Interviews
Volunteering to serve for the U.S. military in Japan
Well I had good grades and Japanese was easy because that time I could memorize. Japanese language is memory, that’s all. You memorize words and characters so it was very easy for me. I taught Japanese until the end of the war. The war ended in forty-five, and I was hoping to get back to school. But I wanted to visit my relatives in Japan having heard from my mother about them all the years I was in Kona. So I decided to volunteer to serve in Japan, and the requirement for us was to be commissioned as Second Lieutenant to go over to Japan. To become an officer, I had to go through basic training for three months in Fort McClellan, Alabama. And after that I was commissioned and went to Japan in 1946.
Date: May 29, 2006
Location: Hawai`i, US
Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Working tirelessly after the war (Japanese)
(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.
A Lifestyle Using Both Japanese and Spanish (Japanese)
(b. 1929) President of Amano Museum
Reception of Hamako by family
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Meeting Hamako in Japan
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Meeting Mr. Amano
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Marriage and Returning to US
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Generosity of the Italians
(1919 - 2015) Nisei who served in World War II with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Grandfather picked up by US Army
(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii
Working together in Okinawa using three languages
Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.
Mother founded Japanese language school in neighbors’ backyard
Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California
Her grandfather was pressured to teach Japanese
Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California
Painting murals and signs in the army
(b. 1938) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City