet farming process

9. Being inducted into the army

10. Being called out of Reserves

11. Fort Snelling

12. Traveling from Manila to Tokyo

13. Serving in Tokyo

14. Visiting Hiroshima

15. After being discharged and returning to the nursery business

16. Meeting his wife, Eileen

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara

(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan

Traveling to Manzanar

They didn’t tell you a thing. In fact, I don’t know if the bus driver even knew, until he got on the bus. And then he must, he could have asked, “Where’s Manzanar?” They must have pulled out the oldest buses...they had these municipal buses in Santa Monica.

And you know how many hours it took to get there? Today, I just went up and back and, an easy, comfortable four hours. Each way. But that’s all, practically all freeway now. But I think...say we boarded the bus at 9 o’clock, it was almost dusk, dark when we got to Manzanar. And that was in April.

buses California concentration camps imprisonment incarceration Manzanar concentration camp United States World War II World War II camps

Date: February 6, 2015

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara was born on September 21, 1921 in Los Angeles, California to Japanese immigrants, Ume and Ichisuke Fukuhara. In 1927, his father moved the family to Santa Monica, California, and got started in the nursery business. After graduating from Santa Monica High School, Jimmy worked at the nursery, until 1942, when he and his family were sent to the Manzanar concentration camp.

Jimmy was able to leave camp early, and moved to Pennsylvania with his younger brother, George. Within sixty days, Jimmy was drafted into the army, and volunteered to serve in the Military Intelligence school. After going through basic training, Jimmy was sent to Tokyo, Japan. There he worked for the labor department in General MacArthur’s headquarters. Before leaving Japan, he visited Hiroshima in hopes of connecting with his parents’ relatives. After being discharged, Jimmy returned to Santa Monica and the family nursery business. Jimmy continued to work in the nursery with his four brothers, until he retired in 1986. (May 2016)

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