From Densho's Archives
Densho has collected hundreds of hours of video testimony and tens of thousands of historical images. This series presents selections from their archives which highlight primary sources from the Densho Digital Archive to illustrate themes in Japanese American history.
Stories from this series
Profile in Courage: George Sakato and a Belated Medal of Honor
Nov. 11, 2009 • Denshō
“I’m no hero, but I wear it for the guys that didn’t come back.” — George “Joe” Sakato George T. Sakato is the great-great-great-grandson of a samurai. Perhaps that explains his father’s choice of a birth name. Sakato says, “Dad wanted to call me Jyotaro Sakato, after a sword-bearer for Musashi samurai.” But when the doctor submitted the vital statistics for the baby, “Jyotaro” became “George.” An unassuming man, Densho’s interviewee says simply, “All my life I’ve been called Joe.” …
Freeing Testimonies: The Redress Hearings
Oct. 10, 2007 • Denshō
"I am very happy that the government of America is looking into the past. I think it takes a great country to admit its mistakes and make proper restitution."--Masao Takahashi In retrospect, the success of the Japanese American redress movement seems like a historical inevitability. In reality, the struggle for justice stretched over three decades and was anything but assured. Just as the mass removal and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans without charge or trial was itself not inevitable,1 the …
World War II Volunteers
Nov. 8, 2006 • Denshō
The nisei veterans have been called everything from heroes to cultural icons to saviors of the Japanese American community. Stories of the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" and the breaking of the Gothic Line are so harrowing and so poignant that it is easy to see why they hold an iconic status in our community. Yet, if we go back to 1943 – in the weeks following an announcement by the U.S. Government that opened the military to Japanese Americans …
