Category: oral history
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Frank H. Hirata: A Nisei in the Japanese Army
Densho recently interviewed Frank H. Hirata, a Kibei-Nisei from Spokane, Washington. At the age of ten, Frank was sent to live with his grandfather in Japan. During World War II,…
Love and Caring: Fred Hoshiyama, YMCA Leader
Fred Hoshiyama was born in 1914 in Livingston, California, where his parents helped to establish a farming community called the Yamato Colony. At the age of eight, he lost his…
C-SPAN American History Broadcasts Densho Interviews
This weekend C-SPAN 3 will broadcast Densho’s interview with Medal of Honor veteran George “Joe” Sakato. The C-SPAN American History channel has broadcast a half dozen full-length video oral histories…
Day of Remembrance Broadcast: Densho Interviews on C-SPAN
C-SPAN’s American History channel will start to broadcast selected Densho video interviews on February 19, the Day of Remembrance that commemorates the signing of Executive Order 9066 in 1942. That…
Archive Spotlight: Asian American Activist for All
Densho recently interviewed the celebrated civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama, who has devoted her life to promoting equal rights for all races and oppressed people. As a girl, she described…
Archive Spotlight: Kind Neighbors and a Full House
In an interview Densho recently conducted for the Topaz Museum, Chiyoko Yano recalls how her family fared better than many others when the order came to leave their home in…
International Lives: The Horiuchi Interviews
“The Nikkei I knew that were involved in the occupation…they were able to work more closely with the Japanese because the Japanese looked upon them as someone that could understand…
Closed Captioning on Densho’s YouTube Channel
Google recently announced new technologies to make Closed Captioning easier on YouTube. The YouTube video player has been able to display Closed Captions for some time but only for those…
Embargoed Interview: Ehren Watada
This month we announced the addition of what could be a controversial interview to the Densho Digital Archive. In our October eNews, you can preview a video clip of Densho’s…
Frank Sumida Interview in LA
A couple of weeks ago I was in LA and through an introduction from Barbara Takei of the Tule Lake Committee, did a fascinating interview with Frank Sumida. Frank shared…
Freshly Minted Videos – Watch on YouTube
For our latest teacher resource CD (available on request) we produced short videos to illustrate key points of Japanese American history. Teachers have been asking us for a summary video…
Frances Tashiro Kaji Interview in LA
Last week I was in Los Angeles and had the opportunity to do a video recorded interview with Frances Tashiro Kaji. Writer Martha Nakagawa helped arrange the meeting and assisted…
Call for Interviewees
Late Friday afternoon we received good news. Densho’s application to the national Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program was awarded in the amount of $112,500. The money will pay for…
Los Angeles Interviews, Tom
Last week I had the joy and honor of interviewing three Nisei women who were talented, strong, and committed individuals. For three days we set up a temporary video studio…
Interviews in Minneapolis by Tom
The Twin Cities Chapter of the JACL welcomed us last week with a Monday potluck dinner. This was a fun evening of eating homemade Japanese food, talking with the Chapter…
Minneapolis interviews
Tom, Dana, and I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Minneapolis/St. Paul. The 10 interviews we conducted offered great insight into this significant, though lesser-known, community in the Midwest….
And now…Minnesota
The Densho interview team is on the move again. This week they headed for the Midwest to collect life stories of Nisei who chose to make Minnesota their home after…
Beginning our Summer Interview Trips
We’ve started our summer interview trips which means I will be on the road more than I am in the office. Last week a Densho team (Dana Hoshide, Megan Asaka,…
New Content in the Densho Archive
We recently added 33 visual history interviews and 4 photo and document collections to the Densho Digital Archive. The archive now contains over 700 hours of video and over 10,000…
Summer Interview Trips
I am excited about the interview trips we have planned for this summer. We are going to at least five areas where we haven’t yet done any interviews. Whenever we…
Aloha, Densho
Densho is supporting a bill submitted by Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii to have the Secretary of the Interior conduct a study of internment camp sites in Hawaii. The idea…
New Densho Archive Interviews
To cap off a successful year of interviewing in 2008, we have added thirteen new interviews to the Densho Digital Archive (listed below). Thank you once again to our community…
40 years ago: Vice President Inouye?
Audio tapes from President Johnson’s last months in office were released yesterday. These tapes confirm conversations I’ve had with Senator Inouye about the serious discussions that were taking place to…
Watsonville Interviews: Second Trip
Dana Hoshide and I returned to Watsonville to interview 4 people the week before Thanksgiving. We left cold and drizzly Seattle and traveled to foggy mornings/sunny afternoons Watsonville to interview…