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https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/404/

Hearing anti-American war propaganda from a teacher

And another time, I think when things were really getting worse, he, another one I remember so vividly is the one he said -- well, of course, the Japanese navy was so popular and strong. So he would say, well, when they look over the Pacific, the dark-eyed Japanese, the eyeballs are brown, and so they can absorb the light much more than the blue, light blue eyes and so they can see so much more over the Pacific. And he said, The Amerikajins (Americans) are kinpatsu (blond hair), you know, the golden hair and the blue eyes and they're blinded by the sun so they can't see far away. And so, you see the advantage we have.

And here, inside, you keep asking me how I felt. I thought, How stupid. And I couldn't even tell any of my friends this. So it's a very private thought that I thought. How sad. Does he expect people to believe that? I mean, I certainly didn't believe it. I knew enough science or whatever to -- that it just -- you know, something that I just personally could not accept. And I thought, gee, how ugly this must be, truly a desperate wartime situation.


Japan propaganda racism World War II

Date: August 3 & 4, 2003

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Alice Ito

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei female. Born December 30, 1927 in Seattle, Washington. Lived in Japan for fifteen months as a child, before returning to Seattle to attend junior high school. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, father was picked up by the FBI and taken to the Department of Justice camp at Missoula, Montana. Removed to the Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington, before being reunited with father at the Minidoka incarceration camp, Idaho. Family volunteered to leave for Japan in 1943 on the U.S. government's exchange ship, the USS Gripsholm. Attended high school in Japan, and participated in military and air raid drills. During the U.S.'s postwar occupation of Japan, attended Doshisha University and worked for a U.S. army station hospital library. Returned to the U.S. and enrolled at St. Mary's teaching hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. Denied redress because of expatriation to Japan, but succeeded in obtaining redress in 1996 after filing a class-action lawsuit.

*The full interview is available Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Francis Y. Sogi
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Francis Y. Sogi

Feeling closer to Japan as a Japanese American

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Bert A. Kobayashi
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Bert A. Kobayashi

Postwar discrimination

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Mako Nakagawa
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Mako Nakagawa

Living conditions at Crystal City, Texas

(1937 - 2021) Teacher

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Mako Nakagawa
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Mako Nakagawa

Thoughts on relationship between Japanese Peruvians and Japanese Americans at Crystal City, Texas

(1937 - 2021) Teacher

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Margaret Oda
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Margaret Oda

Father interrogated by FBI, but not taken away

(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i

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Roberto Hirose
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Roberto Hirose

The political effects on Nikkei during the war (Spanish)

(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman

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John Naka
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John Naka

Avoiding the Japanese military

(1914-2004) Nisei Bonsai master in the United States

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Henry Shimizu
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Henry Shimizu

Government sold Japanese Canadian properties for little money

(b. 1928) Doctor. Former Chair of the Japanese Canadian Redress Foundation.

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Gordon Hirabayashi
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Gordon Hirabayashi

Questioning Curfew

(1918-2012) Fought the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

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Gordon Hirabayashi
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Gordon Hirabayashi

A Dutiful Son

(1918-2012) Fought the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

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William Marutani
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William Marutani

Challenges of finding a summer job

Judge, only Japanese American to serve on CWRIC.

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Young O. Kim
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Young O. Kim

Basic Training

(1919 - 2006) World War II and Korean War veteran

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Young O. Kim
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Young O. Kim

Do it for all Asians

(1919 - 2006) World War II and Korean War veteran

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Sakaye Shigekawa
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Sakaye Shigekawa

Traumatic experiences before camp

(1913-2013) Doctor specializing in obstetrics in Southern California

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Sakaye Shigekawa
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Sakaye Shigekawa

“Everybody went in like sheep”

(1913-2013) Doctor specializing in obstetrics in Southern California

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