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New Encyclopedia Articles, November 2014
Having worked in museums and similar organizations for most of the last twenty-five or so years, the work they do is close to my heart. Many museum exhibitions have told…
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…
New Encyclopedia Articles, September 2014
In 1987, in the midst of the movement for redress and reparations for the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum…
Garden of Stones and Historical Accuracy
The novel Garden of Stones is marred by many historical inaccuracies/implausibilities, but is a well told story that has no doubt introduced many to the story of Japanese American wartime…
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…
New Densho Encyclopedia Articles, August 2014
New to the encyclopedia this month are articles on writers and artists, Nisei soldiers during World War II, and a little known INS detention camp, among other topics.
Making It Worse
By Densho’s Content Director Brian Niiya Japanese Americans often object when journalists, screenwriters, or others minimize or distort some aspect of the wartime incarceration. But should we also object when…
New Densho Encyclopedia Articles, July 2014
By Densho’s Content Director Brian Niiya One of the neglected areas of Japanese American history is the story of Japanese Americans in Japan just before and during the war between…
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…
Loni Ding Collection
We are very pleased to have recently received a collection from the family of acclaimed filmmaker Loni Ding of the raw materials used to make her influential documentaries Nisei Soldier: Standard…
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…
New Densho Encyclopedia Articles, May 17 to June 2
One of the often repeated stories that Sansei who grew up the ’50s and ’60s tell is of learning about the wartime removal and incarceration of their families during World…
Records about Japanese Americans relocated during World War II
There is an enormous amount of information on the Japanese American removal and incarceration available online even beyond the resources that Densho provides. This abundance is both a blessing and…
New Encyclopedia Articles, April 19 to May 9
The so-called “Citizen Isolation Centers” in Moab, Utah, and Leupp, Arizona—essentially War Relocation Authority maximum security prisons that held those deemed too dangerous for their run-of-the-mill concentration camps—have always had…
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…
Oddball Camp Stories in Popular Culture: Early Children’s Books
For whatever reason, there has been a flood of children’s and young adult books on various aspects of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in the last decade or so….
Nisei Vue and Scene Collection Added
Nisei Vue and Scene were resettlement era Nisei pictorial magazines based in Chicago that reflected the hopes and dreams of at least a segment of the Nisei population in the…
New Densho Encyclopedia Articles, April 5-18
If one were to make up lists of important or influential Japanese Americans viewed from an ethnic community perspective and from an external, mainstream American perspective, one would likely end…
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…