Interviews
Passing Time in the Camps with Baton Twirling
I was also – I knew how to twirl a baton in camp. So I brought my – you know, you could only take what you could carry. I carried my baton, and I twirled in camp, and I ordered boots from the catalogue. I think it was either Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogue, and I don’t remember which one I got it from, but I had major boots, and I had a little outfit, and I just had a little book also, and I would watch, you know, when I would see other people, a parade or something. And I basically taught myself how to twirl. It was pleasurable and it was – because it was something you had to do by yourself, you know? Hour after hour, so that was a nice thing to have.
Date: November 8, 2018
Location: California, US
Interviewer: June Berk
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Life in camp as teenager
(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline
Hiding what happened in camp
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Camp as a positive thing
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
His father describes the importance of photographing camp life
(1924-2016) Photographer and businessman.
Involvement in JACL
(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.
Train ride to Jerome Relocation Center
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
442 soldiers visiting U.S. concentration camps
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i
Receiving a negative reaction from father upon asking about World War II experience
(b. 1939) Japanese American painter, printmaker & professor
Loss of happy-go-lucky adolescence in Puyallup Assembly Center
(b. 1923) Nisei from Washington. Resisted draft during WWII.
Memories of dusty conditions at Minidoka incarceration camp
(b. 1923) Nisei from Washington. Resisted draft during WWII.
Family life in a Japanese Canadian internment camp in Slocan
(b. 1920) Incarcerated during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community
Difference between experiences of youth and older people in WWII camps
(b.1929) Pioneer medical researcher in tissue transfer and organ transplantation.
Death of sister in October 1942
(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement
Father in camp but learning from history books
Giant Robot co-founder and publisher
