Interviews
Animosity between the Hawaiians and the mainlanders
You probably may have heard of some of the animosity between the Hawaiians and the mainlanders. This conflict persisted for a long…even after the war.
Every night the Hawaiians, especially, would like to go to the PX, have beer – ten cents a bottle. Right after lights out, I think it was ten o’clock, we were in our hut, I heard a large commotion outside the door. A drunk Hawaiian came barging in, into our hut – we were all in our beds – and they started beating up my friend “Yuk” Minaga, who’s from Utah, and he was my radio man in forward observer crew. And they jumped on him and started pounding him. So I jumped up and I tried to pull off the guy that was on top pounding him. And someone else, maybe it was two, choked me and pulled me down and started beating me up too. All the while, nobody else got up, nobody could…I’m sure nobody could sleep through this ruckus – it was a small room with cots side-by-side. And they beat us up, but not to the point where we had to go to the infirmary.
And the next day, the captain came to us and said, “You know, they found the fellows that beat you up last night.” The question came, “Do you want to press charges against these guys?” After just a few minutes, it didn’t take us very long, we said, “Well why don’t we drop this completely and take it out on the Germans.” And we shook hands, and that was it. It was not even on our records. I think that was our good move that we made.
Date: January 3, 2015
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Lily Anne Y. Welty Tamai
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Prom during the war
(b.1926) Democratic politician and three-term Governor of Hawai'i
Laid off for being Canadian
(b. 1922) Canadian Nisei who was unable to return to Canada from Japan until 1952
Life in camp as teenager
(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline
Being ordered to keep a diary that was later confiscated, ostensibly by the FBI
Hawaiian Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.
Helping soldiers
An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.
Fun at concentration camp
Senshin Buddhist Temple minister and co-founder of Kinnara Taiko.
Father as prisoner of war in hospital
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Patriotism versus loyalty
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Postcards to Nisei soldiers
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Hiding what happened in camp
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Camp as a positive thing
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.
Rounding up Issei and Nikkei
(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.