1 100 7 https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/6e5e14d03b7cc55cf28e39e2e814e2c4.pdf 11113b32953c5e161ae84732cf3856b9 PDF Text Text Go For Broke National Education Center Oral History Project Oral History Interview with Yoshio Nakamura, August 20, 2005, West Covina, California INTERVIEWER: Okay this is the “Hanashi Oral History Program.” It’s August 20, 2005, we are in West Covina. We are interviewing Yosh Nakamura. And the interviewer is Todd Ikutani, we’ve got Francis Carlos on video and Gretchen Inouye on audio. Yosh could you give me your full name, your date of birth and where you were born? NAKAMURA: I am Yoshio Nakamura I was born in Rosemead, California on June 30, 1925. INTERVIEWER: I’d like to start by asking a little bit about your early family life. Can you tell me a little bit about your parents? What their names were and a little bit about your life as a small child. NAKAMURA: Okay, well my father his name was Kanusuke and my mother’s name was Kune. My father came to the United States when he was sixteen years old. You can imagine, he left home and went overseas when he was sixteen. He traveled back and forth a few times between United States and Japan. And he married my mother and my older brother was born there in Japan. And in 1924 he went back to Japan with my mother and my brother and that’s when they came to the United States. And I attribute the fact that I get seasick easily as I have a feeling I was conceived on the ship coming to the United States. And during my early years (2:00) my – I have, my older brother and my sister and a much younger brother, so there were four of us with my father and mother, unfortunately when I was just about six years old I lost my mother. And so our family life was – we had to support each other quite a bit. So I was very fortunate that my older brother - is nine years older became almost like a second parent. He helped quite a bit, sacrificed a lot for the rest of us. And we had a farm in Rosemead at the time. It’s a truck garden. And I just remember you know going out to the fields of cantaloupes and things like that. We had to move from there because Rosemead Boulevard was going through our farm. And so if you can imagine if any of you have gone through Rosemead Boulevard, from Valley Boulevard to Garvey, there was no road there at that time. And it cut through so our farm was sliced in half and that’s why we moved to El Monte. And prior to that I was at an elementary school called Rio Hunter a very ironic that I started in Rio Hunter elementary school and I ended up in Rio Hunter College. But I had a very fine elementary school teacher, principal Ruth Greene Paul (4:00) she was just a great person and I didn’t know very much English when I first started so they held me back one year when I first started and the second year they boosted me back to my regular class. By then I had learned enough English. And when I moved from Rosemead to El Monte I was in the 7​th​ grade and generally – (break in conversation/technical fix). INTERVIEWER: Okay let’s go back to where we were I guess. NAKAMURA: Okay, sure. INTERVIEWER: You were telling us about the road going through your family farm. NAKAMURA: Yes, our farm was sliced off because Rosemead Boulevard was going through and so we had to abandon the farm. We couldn’t go across this divide and have a very good farm so we moved to El Monte and I had a very good experience in Columbia School during my 7​th​ and 8​th​ grade class there. I participated in the Glee Club and the young teacher by the name of Paul Gardner was director of the Boy’s Chorus (6:00) and he became a very good friend later on because he was working in the Whittier Union High School District as a psychologist. And then later, I had his daughter as one of my students. So we really quite a nice time. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 1 of 27 �INTERVIEWER: You mentioned that your mother passed on very early on. NAKAMURA: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little bit about growing up in a all boys household then. NAKAMURA: Well, I had a sister. INTERVIEWER: Oh, I’m sorry. Yes. NAKAMURA: Well, I really don’t know what it would have been like otherwise because that was our experience. But for some reason I’ve been very fortunate in having people come forward to help me. I’ve had some very good mentors. People would just step in and you know, be very friendly. And I had a very good older brother who gave good guidance to me. And with my sister I think who had the hardest time because you know she was growing up in this all male environment. But for me, I don’t know I didn’t know any better. You know, so I didn’t know what I was missing. It wasn’t until later that I married my wife and I had a mother-in-law who became a good mother to me. So I knew what I was missing, but it was later in life. INTERVIEWER: Can you tell me a little bit about your father? It must have been difficult to raise a family when you… NAKAMURA: Well he was – we had a very small what I would say is a agri-business because it was a truck farm. And we (8:00) grew like beets, radishes, carrots, spinach and a number of truck garden things, plus raspberries. We had a horse and we had a truck and it was a – I learned early on that farming was not my way of life. Bending down and picking weeds and wasn’t the most enjoyable thing. So I always seem to find other things to do. But I helped out on the farm. INTERVIEWER: You mentioned that the truck garden, were you leasing the land or? NAKAMURA: Yes. We were leasing the land. We owned our house but we leased the land. And we owned the other things that we had but not the land itself. INTERVIEWER: And when you moved to El Monte, did you also lease again? NAKAMURA: Yes, we did lease the land from there too. INTERVIEWER: Okay. Tell me a little bit about when you were growing up. Tell me something about, were you playing sports as well? What were some of your happy memories from those times? NAKAMURA: Well because we lived really close to the Rio Hondo and the San Gabriel Rivers there’s many times that my friends and I would wonder down and try to fish or just enjoy the birds and things. We took hikes or we would take bicycles to those places. So