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Interviews

Iwao Takamoto

Japanese American animator for Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera (1925-2007)
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Loss When Leaving for Manzanar

I think we lost an awful lot of things I would love to still have and I think this is consistent with the experience of an awful lot of people like us. My mother got rid of displays for girls day, boy’s day, and the wonderful little dolls in the court of the lord and so on that they used to display on the steps- I think she had to get rid of those things and of course all the other, more technical things like flashlights.

But the things that reflected your heritage and the loss of those things, if anything brings about a sense of loss or to be honest about it, rankles you, would be things like that- these dolls and various things they had put away. It was almost like Christmas ornaments, they would bring them out once a year. That was sad.

California concentration camps Manzanar concentration camp United States World War II World War II camps

Date: Aug 6, 1998

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Janice Tanaka

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

Interviewee Bio
Iwao Takamoto (April 29, 1925 – January 8, 2007) was a legendary animator for Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera, most famously designing Scooby Doo in the late sixties. Incarcerated at Manzanar after graduating high school, Iwao leveraged his art skills into a job at Disney upon returning to Los Angeles, working on classic animated films like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. He would go on to mentor other Japanese American animators such as Willie Ito, who worked with him on Lady and the Tramp. After leaving Disney for Hanna-Barbera in 1962, Iwao continued animating, as well as producing and directing films like Charlotte's Web (1973) until his retirement. (June 2021)

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