Arakawa, Paul and Kimura, Susie (9/15/2017)
Paul Arakawa was born in San Diego, California and grew up in town. Susie Kimura was born in Newcastle, California but grew up on a fruit farm in Auburn, a more rural upbringing. In this interview they discuss their adolescence, where they were when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and the process of their forced evacuation. They discuss the losses they experienced as their lives were uprooted, such as how their fathers burned personal materials for the families' safety due to heightened suspicion against people of Japanese descent. Paul Arakawa's family was initially sent to the Santa Anita detention facility, which was a converted race track, before being sent to Poston. Susie Kimura's family was sent to Tule Lake and then transferred to Amache. Both discuss the food and environment of these incarceration camps. They also discuss how they arrived in Chicago, the prejudice they faced, and how they came to know each other.
2017-09-15
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Chikahisa, Frances (9/16/2017)
Frances Chikahisa was born and raised in Los Angeles before being incarcerated at Santa Anita and then Rohwer. In adulthood she pursued a career as a social work psycho-therapist, eventually moving to Chicago and later Seattle to be closer to her daughter's family. In this interview, she discusses her family's time before, during, and after incarceration. She also talks about her experiences of wartime hysteria and racism.
2017-09-16
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Chikaraishi, Ben (10/31/2017)
Community leader Ben Chikaraishi describes his family’s experiences in Rohwer, the WRA, and resettlement in Chicago. He shares his career trajectory as an optometrist, from working in the camp as an assistant, to his work in Chicago while in school, to owning his own practice on Clark and Division. He describes in detail the Japanese American community in that area. Ben also shares his involvement with social organizations like the CNAA and MBT in the Chicago Japanese American community and expresses hope that future generations will carry on Japanese cultural traditions.
2017-10-31
Oral History Interview: <a href="http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/items/show/463" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Matsumoto, Jason (9/10/2019)</a>
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Doi, Yoko (10/21/2017)
Yoko Doi was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1935. The oldest of four children, she recalls an early childhood spent close to Tokyo Bay, rising patriotism in Japan, and harrowing wartime experiences of family and friends. Rather than being evacuated to a temple in Nagano prefecture with other children, Yoko was taken to her grandmother's home in Hokkaido during the war. Meanwhile, her family endured the fire bombing of Tokyo before escaping to live with her paternal relatives in Yamagata prefecture. After the war, Yoko was reunited with her family in Yamagata where she completed high school before attending a Christian university in Tokyo. After being introduced by her landlord, Yoko and her future husband Mikio exchanged letters for three years before he traveled to Japan to propose marriage. Mikio was a nisei who resettled in Chicago after his incarceration at Gila River. Yoko recounts many stories from both her family and her husband's family, including wartime experiences in Japan and in the United States.
2017-10-21
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Fujishima, Kazuko May (8/10/2017)
Kazuko May Fujishima recounts her early life in rural central California, incarceration experiences during World War II, and postwar resettlement in Chicago. A founding member and the first female president of the Midwest Buddhist Temple, she reflects on the early years of the temple and the key individuals who were involved with its establishment.
2017-08-10
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Fujiyoshi, Jane (11/12/2017)
Jane Fujiyoshi is a third generation (Sansei) Japanese American who was born in California and incarcerated at Rohwer as an infant. She discusses her family's experiences leaving Rohwer to farm in Texas, where they lived for 19 years before eventually moving to Chicago. She recalls sharecropper life, the kindness of her Mexican American neighbors, and Japanese American community life in Texas. The Fujiyoshi family relocated to Chicago in the early 1960s, and Jane describes the challenges and excitement of establishing new lives in a major city.
2017-11-12
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Goi , Mitsuo and Kikuno (7/2/2017)
Mitsuo and Kikuno Goi are a Kibei, Nisei couple who met in Chicago after WWII. Both were born in the U.S. but spent time in Japan as children. In this interview, Kikuno shares her experiences losing her parents at a young age, living in Japan with extended family, and in the United States in the foster care system. She recounts being sent back to the U.S. with her siblings just prior to the outbreak of war, and the emotional impact of being incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka. Joined by their son Michael, the Goi's describe the challenges of establishing new lives and raising a familty in Chicago after the war.
2017-07-02
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Hamade, Bill (8/19/2017)
Bill Hamade is a third and fourth generation (Sansei/Yonsei) Japanese Canadian. A retired librarian with 31 years of service in the Toronto Public Library stem, he discusses his lifelong interest in Japanese Canadian history and family history. He describes his paternal and maternal families' immigration histories, their incarceration at Lemon Creek during World War II, and his own experiences growing up in Toronto in the 1950s and 60s. He also describes the difficulties he has encountered in researching these histories both in Canada and in Japan, and his motivations for pursuing this research.
2017-08-19
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Hasegawa, Aylen (10/6/2017)
Aylen Hasegawa was born on February 19th, 1942; the same day that President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 allowing for the incarceration of Japanese Americans. He recalls what he's been told of his mother raising four infants in the Minidoka camp, the family's experiences in Rockford, and his own memories of growing up on Chicago's South Side. He reflects on the values of hard work and responsibility imparted by his parents, and shares his thoughts about the importance of contemporary efforts to preserve and teach about incarceration history.
2017-10-06
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Hasegawa, Gary (7/12/2017)
Gary Hasegawa is a third generation (Sansei) Japanese American, born on a farm in Puyallup, Washington. He was one year old when his family was incarcerated first at the Puyallup fairgrounds and then at Minidoka. He describes experiencing prejudice as a young boy while growing up in Rockford and in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood, and share his thoughts about the long-term impact of incarceration on his father.
2017-07-12
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