Browse Items (140 total)

Produced in 1975 as part of the Issei Gerontology Project, this film features Issei (first generation immigrants) responding to questions such as "What would make you most happy now?" and "What is the most important thing you would want passed on to…

Ben Takeshita, a nisei, was born in 1930 in Alameda, California and raised in San Mateo, CA with his seven siblings. He describes his father's work prior to World War II, first in farming and later in landscaping and gardening, as well as his own…

Fred John Sasaki, a mixed-race sansei/yonsei born and raised in Chicago, discusses the impact his father's family's incarceration at Heart Mountain and his mother's wartime experiences in Poland have shaped his identity. He reflects on the losses…

James Shikami, a nisei born and raised in Southern California, paints a detailed picture of his family's life before World War II. He recounts his father's entrepreneurial successes and failures and his own busy childhood attending Japanese language…

James Saiki, a nisei born and raised in Hawaii, describes his parents' immigration from Yamaguchi prefecture and his experiences growing up as one of nine siblings on a farm in Wailua, Kauai. Eight years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed, he recalls…

Merry Oya, a nisei born in Montana in 1924, spent her early childhood in the railroad town of Whitefish before moving to Seattle, WA and later to Portland, OR. She shares memories from her childhood, including the early death of her father and the…

Yoko Morita, a nisei born in Canada in 1935, discusses her family's pre-WWII movements between Vancouver, Japan, and Portland and their forced removal to Minidoka after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After incarceration, the family returned to…

Jason Matsumoto is a yonsei born in Chicago to sansei parents who were also born in Chicago. His maternal grandparents were incarcerated at Rohwer, paternal grandmother was incarcerated at Gila River, and paternal grandfather served in the MIS. In…

Edith Maeda, a nisei, was born in El Centro, CA in 1927. In this interview, she shares memories of her life before WWII and her family's experiences as early arrivals at the WRA incarceration site at Poston, AZ. She recalls the pervasive dust in…

Ken Oba, a Chicago-born sansei, shares memories of growing up on the South Side in the Hyde Park and Avalon Park neighborhoods. His parents, born in Los Angeles, CA and Honolulu, HI, were both incarcerated at Poston during WWII before resettling in…