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Grandfather helping administration in camp

My grandfather, being a business man and having some administrative skills, he was tapped by the war relocation center because they were already starting to plan what was gonna happen to all of the incarcerees, where they were gonna get back and how they were gonna get employed and etc etc, so he was the only Japanese American that they brought into their office either in Little Rock or just in the camp. He went in there and was trying to find out ways of placing people, which was obviously a thankless task because nobody was hiring Japanese Americans much less providing housing for them or renting rooms to them. An amazing consequence of this whole experience. He did get some help from the people who were taking care of his business back in Honolulu. He also got a refrigerator, or ice box, from A.P. Giannini during the war.

I*: Sent to the camp?

Sent to the camp.

*"I" indicates an interviewer John Esaki.


Arkansas business concentration camps economics Jerome concentration camp management United States World War II camps

Date: April 25, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Robert Fujioka was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1952. He attended the University of Michigan earning a BA degree and earned an MBA from the University of Hawai'i. He has been in the banking industry since 1974 and currently serves as Vice Chair, Japanese American National Museum Board of Trustees, a Trustee of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, and the First Hawaiian Bank Foundation. (November 2018)

George Takei
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Takei,George

Father's Influence

(b. 1937) Actor, Activist

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Jimmy Ko Fukuhara
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Fukuhara,Jimmy Ko

Family nursery business

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

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Jimmy Ko Fukuhara
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Fukuhara,Jimmy Ko

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

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Jimmy Ko Fukuhara
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Fukuhara,Jimmy Ko

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Willie Ito
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Ito,Willie

Father making shell brooches at Topaz

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

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Hachiro Ohtomo
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Ohtomo,Hachiro

Business in Missouri (Japanese)

(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner

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Antonio Shinkiti Shikota
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Shikota,Antonio Shinkiti

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(b. 1962) Japanese Brazilian owner of a Brazilian products store in Japan.

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Tom Yuki
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Yuki,Tom

Father's business partner operated their farming business during WWII

(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.

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Fumiko Hachiya Wasserman
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Wasserman,Fumiko Hachiya

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Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

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Takayo Fischer
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Fischer,Takayo

Passing Time in the Camps with Baton Twirling

(b. 1932) Nisei American stage, film, and TV actress

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Iwao Takamoto
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Takamoto,Iwao

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Japanese American animator for Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera (1925-2007)

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Monica Teisher
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Teisher,Monica

Stories of Grandfather at a concentration camp in Fusagasuga

(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States

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Monica Teisher
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Teisher,Monica

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(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States

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Mia Yamamoto
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Yamamoto,Mia

Impact of her father

(b. 1943) Japanese American transgender attorney

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