Interviews

1. Search of family home by the FBI following the bombing of Pearl Harbor

2. Not recognizing father after reunion at Crystal City, Texas

3. Living conditions at Crystal City, Texas

4. A child's memories of activities at Crystal City, Texas

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

6. Message for future generations

Mako Nakagawa

(1937 - 2021) Teacher

Not recognizing father after reunion at Crystal City, Texas

…and next thing you know we pull into the campground. And these men are milling around and we're looking around to see which one is Papa and then I hear my sister saying, “There he is. There he is,” and I'm looking around, and I see nobody that looks like this distinguished man in this picture. And when he finally comes to the window and he talks to my sisters and I'm thinking, “This is my father?” I was so disappointed. [Laughs] I do not recognize him and my kid sister was scared of him, ran away from him. I was too big to run away from him. I wish I could have. I didn't like this man. [Laughs] He looked dirty and he looked kind of disheveled and I was expecting this handsome, distinguished, well-dressed, groomed man.

And this man was a disappointment, but my sisters were hugging him and they were so happy to see him, and my mom looked pretty happy. And I tried to pretend like I was happy. I wasn't. It took me a while to really get used to him, and he was, he really was, he was very different from what I hear from my friends. He was a gentle person. He was a loving person. I guess later on when I took his story, the fact that the baby ran away from him just hurt him really bad. He said, “My own daughter, my own daughter is running away from me.”

Crystal City internment camp Department of Justice camps imprisonment incarceration Texas United States World War II World War II camps

Date: May 27, 1998

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Lori Hoshino

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei female. Born February 1937 in Seattle, Washington. Spent prewar childhood in Seattle. Incarcerated at Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington; Minidoka incarceration camp, Idaho; and Crystal City internment camp, Texas. In postwar years, became a teacher, principal, and multicultural specialist for Washington State's Superintendent of the Office of Public Instruction. Developed and directed the Japanese American Cultural Heritage Program and the Rainbow Program, one of the first multiethnic educational programs in the country. She passed away on April 4, 2021 at age 84. (July 2021)

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