Category: oral history
View Other Categories
Densho’s Oral History Program Is Back after a Pandemic Pause
Like many oral history projects, we’ve spent much of the last 18 months adapting and adjusting to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Knowing that elders and communities of color…
Mae Kanazawa Hara and the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair
In this guest post, Sara Beckman demonstrates how pairing oral history with archival materials can lead to rich discoveries about the past. This is the first of three reflections from interns working…
Voices from Heart Mountain
This week, the annual Heart Mountain Pilgrimage will draw visitors to rural Wyoming, where they will pay tribute to the more than 14,000 Japanese Americans from California, Washington, and Oregon…
Segregated Swimming: Oral Histories of Japanese Americans and Public Pools
With the end of summer looming on the horizon, people everywhere are savoring the season’s final days of poolside leisure: seeking the refuge of cool water on a hot afternoon,…
Eiichi Edward Sakauye: Impact of the Alien Land Laws
Eiichi Edward Sakauye had extensive farmholdings in San Jose, California, before World War II. In this clip, he talks about how the 1913 Alien Land Law affected California Japanese American…
Gene Akutsu: The Importance of Speaking Out
During World War II, Gene Akutsu was incarcerated in the Puyallup Assembly Center, Washington, and the Minidoka concentration camp, Idaho. In 1944 he was arrested for resisting the draft and…
Chizuko Norton: New Year’s Eve at Tule Lake Under Curfew
Chizuko Norton was a teenager during World War II at the Tule Lake concentration camp. In 1943, when the camp was designated a segregation center, a curfew was imposed on…
Joseph Frisino: Personal Reaction to the Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Joseph Frisino was serving in the U.S. Army when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He had grown up on the East Coast and, in 1941, struggled with not being able to…
Tosh Yasutake: Treating Soldiers with “Shell-Shock”
Tosh Yasutake served as a medic with I Company, 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In this clip, he talks about how to treat soldiers, including the medic he replaced, who suffered…
Henry Miyatake: An Essay Results in Expulsion From School
Henry Miyatake was a high school student during World War II. In this clip, he describes an essay he wrote for a high school civics class at Minidoka titled “American…
Giro Nakagawa: Searched by the FBI at an Oyster Farm Station House
Giro Nakagawa was working for the New Washington Oyster Company in South Bend, Washington, before World War II. In this clip, he describes a visit from the FBI while he…
Ruby Inouye: Treating Issei Patients
Ruby Inouye was a longtime family physician in Seattle after World War II. In this clip, she talks about her ability to speak directly to her Issei patients without an…
Shosuke Sasaki: “Escape” from Camp
Shosuke Sasaki was incarcerated at the Minidoka concentration camp, Idaho, during World War II. In this clip, he remembers a humorous incident in which he cut through the camp’s barbed…
Yuri Kochiyama: Changing Perspectives on Racism and Prejudice
Civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama was working for a USO office in Mississippi in 1944. Later, while working at a restaurant in New York, she talked to her black co-workers…
Roy H. Matsumoto: Shouting Military Orders in Japanese to Confuse the Enemy
In 2003, Densho interviewed the 90-year-old Roy Matsumoto who recounted his incredible story of fighting in the jungles of Burma with Merrill’s Marauders against the Japanese. Roy saved his unit…
Frank Kitamoto: Effects of the Incarceration Experience on Children
We are saddened to hear of the passing of Frank Kitamoto. Frank was one of Densho’s founding volunteers who helped define Densho’s mission of keeping the Japanese American story alive….
Cherry Kinoshita: The First Day of Remembrance
Cherry Kinoshita was a longtime Seattle activist and contributor to the Japanese American Citizens League and the redress movement. In this clip, she talks about the first Day of Remembrance…
Michiko Frances Chikahisa: Addressing Social Issues in the Japanese American Community After the War
Michiko Frances Chikahisa was a social worker in Los Angeles and Chicago directly after World War II. In this clip, she talks about the types of problems she observed among…
Henry Ueno: Hearing About the Bombing of Pearl Harbor While in Japan
Henry Ueno was born in Pendleton, Oregon, but was living in Japan with his mother and siblings when World War II broke out. In this clip, he talks about what…
Masao Watanabe: Feelings About Being Placed in an “Assembly Center”
Masao Watanabe grew up in Seattle, Washington, and during the war was initially sent to the “assembly center” at the fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington. In this clip he talks about…
Mary Kageyama Nomura: A Five Year Old Singing for Issei
Mary Kageyama Nomura was removed to the Manzanar concentration camp, California, during World War II. There she was known as the “Songbird of Manzanar,” frequently performing in camp. She was…
Tsuguo “Ike” Ikeda: Talking About Democracy in a Camp Classroom
Tsuguo “Ike” Ikeda was a high school student at the Minidoka concentration camp, Idaho. In this clip, he remembers how he and his camp classmates reacted when their teacher brought…
Izumi Hirano: Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
Izumi Hirano was born in Hilo, Hawaii, but moved to Japan with his family as a child. He was in his classroom near the epicenter when the United States dropped…
Michiko Kornhauser: Meeting an American for the First Time
Michiko Kornhauser was a child living in Okayama during World War II. In this clip, she describes first meeting an American GI during the U.S. occupation of Japan after being…