Interviews
Family separated in the camps
My father became seriously ill, and I was notified that he was very, very sick, so I asked for a request to transfer to his camp [in Jerome]. By that time I had had a little baby girl, my first child born in Manzanar. I went with my daughter to see him and to be transferred. They would not allow my husband to go [with me] at that time because they [the War Relocation Authority administration] said [to him], “He’s not your father. It’s her father.” So we got split at that time and that was a very bad thing that happened in our lives. The day I reached Arkansas, the camp, my father was just being pulled away in an ambulance to go to the [camp] hospital so he got a glimpse of my daughter and that was the first and only time he saw her because he died ten days later, on Christmas morning in camp. It was a pretty bad time for us.
Date: August 26, 1998
Location: Virginia, US
Interviewer: Darcie Iki, Mitchell Maki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Not recognizing father after reunion at Crystal City, Texas
(1937 - 2021) Teacher
A child's memories of activities at Crystal City, Texas
(1937 - 2021) Teacher
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
Retaining Japanese customs (Spanish)
(b. 1950) Nisei Chilean, Businessman
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.
On the Impact of the Camp Experience
(b. 1942) The first Asian American woman judge