those were pretty happy times. As far as (10:00) my, in school made a lot of friends. In fact one of my teachers wanted me to go to Japan with her because she wanted someone to interpret for her. That was until she discovered that by the time I was in 7​th​ grade I had lost all fluency in Japanese. And so, she said, oh my gosh, I’m sorry I have to find someone else. But anyway, generally even though we were very poor I don’t recall you know, any really This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 2 of 27 �unpleasant time. We were fairly close knit family, we tried to help each other and our neighbors were pretty friendly. I used to “grandma sit” the neighbor while the parents, one was a banker in Rosemead and when they would travel, they wanted someone to stay in the house to just keep their mother company. And so I leaned quite a few things from - I called her grandma or mother Babbles. She taught me some things about religion. And about study habits and many other things. She took a great interest in what I was doing. INTERVIEWER: In those days did you do any Japanese sports like judo or kendo? NAKAMURA: No, we were too poor to take part in any of these activities which required tuition. So no (12:00) those were very foreign to me. I just knew some of my friends took – they were in Japanese school and took judo and took kendo, but no I… In my later life when I was a high school teacher, my students thought I knew judo or jujitsu. And so they respected me even though I really didn’t know it. INTERVIEWER: You mentioned that your friends were in Japanese school, were you also in Japanese school? NAKAMURA: No, no I was not. El Monte had a fairly large population of Japanese Americans in comparison to maybe other communities. I’d say in high school maybe ten percent or more were of Japanese ancestry. Another ten or fifteen percent were Mexican ancestry and the rest were Caucasians. INTERVIEWER: Let’s go to the high school years, what do you remember, what do you recall fondly from the high school years, activities, events and people? NAKAMURA: Well, one of my very good friends was Kenneth Morgan, he was a neighbor and he has been a good friend all through elementary, upper elementary school and high school. So we were very good friends and in fact I was taking auto shop and I helped repair his automobile and had a great time getting it done and when I started it up the oil poured out –-- so (14:00) it took a little while. And I also learned that perhaps that wasn’t really my profession either. INTERVIEWER: Let me stop you and ask you one question right there and ask you what kind of a car were you working on right then? NAKAMURA: I believe it was a Chevrolet. It was an old Chevy. I don’t remember precisely, but I just know that I probably didn’t put the oil pan on right or something so --- but my instructor helped me and I got it done right. But generally, I participated in student activities at El Monte high school and as I mentioned I was lucky enough because there was another friend and neighbor and mentor who was a year above me who kind of saw to it that I got some breaks so he nominated me to be in the Lion’s Squires which is the honorary service club at the high school and I got in and by the time I was in the upper junior year I was president of the Lion’s Squire. And I ran on track team. I think was all of 98 pounds so I was on the C-team and its good experience involved in sports. And unfortunately during the war after Pearl Harbor we were restricted from going beyond five miles so I could not participate in track events which took place five miles outside of El Monte high school (16:00). INTERVIEWER: When did you first hear about the activity that was going on in the Pacific? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 3 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Oh, sure. I was with my very good friend Kenneth Morgan, as a neighbor and on December 7​th​ I happen to be working in the raspberry vines. I forgot what I was doing but I was trimming them or something. I was working maybe picking weeds but anyway Ken came over and told me that Japan had just bombed Pearl Harbor. And I thought that was terrible news after all we knew the sentiment would be very strong against the Japanese with that attack. So that’s how I learned about it and naturally there were all kinds of radio reports and newspapers and what not that informed a lot of people later. But he learned over the radio and he just came over and it was a very devastating time for me. INTERVIEWER: After you found out, did you go home? How did your family react? NAKAMURA: Well, I think we were all dumbfounded. I don’t recall precisely what we as a family did. I think we were all very shocked about it. And In my mind I couldn’t imagine that a country that is about the size of (18:00) California attacking a big giant, United States and it seems at the time it was a preemptive strike which seemed like a brilliant military maneuver on the part of Japan, but it was also a tremendous mistake. In that it arouse the passions of the country who had no desire for war prior to that and got people fever pitched high in wanting to enter the war and to fight the Japanese and the Germans. INTERVIEWER: When you went back to school after Pearl Harbor had happened, what was the sentiment like at that point with your classmates and the rest of the people in town? NAKAMURA: Well yes, I would say that our friends were very empathetic with me. Seemed to be very supportive. Some of them you know at great risk to their own reputations were friends. But then there were others would call us names and I know that our – we still had the Japanese Lions Club and there were pounding on the door and things when we were meeting and things like that. I would say that a lot of people couldn’t differentiate between us Japanese Americans and the Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbor, so I would say that as propaganda (20:00) ground out more or and more wild stories about the Japanese as subversives etcetera that all these lies were permeating the atmosphere and newspapers and radio. So I would say that it was a very tense moment. And we were very uncomfortable. INTERVIEWER: You mentioned earlier