Interviews
Writing a novel on the 442nd
Well I am writing a novel about the 442nd infantry where three of my uncles served in WWII. When I talk to my 90 year old uncle in Hawai'i, and I visited him recently, he doesn't want to talk about it. He said, "I just did what I had to do. I just did the right thing." So I'm going to be writing a novel from the perspective of my mother as a little girl. Her brothers were seven years older. And all the men suddenly from her little farm village in Kona, Hawai'i left at the same time to go off to war. It was like there were no men left. Her and her sister and her mother and all the women of the town had to get together and keep the farm going and keep the little mom and pop grocery store going. It will be from the perspective of her as a child seeing all of this happen. I've been doing interviews with a lot of veterans and veterans wives and what they experienced, love affairs and marriages and some of them cheated when they were over there. It's gonna be this meaty, lovely, passionate, tangible great story about the Japanese Americans who went to fight in World War II. So that's a book I'm writing on. I'm writing it really as... I'm thinking about it as a gift. The Jews call it a 'mitzvah'. It’s like my gift to them, to tell their story and to tell it in a respectful, honorably way.
Date: April 4, 2013
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Patricia Wakida
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Hearing about Pearl Harbor
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Traveling to Manzanar
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Victory Corps Work during World War II
(1925 - 2018) Nisei educator from Hawai‘i
Jobs in Manzanar
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Sugar beet and potato farming in Idaho
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Recalling Pinedale and Tule Lake concentration camps
Judge, only Japanese American to serve on CWRIC.
Being called out of Reserves
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Fort Snelling
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Traveling from Manila to Tokyo
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Camp stories impact on her career
Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California
Concentration camp from a Japanese mother’s point of view (Japanese)
Shin-Issei from Gifu. Recently received U.S. citizenship
Different feelings from veterans about the draft resisters
(1916-2010) draft resister, helped form the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee
Fully aware of discrimination in America
(1919 - 2006) World War II and Korean War veteran
People with talent in the 100th infantry battalion
(1919 - 2006) World War II and Korean War veteran