1 100 8 https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/edc9744c915ec218f14456462cc402a2.pdf 8d5e51e91333a8d9feeebb1a384569dd PDF Text Text Go For Broke National Education Center Oral History Project Oral History Interview with Nelson Akagi, August 16, 2003, Torrance, California INTERVIEWER: All right. It is August 16th, 2003 and we are here at the Go For Broke Offices in Torrance, California with Nelson Akagi, and Russell Nakaishi is on camera, Mark Mallare is on audio, Steven Wasserman is cataloguing, and I’m Darryl Kunitomi, interviewing. Nelson, how are you today? AKAGI: Oh, just fine, thank you. INTERVIEWER: Very glad you could come in and talk with us, and I’m gonna go through all kinds of history, family stuff and your experiences, and maybe some postwar stuff, so you ready to tell us your story? AKAGI: Ready as I can be! INTERVIEWER: How’s your health these days? AKAGI: Oh, just fine, the doctors really take good care of me. INTERVIEWER: Now, tell me about your family, your mom and your dad, what were their names? AKAGI: My mom’s name was Masano and my dad was Otoemon, but working for a Caucasian farmer, they nicknamed him “Jack.” And there were eight living children in our family. Considered being in the middle, there were three boys and a girl above me and then the three girls, three sisters, below me in a family of eight. INTERVIEWER: It's a big family. Now, what kind of work did your dad do? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 1 of 46 �He had his own nursery business going. He was selling citrus and olive nursery trees [02:00] and at the same time, he worked for a fellow by the name of Kerens and took care of about 100 acres of citrus and olive orchard irrigating, and I’m quite sure I was named after one of the Kerens’ boy, his name was Nelson Kerens. INTERVIEWER: And where was this? AKAGI: In Lindsay, California. INTERVIEWER: For those who don’t know, where is Lindsay in California? AKAGI: It's in the San Joaquin Valley, midway between Fresno and Bakersfield, little off toward the hillside, so that would be east of Highway 99. INTERVIEWER: Now, Lindsay is famous for a certain product, right? AKAGI: Lindsay is famous for the Lindsay Ripe Olives, world-famous olives. INTERVIEWER: So we can assume that you grew up on a farm. AKAGI: I grew up on the farm and that's where all---I got all my muscle. INTERVIEWER: Now, what part of Japan were your folks from? AKAGI: Okayama. And I believe both my parents were from Okayama. INTERVIEWER: Do you know why they came to America? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 2 of 46 �AKAGI: I guess, for getting---my dad’s idea was probably to get rich quick and then go back to Japan and live happily ever after, but it never did happen. I guess he just fell in love with the United States and he stayed; therefore, he had to have a wife also, and I guess the two parents got together in Japan, [04:00] my mother's side parent and my father’s side parent got together and said, well, here’s a wife for my dad. INTERVIEWER: So they were married even before they came to the States? AKAGI: No, I’m quite sure they were married---I don’t know how that marriage went from country to country, but that is a good question whether they were married, what would you say, proxy in Japan, or whether they were actually married here in the United States without even a ceremony, just by applying for a marriage license. But that part I really don’t know, I wasn’t born yet [laughs]. INTERVIEWER: Do you know when they came to the United States? AKAGI: Yes, 19---I believe around 19---my dad had to come here around between 1910 and 1912 because their first son, well, they were twins, were born in 1915. INTERVIEWER: Now, did they go straight to Lindsay when they came to the United States? AKAGI: No, my dad went to San Berdoo, oh, excuse me, San Bernardino area and then he went to Lindsay. INTERVIEWER: Well, tell us about your family life. You had a whole bunch of kids and stuff, what was it like? AKAGI: Oh, I would consider our family being a pretty happy family. We always had food on the table, [06:00] even during the Depression, and then my dad was always the type that wants their kids to, you know, have something so he was a hard worker, therefore, he was called Jack and he made sure that all the four boys got a piece of property and that’s how it was. I had a small piece of ground with a house on it and my twin, I mean, the twins each had a farm, one on the hillside, 40 acres, and then another one This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 3 of 46 �down on the flat which was a 10-acre piece with a home that we built on it. And then my other brother had a pool hall, combination pool hall and a beer parlor in town. I think that was gonna go to him, but evacuation killed all that because we lost everything due to the evacuation. INTERVIEWER: It sounds like your family was landowners and pretty prosperous for early Japanese Americans. AKAGI: It all took hard work. When I was in high school, that 40-acre piece on the hillside, we would have to clear the land, and it was pretty rocky so we’d pick rocks all day long, boulders in fact. And we start from morning till suppertime, and then have supper and then go back out again from 6 o'clock until dark, trying to clear the land [08:00] which we finally completed about a year before evacuation. INTERVIEWER: Well, that all sounds like a lot of hard work, but what about the good times? What sports . . . AKAGI: Well, the good time, like, we were still discriminated not to swim in the local swimming pool, we made sure we got our recreation, so we used to go 15 miles way up into the one of the canyon and go swimming in the river. And we---and since Lindsay was a farming community where there were many Japanese there were always an annual picnic in the spring and, at school, we always participated in sports: football, basketball, track, and tennis, and so we were pretty active all the time. In fact, we even got to take kendo and I think our parents had the right idea because without the kendo we would not--it was more less to get us kids to mind our parents or the elders, and the teacher would drill it into us. And so we were---parents thought that was a good way for us to be on the straight and narrow at all times. INTERVIEWER: Now, at home, did you speak Japanese but also English? AKAGI: [10:00] Both. My---we had to speak Japanese for sure to mother, but my dad was half Japanese and half English, so we had very little Japanese to speak of as we were growing up, although we went to Japanese school; I went for 10 years. But I guess that was so that dad would know where us kids were, so we wouldn’t get into mischief because, oh, there were so many ways us kids could get into mischief, roaming around the countryside all alone. INTERVIEWER: Did you get into some trouble? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 4 of 46 �AKAGI: Oh, yeah, we---my brother and I went---though they say it was the Depression years so some of the fields were being disbanded, and one day there’s a full grown olive orchard and my brother got the bright idea of just building a little fire to see how fast it would burn [laughs], and we almost burnt the 10-acre olive tree because it was just full of dry grass, but we were able to put that fire out before it spread. And that was the worst mischief we got into. And then there used to be a place called Lewis Crick [Creek] that went alongside the road, and one day one of our friends fell into that [12:00] Lewis Crick, when the big spring water runoff would just ride on right up to the top of the crick, and it almost took him down under the culvert, he hung on to the edge of the road and was able to pull himself back out, but we thought, my brother and I thought he was goner. So those are the kinda troubles that, you know, our parents always worried about. That’s why we went to Japanese school so he’d know where we were, and then went to church on Sunday so he would know where we were. And the church would offer us rides and dad wouldn’t have to come and pick us up because he was so busy on the farm. And, like I said, it was a farming community where there were many Japanese families and the---all of us kids used to get together and roam the countryside, going over to chase skunks, and rabbits and whatever, go catch lizards out in the open field. Oh, we had a grand time. INTERVIEWER: How big was Lindsay when you were growing up? AKAGI: I think it had a population of about couple thousand, if not, less, but it was a small town, country town. INTERVIEWER: Now, how far was your home from the actual town? AKAGI: To the edge of town was exactly one mile, I think, and I don’t think it was two miles, but anyway, whatever it was, it was---during the war, after the war started, [14:00] we had a two- or three-mile travel restriction, and the town was little farther than the restricted area, so we couldn't even go into town to shop, so it had to be about two---at least minimum two miles. INTERVIEWER: Now, you said there were a lot of Japanese, but it’s a small town in Central California, what kind of prejudice was there? AKAGI: Oh, we couldn't---did I already mention that we couldn’t go swimming in the community swimming pool and I couldn’t join the Boy Scouts, they would not allow that. And, oh, and then the semi-segregated This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 5 of 46 �school; they were mostly Japanese Americans attending that two-room grade school from first to eighth grade and most of them were Japanese but then there were a few Caucasians, maybe three or four, and then there were about three or four Mexicans, and we could have gone into town and gone to school, but I don’t think they would've allowed that. In fact, even after I started going to high school, which was not segregated in Lindsay, they would not even come after us with a bus. They would go after the Caucasians on a different route, but they knew, by going north of town, they would have to pick up all the Japanese-American school kids, so they didn’t even [16:00] send the bus out for us, but we had to drive into town every day. INTERVIEWER: How did that make you feel to be discriminated against? AKAGI: I didn’t know any better. So I just took it with a grain of salt and let it just happen, thinking that was natural, but we knew we were being discriminated because we did bring up the subject of that bus at one time, we says, "How come they don’t come pick us up when they pick up the Caucasians on the west and the east and the south end of town?" So we knew we were being prejudiced, in fact, those were the day of Depression and there were what we called tramp, nowadays, they're called this homeless people. And there was a railroad station right in Lindsay and we would have to take our---the family would have to take our produce, which was strawberry, to the station to have it trained over to Los Angeles or San Francisco, and all these tramps would be at the station trying to catch a freight train from one place to another and, I don’t know, we used to be the instigator instead of being discriminated. We used to call 'em dirty names, you know, bunch of dirty tramps and things like that. So, in a way, I think we were a bunch of [18:00] rowdy kids, and the tramps, they left us alone. They didn't---they never called us back Jap or anything, so I guess we were the instigators at the same time we were being discriminated. I think we were rowdy because we knew we were discriminated from not getting to join the Boy Scouts and going swimming and, et cetera. INTERVIEWER: A lot of Okies came into the Central Valley during the Depression. Did you see any families like that? AKAGI: Oh, do I remember that. They were---we had, like, we had to walk two miles to our elementary school for eight years because I had to go to the same old school for eight years, first to the eighth grade. And along the way, there was an area full of eucalyptus tree and in the middle of the eucalyptus grove, there was a house that one person lived in and then it turned out, I guess, whether they were from Oklahoma or Missouri, they probably got a permission from that owner to build a little paper cardboard shack. They lived in a shack on the dirt floor---with a dirt floor inside that eucalyptus grove, and there were about three, four of those kids coming to school and they were in coverall, no shoes, and what they This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 6 of 46 �brought for lunch might have been just a peanut butter sandwich, and, oh, they were poor; [20:00] filthy poor because there was no such thing as, what, nowadays, INTERVIEWER: Welfare? AKAGI: No government subsidy or nothing. They were on their own, and they, I guess, they thought they could get farm jobs in California, I think that’s what they mainly came for. And they---I lived in Lindsay, and then there was a town, Tulare, just due west of Lindsay about 17 miles, and there must have been an Oklahoman camp over there to pick peaches, but peaches only---it's a seasonal job, what are they gonna do in between? Starve to death, and that’s what they were doing. And then in Bakersfield, 60 miles from Lindsay, they might have been another camp where they had cornfields and probably---I don’t know about grapes in Bakersfield at that time, and the potato field, so---but they were seasonal also, so there was no jobs for them. The Japanese farmers would not hire them because we had seasonal Japanese Isseis going from town to town doing seasonal work. We already had our own workers, so we couldn’t hire the people from Oklahoma and Missouri. But, oh, yes, I remember them very well. And they were a [22:00] proud bunch, even if they were dirt-poor, and we got along really good with them, in fact, in high school, I think we had a couple of kids coming to high school from Oklahoma and Missouri, but other than that, those are the only times I had contact with them, and where the rest of the kids from Oklahoma and Missouri went to school, I do not know, because there had to be many of them. INTERVIEWER: Now, being an established Japanese-American family with a prosperous farm and a big family and stuff, and then seeing these Caucasians coming into your area who were much poorer and much more destitute and more desperate than you, did you guys feel any sympathy for them? AKAGI: You bet we did. At---in school, when we went to school together, I had compassion for them. I would say, "Wow, boy, they’re sure poor," you know, and we were considered, during the Depression, as selfsupporting, and so we, yes, even as a little kid, we had compassion for them. Let’s see, that was in 1936, 1934, 1935, 1936 and even 1937 up to the war, those---I don’t know when the Dust Bowl in Missouri and Oklahoma [24:00] actually happened, but I never did find why it was called Dust Bowl because I don’t know if they had a drought or whether they had tornado, I really don’t know why it was called the Dust Bowl. But, I guess, in fact, there’s a book out called “Grapes of Wrath” and that’s about the people from Oklahoma and Missouri, and the movie isn't half as bad as what they actually experienced, so, yes, we did have compassion for them, even as kids. 1936, I would have been 16 years old, no, 12---1923 to 1936 will be 13 years old, 12, 13 years old, and here, I already had feelings such as compassion for someone little, what would you say, not as fortunate as us. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 7 of 46 �INTERVIEWER: Let’s talk about the good times. What kind of family meals did you have? AKAGI: Oh, okay. The family meal consisted of fried potatoes and hamburger and gravy, because mom had, in fact, the nearest Caucasians were just one house away at one time, and then maybe about couple of hundred feet away on the other side, so my mother had [26:00] access to visiting the Caucasians, learning how to cook American meals, so we ate pretty good, like, we live right next to, I don’t what highway it was, it was one of the main roads from Lindsay to Exeter, we lived right alongside the highway, and the chickens would run across the road and get run over and mom would go out there pick it up, as often as they die, and get killed and we’d always have chicken dinner whenever one of the chickens got hit by a car, so we had plenty of chickens to eat. And she was a good cook cooking up chicken. And then, I guess, the Caucasian friend taught her how to make gravy, and we had milk gravy with the chicken and then the potato came along with that with rice at every meal. And what else went with the chicken? Chicken and gravy and the rice, oh, and she was a great baker. Oh, she'd make the best pie and cakes. Learned it all from the Caucasian friend, but she never did learn how to speak English. Most of it was sign language [laughs]. INTERVIEWER: Did you guys have homemade tsukemono? AKAGI: We had homemade tsukemono, and at times when we didn't have chicken and hamburger and steak, we had just miso soup, tsukemono [28:00] and rice, that was our meal. Many a time, yeah, that was--would be our lunch when we weren't going to school. When we were going to school, it was always sandwich, bologna sandwich or jam sandwich. And that's a funny part too. And the Mex[icans], like I told you, there were about three Mexicans that were in---always in my class and---or one class below or above, and I'd say, "Hey, I'll trade you my peanut butter and jam sandwich for your tortilla." Oh, they had the best tasting tortilla, like, tortilla with hamburger in it in the Mexican style, or bean tortilla. It was just out of this world. If could have some right now, I'd just turn my back towards Taco Bell or any one of those Mexican places, because it was just outstanding. BEGINNING OF TAPE TWO INTERVIEWER: Since you’ve been talking about the family in Lindsay and everything and you were bilingual with dad, what about how the family felt about Japan? How Japanese-Japanese were you guys? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 8 of 46 �Since my older brothers who are twins and my older sister were sent to Japan, we had, well, when I say “we,” the parents always had communication with their children in Japan, so our tie with Japan was pretty close because, in fact, my daddy used to send, I don’t know if it was a monthly check to grandma to take care of my two brothers and sisters, but, yes, we had pretty close tie to Japan, but not on a political basis. It was just on a family-alone basis. INTERVIEWER: Now, everybody knows Japan was making a lot of aggressive moves in the thirties. Did you guys feel any kind of danger when you heard about that? AKAGI: Only from my brother. My brother went---after he came back to the United States and got to the marrying age, he went back to Japan to look for a wife. And at that time, he told us that he was approached not only once but a few times by officials in Japan saying, “How come you’re not in the army?” [02:00] And so after he finally found his bride-to-be, he hurried back to California and told us that story and that was the only time we ever heard about Japan and we didn’t fear that Japan was gonna be fighting the United States but, you know, we knew that the fighting in China where the Japanese soldiers were being sent was really true. INTERVIEWER: How about . . . AKAGI: Yes? INTERVIEWER: How about the news from Europe, because as Japan was going through Asia, Hitler is going through Europe and getting stronger and stronger. What did you guys feel about that? AKAGI: I still didn’t think Japan would attack the United States, so my feeling towards Japan was, well, they could go ahead and keep on fighting in China, it doesn’t bother me. And then with the fighting in Europe, we had---the family I told you just lived a couple of hundred feet from our place were German immigrants and they were very much worried about Germany attacking Britain and fighting the Russians. He was very astonished at how many planes the Germans were using against Britain, and that’s what I remember the most about that. [04:00] But---so I think I had more fear of Germany than I did of Japan, just because of having a German immigrant as our neighbor. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 9 of 46 �Now, do you remember people talking about the world situation and the fact that the United States might get involved? AKAGI: Yes. When I---the only time, not the only time, but our history teacher even said, “We’re gonna be in war with Japan,” and I says, "Oh, what is he talking about?" you know. I brushed it aside as him just being a lunatic. And the other time that I heard that we might go into war with Japan is when I used to get my hair cut. I used to go to the barbershop and get my hair cut and he would bring up the subject of maybe Japan and United States going to war, and again, I just shrugged it off and said, "What are you talking about Japan and United States going to war?" So INTERVIEWER: Oh, okay. So, let me just . . . AKAGI: So I---yes, go ahead. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Why don’t you go ahead? AKAGI: So, again, I thought maybe we'd be---we’d have to worry more about having to take care of Hitler than taking care of Japan. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Now, here’s the big question. Where were you on December 7th, 1941? AKAGI: Oh, boy, do I ever remember that. I was at California Polytechnic College. [06:00] I was a freshman over there and pursuing an Electrical Engineering degree, and I was just a, what would you say, just a bookworm, so I was studying on Sunday and one of the---in the dormitory---and one of the dormitory mates said, “Hey, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor!” And I says, “Oh, what are you talking about?” You know, Japan, we’re not going to be fighting Japan, I think the news on the radio just false because, you know, 10 years earlier, somebody, one of the news commentators said that we were gonna be invaded by the Martian or something, and so I thought it was just another kind of a trick like that. But that was on a Sunday, and then Monday when I got to class, the professor of the Physics class, said, “Okay, now, I want all of you kids . . .” I was the only Japanese American in the engineering class, and he actually said, “Okay, Nelson’s one of us, don’t give him a bad time,” and that’s exactly what happened. It was just This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 10 of 46 �normal and the other students, they knew I was a hard studier and all that kind of stuff, and so they actually left me alone, in fact, it was just like nothing had happened. INTERVIEWER: Now, after you heard the news in the dorm, [08:00] did you get in touch with the family? AKAGI: I did not get in touch with the family because I didn’t think it was, you know, well, anyway, it didn’t sink into me that we were actually in war with Japan until President Roosevelt said, “We are at war with Japan,” and all that kind of stuff. But I hardly ever left campus, so I did not know what was going on in the outside world, I did not know about the evacuation, I did not know they had signs posted on the buildings and telephone posts and that was the only communication between the government and the Japanese people, to tack those notices on the telephone booth and buildings; and so I did not know about the evacuation until one day---in fact, my roommate was a Japanese American, Kobayashi, from up north, and he went home right after December 7th for Christmas vacation and he never did come back. And I said, "Gee, I wonder why Roy hasn’t come back?" "Maybe he quit school," and I just shrugged it off at that. And I just kept on going to school until around April, and I found out I was the only Japanese American on campus! [10:00] And I said, “Gee, what’s going on? Maybe there is something to this war.” And so finally I called home, and that was the first time I had communication with my family and my brother was---answered the phone and I said, “What’s going on? I’m the only Japanese American left on campus?” And he didn’t explain, or do anything else. He said, “Get on the bus and come home right now!” And so that was in the morning that I called, and so I packed everything in only one suitcase and my drawing board under my arm and the T-square and everything I had for the engineering classes. And my instruction from my brother was to go to the police station and get a travel permit and I was wondering why. And then as I was walking from campus to downtown San Luis Obispo, I start looking at the telephone posts with signs on it, it says “Japanese American,” you know, “evacuate,” and all that kind of stuff, and that was the first time I ever saw those signs. And so I said, “Boy, you know, this is kind of serious.” So I went to the police station and I says, "I want a travel permit to Lindsay, California." They did not give me a travel permit. They made me sign a convict’s paper saying “I will never return to San Luis Obispo.” And so after signing that, I went to the bus station and [12:00] bought a ticket to Tulare, California, which was still 17 miles from Lindsay, and it was in the afternoon by the time I went to the police station and to the bus stop, and that policeman, one policeman, followed me every step I moved from the police station to the bus station, and once I got to the bus station and bought the ticket, it was about four or five o'clock, just, you know, before it was getting to be dark in April. And he made sure that I got on that bus, and so I got on the bus and I was the only passenger, and so for 150 miles or whatever it was from San Luis Obispo to Tulare, I just, you know, sat there thinking, “Oh, boy, I'm going home. Gonna have a real good homecoming welcome.” And so I got into Tulare and I still had to go 17 miles, and by the time I bought the bus ticket I was broke. So there was a taxi driver right there by the bus stop in Tulare, so I said, “Hey, take me to Lindsay and I’ll make sure you get paid,” and he hauled around and says, “Okay, I’ll take you,” and so he took me home to Lindsay, no lights on and it was dark already, nine, ten o'clock, and so I knocked on the door because This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 11 of 46 �before, I could just walk in, the door would be unlocked and I could just walk in, but this time I had to--it was locked, the door was locked, so I had to knock on the door and get my brother up [14:00] and he didn’t even turn the light on, and he says---pulled me through the door and he said, "Come on inside, quickly." And when the taxi driver drove up, they thought it was the FBI to pick up dad, so that’s why no light and no homecoming reception. And so I said, “Hey, Thomas, I need money to pay the bus, I mean, taxi man.” And so he counted out the money, which was about $15, in the dark, and he gave it to me. And all that time I was thinking, “Gee, what’s going on?” And so I paid the taxi driver and he went on his way and I went back in the house. And my brothers didn’t hardly---we didn't hardly speak to each other and everybody was in bed already. Whereas, 9 o'clock, you know, in normal time, everybody’s still up; no light, everybody in bed, and so I says, "Well I’m going to bed, too." And the following day, they told me everything that, you know, dad’s petrified of being picked up by the FBI so he has never left the house since the war started and all that kind of stuff, and that we---that they never turned the light on in the dark anymore. They locked---keep the doors locked, and so that was my homecoming welcome, you know. And so then I started to think, “Gee, this is pretty serious.” And then about two days later, I found out, I was a school photographer, [16:00] and when I graduated high school, the school annual teacher gave me all the negatives to all the pictures I took while I was a photographer for the school for two years. And I found out they were discarded, my album was discarded. I had pictures of Treasure Island where the World’s Fair was, and anything like that, my brothers and dad and mom thought would, you know, make the FBI think I was a spy with all that camera, I mean, pictures and stuff, so they got---they discarded all that while I was in school. And then they got rid of my camera, and they turned in the shotgun, the shortwave radio and, did I mention flashlight? turned the flashlight in. Anything considered contraband they had already turned it in and I says, “Wow, you got rid of my pictures, you got rid of my camera?” you know. I was ready to beat 'em up just on account of that, but it was just for my protection. But that’s the way it was, boy, from December 7th, my family were just petrified, and here I was at college and didn’t know anything about all that thing going on, and I can understand now why Roy, my roommate, the Nisei [18:00] who went back home Christmas, never came back. He probably went home and the folks wouldn’t let him come back because they had to evacuate out of San Jose area. And so I would consider myself breaking the curfew law and the travel restriction just by accident without knowing what was going on. It was a wonder I didn't get picked up by the FBI right in Tulare or by the policeman. INTERVIEWER: Did you feel from the family or neighbors or friends, fear? AKAGI: The only fear we had was with the FBI. The people of Lindsay, it’s a small community, we all knew each other, even the Caucasians, and they probably had, yes, what you call, they had some kind of feeling that maybe something isn't right with the Japanese people so we did not have any communication with them. In fact, father went to Kerens, by that time in 1941, his boss was dead, but then the property went to the boss’ sisters, and so he, my dad, went to get a paycheck and went over to see the sisters for the paycheck, and the first remark they made was, “Hey, aren't you out of your travel limit?” [20:00] This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 12 of 46 �And, yes, dad was. And so, well, he probably had---he probably got paid all right but, anyway, he was what you would call challenged, he was challenged by someone that knew my dad for 40 years, 1912 to 1940, 30 years, knew my dad for 30 years and still they challenged him. So I guess the Caucasians’ mind was gradually starting in to even go against their own friend who were Japanese Americans, or Japanese in my dad’s case. But my school kids, they were all all right. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever hear your dad say something about Japan is making a big mistake? AKAGI: He never talked politics. I don’t know why, but even before the war, never talked politics. He was a workaholic fellow and his mind was on nursery, his mind was on taking care of his boss’ 100 acres of orange and olive trees. He was very limited in political things except to read the Rafu Shimpo and what other Japanese newspaper he was subscribed to. Yes, he probably read about the war that was going on between Japan and China and all that thing, but he never discussed it with us kids. [22:00] INTERVIEWER: Now, when Pearl Harbor happens, you had some siblings stuck in Japan? AKAGI: Had---beg your pardon? INTERVIEWER: Some siblings? Brothers? AKAGI: Oh, sister. Sister still lived in Kobe. In fact, that's another story. Like I said, my brothers came back from Japan and so they were considered Kibeis, and then, since my sister was two years younger than my oldest brothers, she came back two years later to California at Lindsay. And so she came back as a Kibei and lived with the family for, oh, a year or two and then she went back to Japan to get married, because before she left Japan after her high school year---after graduating high school, I guess they wanted, the family wanted her as the wife to their son. And, yes, before the war even started, she was living in Japan, and then when the war started, she was still in Japan. And then once the war started, she couldn't come back to the United States, so she stayed there all during the war years. INTERVIEWER: All right. Now, we're coming up to the evacuation. What evacuation experience did your family have? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 13 of 46 �We were just waiting to go to camp. But during that time, which was in May, [24:00] persons from the U and I Sugar Company from Idaho came over to Lindsay and start recruiting for farmworkers. And my dad, being petrified about going to camp, he actually didn't like the idea of going to camp because he said, "Well, they could say we're gonna go into camp, but they might put us on a ship and ship us to Japan or they can do anything to us," my dad was thinking. And so we said---so our family decided when the U and I Sugar Company man came to recruit for workers we said, "Well, let's go to Idaho." And so in order to keep dad from going---being picked up by the FBI, we went to Idaho. But to go to Idaho, that meant that we would have to leave immediately and it was already June. But we had---there was a government order stating "if you're a farmer, you cannot plow under your field." So we kept on working every day on the farm and as well as getting ready to evacuate. Everybody got one suitcase apiece and we had our belongings in that one suitcase apiece and we were already ready to leave. We got our immunization shots, we got rid of our cars, we got rid of our property, everything. We got rid of everything except what we could carry with us when we had to leave. And [26:00] it came soon enough. But it was in June, it was the day before the WRA said, "We're gonna send out a bus to pick the family up." My brother and I distributed picking boxes, tomato boxes, out in the field so we could pick tomatoes the next day. And that day we distributed boxes out in the field, the WRA said . . . [Coughs.] Excuse me. The WRA said they're gonna send an Army bus out to pick us up. And so the following day, in the morning, we had breakfast, and right after breakfast, eight, nine o'clock, the Army bus came and we all piled onto the bus with two guards with sub---Thompson machine guns guarding us and we went to Visalia. And at Visalia, they put us on a dilapidated old train and proceeded to Fresno where we picked up more voluntary evacuees going to Idaho, but we didn't know where in Idaho. And so here we had breakfast and then it took us up to the following day, 12 o'clock noon or shortly thereafter, to reach Reno. And the reason why I know it was Reno, we had our orders to keep our blinds down. So [28:00] during the night, we were traveling on a freight train with only one car where the evacuees were on, and without heat, without food, without water, from morning the day before till the noon the following day which would be 24 plus 6 is 30 hours. And here, the youngest in the group was my nephew, 7 months old. And so . . . [Mr. Akagi starts to get emotional.] Excuse me. So, all the time we were traveling that 30 hours, there was not a word spoken. Everybody had some kind of a concentration going on in their mind including myself. And then when we finally stopped, well, we got stopped many times on the side railing while they let the priority train go by, and so we were---so by noon we were in Reno. And the reason I found out was I said, "Hey, the train stopped. I'm gonna see where we are." Looked underneath the shade and read a sign, "Reno, the Biggest Little City in the World," I think that's what it read. And I says, "I'll be darn, we're in Reno!" [Laughs.] BEGINNING OF TAPE THREE INTERVIEWER: Nelson, let me ask you, when you guys, as a family, heard about evacuation and camps and all this stuff, what was the feeling? Was it scary? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 14 of 46 �AKAGI: It was. Because, like I said, we thought it was just something to get us away from home and then put us on a ship and send us to Japan. That went through our mind, and also, if we went to camp, we knew we would be confined and dad didn’t want anything to do with that kind of a living. So we were more or less petrified going to camp because of---perhaps, anything could happen to us. INTERVIEWER: Did you hear about any incidents of violence around you? AKAGI: Since there was very little communication by that time with any other Japanese families because of the travel limitation and the curfew, we did not know about the rest of the Japanese families in Lindsay. INTERVIEWER: Now you had a couple more stories about the evacuation? AKAGI: Oh, we ended up being in---stopping in Reno. Well, that was the first stop in Reno, and then just a few minutes later as we rode along the railroad track, they put us on a side track and then we got abandoned by the train at that time, and lo and behold, somebody stuck their head through the door, [02:00] and when he came in, the two Army guards that were riding with us on the train all night and up to Reno, left. And so, here we were, all alone with that mystery man that came in and asked us, “Well, how you guys doing?” And we said, "Well, we’re cold, we’re starving, we don’t have water." We complained even if we thought we’re gonna get sent to camp because of protesting, but it worked. The man said, “Okay, I’ll get you something to eat.” So he was gone for about twenty minutes and came back. Instead of having a good meal for us, he just had enough loaves of bread for the evacuees on that train, and bologna. So we all had only one bologna sandwich apiece. And then, well, naturally, we got the water and the heat, but anyway---and then, like I said, there's no communication with any other families. And---but anyway, it was strange. I guess others were desperate like the Akagi family wanting to leave, voluntarily leave, Lindsay instead of going to camp, because there was a family, father, mother, and two girls. "What could they do on the farm?" I was telling to myself, but I said, "Gosh, they’re sure nice looking girls." [04:00] And I guess my folks found out their name and all that, but since I didn’t do any communicating with the other passengers, I don’t even know to this day what their names were. INTERVIEWER: Before we get into your war experiences, I want to ask one more thing about the family situation when you had to liquidate. Now, you guys had a big loss, right? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 15 of 46 �Oh, big loss. We lost that 40-acre farm on the hillside that we worked so hard developing, and we lost a 10-acre piece down on the flat with a home on it and with tomato crop ready to pick. And by the way, the 40-acre piece on the hillside already had---we planted into citrus orchard, and we had 15,000 nursery trees ready to sell on it, and we didn’t even dig one of that 15,000. And then the pool hall was the only property that we could not sell in time for evacuation. My little piece with a house on it, got rid of that, too. And the pool hall, we rented it out to a Mexican man. But while we were in Idaho, he wrote a letter and said, "You had better sell that pool hall to me because I cannot operate it if it is in a Japanese name." So we had to sell that, too, get rid of that. [06:00] So we lost everything, and we had a Caterpillar and a John Deere tractor, low crop tractor; all of that was gone, and the cars and the pickups. INTERVIEWER: How much did you sell it all for? AKAGI: Oh, the land, the 40-acre piece, and the house and the 10 acres on the flat was $2000 apiece. And then the cars went for $100, $200. Pickup went for a $100 or something like that. So, penny on a dollar. INTERVIEWER: Now, for all those bad things that happened, how come you up and volunteered for the Army? AKAGI: That’s a good question because my brothers were old enough to register in Lindsay, California. And I just turned, let's see, 19, I just turned 19 in June of 1940, let's see, '42, 1943 I would have been 20 years. But anyway, I didn’t have to register in Lindsay. When I got into Idaho, I had to register. By the way, from Reno we went to Salt Lake City---Ogden and stopped in Salt---Ogden, and that’s the first time we ever got off. And then we went to Idaho Falls in Idaho. We finally found out our destination. And then when we were in Idaho Falls---now, what was the question? INTERVIEWER: Oh, why you volunteered. [08:00] AKAGI: Oh, while---okay. While we were---while we got---we ended our trip in Idaho Falls, and then we got separated. All the families, different families, got separated. Some went to this farm and that farm, etc., and we ended up in Parker. And while I was in Parker, I was old enough to register, so I went to St. Anthony, which was seven miles away and registered. And I was the only one out of the family that registered in St. Anthony at Idaho. The rest of the brothers’ record were in Lindsay, California. So, when I was, oh, after I registered, then the registrar sent me a nasty letter saying, “How come there are four brothers in your family and not a single one in the service?” What---dumb fool, we were classified 4-C and couldn’t get drafted. And we---there was no such thing as volunteering at that time. We couldn’t This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 16 of 46 �volunteer. But that opportunity to volunteer came shortly after that nasty letter. And so, here was, maybe February, when Roosevelt said they were gonna form a Nisei fighting unit. I don’t think they ever mentioned 4-4-2, they just said a Nisei fighting unit. [10:00] And I start piecing things together. They’re gonna have a Nisei fighting unit that we can volunteer into, and I got a nasty letter from the registrar, and then in the meantime, in February, a fellow from the WRA came over to where I was sorting spuds, and he says, “Nelson, I want to talk to you, come on outside with me.” And he presented me with the loyalty questionnaire and I says, "Okay, I’ll answer the questions." I put yes, yes, yes, you know, all the way down the line until it came to the two controversial questions. One said that, “Would you fight for the United States and forbear your allegiance to Japan?” and I said, "My gosh, they’re tricking me to take me to camp." And so I said, "I can’t sign those two questions. It'll get me into trouble," I said. And without any explanations, he says, “Well, I got to take you into camp then.” And then I reluctantly signed yes on those two questions that I had question on. And so that saved me from going to camp. But that experience also---now I had three experience---made me all the more wanting to volunteer. And so I just walked, and after that experience, by that time, President Roosevelt said, yes, we can volunteer, so I walked [12:00] seven miles from Parker to St. Anthony in the snow to volunteer. And those days, gas was rationed, so all the seven miles I walked on the road, not a single car passed by. But that was the main road. And then coming---after I volunteered, I walked on the side road, because I says, "I’m gonna take a shortcut home." So I walked back seven miles again in the snow, and only one car passed by, but he didn’t pick me up. He didn’t stop for me. And he turned out to be my neighbor, too. And so I walked 14 miles to volunteer for the service. And that was in February, I guess, March. And it wasn’t until May that they said, “Okay, we’re gonna send you to Salt Lake City to get sworn in.” Yes. INTERVIEWER: Now you had a problem with those two questions because, to graduate from the eighth grade . . . AKAGI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: . . . you had to study a certain document. AKAGI: Yes. What document was . . . AKAGI: The Constitution. I had, yes, in order to graduate grade school, which was up to eighth grade, in order to graduate eighth grade, I had to pass the Constitution test. During the eighth grade, for history, we This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 17 of 46 �had to take---we had to learn or study the Constitution of the United States: the Preamble, Bill of Rights, the whole works; the whole nine yards. And so, I knew the Constitution [14:00] forward and backward. I knew all the officers: Secretary of the Navy, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, name it; I knew every office in the United States. That’s how complete our Constitution class was. And so I knew my rights. And so even with all the situation in not getting to, you know, to answer that question about the loyalty, I said, "You know, this is dead wrong what they’re doing to me." And---but I had to go along with them because I didn’t want to go to camp. It’s either answer the questionnaire, yes, or go to camp. And I---no way was I going to let that guy take me. INTERVIEWER: What was your Army serial number? AKAGI: 3-9-9-1-4-5-1-5. And that---I’ll tell you a story about that number, too. I found out after I was in Camp Shelby, if I was a volunteer, I should not have had a 399 prefix number. I should have had a volunteer number, and I don’t know what that volunteer number is. So we were just discriminated all along. INTERVIEWER: Well, what did your family think when they heard that you were volunteering? AKAGI: My sendoff message from my dad was shika---what is that Japanese . . .? INTERVIEWER: Shikata ga nai? [16:00] AKAGI: No. Oh, shikkari shite kudasai or something like that. Yeah. He was not against me going to war. INTERVIEWER: What’s the translation of that phrase? AKAGI: Be strong, I guess, yeah. Yeah, he didn’t say don’t bring shame to the family, but he said, “Be strong!” INTERVIEWER: What did you feel when he said that? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 18 of 46 �I said, "Wow, did that come out of my dad’s mouth?" I thought maybe he would say, “Why you dumb fool. After all the way the United States treated you." INTERVIEWER: Did you have a big sendoff party? AKAGI: None at all. In fact, my brother and sisters don’t even know the day I left. Yeah. No jubilation. No party. No nothing. INTERVIEWER: So, where did you go first for basic? AKAGI: For basic training was Camp Shelby. But from St. Anthony, Idaho, which was a county seat, they put me on a bus as a special volunteer. They had right on the induction paper, “volunteer,” and the special meant that I was to go to Salt Lake City to be inducted. So I went to Salt Lake City to be inducted, and then that was downtown on Motor Avenue, and then from there, [18:00] where I got inducted and received my shots and my uniform, and from there, they took me up to Fort Douglas. And while I was in Fort Douglas, like I, like, oh, just a few minutes after being assigned to a barrack, out of 20 inductees, I was the only Japanese American, and while I was there, one of the inductees stood up and said, “What’s this Jap doing in our Army?” And boy, that took me by shock, and I looked him on and said, "Gee, how many of these guys are gonna come beat me up?" But before anybody could even put a finger on me, the QC, or whatever they were called, and whether he was a corporal or sergeant, came running out of his little cubbyhole in the corner of the barrack and ran straight over to that inductee and said, “Now, listen here,” and I don’t know what the conversation was, but everything quieted down. And the following day, everything was fine after that, including that night. Nobody snuck up on me and beat me up. And so the next day after breakfast, I went back to the barrack, and there was not another soul in there. They were all shipped out. I don’t know where, but I think that incid[ent], little incident said, hey, it’s kind of dangerous to have me in with the Caucasians. [20:00] So I was left alone in that barracks from the 21st of May when I was inducted, up to the day I was sent to Camp Shelby, and that was maybe ten days after. So for ten days I had the whole barrack to myself. And the only time I left the barrack was when I went to eat. And then on about the 9th day, I got courage enough to leave the barrack and roam around Camp Shelby. And then, in the process, I ran across another barrack full of Japanese-American volunteers from camp, and I introduced myself and that was about all it went. I went back to camp and the following day, they says, "Nelson, you are to report to Camp Shelby with two others from that other barrack full of Japanese Americans." So, three of us got shipped out of Fort Douglas and was sent to Camp Shelby, and that’s where I took my basic training. And the funny thing about that Camp Shelby where the 442nd was training were all Japanese Americans who were--whether they were your hometown friends or whether your brother or your relative, it didn’t matter. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 19 of 46 �We were all there. So, the first---after arriving in Camp Shelby, I got off the train and was put in formation. By that time, I guess, [22:00] from other parts of the country, other volunteers arrived in Camp Shelby same time I did, so there was about, maybe, ten of us being marched to be assigned to different units. And then as we were being marched, I noticed a hometown friend. I looked over like that and without even asking permission from the sergeant if I could go talk to him, I just ran out of the rank and ran over to my friend and said, "Hi, Yosh!" And here, the old sergeant with his mouth dropped wide open looking at me, he didn’t say a word. He didn’t reprimand me or anything. He just let me go and talk to my friend, and then I just nonchalantly walked back and got into rank and got marched. And that’s how I got into my field artillery assignment. And the rest of the guys, they got marched over to the infantry. So I was---I lucked out. But basic training, I took basic training at Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. INTERVIEWER: What was it like being a California boy and going to the Deep South for the first time? AKAGI: It was a shock when I went to Hattiesburg on a pass. But the climate, I had to get used to it because it was high humidity in Mississippi; and in the winter, it was so unbearably cold because of the high humidity, it just soaked right through your clothing. And in the summer, it was so hot and with the humidity so high, I could take a shower now, walk out, dry myself, walk out, and before I got to my hut, in two minutes, [24:00] I was dripping wet again. And that was a little different from California. And then when I went to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, I read on the bathroom doors: White, black. Drinking fountain: White, black. That kind of shocked me. And then when it got time to go back to Camp Shelby from Hattiesburg, I got on the bus and everything was fine, nice and quiet. We just sat there in the bus all loaded up for about 15 minutes, and then one of the soldiers said, “Hey, driver, let’s get going!” And the driver said, “I will not move this bus until that "N" moves back in the back seat.” And this black soldier was sitting with the Caucasians up front. And the---so the soldier said, “You get this bus rolling!” And he says, “I’m not moving until that black soldier move into the back seat.” And it went back and forth for five minutes. I thought we were gonna get in a fight. But that driver won. We fin[ally]---the soldiers finally gave in and let the black soldier go in the back to sit. And then we start rolling out of Hattiesburg for Camp Shelby. But all of that, boy, it really shocked me. I didn't know discrimination against the black was so [26:00] bad over there. That was just a turnaround from California; they didn't have that much discrimination against a black in California. INTERVIEWER: On that bus, where were you guys sitting, in the white area or the colored area? AKAGI: We were considered whites. In fact, the---when the 4-4-2 boys first went into town, they said, "Gee, I wonder where---which bathroom door to go through?" Which drinking fountain to drink out of. We This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 20 of 46 �were confused at first. So, the word got around to the officers that we are confused on which side to go in, white or black. And the officer said, "You guys go in the white." So we were considered whites. But there was still discrimination from the white soldiers with the 4-4-2 boys because of them still calling us "Japs" and all that kind of stuff. They still didn't know of our fighting power. And so, boy, they was always a beat up---the 4-4-2 boys made sure there was enough 4-4-2 boys to beat up the Caucasian soldiers that called us a "Jap." And, boy, we beat up a lot 'em. In fact, the following morning after a pass, the captain would say, "Okay, which of you guys beat up this white soldier last night?" Nobody said, "I did," and there was not a single prosecution [28:00] that I know of. But there was fight going on between the 4-4-2 boys and the 69th Division, that Caucasian outfit, that was there. Oh, everyday, every night, fight, fight, fight. INTERVIEWER: You get in some fisticuffs yourself? AKAGI: No, I was the one that never went downtown, only that once or twice. And my sergeant treated me to a dinner and I bought one pair of sock with my own money, 10 cents or 15 cents, and that was my trip to Hattiesburg. Rest of the time, I never got into trouble. I always stayed around the area. And the only place was, if I did go anywhere, was to the PX, and there were fights at the PX. But when I went there, everything was normal, you know. So, I never did get into a fight, but I think I got closer to getting into a fight with the Hawaiian boys than with the Caucasians. Yeah. BEGINNING OF TAPE FOUR INTERVIEWER: Okay, Nelson, now, what was it like for a California boy from a small town, meeting these Nisei from different parts of the United States? AKAGI: That didn’t bother me any except that the boys from Hawaii were different, and I had to be real careful not to upset them because I knew they would probably want to pick a fight with me. And I kind of remedied that by becoming friends with them and then I even challenged one of the Hawaii boys in my own section, “Hey, I’ll go a round boxing with you,” and so we put our boxing gloves on and just sparred around and, you know, everybody watching you, and they said, “Wow, stay away from Nelson, he’ll hit you!” And so I didn’t have any trouble that way but, yes, with the boys from the stateside, it was no different, but I got along with everybody. INTERVIEWER: What did they sound like when they talked? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 21 of 46 �AKAGI: Pidgin English. “Us stay go, you stay here.” [Laughs.] So it was quite difficult at times to understand them, but it was just natural to them so it was---comes out very fluently for them. INTERVIEWER: Now, tell me about training and how hard you trained. AKAGI: The field artillery wasn’t training. Basic training wasn’t quite as strenuous [02:00] as the infantry, but we still went on our forced marches, and rifle range, the whole nine yards, but I was in real good shape. I was in top shape, fresh off the farm, bucking 100-pound sack of potato everyday until the day I joined the service, so I was all toughened up for that. In fact, I could---I was in the machine---that was my first assignment, I was in the machine gun section and the .50-caliber machine gun weighed, oh, 30, 40 pounds with a barrel and the receiver and the tripod was another 15, 20 pounds, and I could pick up the 30, 40 pounds of barrel and the receiver without even dismantling it, carry it like a rifle and run full speed and jump on the weapons carrier. I can’t do that now but I sure did it while I was in the service. INTERVIEWER: Now, the forced marches you guys took, how long were they and what kind of stuff were you carrying? AKAGI: It was various lengths, but I think the longest---I don’t know if it was 10 or 20 miles, so it was nothing for me to walk that far, though. But I guess there were others that got pretty tired. In fact, the old story goes that---I don’t remember the incident because I didn’t think we ever went on a forced march in the rain, but [04:00] I think maybe there was a time we went when it started raining when we were on forced march and some of the boys they just wanted to have a light load so they would fill their backpacks full of newspaper so that they wouldn’t have to carry so much. And when it came to wanting to wear a raincoat because it started raining, they just had newspapers in the backpack. So, you know, I guess it was kinda tough on others to go on those forced marches but, to me, it was nothing. INTERVIEWER: Now, at this point when you were training, the war is under way, was the 100th already in Italy? AKAGI: Yes. While we were training in 1943, the 100th was also brought to Camp Shelby right before they were shipped out. They were training in Camp Shelby also. And then some time in 1943, they got shipped overseas. It probably was June, around June or July, when they went overseas in ’43, and they proved themselves from 1943 till we went in 1944 in May, that they were extra good fighters. And so they really made a name for themselves but with heavy casualty. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 22 of 46 �INTERVIEWER: [06:00] What kind of reports, what kind of word was being passed around the base about the 100th? AKAGI: Purple Heart Division and a very good outfit. All the 34th, I think they were attached to the 34th Division because of their superior fighting power; they were looked up on by Caucasian outfit, the 34th Division, and really thought highly of. INTERVIEWER: Now, you knew eventually you’d probably be going over, were you scared? AKAGI: No, you never get scared until the shells start flying around you. That’s just the way it was. We were always joking around and not thinking of getting killed or anything. So, well, we would sing songs and things like that. We weren’t scared just because we were, you know, going to war. INTERVIEWER: Remember any of the songs that were your favorites? AKAGI: I guess one of them was "Over There." "Over There" and something like, was there a song about don’t worry or something? But . . . INTERVIEWER: "Don’t Fence Me In?" AKAGI: Yeah, "Don’t Fence Me In." Right, that was popular while we were in the service. There were a few songs that I’ve [08:00] already forgotten, what we sang. INTERVIEWER: So when did you get word that you were shipping out? AKAGI: In May of 1944, or at least we were preparing as early as April. So, we didn’t know exactly but everything just fell in place; get prepared and then get shipped to the embarkation point, and so we weren’t told ahead of time, we just did what we were told. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 23 of 46 �INTERVIEWER: So you originally started with a heavy machine gun squad, but then you shifted to artillery? AKAGI: Heavy machine gun platoon or whatever you want to call it, in the field artillery. We---machine gunners were used to protect the howitzers. We had four howitzers to a battery, and there were three batteries, and so there were, I think, four machine guns; one placed on the right flank, one on the left flank, one probably out in the front, and one back of the guns, and in case of any German infiltration, we were the first to have to shoot. We were just defending the field artillery pieces, the howitzers. INTERVIEWER: And what method of transport did you have going over? What kind of ship? AKAGI: [10:00] Oh, it was a Liberty ship, and any little wave would make that boat rock. In fact, at times, when the sea was so rough, the ship just loaded to the gill would have to go “chug-chug-chug-chug-chug” up one wave, and then as soon as it got on top of the wave, the propeller would come out of the water and you go, “brrrr” and then go down the other side of the wave and then up another one, “chug-chug-chugchug,” and then “brrrr,” downwards. It was like that for, maybe, all night when the sea was rough. But I never got seasick. Others did. Oh, they got dreadfully sick. INTERVIEWER: And where did you make landing? AKAGI: We landed in Bari, Italy, which is on the Greece side of the boot. Greece was just across the water, and when we landed in Bari, it was just full of sunken ships. We were told that the Germans sent bombers over, fighters with bombs, from Greece over to Bari to bomb the port. And so that was our first sight of war. And then from Bari, we got on a 40 and 8" boxcar and shipped clear across the boot over toward the Naples side. I think it was below Anzio that we ended up with the training, then we marched through Anzio, [12:00] it was already occupied by the Allied forces so we just walked through Anzio and then up toward Rome, and then finally caught up with the 100th Battalion just on the other side of Rome. And they---I can still remember the first day of combat for me, it was the day before my birthday. My birthday was on June 27th and we went into battle, I set up my first machine gun in combat on June 26th other side of Rome. INTERVIEWER: So, you didn’t get to spend much time seeing Rome? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 24 of 46 �AKAGI: When we went through Rome, no, we did not get to see Rome, but we always got breaks after one battle or something like that, and then we'd get passes into Rome. So I did go to Rome and I really enjoyed that pass 'cause I got to see the Colosseum and all the ruins over there, and the---what I---well I---what I mean by ruins, you know, all the biblical time ruins, not by bombing because Rome was spared. I don’t think a single bomb or single artillery shell or fighting went through Rome, it was a city that was spared. INTERVIEWER: Let me go back to your first combat experience. Can you tell us what happened on that day? What sort of action it was? AKAGI: Oh, nothing---it wasn’t any more than what happened during basic training time, you know, I have to dig my foxhole and place my [14:00] machine gun and so forth. But the guns were going off, the field artillery pieces were going off all day long, yes. And I think it was maybe a week after we were there, we got used to wandering around so we’d wander around and then come upon a dead soldier. And it's just like in a movie: they would have a bayonet on the rifle, on the soldier’s rifle, that got killed, and stuck in the ground with a tarp over the dead body. And I don’t know, don’t recall, if there was a helmet on top of the rifle, but I don’t think so, but just like in the movie. And then we'd get courage enough to look underneath the tarp and see the Nisei soldier dead. Yeah, that was my first experience with witnessing a dead Nisei soldier, and that was about a week after I went into combat. INTERVIEWER: What did that feel like looking at another buddhahead like that? AKAGI: Oh, it was pretty sorrowful feeling, yeah. And then at the same time, we---I---with me, especially, I don’t know about the others, we were being discriminated so much even after I joined the service I was called a "Jap" and I thought I was gonna get beat up, so all during the service, I was really mad, angry with the Caucasians, and so it was built up in my body, “Oh, I hate them! I hate them! I hate them!” And then when I see something like that, I say, “What am I doing here?” [16:00] you know, and wondering if this was all in vain. Even that dead soldier, did he die in vain? [Mr. Akagi becomes emotional.] That was my feeling. And so, not only having sorrow, I also had, you know, it built in me: hate, hate, hate, fight, fight, fight. And so I didn’t have time to get scared. Only time I got scared was when the shells start coming in and I got shelled with a mortar shell five feet behind me. I’ve been shelled by German field artillery, time burst over my head, I tripped a booby trap, and things like that, and came out without a scratch. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 25 of 46 �You never got wounded? AKAGI: Not even one scratch. I got malaria, little old mosquito bit me and I got sent to the field hospital for one week to recuperate. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember the first time you saw a dead German soldier? AKAGI: Yes, it was 100 feet or 200 feet away in the hot summer months, the human body decays quickly. About 100 yards away, 300 feet away, the wind just hit it just right so that we would get all that smell, and by [18:00] one day in the hot sun, the German soldiers was all bloated like a cow, and smells, stink, and that’s the first time I saw a dead German soldier. INTERVIEWER: Now, what action did you see following that? AKAGI: Oh, it was just the same old thing, protect the---dig in, set my machine gun, protect the unit from any German infiltration day after day, night after night, same old thing, and then we just keep advancing three, four miles each time we move. And one thing that I'll bring up is, all during that time we were in battle, I can’t remember taking a bath no more than three times although I know I must have. But any chance we would get I would take a bath and that was few and far between. We would---I would get a bucketful of water and get my helmet, pour a little bit of water and then sponge bath myself, and that was my bath. And then when we were on rest---and during rest period, then they would truck us to a shower unit and we’d have to pull the lanyard, soak ourself with water, and then turn it off, and then soap ourself, and then pull the lanyard for water to rinse us off by the number, and then that was our shower and we go to---and then go get dressed; and that [20:00] I experienced that only once but---and then the other time while we were in one position there was a---just a little crick with a little bit of water trickling down but every place there was a hole, there was puddle of water, so, boy, I saw that water there and I just stripped down. Everybody else, you know, firing their guns and everything and here I was stark, raving naked just bathing right down in the open in the little old stream taking a bath, boy, you know, it's things like that---it was a luxury. Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever get a chance to watch the Nisei guys working their howitzers? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 26 of 46 �No. In fact, I had to flush out a log cabin one time and I couldn’t do it, too scared. Things like---times like that is---you get scared. I looked inside and I couldn't see any movement, but I never did open the door to go inside. And the captain knew it, he was the one that told me to flush the cabin out. And--because, oh, changing the story a little, but I was taking out the machine gun and made a scout, so I was the scout half of the time I was overseas. And so I was always traveling with an officer up on the front line with the infantry. And so---and even to reconnoiter which was my---one of the job. [22:00] For a new position, as we advanced, we’d have to go look for a place to place our guns and we’d have to clear it of mines and any German stragglers. So we came upon a log cabin one time at one of those positions that we were looking for and the captain said, “Whoops, Nelson, duck!” and so we squatted down and I says, “What’s going on?” He said, “Look over there there’s a cabin I want you to flush it out.” So, we were supposed to have been in a party of about four or five; where the other three guys were, I don’t know. But anyway, the captain and I were the only one there and he said, “I’ll cover you with my .45” so, he stayed back about 100 feet from the cabin and I walked up to it and looked inside and couldn’t see any movement so I said, “Captain, there’s nobody here,” and I walked back. And he knew better, that I didn’t---did not flush the rooms out, and so he was a smart captain. When I said, “All's clear,” he had doubt in his mind and we never did move our own troop in there thinking it was a trap. Soon as we move our troop in there, then the Germans would open up, so we never did go over there. But those times I did get scared. But then, he gave men order to do it alone when I was supposed to have two other guys to help me, but where they were, I don't know. INTERVIEWER: This captain was a hakujin? AKAGI: Yes. Captain Ratcliffe. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember his first name? AKAGI: Oh, boy! [24:00] I just called him Captain Ratcliffe. I know his first name as well as mine while we were in service, but right now I've forgotten, but he was a good ol' captain. He was a good man, very congenial to the soldiers. He had to be in order to get cooperation. INTERVIEWER: It seems that some of the hakujin officers were good and some were bad. Did you hear about any bad ones? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 27 of 46 �I think our---if he was a executive officer, he was a lieutenant. And he was always trying to gig us. Yeah, we had to do sentry duty every night, every day, and we'd turn---take turns doing sentry duty and guard duty. And if he found us asleep, he would actually gig us, and that's the kinda guy he was. He was the only lieutenant in Charlie Battery that was like that. All the rest of the officers were good. But that one particular lieutenant always wanted to get us into trouble some way or another, yeah. INTERVIEWER: You don't remember his name, huh? AKAGI: Eyerly, Lieutenant Roger Eyerly. But he gave me one commendation and one verbal remark that made me think he wasn't, actually, [26:00] he was my friend, put it that way. Because he once told me, "Nelson, I like the way you guard every night." And I'm the guilty person that used to fall asleep on guard, so how did he know that I was a good guard? Because I could remember being on guard, you know, squatting down with the rifle across my lap, and be so tired and sleepy, you know, because sometimes we go 24 hours without sleep except for 10 minutes wink or something like that. And I squatted down, laid my rifle across my lap and I says, "Oh, I'm so tired, I think I'll just rest just a few seconds." So I went back, rolled on the ground. I was gone. I was fast asleep, and then when I woke up, I don't know how many hours later, I says, "Oh, my gosh, I slept on guard!" But I never did hear about that from Lieutenant Roger Eyerly, so I was just lucky. Whenever he checked on me, I was always awake. But when I was asleep, he never come around, [laughs] came around. So I lucked out, but another machine gunner, he got caught sleeping and they reprimanded him and they kept hounding him all the time. And, boy, you know, when you're on guard all night, you could see things that aren't there. And so, that guy finally went cuckoo, yeah. He came back a vegetable, yeah. INTERVIEWER: Did you see much battle fatigue amongst the Nisei? [28:00] AKAGI: I think everybody got battle fatigue, literally, yeah. Yeah, ornery, tired, sleepy. Yeah, and it's an unbearable tiredness, yeah. INTERVIEWER: I've heard of guys sleeping while they're actually marching. AKAGI: Oh, I've heard that too. I don't think I did that, but I did sleep on my guard duty. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 28 of 46 �What was the funniest place you ever saw guys sleeping, like . . . AKAGI: Oh, like, sleeping in the rain? The funniest experience I had of watching somebody sleeping was, we always had aircraft protection, and they were Caucasian units with machine guns and Bofors, 28mm Bofors, to shoot plane down with. And one of the machine gunner in the Caucasian outfit, his mother passed away, so he gotta furlough to go home. And he was so happy that it was raining cats and dogs last night, and here we were in our raincoat under shelter, and this guy actually slept out on the ground in that rain. And he was so happy. That's one thing I remember, which was unusual for a soldier. BEGINNING OF TAPE FIVE INTERVIEWER: Okay, Nelson, let’s move along, let’s go up toward Central and Northern Europe. You participated in the campaigns around Bruyeres and Biffontaine? AKAGI: Yes, from the Italian campaign we went as far as the Arno River and then from there we got pulled back in September, I guess, of 1944 and got shipped over to Southern France. We landed in Marseilles, and since the port---since the ship couldn't go into the port we had to go over the side of the ship that we were on, down a net, and onto a landing craft, and that was a dangerous situation because there was enough wave in the bay that the landing craft would go up 5 to 10 feet one time and then down 10 feet the next time at the same time slamming up against the ship, so we thought we’d lose some men right there. And---but everybody got on the landing craft and then we proceeded on to the shore then landed in Marseilles, and then from Marseilles, we went all the way up north to around Epinal, I believe, and then into the Vosges Forest. And our first assignment was to liberate Bruyeres, [02:00] and by that time in October it was starting in to get cold, so all our fighting was done in the cold. I can remember snow being on the ground and a bomber came over our position, so I ran and all of a sudden I saw tracer bullet right in front of my face, and I said, “Oh, I’m dead,” and I was running full force down a little slope with about an inch or two of snow and I just dove like I was a football player going to tackle somebody and I hit my bottom and just slid for about 10 feet, and I guess to everybody else it was comical but, to me, it was frightening because all that tracer bullet was firing in front of my face. And it turned out that the anti-aircraft person had accidentally stepped on the firing button as he jumped on the machine gun to fire at the German bomber and---but it was---it turned out that what looked like right in front of me was at least 100 feet away. And by that time---and the gun was on a level position that’s how---that's the position they are in when they’re not firing. And so, that experience, you know, [04:00] see the bombers flying tree height you could see the German pilot, you know, going full speed on the plane going 200, 240 miles per hour. And all it was “brrrrrring,” you know, in one second it’s gone; one second he's here and one second he's gone. But we could still see the pilot and the copilot and the machine This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 29 of 46 �gunner that close, you could just about see the black of their eye. And then from there, that was more or less a close call, if the bomber knew we were there he could have blasted us out right there, and then by that time I was becoming to be a scout, so I went up with the forward observer party, and the day I went up, oh, I’m getting ahead of myself, that was when we rescued the Lost Battalion. During the Bruyeres time, I didn’t go up the front not even one time. I was always kept in the back doing some other job like on the reconnaissance deal, and so the only time I went up the front with the infantry was right after the Lost Battalion. Lieutenant Ito, Sergeant Minaga, and I made one forward observer team and we went up to help the infantry and we knocked out a machine gun---one machine gun that day. And if they are only about 300 feet---100 yards away from me you could see every move they made [06:00] and if they . . . Go ahead. INTERVIEWER: Since most of us are citizens, civilians, rather, when the vets tell us about knocking out a machine gun or taking out a sniper, or capturing somebody, we just hear the factual recounting of the story, but when you say you knocked out this machine gun with two other guys, can you take us step by step through what you do, how do you approach it? AKAGI: Oh, okay. First of all, after we find the enemy machine gun position, we ask for fire mission, and they'll--when the shell is more or less scarce, they'll ask us, you know, if it’s priority or not, and during that Lost Battalion time it was all always priority firing. And so we’d ask for, oh, and we'd ask for---we’d give our--give the coordinate of the machine gun and then it would be relayed back to the headquarters. They called it Command, well, the Fire Direction Center, and then they calculate what the gun should be and the traverse. So, after we give the information to headquarters then the headquarters called the gun position and tell them [08:00] “battery adjust,” and, well, they say “fire mission” first and then “battery adjust” and say left so many feet elevation, so many mils, and then they fire. We’ll ask for one round and then we’d look for the blast because we know exactly how long it takes for the shell to hit the target. And so, once we see the shell here and the machine gun is here, hundred off, we’d say, if the gun was---a shell was to the left of the gun we’d say, "Right, 100," so that that'd be 100 yards over, and then "Short, 50," and so they'd elevate the gun little more, shift the gun, and then we’d ask for one round again. And then if it’s on target then we say, “Fire for effect.” Up to now we’ve only had one round coming at a time to see where it’s gonna land, and then if it’s on target, then we ask for “battery round,” you know, “fire for effect,” and then all four guns would open up and blast out the machine gun. And if we can’t get it the first shot with that four volleys, then we ask for another four rounds, and we continue that until we knock it out. INTERVIEWER: How accurate is artillery when you do that? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 30 of 46 �Very accurate. We could drop it right into a foxhole. [10:00] INTERVIEWER: And how far away would the cannon be? AKAGI: Two miles back, three miles back, depending on the position. When we were in the Vosges, we were, maybe, two miles back. INTERVIEWER: So, how do you get to this position to spot this machine gun nest? Are you walking through the forest? Are you crawling? AKAGI: Yes, we crawl, we don’t walk. We---if we can see them and they can see us too. So we have to crawl everywhere, under---behind bushes or behind a little rock or behind a knoll, just as long as we don’t expose ourself. And then once we find a good place to observe the valley, if it’s a valley, then we just stayed put there, and then just survey the ground unless the infantry is advancing and they get pinned down, and then the infantry will ask for artillery support. And so, there were---once we hit one position, even if the infantry is doing something else, we'll stay put there and observe to see if we could find the target ourself, but if not, we’ll just keep on advancing with the infantry until they get pinned down and then we give 'em artillery support. INTERVIEWER: When you’re doing that kind of work, going through the forest and stuff, it probably takes somebody who’s kind of athletic. Do you think your background growing up in the country helped you? AKAGI: For the stamina, definitely. You still had to have stamina [12:00] to get up and down those hills. And you’re always packing something. You're packing your own food and rifle, ammunition, radio, battery, name it, you're always packing something. INTERVIEWER: What kind of weapon did you carry? AKAGI: Mine was just a carbine, carbine and a binocular and my backpack. ‘Cause I had my bedding in the backpack and my food and water in the canteen. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 31 of 46 �INTERVIEWER: So, when you guys were separated from your unit, you were out there intending to stay overnight? AKAGI: We could stay overnight, yes, exactly. We were on our own. INTERVIEWER: Now, I’d been to those parts of France and I was surprised that it looks a lot like California in places, did you feel that? AKAGI: In Italy, yes. Dry, brown, hot, but in France where we fought in the Vosges it was like being in the forest up Sequoia, you know, only, instead of being redwoods like in Sequoia, it was all fir trees and---I’m quite sure they were fir, not pine trees, in the Vosges in France. INTERVIEWER: Did it shock you how dense those forests are? AKAGI: I beg your pardon? INTERVIEWER: Did it shock you how dense those forests are? [14:00] AKAGI: Shock me? INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Did it surprise you? AKAGI: Oh, it didn’t surprise me, but my comment was, “Wow, look at all the trees,” ‘cause, you know, I’ve never seen, living in California, I never see the forest with so much trees. Those trees were anywhere from 5 feet apart to 10 feet apart. INTERVIEWER: What was the word around the Nisei soldiers after that Lost Battalion rescue and all the casualties from that and the other battles? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 32 of 46 �AKAGI: What was the . . . INTERVIEWER: The word. What did you guys talk about? AKAGI: Oh, it was a very sorrowful feeling, and I think we were assigned to I Company ‘cause my cousin was in the I Company and I saw him up the front. And he had his job to do and I had mine, which was forward observing, and so it was just a matter of walking past each other and saying “Hi!” and we did meet, so it was I Company. But by that time, after the Lost Battalion, I Company was down to, what, eight man or something like that, and we were still supporting them with artillery firepower. And so, when it came time to eat, one time we knew---we didn’t know exactly how many got killed and wounded, but we knew the rank [16:00] was very small. So, when it came time to eat supper one time, the cooks brought up a whole, maybe, 18-inch square pot full of turkey parts and said, “Okay, come and eat!” So, the forward observer party of three went in, one at a time, went to eat with the infantry one at a time. All we had to do was just scoop down the back slope and then as long as we were that far back we could stand up and go where the turkey dinner was waiting for us. And so, when I got there, there were only about three, four infantrymen and they were just staring at the food. And so I said, “Well, if they're gonna just stare at the food I'll help myself and eat and get back and relieve my lieutenant.” So I went like that, before I could even pick up the turkey part, boy, that infantryman grabbed my hand and said “You don’t eat, we are fasting.” And so, they were the ones that were four of the eight that survived, and so---you know what fasting is, huh? when you feel sorry for anybody that died like that, and so we actually fasted. I was hungry, starving to death, tired, and I said, “I want to eat!” But no way, we had to fast, because that one infantry guy said [18:00] “We’re fasting now.” Yeah, and him being an infantryman, knew how many casualties there were and there were only few survivors. INTERVIEWER: Was he still kind of dirty from coming off the line or had several days passed? AKAGI: Oh, yeah. It---we were, especially during the Vosges, like I said, there was---it was snowing, raining, cold, muddy, name it, and we were out in that condition all the time we were up the front or wherever we were. And so, in one day, especially when it was time to relieve, I mean, save the lost Texans, the forward observer could last only one day at a time. Soon as we went up one day and we will have to come back because we’re soaking wet, dirty. And so, as soon as we came back, well, we didn’t come back and then get relieved, we would be relieved and every forward observer group was relieved every day, changed, rotated. But the infantry. I don’t know what their situation was. I don’t think they were rotated. If they had to fight, they were up there two days if it was that long that they lasted, three days, This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 33 of 46 �I don’t know. But it was [20:00] miserable fighting up there and the rotation was much closer than during good weather time. INTERVIEWER: Okay, let’s move on. Now, you continued on and got into Central Europe. What parts? AKAGI: Okay, af[ter], yes, after the rescue [of] the Lost Battalion and liberating Bruyeres and Biffontaine, the 442nd strength was so low we were sent back to guard the Italian-France border up in the Maritime Alps, and that campaign wasn’t so bad. We were---the 442nd was able to regroup and get replacement and become full strength. And then, while we went to the Maritime Alp around November of 1944, and then we stayed there until April of 1945. And so, when 1945 came, then the infantry was called back to Italy to finish up the campaign in Italy, and the 5-2-2 Field Artillery Battalion was sent up to fight on German soil, and we had to cross the---we fought up from, oh, a few miles before the German border and then farther away [22:00] south to the German border and then we got up to the Rhine River. And once we got up to the Rhine River, the whole front was stopped. And then we, the whole Allied forces, crossed the Rhine River on one night. The 5-2-2 Field Artillery Battalion---I don’t if it was in March---I think it was in March that we crossed the Rhine River under smoke screen on top of a pontoon bridge and in dead midnight. So, that was our experience going across the Rhine River, but we got into German soil before the Rhine River, we had to fight our way across there. And then from---after we crossed the Rhine River, it was just a matter of chasing the Germans all the way down toward the Austrian border. So---and then in the process of chasing them toward the Austrian border we came across Dachau, and that’s why we were able to rescue---liberate the Jews because they were right in our path. And then some of the forward echelon group from the 5-2-2, they jumped on other outfits vehicle and went into the main camp. And my experience with the Jews is when we liberated one [24:00] subcamp. We ate there, we set up a kitchen almost---not too far from the entrance to that subcamp. And I think we were the ones that actually opened up the gate, and so the Jewish PWs were still milling around the concentration camp, and here it was time to eat, so we start eating and the Jewish people came, thinking that we would hand them food. But instead of giving them food, we knew that if we gave them solid food---I guess somebody gave 'em, gave the Jewish prisoners solid food, and after eating it, the guy died. So, we got orders not to feed them and not---on top of that, the kitchen people, generally, we just throw our garbage from the mess kit into the garbage can. But this time the garbage can was filled with water so the Jewish prisoners wouldn’t get any food out of the garbage can, eat it, and die. But, no way, even with the garbage can filled full of water and we put our leftovers into that garbage can, the prisoners still came and dipped their hands in that garbage can full of water and start picking out the food and eating it. And, boy, just right after doing that, they had to [26:00] do their duties. So, even if we tried to save their life by not feeding them, they still were so hungry that they fed themself, and if they didn't die, boy, they had to do their duty right now and then. And they weren't---they didn't have any shame. They pulled their pants down right in front of us and right down on the ground. It was a sorrowful sight. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 34 of 46 �INTERVIEWER: What did they look like? AKAGI: Skin and bone, walking in shuffles, disoriented, name it, they weren't humans. But they were hungry. INTERVIEWER: Is there a [inaudible, simultaneous talking]. AKAGI: They were not jubilant. We had no hugging. Some of the boys from the artillery went inside and looked at their sleeping conditions, but I didn't have the nerve enough, but we had compassion for 'em. We wanted to help them, we couldn't do anything for 'em, not a thing. Everything we would have done would have been to their disadvantage; they would've either died or whatever. But we did---that was at the concentration camp where we actually liberated the Jews from the camp. But as we were advancing, chasing the Germans back, we accidentally ran across the Jews that were being marched. They were told they were being marched to Austria or somewhere, but, actually, [28:00] they were probably being marched to be shot. And so, I guess, the night before, the Germans said, "Okay, all you PWs, get down in that ravine and stay there," and they thought that was the end of them, the ones we saved. They thought that's when they were gonna get killed. But, no, they---the Germans didn't 'em because the Allied forces were so close to them and the Germans fled and left the PWs all night in that ravine. And then along come the 5-2-2 and we stopped, because we could see the PWs down in the ravine. And when we stopped, our captain, Captain Ratcliffe said, "Any of you, can you speak English?" And this Larry Lubezki said, "Yeah, I could speak English." And it turned out he could speak English, Jewish, French, German, and maybe one more language. He was fluent in all of those language and he was only 18 years old, two years younger than me. And so, the captain said, "Okay, you come with us," and he turned out to be our interpreter for the duration of the war. BEGINNING OF TAPE SIX INTERVIEWER: All right, Nelson, now, you mentioned Larry ?Lubezki? . . . AKAGI: Yes. INTERVIEWER: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 35 of 46 �. . . and he became the translator after you guys found him in the ditch, and he was from one of the death camps? AKAGI: Yes. CREW MEMBER: Hold on. INTERVIEWER: Okay. So Larry ?Lubezki?, the guy who became your interpreter, the 5-2-2 had liberated from a ditch, what did he look like when you first saw him? AKAGI: He was malnutrition, and so he wasn’t what I call skin and bone, but anyway, the captain had to nourish him back to health by giving him soup and I don’t know what else the captain gave him, but captain was the one that actually saved his life. So---and then, naturally, he was in his striped suit, PW suit, and I don’t remember if he had---I’m quite sure he showed me his PW number and I can still remember the “82123” that was his PW number, and that’s how I found him which I will tell you about that later. But, yes, he was just like the rest of the Jews, just more or less skin and bone, had to be nourished back to health. INTERVIEWER: How many were there in that ditch you guys found? AKAGI: Well, I don’t remember. In fact, I might have been on a reconnaissance party [02:00] when that actually happened. I might have been up ahead or of the column or I’d---because that part there, I had to receive second hand on how Larry was actually found, so I don’t know how many was in the ravine. INTERVIEWER: Now, just like civilians who have no experience, no reference to what combat is, we don’t, now in 2003, have any reference or experience with a real death camp. What was it like for you being an American, a Japanese American, whose people were put in camps in the United States, suddenly finding yourself here in this horrible, horrible place, what was that like? AKAGI: Well, first of all, it was having compassion for them, and the second thing at the same time, I was, I don’t know about the others, but I was afraid of them. They looked so terrible, do they have a disease? I This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 36 of 46 �know they had lice and fleas and et cetera, and things like that kind of made me, at the same time I had compassion, kind of stay away from them. And so that was my feeling towards the prisoners that we liberated. But with Larry, naturally, the captain fed him, cleaned him up, put GI clothes on him, [04:00] so by the time I really got to know Larry, he was practically a normal person. But the reason why I had contact with him and George Oiye and Lieutenant Ito, we were all in the same section. We slept together, we were together all the time near the officers and, well, Lieutenant Ito was an officer already. So Larry ?Lubezki?, being with the officers, and we being with the officers, our contact would be daily. But it was just like saying, “Hi, Larry, how you doing?” because he had his things to do and we had our things to do, so that’s the way it was with Larry, I---to get to know Larry. INTERVIEWER: Where was he from? AKAGI: He was from Lithuania. He was a Lithuanian Jew. INTERVIEWER: How long had he been in that death camp? AKAGI: Oh, I would say, let’s see, he was 18 years old when we rescued him and he might have been there four years, 14 years to 18. INTERVIEWER: And what kind of duties did he perform for the Army? AKAGI: Oh, okay. He did quite a bit, and all for just clothing, a place to sleep and a meal, and no pay. But he actually did all the translations for the captain while we had him. And then when we got shipped home, he had to leave us, and after he left us, [06:00] he went up to some other Caucasian unit and did the same thing and finally worked his way up to Berlin and was on the Tribunal. But before---I don’t know if it was before or after the Tribunal, he helped all these displaced PWs to get reunited with their home and, I mean, not reunited with their home, reunited with their family. And so that’s the kind of work he did for no pay. And one day he told me another Jew asked him, “Why are you doing all this for free?” And so he said to himself, “Oh, he’s right, why am I doing all these for free?” so he went back to Jerusalem. But in the meantime, while he was trying to help all the displaced PWs, he neglected checking on his own family and he found out his mother and he were pretty close together one time without each knowing where the other was, and so he found out later that his mother walked all the way back to Lithuania from Germany and then found no family there, so she drifted back and somehow I guess she found out that her family was in Mexico, and so she went to Mexico and Larry went to This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 37 of 46 �Jerusalem, and while in Jerusalem, [08:00] he joined the Jewish Army and what year was it that they had that four-day Jewish-British War? 1980-something or---but any, no, not 1980, 1948 or something like that. The Jews whipped the British Army in four days and Larry had something to do with that. He was a lieutenant in the field artillery, and he got a bright idea, since their artillery pieces were all on wooden wheels and very slow and not so maneuverable, he bought up surplus army trailers, whether they were British or U.S. trailers or some other country’s trailer, but he bought 'em all up as the lieutenant of the Jewish Army, and took the bed off and then took the cannon and placed it on top of the rubber wheel axle, and now they could wheel those cannon around anywhere and at any speed they wanted, so whether that had anything to do with whipping the British Army, I don’t know, but he was quite ingenious, he was a sharp little 18-year-old boy. Well, by the time he went to Jerusalem, he might have been 19 or 20, but he was a really smart boy. INTERVIEWER: Now, how did you make contact with him after the war? AKAGI: Okay, from Jerusalem after the war with [10:00] Britain, Larry went to Canada. Canada would let him in but United States wouldn’t. He said he tried getting into the United States and here he helped the United States all that time, and the United States wouldn’t let him come into the United States. But anyway, he went to Canada, and while he was in Canada, he corresponded with our captain, I think, so we knew where he was. But after Canada, we didn’t know where he went, but he went to New Mexico where his folks were and, not New Mexico, Mexico City and where his folks were, I guess he found out, so he went over there. And so we lost complete contact with him. We did not know where he was, so on that 49th, 48th or 49th year after liberating Larry, I said to myself, “Gee, I wonder what happened to Larry after being in Canada?” So, with his photo, with his inscription on it, “Don’t remember me as Larry ?Lubezki?, remember me as PW #82123.” And so, I took that photo with the information on the back to the Holocaust Center, Washington, D.C., I found out through mail that it was gonna open on such and such a date, so I went over there to look for Larry, or find out where he was. But when I got there, disappointment. The museum was still not completed. So I came home disheartened and I says, “Oh, I guess I better just give this up.” [12:00] But then, the more I---I had nothing else to do, you know, I was--was I single at that time? No, I was married. But anyway, I had a lot of time to think about Larry, because the reason why I had so much thought of Larry was because of compassion that---and the things that I wanted to do for him that I couldn’t. And so I said, "Well, maybe one way to make up to him is to at least find out where he is and then correspond with him." But anyway, something came up to where I had to go to Washington, D.C. again, maybe, six months, two months, four months after the first time I went to Washington, D.C. So I went to Washington, D.C., and this time the Holocaust Center was opened and, you know, you had to have ticket to go in, but, boy, just as soon as I went there and I said, "I’m from the 442nd, and I’m looking---trying to locate a Jewish PW . . ." Boy, they just said, “Come on through!” you know, took me right in and gave me liberty to walk around the museum and all that. Oh, I owned the museum for a whole day and then I popped the question, “I’m looking for Larry ?Lubezki?, please find him for me. Here’s his picture, here’s his PW number, and here’s his name.” And This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 38 of 46 �so, I waited for about six months after that trip and lo, and behold, one day, Larry ?Lubezki? called me on the telephone from Mexico City. They would not---[14:00] the museum would not give me his name, but the museum gave Larry my name and telephone number, so Larry called me and I was in church, so when I came home, I put on the recording and found out that Larry had called, and so, boy, right away, I called back and I was able to get ahold of him, and ever since that, you know, it was a real joyous and a tearful conversation on the telephone. Yeah, he says he doesn’t know whether he cried more or talked more, but that’s the way we were introduced to each other again after 48, 49 years. And then, when the 50th Year Reunion came, I said, "I think he should be here with us with the 5-2-2 at the 50th Year Reunion at the L.A.---Los Angeles, I mean, Japanese-American National Museum." So a few of us chipped in and bought his plane ticket and he came over to Los Angeles, and we saw him in person and that was the first time we met after 50 years, and the newspaper got ahold of it. I think the Rafu Shi[mpo]---was Rafu Shimpo in publication at that time, 1994 or 1995, wasn’t it? Okay, 50th year would be 1943, okay, Rafu Shimpo was in publication. I think the Los Angeles Times, [16:00] the Rafu Shimpo and maybe two other newspapers put that great big article in about me finding Larry ?Lubezki? and finally getting to see each other came out in the newspaper, and Tom Snyder read it and said, "Oh, that’s a good story," I guess, and he called me a few days after my reunion with Larry ?Lubezki? And I got to give Lieutenant Ito and George Oiye for finding Larry too. They were concerned as much as me, too, when Larry wrote after the telephone conversation, he wrote a letter to me and Lieutenant Ito and myself sent the same letter to three of us. But anyway, I can't take all the credit for locating him, but I was a little bit of an instrumental person to make mission accomplished. So he came over here, and then, like I said, Tom Snyder got ahold of the story and he called me in Los Angeles, and he called Larry in Mexico City to appear on his program on such and such a date, and so he flew in from Mexico City, I flew in from Salt Lake City and we were on Tom Snyder's show. INTERVIEWER: What does Larry ?Lubitski? say about the Nisei soldiers? AKAGI: He is very fond of us, and how he found out of our record, or if he ever did find out of our record, [18:00] but that didn’t matter to him. We were his liberators, and he even says till today that he was reborn on that day we rescued him, brought his dignity back. So he is very thankful to the Japanese Americans and to Captain Ratcliffe; he thinks very highly of us. INTERVIEWER: And let’s just switch gears a little bit. After the war, you met another person from another country which we happened to be at war with, a Japanese pilot? AKAGI: Oh, what year was that? I can't give the exact year on that because right now without any record, I don’t know, but the Hawaiian 4-4-2 boys got an invitation from the Onbarakai in Japan. They were the This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 39 of 46 �navy pilots and they wanted a reunion with the army personnel that were at Pearl Harbor when the war started. But it turned out that not only were the people at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed to go over there on that trip, they even invited the 4-4-2 even if we fought in Europe. So, they couldn’t fill up the roster so they called Sus Ito if he wanted to go with them, and Sus said, "Yes," and then they still---and he didn’t want to go alone, [20:00] I guess, so he called me and I said, "Yes." And so we filled out the application blank reservation and sent it in, and lo and behold, we were on our way. But we first had a reunion in Hawaii. Before we went to Japan we flew from L.A. to Hawaii and had a little reunion there and then we flew from Hawaii to Tokyo and then started the reunion with the---Friendship Reunion with the Onbarakai from where they trained during the World War II. I can't remember the name of the town, but it was north of Tokyo. And so, we stayed there one day or two day and had a memorial service and everything, and went through their building for the pilots to be trained and they had hundreds of photos of groups, one after another, that was graduated from that school, from the Navy Pilot School. And then they showed us the lake over there that they probably practiced, but I don’t know if they practiced right there, on bombing Pearl Harbor, I thought they did, but on second thought, by reading the newspaper, they practiced at another place bombing Pearl---learning how to bomb Pearl Harbor, [22:00] but they did show us the lake over there. And everywhere we went, those navy pilots, they treated us with red carpet. They put us in the best hotel, they fed us, name it and we got it, and they were so friendly and we were so friendly to them. INTERVIEWER: Was that your first visit to Japan? AKAGI: No, that was my second visit. And this happened in October when we went to the Friendship tour with Onbarakai, the Navy Pilot people. And the---since it was October, we had---the tour lasted 10 days, we moved from one town to the other, one memorial service after another, at the temple or the shrine, or whatever. And so, it was one hectic, busy, pleasant, happy 10 days with not even one drop of rain, and the day I left, it started to get cloudy. But I remember being there 28, 30 years ago and I went in June, it rained every day, it was sultry, and I really enjoyed it because that’s the first time I was in Japan and the trees were trimmed all nicely every one of them, and it was just a beautiful place to be after hearing from the GIs, [24:00] “Oh, what a ugly, dirty place Japan is.” It was a complete turnaround when I went there 30 years ago, from right after World War II. And so, I was so, well, I just fell in love with Japan, yeah. And the second time I went, it was more so because by that time they had beautiful buildings, everything was built up, nice roads, Shinkansen, all of that, I just fell in love with that country, it was just remarkable. INTERVIEWER: It’s amazing to see where the old folks came from. AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 40 of 46 �Yup. In fact, I went to my dad’s old home where he was born and then where my brother stayed with our grandmother and I went to the rice paddy the family owned in the “ohaka” right there, to get my genealogy taken care of. Oh, it was a wonderful trip other than being with the Japanese Navy pilots. INTERVIEWER: After the war, like most ex-GIs, you settled down, but one day your daughter asks about medals, and you say, “Oh, I didn’t get any.” AKAGI: Oh, okay. That was in the year 2002, I don’t know what month, but she asked me, since she knew I fought with the 4-4-2, she asked me, “I want to see your medals!” INTERVIEWER: And I says, "Well, I never did get my medal when I got discharged." It’s on the discharge paper what I earned, but I didn’t get it. [26:00] And so she, in her own mind, says, "Well, I’ll take care of that." And so she got to work, she made telephone calls after another for three months, or two months, I don’t know which one she said. And she finally, after calling the whole United States, she called Salt Lake City and found the person that could get the medal right there in Salt Lake City and---at Fort Douglas. So, she got that into motion, and by the time---and then in the meantime, it was all a secret, they were taking pictures out of my scrapbook and they had my---my wife got my discharge paper out for my daughterin-law. And so, between my daughter-in-law and my daughter, they were secretly making---setting a presentation, medal presentation day. And after they talked with the general that was supposed to award the medal to me, he said, "The only time I have is in January." I don't know what day it was, the 2nd or the 4th or whatever. But anyway, we complied, I mean, the girls complied with the general's schedule. And so, they set everything all up and then they asked me, "Who's your friends?" I said, "Why do you want to know?" [Laughs.] And then they let the secret out. About two weeks before the medal presentation day, they came out and said, "Well, we want [28:00] the names because we're gonna invite all your friends to come to your medal ceremony." I says, "What!" And so, everything was done professionally: the invitation was all made up professionally, and the program was made up professionally. They even made up a program for me: speakers and Pledge of Allegiance and the medal presentation and the whole nine yards. And so, all I had to do was go there and we had a wonderful time. And then, all during that time, with the pictures they snuck out on me, they had the graphic man, who is my step, not stepson, but my son-in-law, and they made up all these posters, graphic posters, oh, yea big, 3 feet by 4 feet, 2 feet by 2 feet, oh, about five of 'em. And so, they had all on display at the medal ceremony. And the medal ceremony wasn't even a Bronze Star, it was a five battle, you know, ribbons, I mean, medals that I should have received. So, it turned out real good, and, boy, that turned out to be a blessing because nobody knew about all the Caucasians I've had. In fact, about 100 came to my medal ceremony. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 41 of 46 �BEGINNING OF TAPE SEVEN INTERVIEWER: All right. So, a lot of hakujin or Caucasian friends come to the medal ceremony, and what did they learn? AKAGI: Well, since the program was all made out and my daughter gave a talk on my experience during the World War II, all the discrimination that had happened to me, and fighting the war with the 4-4-2, the most highly decorated unit with the most casualties for its size and length of time in battle, so when that hit the newspaper, and it was the---either the general or the civilian person that got the medal for me that called the newspaper because he thought that the medal ceremony was gonna be a real good story, and so the newspaper came and interviewed me, interviewed my daughter who gave the talk and, boy, I got the front page write up in the Salt Lake newspaper, and from about a day after the medal ceremony, I started getting letters, congratulating me, thanking me for what I did during the World War II. And then the people that I---Caucasian friends I associate with said, “Gee, is that all true, that happened to you?” And I said, “It's just true word for word,” [02:00] and they were just surprised that I went through all that discrimination. So, instead of just thinking of me as just another Japanese friend, now they almost greet me with a red carpet kind of a greeting, and so I’m hundred percent sure that after that experience, the Caucasians, even your friend doesn’t know what happened to the Japanese American during World War II, so like this Hanashi is a must. The people---our story have to get out, and that’s the only way we’re gonna be liked hundred percent. Just like it was a 180-degree turnaround between my friend and myself because before they did not know me hundred percent, now they know me hundred percent and I’m more than a friend to them now. So, I could even call them fishing buddies or whatever, or gas station gossipers, whatever. And so, I thought I don’t know just how we’re gonna do it to reach every Caucasian in the United States, but I think we're---I think you folks are doing a wonderful job and I sincerely hope that, you know, the third, fourth, fifth generation will continue to let the public know what we did. And then another thing, [04:00] since the Japanese Americans are intermingling with the Caucasian by marriage and et cetera, maybe in another generation or two, there will be no more hundred percent Japanese and there will no longer be a need for trying to advertise all the things that we have, but the history has to be there. It cannot die. So even if we gradually get away from exposing our World War II experience, by that time, another generation or two, I figured that there may not have to be anymore exposure because there’s no more Japanese. But we can always say there’s gonna be Japanese coming from Japan that will still be looking like the former enemy and they will be persecuted. But on the whole, I think the United States Japanese Americans will be all hapas and we'll be all one big happy family, instead of, like today, still have to be ducking bullets or defending ourselves, “Hey, knock it off, I’m like you.” But maybe two generations not---not two generations now, they don’t--no Japanese-blooded person will have to say, “Hey, knock it off, I’m an American, we're Ameri[can],” well, [06:00] we are Americans right now but we still have our Japanese identity, so we still have to get our stories out. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 42 of 46 �INTERVIEWER: Now, speaking of getting your story out, you were asked by a granddaughter to do something regarding your story? AKAGI: Oh, I asked my granddaughter, I mean, not asked my granddaughter, my granddaughter, ?Jackie Bennett?, she knew---she knows about my World War II experience because, being my granddaughter, somehow she could find out from my wife, who is also, Jackie’s grandmother, she wrote, I mean, she called me on the telephone, oh, Saturday night, I’m quite sure it was Saturday night or Sunday morning, but I got a phone call from her saying, “Grandpa, I want your World War II story.” I said, “When do you want it?” She says, “For Monday’s school class.” And I said, “Oh, no, I can't get it out that quickly.” But I says, after I hung up, well, before I hung up I said, “Soon as I get my story done, I’ll fax it to you.” And so I stayed up---it had to be---I stayed up, no, maybe it was Sunday. I stayed up all night Sunday until Monday morning, three o'clock in the morning to finish my story and then soon as daylight came, I went to Kinko and faxed my story to my granddaughter in Bakersfield and then she picked up the faxed paper at Kinko and took it and then kind of rewrote it in her own words before class, and she took it to class and got an A on it. [08:00] INTERVIEWER: And in spite of the good stuff that's happened in your life in Salt Lake City, you mentioned that when you tried to buy a house, there’s a certain kind of approval process? AKAGI: Yes. Even with the war experience being a blessing to me, there was still discriminatory acts that had to be taken care of. And there was a Discriminatory Law against the Japanese Americans to buy a house in the Salt Lake area unless they get the approval of all the neighbors in the front, the back, the sides, so I had to go through that and that was in 1962. That was 20 years after the war. Twenty one years after the war started, and they still had that discriminatory law, and so I was surprised, I said, “My gosh, we still have work to do!” And I was in support of the redress, I wrote another letter to the JACL because they were asking for stories from the evacuees and I wrote to them definitely I want an apology and monetary, well, I asked for money, I didn’t ask for apology, [laughs] I’m a greedy person. But anyway, I got that apology and $20,000, but I did write to the JACL [10:00] and give him my story which was still a little different from the one I gave to my granddaughter. So . . . INTERVIEWER: Now, speaking of the Japanese-American Citizens League, the JACL, you have some strong feelings about that? AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 43 of 46 �Way back in 1939, I was already a JACL member. I was still in high school and it was just a social gathering and we had good time. As a JACL member I became the secretary when I was 17 years old for the JACL, Lindsay JACL, and so I had great feelings about JACL, and what the JACL did during the war, I don’t hold any grudge against what they did. It was all something that the government just told the JACL leaders that, “Hey, this is what I want you to tell your people,” and so the leaders who got that information from the government and just passed it on to, like a liaison, passed it on to us. And if the same thing happened all up and down the coast, and we blame anyone for what had happened, all up and down the coast, I don’t believe one percent could have been at all three states and say, “This is what we’re gonna do.” There was no way that one person could have done that. And [12:00] other thing I was thinking was, there was no use of us---although I knew the Constitution inside and out, there was no use to fight the government at that time because we were licked before we even started to protest, and so it was just useless to protest at that time, because like in my experience, if I did not sign that loyalty questionnaire, right away, they’d---with no further question pick me up and take me to camp. And so that was with us, I’m quite sure, even before we were evacuated. We had no more power, the Constitution was no longer protecting us, the country was no longer protecting us for our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, so what can we do? Just obey what the government told us to do. And to blame it on to any one person on what happened to us, I think it’s wrong. But I still support those people that did protest because they had guts. Maybe more than I did. Maybe I was a weakling to just volunteer and go like a---be led like a lamb to our death, or something like that. Those people that protested, they had guts, they stood up for their right, they probably knew the Constitution as well as I did. And so, I don’t blame them for what they did, they were standing up for their right, but it was the wrong time. We just had no power. We had no representative to protect us, [14:00] everybody was against us. You name 'em and they were all against us. Your friend that was your friend before the war, they were all of a sudden your enemy. I had nobody help me after the war started. INTERVIEWER: That’s hard for us to understand now. So let’s finish up. I think you’re still, as most of us are, very patriotic. You're a war veteran who volunteered, you built a good life after your service, and you have perspective, you're proud of your service, but you also recognize that those who protested also were standing on the Constitution. Many years from now, like you say, the Japanese Americans may be very mixed. If you could tell somebody, 50, 60, 80 years from now, what your legacy and you and the other soldiers is, what would you say to this kid who won't meet you, won't meet me. What would you say to this kid about your life? AKAGI: Sixty years from now? INTERVIEWER: Oh, 80, 100, 200! AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 44 of 46 �I’d still tell 'em the same thing. INTERVIEWER: What would that be? AKAGI: That it's got to be kept alive because, who knows, it might happen to another group or race of people and we don’t want the same thing to happen to them. So the story will have to be kept alive. and then who’s going to keep it alive, I don’t know. By that time, the Japanese Americans will all be assimilated as Caucasians and Japanese Americans won't have---will probably no longer have a need to [16:00] be fighting like we are today for our right. INTERVIEWER: When you went to Japan, did you feel more Japanese or more American? AKAGI: More American. Yeah. I can't lose my American identity anymore. I went overseas and, during the war, Italy was in a mess, France wasn't that good, Germany was the only country that was equivalent to the United States, but not as much. And I said, "Wow, I don't want to live in any one of those countries because I seen it and I knew where I came from, so my heart is here in the United States." And that's the same feeling I had over Japan, I said, "Wow, Japan is a beautiful country, the people are nice but," I said, "I'm still an American." For a visit, yes, Japan is very nice. INTERVIEWER: Nothing like the good ol' U.S.A. AKAGI: Nothing like the good ol' U.S.A. is right. You can't find another country like the United States. INTERVIEWER: All right. Let's stop, huh? You got anything else you want to say, Nelson, to us? AKAGI: Oh, [laughs] I think you guys are doing a grand job. INTERVIEWER: All right. Thank you. AKAGI: This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 45 of 46 �I'm glad you're doing it because we still need our story to be told. We're still Japanese-looking, orientallooking, yeah. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 46 of 46 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, August 16, 2003 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview transcript [full interview], August 16, 2003 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Akagi, Nelson: narrator Kunitomi, Darryl: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Transcriptions Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Extent The size or duration of the resource. 46 pages, typescript Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-16 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2003OH0372_T_Akagi https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/98fae69118e81a1f6c3164db2229b571.xml 3afbb31dc84467838c348fe8fc3fc23b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, August 16, 2003 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Indexing Metadata hidden field containing indexing metadata 0 --- --- --- 442nd Regimental Combat Team;American;Bakersfield;Caucasian;congratulations;daughter;discrimination;experience;fax;fighting;General;granddaughter;Hakujin;history;interview;Japanese American soldier;letters;medal ceremony;Monday;newspaper;next generation;Nisei;oral interviews;program;public;Salt Lake City;service;speech;spread;story;surprise;thanks;wife;WWII;WWII experience --- --- --- --- --- ::: 483 --- --- --- 1962;approval of neighbors;approval process;discrimination;discriminatory law;evacuees;house;JACL;Japanese American Citizens League;Japanese-Americans;monetary recompense;purchase;redress;Salt Lake City --- --- --- --- --- ::: 611 --- --- --- American government;blame;camp;Constitution;enemy;evacuation;futile;information;JACL;Japanese American Citizens League;leaders;liaison;Lindsay, CA;loyal questionnaire;member;news;no power;no representation;obey;protection;protest;rights;secretary;volunteer --- --- --- --- --- ::: 865 --- --- --- American identity;assimilated;fight;France;Germany;Italy;Japanese-Americans;legacy;patriotic;race;repeat history;rights;story;United States;volunteer;war veteran --- --- --- --- --- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, part 7 of 7, August 16, 2003 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2003OH0372_07_Akagi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Description An account of the resource Nelson Akagi explains the reaction of friends who learned about the Japanese-American war experience and why he thinks it is important to spread the story for future generations. He also briefly recounts some post-war discriminatory laws that were still in place. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Akagi, Nelson: narrator Kunitomi, Darryl: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 00:17:48 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-16 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California Subject The topic of the resource World War II--Military service--442nd Regimental Combat Team Race--Discrimination Laws and legislation--redress and reparations Japanese Americans--Post-World War II World War II--Japanese American Citizens League activism Bakersfield California discrimination Japanese American Citizens League Japanese American soldiers laws legacy Lindsay neighbors newspaper Nisei story protest redress and reparations Salt Lake City war experience https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/05567b5413b5f242ae81d2a9e20f6b31.xml 3065935d953da0ff87f22a4b3ac3ff3e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, August 16, 2003 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Indexing Metadata hidden field containing indexing metadata 0 --- --- --- afraid;avoid;Captain;Captain Radcliffe;compassion;concentration camp;death camp;disease;eighteen;interpreter;Jewish;Jewish POW?s;Larry Lubetzky;lice;Lieutenant Ito;Lithuania;Lithuanian Jew;malnourished;POW;POW number;prisoner of war;prisoners;ravine;reconnaissance party;section;soup;translater --- --- --- --- --- ::: 326 --- --- --- Berlin;British army;cannon;Captain;Caucasian unit;displaced POW?s;Field Artillery;free;Germany;Israel;Jerusalem;Jew;Jewish Army;Jewish-British war;Larry Lubetzky;Lieutenant;Lithuania;Mexico;mother;reunited families;shipped;surplus army trailers;translation;Tribunal;unpaid --- --- --- --- --- ::: 589 --- --- --- 442nd Regimental Combat Team;50th year reunion;522nd Field Artillery Battalion;article;Canada;Captain;Captain Radcliffe;dignity;George Oi;grateful;Holocaust Center;Japanese American museum;Japanese Americans;Jerusalem;Larry Lubetzky;letter;liberators;Lieutenant Ito;Los Angeles;lost contact;Mexico;Mexico City;museum;newspaper;Nisei soldiers;post-war;POW 82123;reborn;record;Salt Lake City;telephone;Tom Snyder;United States;war;Washington, DC --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1116 --- --- --- 442nd Regimental Combat Team;army;bomb;brother;buildings;European Theater;father?s hometown;Friendship Reunion;Friendship Tour;geneology;graduates;Hawaii;Hawaiian;Ito;Japan;Japanese naval pilot;Japanese pilot;Japanese soldier;lake;memorial service;navy pilots;October;Pearl Harbor;pilot;post-war;practice;rain;reunion;Shinkansen;shrine;Tokyo;trip;Unbarakai;weather;WWII --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1520 --- --- --- 2002;442nd Regimental Combat Team;battle medals;Caucasian soldiers;daughter;discharge paper;Fort Douglass;friends;general;invitation;medal presentation ceremony;medals;pictures;post-war;posters;program;Salt Lake City;scrapbook;secret;son-in-law;wife --- --- --- --- --- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, part 6 of 7, August 16, 2003 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2003OH0372_06_Akagi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Description An account of the resource Nelson Akagi talks about Larry Lubetzky, a Jewish POW turned interpreter for their unit. He recounts finding Lubetzky through the Holocaust Center after almost 50 years and seeing him in person at the 50th year reunion. Akagi also describes the Friendship Tour with Japanese naval pilots and his belated medal ceremony. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Akagi, Nelson: narrator Kunitomi, Darryl: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/ m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 00:29:44 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-16 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California Subject The topic of the resource World War II--Military service--Medals and awards World War II--Jews World War II--Military service--442nd Regimental Combat Team Military service--Veterans' organizations Japan--Post-World War II 522nd Field Artillery Battalion American Concentration Camps award ceremony holocaust interpreter Japanese American soldiers Jewish Larry Lubetzky Lithuanian Jews medal Memorial newspaper Nisei soldiers Pearl Harbor post-war Japan POW Prisoners of War (POWs) reunion Salt Lake City https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/cc900418e14882d22e27228eb046d84f.xml bbf844e3c5884358976a6952080bd55c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, August 16, 2003 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Indexing Metadata hidden field containing indexing metadata 0 --- --- --- 1944;anti-aircraft;Arnold River;back;Biffontaine;bomber;Bruyeres;campaign;cold;copilot;dove;fighting;front;German;infantry;landing craft;liberate;lost battalion;machine gun;machine gunner;Marseilles;north;observer party;pilot;port;reconnaissance;scout;ship;snow;Southern France;tracer bullet;Volges Forest;weather --- --- --- --- --- ::: 365 --- --- --- accuracy;battery adjust;blast;calculate;cannon;coordinates;enemy;find;fire direction center;fire for effect;fire mission;foxhole;gun position;headquarters;location;lost battalion;machine gun;on target;priority;shell;Volges;volley --- --- --- --- --- ::: 619 --- --- --- advancing;ammunition;artillery support;backpack;bedding;binoculars;California;canteen;carbine;country;crawl;dense;find;Fir trees;food;forest;France;hills;infantry;Italy;observation;overnight;pack;pinned;position;Redwoods;rifle;scout;separated;Sequoia;spot;stamina;strength;target;trees;Volges;walk;water;weapon;weather --- --- --- --- --- ::: 874 --- --- --- artillery;casualties;cold;cooks;cousin;dinner;eat;fasting;fighting;forward observer;front line;hunger;I company;infantry;lieutenant;Lost Battalion;mud;Nisei soldiers;platoon;rain;ranks;relieved;rescue;rotated;rotation;snow;sorrow;supper;support;survivors;Texans;tired;turkey;Volges;wounded --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1213 --- --- --- 442nd Regimental Combat Team;522nd Field Artillery Battalion;Allied Forces;April 1945;Austria;Austrian border;Biffontaine;bridge;Bruyeres;Central Europe;chase German soldiers;Dachau;fight;Forward echelon group;German border;German soil;Germany;guard;Infantry;Italy campaign;Italy France border;liberate;liberate Jews;Lost Battalion;Maritime Alps;November 1944;regroup;replacements;Rhine River;smoke screen --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1433 --- --- --- 522nd Field Artillery Battalion;Allied forces;artillery;Captain Radcliffe;compassion;concentration camp;cooks;disoriented;English;fled;fluent;food;garbage can;gate;German soldiers;help;hunger;interpreter;Jewish POWs;Jews;Larry Lubetzky;leftovers;marched;POWs;ravine;sleeping quarters;sub-camp;water --- --- --- --- --- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, part 5 of 7, August 16, 2003 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2003OH0372_05_Akagi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Description An account of the resource Nelson Akagi talks about experiences during the Bruyeres-Biffontaine/ Volges Campaign and more of what it was like being a scout. He also tells of the sorrow of the I Company after the Lost Battalion rescue and his experience liberating Jewish POW's. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Akagi, Nelson: narrator Kunitomi, Darryl: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 00:29:37 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-16 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California Subject The topic of the resource World War II--European Theater--Rhineland Campaign, Vosges--Bruyeres, Belmont, Biffontaine World War II--Combat--Weapons--Artillery World War II--Psychological aspects World War II--Reconnaissance operations World War II--Concentration Camps--Germany 522nd Field Artillery Battalion Allied Forces American Concentration Camps Arno Biffontaine Bruyeres cannon casualties Dachau fasting foxhole Larry Lubetzky liberate Lost Battalion machine gun Marseilles POW prisoner of war camp Prisoners of War (POWs) Rhineland- Maritime Alps scout starvation topography volley https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/9b19919bfe4ce9e74939a92f2cfd6cc4.xml 513cb0509380f5b8ed5753950a658980 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, August 16, 2003 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Indexing Metadata hidden field containing indexing metadata 0 --- --- --- boxing;English;fight;friends;Hawaii;Hawaiian Pidgin;Nisei;Pidgin;spar --- --- --- --- --- ::: 108 --- --- --- 100th;1943;active;?Don?t Fence Me In?;?Over There, Over There?;backpack;base;Camp Shelby;Caucasian 34th division;farm;favorite songs;field artillery;fighters;fighting power;force march;heavy casualties;hikes;in shape;infantry;Italy;jokes;machine gun section;marches;May 1944;newspaper;purple heart division;rain;rain coat;reports;rifle range;scared;shells;shipped overseas;songs;strong;training;war --- --- --- --- --- ::: 487 --- --- --- 100th;Anzio;Bari;battery;battle;birthday;bombers;boxcar;breaks;Colliseum;combat;debris;defense;embarkation point;field artillery;first day;German;German infiltration;Greece;guns;heavy machine platoon;Italy;June 26;Liberty;machine gun;machine gunners;marchAllied Forces;May 1944;Naples;overseas;pass;preparation;propeller;protect Howitzers;Rome;rough seas;ruins;sea sick;ship;shipping out;spared;sunken ships;train;war --- --- --- --- --- ::: 815 --- --- --- angry;?die in vain?;basic training;battle;bayonet;bloated;Buddha head;casualty;Caucasians;dead soldier;decay;discriminated;discrimination;field artillery;field hospital;fight;firing;first combat experience;fox hole;German;German soldier;grave marker;hate;helmet;Jap;machine gun;mad;malaria;mine;mortar;mosquito;Nisei;questioning;rifle;scared;service;shells;smell;soldier;sorrow;summer;tarp;tripped booby trap;unwounded;week;wind --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1098 --- --- --- advancing;alone;bath;battle;captain;Captain Radcliff;clear;cover;creek;doubt;duck;flush out;front line;German infiltration;German stragglers;guns;helmet;Howitzer;hygiene;infantry;log cabin;luxury;machine gun;mines;Nisei;officer;position;protect;reconnoiter;rest;scared;scout;set in;shower;shower unit;soap;sponge bath;traveling;troops;water --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1430 --- --- --- asleep;bad officer;battery;Captain Radcliff;commendation;congenial;cooperation;every day;good;good officer;guard duty;Hakujin;Lieutenant Roger Irely;machine gunner;mental break;officers;reprimand;rifle;sentry;sentry duty;sleepy;smart;tried;trouble;turns;vegetable;verbal remark --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1676 --- --- --- aircraft protection;battle fatigue;Caucasian units;furlough;machine gunner;machine guns;marching;planes;rain;rain coats;sleeping;tiredness --- --- --- --- --- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, part 4 of 7, August 16, 2003 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2003OH0372_04_Akagi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Description An account of the resource Nelson Akagi tells of his training at Camp Shelby and shipping out to the European theater. He recounts his first combat experiences and the emotions he experienced upon seeing a dead Nisei soldier. He also talks about good and bad officers and being a scout. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Akagi, Nelson: narrator Kunitomi, Darryl: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Subject The topic of the resource World War II--Military service--Basic training--Camp Shelby World War II--Military service--Embarkation World War II--Casualties World War II--Psychological aspects Race--Discrimination Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 00:29:54 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-16 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California "Buddaheads" "Jap" 100th Infantry Battalion Allied Forces Anzio basic training battle fatigue Camp Shelby casualties discrimination embarkation first combat Hawaiian soldiers hygiene machine gunner Naples officers scout showers travel https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/3cba097fbed1881d66cf20a7df19f17f.xml dbd47c9e6dfd50c78aa13213f7bed828 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, August 16, 2003 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Indexing Metadata hidden field containing indexing metadata 0 --- --- --- abandoned;army guards;bologna;bread;California;camp;camps;car;citrus orchard;cold;communication;confined;curfew;deport;desperate;economic loss;engine;Evacuation;family situation;farm;farm equipment;fear;heat;home;Idaho;Japan;Japanese families;Lindsay;liquidate;living conditions;mystery man;Nevada;no communication;nursery trees;pool hall;property;protest;Reno;rent;scary;side track;sold;starving;thirsty;tomato crop;tractor;train;travel limitation;violence;voluntary;water --- --- --- --- --- ::: 407 --- --- --- 2 questions;442;8th grade;Bill of Rights;brothers;California;camp;Constitution test;controversial;draft;farm;February;gas ration;grade school;graduate;Idaho;Idaho Falls;June 1943;letter;Lindsay;loyalty;loyalty questionnaire;May;neighbor;nineteen;Nisei fighting unit;Ogden;Parker;Preamble;President;questions;register;registrar;registration;Reno;rights;Roosevelt;Saint Anthony;separated;service;shortcut;WRA --- --- --- --- --- ::: 908 --- --- --- 442nd;alone;army;barrack;basic training;be strong;bus;Camp Shelby;Caucasians;father;field artillery;Fort Douglas;Idaho;inductee;induction;induction paper;infantry;Jap;Japanese American;Japanese Americans;marched;Mississippi;party;rank;reprimand;Saint Anthony;Salt Lake City;Sargeant;send off;serial number;shipped out;shots;special volunteer;surprise;uniform;United States;volunteer;volunteer number --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1348 --- --- --- 442nd;69th division;back row;beat up;black soldier;bus;California;Caucasian;climate;deep south;dinner;discrimination;drinking fountains;fighting;Harrisburg;Hawaiian soldiers;high humidity;Jap;Mississippi;Nisei;pass;PX;segregated bathrooms;sergeant;shock;socks;soldiers;trouble;units;white area;winter --- --- --- --- --- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, part 3 of 7, August 16, 2003 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2003OH0372_03_Akagi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Description An account of the resource Nelson Akagi continues his story with the final leg of his family's journey to Idaho and volunteering for the army. He recounts his reaction to the loyalty questionnaire and goes over his induction and basic training at Camp Shelby. Finally, he tells of his shock upon witnessing black discrimination in Mississippi and the fights between the Japanese and Caucasian units at Camp Shelby. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Akagi, Nelson: narrator Kunitomi, Darryl: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 00:29:16 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-16 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California Subject The topic of the resource World War II--Economic losses World War II--Loyalty Questionnaire World War II--Military service--Recruiting and enlisting Race--Segregation "Japs" Bill of Rights black segregation California Camp Shelby economic losses evacuation farm food guards Hawaii heat Idaho induction Japanese American Lindsay Loyalty Questionnaire Mississippi Racism Reno Roosevelt train violence voluntary evacuation WRA https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/b9ce337acb81e13b34a186db692a8877.xml 1d958fee47aed7f662782474ecd85190 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, August 16, 2003 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Indexing Metadata hidden field containing indexing metadata 0 --- --- --- army;bride;brother;California;China;cultural;family;fear;fighting;grandmother;Issei parents;Japan;Japanese;Japanese officials;marriage;non-political;parents;siblings;sisters;war;wife --- --- --- --- --- ::: 160 --- --- --- America;Asia;attack;Britain;China;Europe;German;German emigrants;Germany;Hitler;Japan;Japanese;neighbor;planes;Russia;United States;US;war;World situation;World War II --- --- --- --- --- ::: 348 --- --- --- bomb;book worm;California Polytechnic State College;December 7th 1941;degree;dormitory;electrical engineer;false news;freshman;Japan;Japanese American;Monday;normal;one of us;Pearl Harbor;physics;professor;Sunday --- --- --- --- --- ::: 479 --- --- --- April;breaking curfew;brother;bus;California;camera;campus;Christmas;college;contraband;dark;driver;evacuation;family;father;FBI;fear;followed;homecoming;ignorance;Japan;Kobayashi;lights;lock;Nisei;pack;photos;policeman;president;protection;roommate;Roosevelt;San Luis Obispo;school photographer;signs;spy;suitcase;taxi;ticket;Tolure;travel permit;travel restriction;Treasure Island;vacation --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1117 --- --- --- Cairns;California;Caucasian;challenge;China;classmates;farmer;father;fear;high school;Japan;Japanese;Japanese newspapers;Kibei;Kobe;Lindsay;marriage;mistake;neighbors;nursery;paycheck;Pearl Harbor;politics;schoolmates;sister in Japan;stuck;suspicion;travel limit;travel restriction;war;war years;wife;workaholic --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1419 --- --- --- army bus;baby;blinds down;camp;car;Evacuation;farm;farm workers;FBI;food;freight train;Fresno;government order;guards;heat;Idaho;immunization shots;June;machine guns;May;nephew;Nevada;noon;one suitcase;recruit;Reno;sell property;silence;tomatoes;train;UNI Sugar Company;Visalia;voluntary evacuees;water;WRA --- --- --- --- --- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, part 2 of 7, August 16, 2003 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2003OH0372_02_Akagi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Description An account of the resource Nelson Akagi recalls his thoughts on Japan and Germany leading up to the war. He also recounts his reaction to Pearl Harbor and the state of his family leading up to their evacuation from Lindsay, California. He details his journey as they head towards the incarceration camp. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Akagi, Nelson: narrator Kunitomi, Darryl: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 00:29:51 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-16 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California Subject The topic of the resource Identity and values--Family World War II--Pearl Harbor and aftermath--Personal recollections Education--Higher education California California Polytechnic State College evacuation evidence FBI Germany Kobe Lindsay Nisei Pearl Harbor photos police Reno San Luis Obispo sister suspicion train ride travel permit travel restriction UNI Sugar Company Visalia voluntary evacuation https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/760f23bdbd9511d5581a5140f5758a00.xml 0b563c3e76afa6f20107ed7f60604480 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, August 16, 2003 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Indexing Metadata hidden field containing indexing metadata 0 --- --- --- 1910;arranged marriage;Cairns;California;citrus orchard;eight children;emigrated to America;Family;farm;farmer;father;Issei parents;Jack;Japan;Lindsay;make money;marriage license;Masano;middle child;mother;nickname;nursery;Okayama;olive orchard;Otuemo;San Juaquin Valley;twins;wife --- --- --- --- --- ::: 345 --- --- --- active;annual picnic;basketball;beer parlor;boulders;canyons;clear the land;discrimination;evacuation;farm;farming community;filial piety;food;football;Great Depression;happy;high school;house;Issei parents;Japanese;kendo;land owners;large family;lessons;mind elders;parents;pool hall;property;recreation;river;rocks;school;sports;swimming;swimming pool;tennis;track --- --- --- --- --- ::: 595 --- --- --- chase animals;church;countryside;culvert;English;farm;farming community;father;fell;fire;Great Depression;home;Japanese;Japanese families;Japanese language school;Louis Crick;mischief;mother;olive orchard;Sunday;trouble;water run-off --- --- --- --- --- ::: 802 --- --- --- 1-8 grade;2-room school;Boy Scouts;bus;California;Caucasian;community;country;discrimination;drive;family;grade school;Great Depression;high school;home;homeless;instigators;Lindsay;Los Angeles;Mexican;north;population;produce;railroad station;rowdy;San Francisco;semi-segregated school;shoppingprejudice;small town;strawberry;swimming pool;town;train;tramps;travel restriction --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1110 --- --- --- 1935;California;camp;cardboard shacks;Caucasians;Central Valley;children;compassion;coveralls;destitute;dirt floor;Dust Bowl;elementary school;Eucalyptus trees;farm;got along;Grapes of Wrath;Great Depression;grove;High School;house;Issei;Japanese American;Japanese farmers;Lindsay;lunch;Missouri;no shoes;Okies;Oklahoma;peaches;poor;prosperous;proud;seasonal;sympathy;workers --- --- --- --- --- ::: 1517 --- --- --- American meals;baker;bean;bologna;cake;Caucasians;chickens;English;family meals;fried potatoes;friends;gravy;hamburger;highway;homemade;jam;learning to cook;main road;Mexican;Mexican food;milk;miso;mother;neighbors;pie;rice;road kill;sandwiches;school;sign language;tortilla;trade;Tsukemono --- --- --- --- --- Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nelson Akagi oral history interview, part 1 of 7, August 16, 2003 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 2003OH0372_01_Akagi Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Go For Broke National Education Center Description An account of the resource Nelson Akagi recalls his early life growing up in Lindsay, California. He also talks about experiencing prejudice as a child, family meals, and the Okies that migrated to the area during the Great Depression. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Akagi, Nelson: narrator Kunitomi, Darryl: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher Type The nature or genre of the resource Oral Histories Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/m4v Extent The size or duration of the resource. 00:29:17 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2003-08-16 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. Torrance, California Subject The topic of the resource Identity and values--Family Industry and employment--Agriculture Child rearing Race--Racism Education--Primary education California elementary school family meals farmer Great Depression Issei parents Japanese American Japanese language school Lindsay Los Angeles mischief neighbors Okies Oklahoma prejudice