that when you were doing your track meets that you were limited to the five mile… NAKAMURA: Yes. INTERVIEWER: ….five mile zone I guess. How did you find out about these kinds of rules as they were coming out. What was the mechanism? NAKAMURA: Well, somehow we found out. Because our school authorities knew that they couldn’t transport us beyond five miles so that was one of the things. And some of them felt that it was fair because the track team, let’s say in Monrovia couldn’t go five miles so there were tradeoffs in that sense. The students over there couldn’t come here and we couldn’t go over there so…very strange rationalizations that went on. But some didn’t see the unfairness of it but we certainly did. There were all kinds of knowing between the radio reports and newspapers. It tells us we can’t go beyond five miles. And I think we didn’t want to chance being caught outside (22:00) beyond our radius. INTERVIEWER: Did you have to worry about the blackouts? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 4 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Oh, sure. It’s amazing that if a farmer left a lights on by mistake. It would be all kinds of rumors about they have the lights on so that the submarines would know where the land is and you know and all that sort of things. Rumors spread very, very rapidly and there were blackouts and practice rounds of tracers shot in the air and this sort of thing. And it was a way of stirring up even more fear I think along the Pacific coast. So the atmosphere is extremely tough because there was a fear that the Japanese would bomb the Pacific coast, that they would invade the Pacific coast and periodically there would be some reports of sightings of submarine or something like that and then there were all these wild stories that people concocted about, you know the Japanese Americans were trying to do something to point out that there were military facilities in this area. And all of that was false but during tense moments like this, after being attacked, people were willing to believe anything. (24:00) INTERVIEWER: One of the things that you just mentioned that I’ve heard before from other veterans was that there were actual air raid drills and practice anti-aircraft fire coming from within the city limits and grounds like that; did you know where these installations were emitting? NAKAMURA: Well, I really don’t know where they came from, but we did see the tracers. I assumed that they were installations as far away as Long Beach. And some other places, I really didn’t know where they were. But there were plenty of noise, you know as these shells were burst into the sky. INTERVIEWER: Just briefly I’d like to go back a little bit. Can you tell me about some of the people in your high school and before days who were very influential in your life even as you went forward. NAKAMURA: As I mentioned before when I to elementary school, Ruth Greene Paul was my teacher and later became principal of Rio Hunter Elementary School. She was extremely kind person, took a very special interest in me and she maintained an interest for a very, very long time. And I was fortunate that her daughter was a first year, every close to a first year teacher at El Monte High School when I started there and she was the advisor to the Japanese Lions Club and you know we maintained a certain tie there but beyond that after our (26:00) evacuation; she would come to our camp from El Monte to Gila River in Arizona with her sister. There was gas rationing and here are these two women driving and so one of them would wear a hat, look like a man and get all the coupons that they could get to get their gasoline and would bring us things that we couldn’t get in camp, some utensils and various things, toilet articles. Some things that were very difficult to get. So she helped us and some other families that came from El Monte and she did this for a long time and it’s really tremendous. We have a great deal of admiration for her and we left some material with her because we couldn’t carry everything. And I could tell you that later on Mrs. Matalin Haley had married a Merchant Marine sailor and was living up north near San Luis Obispo and periodically she would come in to Long Beach because her husband’s ship would come in and she would meet him there and she was reading this Los Angeles Times, San Gabriel Valley Section about this teacher at Rio Hunter College and it was a big article about me and the collection we were developing at the college and she thought (28:00) Yoshio Nakamura I wonder if he is the same guy that I had as in the club and my mother’s student and so she called the college and to find out if there was some way I could contact her. And when I contacted her and by golly she was the same Miss Haley at the time and I was the same Yosh Nakamura and so she said she had some material that her mother had saved for me and so we got together and gave me a kimono that my mother had and some dishes and things that we had entrusted to her for safe keeping and she was so happy that she could find the home again. And so we gave those to my sister since you know she was without a mother and so I thought she would be the most person to have em. 29:14 End of Video 1 This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 5 of 27 �BEGINNING OF TAPE TWO INTERVIEWER: Okay, I’d now like to go into the area of relocation. MORISHITA: Sure. INTERVIEWER: Can you tell me a little about how you and your family found out about relocation, what you had to do and a little bit about the discussions that you might have had or overheard about what was happening at the time. NAKAMURA: Okay. Well, it was pretty well known that we were going to be evacuated by signs that were posted on telephone poles and other places. And there were these signs saying that all persons Japanese ancestry were to be reported at a certain place. In our case I think, Japanese persons – anyway, we were to report to Pasadena and we boarded a train at Pasadena. Friends of ours took us there. When we got the notice we had to take care of the property, we poor but we had a truck and we had a horse, we had equipment and we had farm implements. We had crops in the field and it was a tough