Arakawa, Paul and Kimura, Susie (9/15/2017)

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

video

Takada, Anna

Arakawa, Paul

Kimura, Susie

Tule Lake

Poston

Santa Anita

Amache

San Diego

Newcastle

Auburn

Hyde Park

Lake View

Buddhist Temple of Chicago

University of Chicago Roundtable Radio

0200