Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/452/

Difference between experiences of youth and older people in WWII camps

There’s a big separation of people in camp. The under high school, I would say, I had good memories, yes. And you see that in the reunions. So the reunions of the camp of 1945 graduates are the biggest of all the camps. You see that even today. So it means that all of those people remember and want to get together. All the ’46 graduates, little bit less. That’s my age. And ’47 graduates almost have no reunions—that’s like my younger brother—because maybe they were too young. But still I think it’s true that the children had a lot of people to play with. And I was constantly playing.

So over high school, this is where it cuts, where people have, I’m sure, suffered and have been disadvantaged by the camp. Their careers were interrupted, studies interrupted. And so either they had to get out of camp and try to go to school somewhere. Or if they stayed in camp, I’m sure it was not good for them. And then the older people like my parents, who had a business, they had to suffer a lot because they lost the business. They were living in these very small rooms and deprived of everything that they really had. So they don’t have their own kitchen, their own bathroom they don’t have. So I’m sure they suffered. And as I say, being the younger child, I wasn’t aware of that too much.


imprisonment incarceration World War II World War II camps

Date: February 10, 2004

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Gwenn M. Jensen

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

Interviewee Bio

Paul Terasaki, born in 1929, is a UCLA Medical Professor Emeritus and a pioneer in tissue transfer research who continues to speak globally on tissue typing and organ transplantation. In 1991 he edited a volume entitled History of Transplantation: Thirty-five Recollections.

He and his wife Hisako, a renowned painter, take a strong interest in U.S.-Japan relations and the affairs of the Japanese American community. Together they established an endowment at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center to fund fellowships for UCLA graduate students from Japan pursuing research on the historical and contemporary experiences and issues of the Japanese American population. Additionally, a Paul I. Terasaki Endowed Chair in U.S.-Japan Relations supports a distinguished teaching program designed to bring experts in the field of Japanese studies and U.S.-Japan relations to UCLA. (February 10, 2004)

Sue Embrey
en
ja
es
pt
Embrey,Sue

The Perspective of Youth

(1923–2006) Community activist. Co-founded the Manzanar Committee

en
ja
es
pt
Shizuko Kadoguchi
en
ja
es
pt
Kadoguchi,Shizuko

Choice to move east or go to Japan

(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto

en
ja
es
pt
Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
en
ja
es
pt
Herzig,Aiko Yoshinaga

Feeling imprisoned at camp

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

en
ja
es
pt
Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
en
ja
es
pt
Herzig,Aiko Yoshinaga

Institutionalization as a bad aspect of camp

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

en
ja
es
pt
Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
en
ja
es
pt
Herzig,Aiko Yoshinaga

State Department records show concern for treatment of Japanese American internees

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

en
ja
es
pt
Francis Y. Sogi
en
ja
es
pt
Sogi,Francis Y.

Remembering December 7, 1941

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

en
ja
es
pt
Francis Y. Sogi
en
ja
es
pt
Sogi,Francis Y.

Meeting Japanese Americans from the mainland in MIS

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

en
ja
es
pt
Francis Y. Sogi
en
ja
es
pt
Sogi,Francis Y.

Awareness of concentration camps as a Japanese American

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

en
ja
es
pt
Fred Korematsu
en
ja
es
pt
Korematsu,Fred

Manhunt

(1919 - 2005) Challenged the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

en
ja
es
pt
Fred Korematsu
en
ja
es
pt
Korematsu,Fred

The Final Verdict

(1919 - 2005) Challenged the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066.

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Trying to get back into camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
George Katsumi Yuzawa
en
ja
es
pt
Yuzawa,George Katsumi

Reaction to a 1942 speech by Mike Masaoka, Japanese American Citizen League's National Secretary

(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement

en
ja
es
pt
William Hohri
en
ja
es
pt
Hohri,William

Education in camp

(1927-2010) Political Activist

en
ja
es
pt
Dale Minami
en
ja
es
pt
Minami,Dale

Reasons for conformity and competitiveness in Gardena, California

(b. 1946) Lawyer

en
ja
es
pt
Dale Minami
en
ja
es
pt
Minami,Dale

Role of the redress movement in helping Nisei to open up about their wartime experiences

(b. 1946) Lawyer

en
ja
es
pt