time to dispose of all these things or store them. We didn’t know where we could store them so we sold a lot of things for a pittance. And we probably the hardest thing was parting with our dog and our horse, because you know they have become part of the family. But we could only take (2:00) what we could carry so we had to choose all of the things that we could carry with us. And we bundled all those things together and went to Pasadena, we got on this train and we had no idea where we were going to go. So as we boarded this train, our friends the Morgan’s helped us get there and after we got on the train we were all told that we had to pull the shades down and so we – you know – we really didn’t know where we were going to go or for how long for that matter. And you say, where there any discussions? Well, I think we were pretty much tuned in on survival. Trying to figure out what we could carry with us and what we really had to have so those were the things that happened. And since there wasn’t a whole lot of time we had to do many, many things. But once we got on the train we had no idea where we were going and finally we ended up in this town called Tulare and we still didn’t know where we were going to go, but as we got off the train, there were troops there and we were all herded out. And then we had to carry our goods along with us and go through town to the Tulare race track and that was (4:00) probably the most humiliating experience of my life. And I think probably for most people to be carrying what you could carry the women, children – you know – some of whom seemed to be handicapped and all the people walking to the camp and the towns people coming out and watching as if it were some parade. And it was just a terrible experience and we finally got to the camp and we were assigned what we’d call a barrack, but it was a horse stable which was redone in a sense of putting asphalt over dirt, manure and hay and so it was in May when we got there so the early summer months, the stench in the stables were something that just has never left me. When I think about it I can smell it. And when we have some checks during the night and there’d be inspections, those things seemed to be etched in my head. INTERVIEWER: Before you actually reported to the train station though NAKAMURA: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Was there discussion as to how this was happening from the sense of, was this legal? The constitutionality even of these kinds of things? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 6 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Oh, I’m glad you asked that because I was a junior (6:00) in high school and I was taking history, American history. And I was explaining to my teacher that there is word out that we would probably be evacuated and he said, well, don’t worry you are an American and the constitution will protect you. And he knew the constitution pretty well and so when we got the official notice, I had to say in a few days I’m going to have to leave. And he was stunned as I was that the constitution really didn’t protect me. And I think that we thought the constitution was put in a box and the “military necessity” (in quotes) was the overriding factor so we were under civilian law and we were under military law so whatever the Army decided to do well, it was law as far as we were concerned. So there was a curfew, there was a radio (?xxx) which we could go and then of course the evacuation. INTERVIEWER: Do you recall? -- Among your selves there may not have been discussed but in the larger community, in the outside community was the evacuation ever discussed in the sense that again, for the constitutionality of the legality of it? NAKAMURA: Well, to tell you the truth, when the Army says you are going to go; I don’t think we questioned that too much. We knew it was wrong, but (8:00) there was this authority telling us what we had to do so – I know that there were people who had stood up to this but there weren’t too many. Because there was a sense also that in order for us to not be looked upon as being disloyal and subversive etcetera that we should obey the orders, so it’s unfortunate that we didn’t have the experience that many of you have – you know – having gone through many civil rights betterments you might say. And awareness that we were not in a position to rise up and say, heck no, we are not going to go. We just felt it’s a better thing for us to just obey the law or obey the orders. (break in conversation) INTERVIEWER: We were talking about the relocation time and your time in camp now. You described your walk from the train station to the barracks the first time. NAKAMURA: Yes. INTERVIEWER: When the people came out can you tell me more about that, were they pointing, were they whispering, were they murmuring? NAKAMURA: Well, they seemed to be very curious of what’s going on. I think there were some whispers about – you know – (10:00) these Japs or whatever, but other than that I think they were mostly curious about what these people were doing out there, you know. A ragged army of men, women and children kind of trudging along from the train station to the race track. So I think there’s more curiosity more than anything. It just seemed that – we felt that some were kind of sneering at us, but by enlarge they – I think were just watching to see what the spectacle was. INTERVIEWER: How long were you in the race track? NAKAMURA: Well we were there from May to September. So it was in the hottest summer months and the central valley is not exactly the coolest place to be. So it was rather uncomfortable and we were confined with guard towers, barbed wire. So we couldn’t get outside of the camp. And we did the best we could by attending some classes, some volunteer teachers who were conducting classes. Nothing as I recall were too formal because we were not going to be there too long. Fortunately there were some people who came forward to help others. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 7 of 27 �INTERVIEWER: Yes, I’m a little fascinated about that aspect (12:00) of life right then, can you tell me a little bit about the self-organization that went on to support the community, the children’s needs, the needs of the other people. NAKAMURA: Well, that particular part of my life is not too clear. Just that perhaps it’s just been suppressed because it was an unpleasant experience just to be there, in a confined area. I recall that there were some religious services. They called joint services and by joint, it was Christian and Buddhist. So generally speaking today a joint service would be between those who speak one language and those with another language. But no, in that sense it was interesting. But I recall that we made friends and there – I don’t recall a whole lot of pleasant things about it or just that it was a feeling of confined. I do recall that my friend from El Monte came to visit me and we had to be in a room where there was a soldier present and it was like you see where a prisoner would have visitors something like that. And he told me years later (14:00) that he couldn’t talk about it. That it affected him so much. He couldn’t understand how a person like myself would be incarcerated because we didn’t do anything wrong. So he said it took him a long time just to even talk about it. That impression that he had certainly reflected you know the feelings we had. It may not have been as strong at that moment because we were experiencing this for the first time so I admired him for – you know, maintaining our friendship. INTERVIEWER: What was his name? NAKAMURA: Kenneth Morgan. He has been a friend for a long time. I would say that in El Monte High School when we had to leave there were many people who were unhappy that we had to leave and one of my friends who now lives in Whitter from El Monte said that when asked well what did you do when all of the Japanese Americans had to leave? And he said, well we just had to sit by the lawn and cry. INTERVIEWER: In September when you guys were transferred to a regular camp. Tell me about that part of process, was it organized well, was it by barracks, who got taken first? (16:00) NAKAMURA: I just remembered that we all had to pack up and some things were loaded on trucks. I don’t recall what we had, bags and suitcases and things. And we were taken to the train station and we boarded the train for Arizona. We had no idea where we were going. It was hot, and it was not a very pleasant ride. When we got to Arizona we were taken from there to the camp and it was very dusty. I just remember that it was warm, it was dusty and I think we were hungry. And so it was just extremely unpleasant. Just the site of all those dust it was demoralizing. INTERVIEWER: How long were you in Gila River? NAKAMURA: Well, I was there from September 1942 and till approximately. It was the spring of 1944 when I was allowed to go to Des Moines, Iowa with this friend who sponsored me and it turned out that his future wife, the girlfriend at the time, was working in the WRA office in Des Moines, Iowa so it was a very good connection. (18:00) And I lived at the YMCA in Des Moines until I was inducted into the Army and then I returned to Gila again to see my family. INTERVIEWER: When you were first able to leave camp to go to Des Moines, do you remember what you were feeling at the time? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 8 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Well, I was very happy to have the opportunity to leave camp for one thing and was somewhat bittersweet in that I had to leave my brother, sister and my father to do that. My older brother was living in Nebraska. He was working on a farm in Nebraska, so when I was going I felt I had an opportunity to visit him sometime when I was in Iowa. So that was one of the motivations and well I was just happy to be free of this dust and heat and the confinement. INTERVIEWER: I’d actually like to go back a little bit. I’d like to ask, at the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, many Japanese American leaders were taken away by the FBI, did you have any encounter with that? NAKAMURA: No, my father was not a community leader in the sense many of the other were so no we were not affected in that sense. My wife’s grandfather (20:00) was taken immediately and so it was a history of almost immediate incarceration of my wife’s grandfather. And fortunately because he was a librarian he knew something was going to happen so he was ready to leave, but there were others who were taken in their zori’s, in their bathrobes or whatever and just whisked away and were taken to places like Bismarck, North Dakota and really cold places and unfortunately they only had what they had on. So it was a very inhumane situation for that. INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little about camp, how it affected you and your family. NAKAMURA: Okay, well first of there was quite a bit of lack of privacy. Our family had one room in the barracks. There were four or five partitions so we had one portion of the barrack, but if you could imagine there were my older brother, my younger brother, my sister and my father and myself and so there were five of us in this one room. And in some cases where single people were living they had to share spaces. From that stand point, (22:00) first of all it was just one room and in terms of bathroom facilities it was communal and very lack of privacy. And it was rather indignant situation. You know to shower, to go to the bathroom etc. and to eat we were – it was very difficult to have a family life in this situation. So eventually the young people got together and we ate by ourselves sometimes and I would say the family life was really damaged by this evacuation. The mess halls, we all had to go to specific mess halls to eat. And we, - terrible food, we trying to just get together as a family. INTERVIEWER: Your father had left Japan for a new life in America, can you tell me about some of his feelings about camp? And his experiences in camp? NAKAMURA: He did several kinds things before he turned to farming. He was a houseboy for a while, he worked in a restaurant. He worked in some fields and then he decided to go into farming. When he was in camp, when we were in camp, the Tulare Assembly Center he was a very self motivated, self directed person and the fact that he was incarcerated without a real responsibility for things was very hard on him. So he would have nightmares and one night he had a nightmare and fell over from his cot and fell on this asphalt floor, kind of rough and he injured his shoulder and he was in the hospital in Tulare for a while and he was never able to regain any real strength in that shoulder after that and in a sense it was symbolic in being a broken man. He had lost a lot of self dignity and he was used to be on top of things and providing for us and you know. So it was a very tough time for him. So he was never able to become whole again. So I’d say that it was probably the toughest thing for him. INTERVIEWER: What education things went on in camp? As an educator yourself I think your perspectives on how education happened in camp for the kids was interesting. