Browse Items (24 total)

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…

Sisters Sono and Midori "Dori" Fujii were born and raised in Chicago in the 1950s and 60s. Their father was born in Gifu, Japan and their mother, a nisei, was born in San Jose, California. In this interview, they discuss their mother's experiences…

Ross Harano, a sansei, was born in 1942 at the Fresno Assembly Center in California before being moved with his mother's family to the Jerome incarceration site in Arkansas. His father's family was incarcerated at Poston. Ross shares what he knows…

Barbara (Sunnie) Hikawa is a sansei born in Chicago in 1949, whose family has a rich history and strong roots in the local Japanese American community. In this interview, she is joined by her daughter Chelsea Dolinar-Hikawa, a yonsei hapa who was…

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…

Produced in 1975 as part of the Issei Gerontology Project, this film traces the journey of first generation Japanese immigrants from the West Coast to the incarceration camps to eventual resettlement in Chicago. Compiled from interviews with eleven…

Sachiko Kano, a nisei born in Sacramento, CA in 1935, shares childhood memories of FBI raids and pervasive fear in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. She describes her family dressing in their best clothes to report to the Sacramento Assembly Center,…

Edward Shinichi Koizumi is a shin-issei born in 1950 in Nambu, Yamanashi, Japan. Edward’s maternal grandmother and grandfather were separated during World War II, as Edward’s grandmother was traveling with her children to visit family in Japan at the…

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…

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…