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Joe Yasutake: Thoughts from a Nisei after 9/11
Joe Yasutake talks about the loss of civil liberties in the political climate following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr. Yasutake’s full interview is available in the Densho…
Densho Job Openings
Densho is seeking to fill four positions in the coming months. To apply for the job openings listed below, please send your resume (Word, PDF, or Plain text) and a…
Jack Dairiki: Witnessing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Jack Dairiki was born in Sacramento, California, but went to Japan with his father in 1941. He was unable to return to the U.S. because of the onset of World…
Disaster in Japan
The tragic earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 was a shocking event. The scope and scale of the devastation is difficult to believe. All of us at…
Hiroshi Terry Terakawa: Wartime Experiences in Salt Lake City
Recently Densho conducted a series of interviews in partnership with the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. One of the gentlemen interviewed was Hiroshi Terry Terakawa, who was living in…
Aiko Tengan Tokunaga: Celebrations in Okinawa
In this video clip, Aiko Tengan Tokunaga describes community gatherings after World War II in which villagers would create dance costumes and musical instruments using whatever materials they had on…
Gladys Koshio Konishi: Celebrating New Year’s Day in Colorado
To start off 2011, Densho presents a clip from a visual history interview with Gladys Koshio Konishi, who grew up in Fort Lupton, Colorado, where her family ran a produce…
Justice Charles Z. Smith: Reflections on Pearl Harbor
In this month’s Archive Spotlight, Charles Z. Smith, former Washington State Supreme Court Justice, discusses his feelings upon hearing about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Having never personally met a…
RIP William Hohri
[Below is an excerpt from an obituary written by Martha Nakagawa. The photo is from an interview William Hohri did with Densho in 1997. Frank Abe also has a good…
Masamizu Kitajima: Leaving Hawaii for Jerome Concentration Camp
Earlier this year Densho traveled to Hawaii and interviewed Masamizu Kitajima, a Nisei from Ookala, Hawaii. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, his father, a prominent Buddhist minister, was arrested…
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…
Real Friends: Standing by the Japanese Americans
“Everywhere there is community feeling to be mended, vicious legislation to be defeated, many urgent jobs calling for attention from real friends of the real America.”—Letter from Friends of the…
The Manhattan Mosque Controversy through a Japanese American Lens
A recent blog points to a short interview with Scott Kurashige, Associate Professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan. Interviewed for Public Radio International’s “The World,” Kurashige is…
Repealing Birthright Citizenship Wasn’t a Good Idea Back in the Forties Either
On George Mason University’s History News Network (HNN), historian Greg Robinson, author of A Tragedy of Democracy, posted a recent article about lawsuits by nativists during World War II to…
Hello Maggie!: Shig Yabu, Children’s Book Author
As a boy Shig Yabu was taken from his home in San Francisco to the Pomona Assembly Center, California, and the Heart Mountain incarceration camp in Wyoming. While in camp,…
Pioneer Generation: Remembering the Issei
“They were early pioneers. And especially on farms it was very difficult for them.” –Kara Kondo
Kooskia Internment Camp Story
This morning Densho staff was surprised to hear one of our interviewees, Tad Sato, included in a local NPR story on the obscure Kooskia internment camp for Issei men. Over…
Distillations: Exhibition of Art by Four Sansei Women
Now and then people send Densho announcements of exhibitions, films, and books pertaining to our mission of preserving Japanese American history and educating the public about the World War II…
Papa San: Pat Morita’s Daughter Remembers
In the Hyphen online magazine about Asian American culture, we came across a candid blog article that Pat Morita’s daughter Aly wrote about her famous father. She talks about her…
Dad was an Internment Camp Commandant
We came across an article worth sharing: “Reconnecting to Father’s ‘Mistake’ as Fort Missoula Commandant,” in the Missoulian newspaper tells how the daughter of the immigration officer in charge of…
Civil Liberties Notes: Art and Law
Over the weekend, a two-day symposium on civil liberties in Twin Falls, Idaho, was presented by the National Park Service, Friends of Minidoka, and College of Southern Idaho. The symposium…
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…
International Internees: The Family Camp at Crystal City
“The bitterness of the incarceration was there, but they were able to circumvent it somehow and live a pretty decent community family life.” — Mako Nakagawa