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https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1659/

Leaving everything behind

I was 16 when we were relocated first of all to Tanforan and then to Topaz… we, like many other Japanese families, we were scared. We got rid of all our Japanese records and letters et cetera. Then when evacuation happened we left most everything just on the floor of this house and went to the assembly center.


imprisonment incarceration Topaz United States Utah World War II

Date: November 23, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Patricia Wakida

Contributed by: A Co-Production of the Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum and KCET

Interviewee Bio

Kay Sekimachi, born in 1926 in San Francisco, is an American fiber artist best known for her masterful, three-dimensional woven monofilament hangings as well as her intricate baskets and bowls. Born in San Francisco on September 30, 1926, Sekimachi was interned with her family at Tanforan Assembly Center in California and then the Topaz concentraton camp in Utah from 1942 to 1944. (June 2018)

George Ariyoshi
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Prom during the war

(b.1926) Democratic politician and three-term Governor of Hawai'i

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George Ariyoshi
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Influence of veterans

(b.1926) Democratic politician and three-term Governor of Hawai'i

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Jean Hayashi Ariyoshi
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Day Pearl Harbor was bombed

Former First Lady of Hawai'i

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Kazuo Funai
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Japan vs. the United States (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman

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Kazuo Funai
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Company in Tokyo burned down (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman

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James Hirabayashi
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Life in camp as teenager

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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Robert Katayama
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Being ordered to keep a diary that was later confiscated, ostensibly by the FBI

Hawaiian Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

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Barbara Kawakami
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Bombing of Pearl Harbor

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Barbara Kawakami
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Helping soldiers

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Barbara Kawakami
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Brother leaves for war, survival

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Didn't have rights that whites had

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Californians didn't know about evacuation

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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Yuri Kochiyama
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The day Pearl Harbor was bombed

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Father as prisoner of war in hospital

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Patriotism versus loyalty

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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