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https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/348/

Apprehension about leaving camp

Because I was reluctant to leave, they were trying to push me out, because they said, Well, your two children are out. You've got to leave camp. And I said, "Well, I can't leave my mother and dad here by themselves." And they said, "Well, don't worry, because Hank was gonna come and get them," so I finally... I had quite a debate with my daughter, because I didn't want to go Chicago, but she did. I wanted to come back to Seattle. No, she wanted to go to a big city. She was just bent on going -- we got in a terrible argument.

So I had to go before a counselor, which was very unpleasant for me, because they were all trying to get me out. So there was just no way that I was gonna win. But I didn't want go because I was afraid, for one thing. You know, you don't have any money and you don't have no experience, you're working in a strange city. In the first place, I didn't like cities. But they finally forced me out and I had to go.


imprisonment incarceration resettlements

Date: September 15-17, 2004

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Alice Ito

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Peggie Nishimura Bain was born on March 31, 1909 in Vashon, Washington. Her family was originally from Kumamoto, Japan. She was the second of six children. Married at seventeen, she had two children - a son and a daughter.

At the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she was helping her parents with the three farm properties they owned under her brother's name. She was sent to the Pinedale Assembly Center, before going to Tule Lake, and then eventually Minidoka.

After leaving Minidoka, she relocated with her daughter to Chicago, where she lived for many years working as a full-time colorist in a photography studio, a skill she learned while in camp. She eventually returned to Washington to be near her parents. (September 17, 2004)

 

James Hirabayashi
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James Hirabayashi

Life in camp as teenager

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Yuri Kochiyama

Didn't have rights that whites had

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Yuri Kochiyama

Californians didn't know about evacuation

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Yuri Kochiyama

Conditions of assembly centers

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Yuri Kochiyama

Visit to assembly centers by E. Stanley Jones

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Yuri Kochiyama

Hiding what happened in camp

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Yuri Kochiyama

Issei are hard-working

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Yuri Kochiyama

Arrest of father

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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Yuri Kochiyama
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Yuri Kochiyama

Camp as a positive thing

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

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Yukio Takeshita
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Yukio Takeshita

Involvement in JACL

(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.

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Grayce Ritsu Kaneda Uyehara
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Grayce Ritsu Kaneda Uyehara

Importance of education in achieving redress for incarceration

(1919-2014) Activist for civil rights and redress for World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.

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Roy H. Matsumoto
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Roy H. Matsumoto

Finding work in the assembly center

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

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Roy H. Matsumoto
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Roy H. Matsumoto

Train ride to Jerome Relocation Center

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

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Richard Kosaki
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Richard Kosaki

442 soldiers visiting U.S. concentration camps

(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i

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Roger Shimomura
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Roger Shimomura

Receiving a negative reaction from father upon asking about World War II experience

(b. 1939) Japanese American painter, printmaker & professor

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