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 9 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Well, I’m not aware of what happened in the elementary school kids or others. I was perhaps too preoccupied (26:00) with my own things. The camp schools started with, as I recall we had nothing in these rooms. Eventually we had benches and eventually we had tables so it started with nothing and with very few materials with which to look at and books and charts and maps and all these kinds of things that are important for learning. So I would say that we started with very, very little. I recall that we had one typewriter in this class which taught typing and the teacher was very ingenious. She made cardboard typewriters and we – I don’t remember how many were there but it seemed like there were thirty in the room. And we would type for a while on these cardboard typewriters and then she’d say move and then we’d move and we’d move to the next typewriter and we’d go like this and we’d go from one cardboard typewriter to the next and finally we’d end up with the real typewriter. So we had practice for about once or twice during the class period, we’d actually be on the typewriter. But it’s amazing that she taught us touch typing and to this day I am able to type because of that training. And it’s been extremely helpful on my use of the computer. So I would say that this teacher was a (28:00) genius in that sense and to this day I can’t say for sure that I really wanted to learn to type that’s why I took the class or whether it’s because she was a very attractive teacher. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember her name? NAKAMURA: Fujitsu, I think, Miss Fujitsu I believe. Some of these names fade away, but she was an excellent teacher and rather disciplined. She kept us moving. INTERVIEWER: That’s great. 28:38 End of Video 2 BEGINNING OF TAPE THREE INTERVIEWER: It sounds like, as an educator, there was quite a lot of good high school experiences that were going on in camp. Can you tell me about some of the significant teachers in your life? And also some of the people who you knew in camp in class, your friends at the time. MORISHITA: Glad to do that. One of the things about camp is, we had a tremendous contrast of really good teachers and really poor teachers. If they were poor, they were really poor and if they were good, they were generally superior teachers. And so one of my very best teachers was a Miss Maple Shelton. We had the good fortune of having her as our English teacher, speech teacher, a debate coach and this sort of thing and she was from our standpoint fortunately stranded in the United States because she was a missionary in India and when the war broke out she was on our mainland and she couldn’t go back to India. So she volunteered to teach at Butte High School in Gila and she was a very demanding but a very compassionate teacher. So she expected us to be college ready and really worked us hard and very critical about our compositions and all of these things but she also was very, very supportive. So I credit her for getting me on the right track in terms of my future college education. (2:00) She helped me with really to read at a higher speed and to speak in front of the public. She was a very good speech coach. So I learned a tremendous amount besides the academic aspect of English. There were other teachers like George Nikaido who was my geometry teacher. He was a very kind fellow and I was very much involved in a lot of student activities and he came up to me one day and he said, you know Yoshio, if you stayed in class a little longer you might learn geometry. So I was called out periodically because some activity was going on and I had to setup something. But I did learn enough geometry to go on. There was a Marcus Deleon, taught Spanish, he was quite good. So there were teachers of that caliber who I think helped me This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 10 of 27 �along. And among the students, my fellow students, Kim Nagano who ran against me for student body president and he won, but I won a good friend as a result. And we’ve maintained good friendship all these years. Michi Nishiura Weglyn who wrote “Years of Infamy” was my campaign manager when I ran for president and she was a very good friend. (4:00) And so I had people like that, Mary Kurosawa her name used to be Nakahiro and she was at camp there, Leo Komai, just a whole host of people who I might have studied with, debated with discussed things with and in a sense it was very good experiences. I think we made the very most of what we had there. And somehow my father had imprinted in my head that I was born to be a leader. And I think it’s a very important thing to remember as a parent, you have high expectations for your youngsters and somehow anyway, I believed that was my destiny was. So I took part in all kinds of things that helped me develop my leadership skills. So speech was one of them and I became an officer and a number of things. And it’s amazing that all of that helped me as I went into teaching. INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little bit more too, I guess there were a lot of organizations, school organizations and clubs in camp? NAKAMURA: Yes. INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little more about that. NAKAMURA: Okay. You can recall that when we went to camp there was nothing. So we had to develop a student government and so I was fortunate in that I was, I believe I was the chair of this constitution committee. (6:00) Anyway, our group developed the constitution with the advice of a Mr. Freeland. And I thought it worked out quite well. And I was able to use the experience that I had at El Monte High School to help form this constitution and of course I had a lot of help from many of the smart people there. In fact in camp I was amazed with all the California interscholastic association members or society members. A bunch of smart people, so always I felt that gad, what am I doing? But that was one thing, the constitution committee and then I ran for student body president which meant that I got to know a lot of people campaigned and learned something about student politics. Then I was elected vice-president of our senior class and I was an officer in a number of organizations. and I seemed to be involved in quite a few things and that prompted my geometry teacher to say I should probably stay in class a little more. But all of these extra things that seemed unnecessary things but they really did helped developed my skills in speaking and organization, in leading people or provide some leadership in discussions and things like that. (8:00) So in a sense that was probably the most positive thing that came out of my experiences in camp. INTERVIEWER: Let’s talk about going into the military. How did you get your draft notice? NAKAMURA: I recall that I was given a personal invitation; I believe it was from the President of the United States. It’s amazing because, you know for a while, Japanese Americans were not allowed to join the Armed forces. In fact one of my good friends and neighbor in El Monte tried to volunteer after Pearl Harbor and was told they were told that you don’t need to apply here. So you know we receive this invitation and I was glad to serve. So I was in Des Moines, Iowa so I was inducted at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. And ironically I was inducted and put into the enlisted reserve so when I say I was in the enlisted reserve it is a true statement that there was a period in which I was part of the Army but still inactive. And from there I had a chance to – I knew I had to report so I went to see my brother in Nebraska and went back to camp to see my father, brother and sister and (10:00) I believe it was in August 1944 that I reported to Fort Douglas, Utah. And from there we were taken to Camp Blanding in Florida. It seemed This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 11 of 27 �that every time we traveled in the Army, except from camp to the fort we were on these cargo airplanes. They were noisy, cold and really noisy, but anyway we were flown to Jacksonville, Florida and then to Camp Blanding. And when I got there, it was a swampy place. And I was thinking to myself, someone really sold the government something. Selling this swamp land. But it was a pretty good training ground. It was an amazing place in the sense that I never had been in Florida before and there was a group of us there and they all happened to be Japanese Americans from Hawaii and from the mainland. And it was a whole battalion of people, a large contingent of soldiers training to eventually be replacement for 442​nd Regimental Combat Team. We didn’t know that at the time. But we found out later that that was really the case. So I was in this training camp and it was (12:00) – well-being in the military is not the most pleasant experience. It’s like farming, I was thinking about what it is about stop being one, a soldier. But the experience in Camp Blanding is really something. We would be out on marches and every afternoon there would be a shower. It was almost like clockwork. We would be out marching and the shower would take place. INTERVIEWER: Rain shower you mean? NAKAMURA: Yes, rain shower. And orders would come from way, way out in the front to put on raincoats. And there would be a voice command going from one place to another. And finally I’m in M Company, in the third platoon, you know, I’m way, way in the back. And finally the orders would come to put on a rain coat. But by then the sun was out. So then the orders would come back all the down again to remove our rain coats. So this seemed to happen all the time. I thought it was rather humorous that this would take place. But the training ground was the place that I think I gained a lot of personal physical strength and mental strength as well and it was also humorous in the sense that we had non-commissioned officers as our training officers (14:00) and they were Caucasian and some had a very hard time pronouncing names. And this one fellow was – not only did he have problems with pronouncing names, but he stuttered. So when it came to names like Matsushita, you can imagine what he would say. So anyway, and mail call, you know, roll call, mail call. It was kind of humorous and painful the way he pronounced names. But we learned how to protect ourselves and that was important thing. INTERVIEWER: Before you got to Florida, were you in a regular unit? NAKAMURA: No, we reported there, to the best of my knowledge, we reported there and we were part of this battalion. And we were all fresh. There was a fellow in front of me in my squad, his name was Nakamura. His name was Tak Nakamura. And I found out later on, fortunately my name started with a “Y” so I was behind him because later on when we were attached to M Company, heavy weapons battalion, my buddy Tak as we go down the line, he got the base plate of the 81mm mortar. It weighed about fifty pounds and he had that strapped against him. So I (16:00) being “Y” I was ammunition carrier. So that was not as heavy and it was not as cumbersome as this big base plate. This guy looked like a turtle. In many ways, it was an interesting experience but one I wouldn’t like to go through again. INTERVIEWER: Tell me about the actual military training that you had. You did marches. NAKAMURA: Yes, INTERVIEWER: But training to be a heavy weapons person. What kind of things did they make you do? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 12 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Well I don’t recall that I was a heavy weapons person at that particular moment. We all had to learn how to shoot the rifle. Go on the ranges and you know, we’d shoot at targets. Well just basic training of all kinds of things from hand to hand combat to using a rifle in many ways, using a bayonet, using various kinds of weapons. INTERVIEWER: When you were doing hand to hand training, some of the other Nisei must have known judo and jujitsu and other things, was that ever brought up in your training, was that ever discussed or ever talked about. NAKAMURA: Well, I really don’t remember that part. The non-commissioned officers were certainly not judo experts so they taught us basic Army training. That’s to the best of my knowledge and so to this day remember certain things (18:00) that I did with a rifle, but I wouldn’t want to do again. But anyway, and learned how to crawl, you know, to avoid detection, but a lot of that had to be with developing endurance from marches. I recall that we had breaks periodically especially in the afternoon and I was trying to learn how to play the saxophone. And so while the other guys were resting, I would stuff this saxophone with towel and I’d try to play. I was a poor player to begin with and the sounds woke up some of the guys and they were not very happy with me. And especially if they got drunk, so I never did learn the saxophone too well. INTERVIEWER: Now how did you get a saxophone during basic training? NAKAMURA: I don’t recall, I think I was loaned one. I think they had some instruments around and so that’s a good question, I just know that I was given one to practice with; and to the sorrow of my buddies. INTERVIEWER: Do you think it was part of the regimental band equipment? NAKAMURA: It could well be, I just, I think I expressed interest in learning it and one showed up, so that’s about it. There were a lot of guys who could play the ukulele because there were some from Hawaii. INTERVIEWER: Let’s talk about the Hawaii guys because I know this was always a big thing. (20:00) How did they feel about you and how did they feel about them when you first got there? NAKAMURA: Well, I think there were some tension. You know, the mainland guys spoke pretty good English and the Hawaiian guys, some were well educated, some were, spoke Pidgin English and they thought guys who spoke really good English were kind of uppity, up. So there was some tension, but generally speaking we were all in this thing together so. It was different from the original group that was formed in Camp Shelby. I just recall that when some of the guys got a little bit heavy with beer they would remember these guys who spoke too good English. INTERVIEWER: Did you ever have a problem yourself? NAKAMURA: No but I know that some guys, I recall some guys beds were thrown out of their tents and things like that. But nah, I don’t recall any real problems. In fact some of the Hawaiian guys that were in my company who I got to know better later when we have reunions they’re very generous guys and I very, you know, their hospitality is great. I’m pleased that we were together. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 13 of 27 �INTERVIEWER: (22:00) Being drafted this particular time when your family is in a camp, you are in Des Moines under very special circumstances, how did you feel about going to war? NAKAMURA: Well, first of all I felt that there is a duty on my part to take part. I was not motivated enough to volunteer. To say here I am. Because that incarceration kind of dulled that type of enthusiasm I think there were others that felt very strongly and I admire them for volunteering. But having receiving this invitation to join, I didn’t give it a second thought about not participating. And I felt that being in the Armed Forces was a way of showing our loyalty, so I did not have the feelings of some people who wanted to resist this. Perhaps I was too young and too naïve, you know. I just went ahead and joined and decided I would take part. INTERVIEWER: Were you ever concerned about the idea of dying, getting killed? NAKAMURA: Oh, well that’s a constant worry that soldiers have. Fortunately I was not in danger for a long time. My buddies who were original members of the 442​nd​ (24:00) and the 100​th​ Battalion and are living today; I just have a great deal of admiration for them. I mean they went through all kinds of dangerous things, fought a lot of battles and they were tested time and time again and they really came out shining, you know, heroically. But I would say, there were times there was danger and you had concern about some shell coming close enough to harm me. And I’d say that I had a good counsel from my buddies who had been there longer. Especially a fellow named Tom Kinaga, who currently lives in Palos Verdes. But he was in my platoon and I recall my first days on the front, we were climbing up this steep mountain in northern Italy and when this (in the dark) and then finally when the sun finally came out and we were near a farm house and he cautioned me about becoming too much of a target, that we had to keep yourself from being visible on the ridge line and it was very good advice because anytime that there is any siting of any activity there would be shells coming our way. So yeah, there was one (26:00) we were inside the farm house and the shell exploded and pretty close by and I think that as a result of that, it has impaired my hearing. And so it has affected me in that sense. But I know that one fellow who had trained with me from Idaho was killed in this one battle we were in. He was in a different company, but just knowing that someone you know has been killed is very sobering thing. INTERVIEWER: When that happened did you know right away? NAKAMURA: No, I didn’t know right away, but I don’t recall just when I knew, but his brother was in my company. So, you know, he must have been told and so it got to us fairly soon. INTERVIEWER: Going back just a little bit, when you were being inducted and all the rest, did you fill out a loyalty oath? NAKAMURA: Oh, well the loyalty oath was signed long before, I think I was still in high school. There was this wave of questionnaires that came through. And it was probably one of the most unfair things that happened. That will you swear allegiance to the United States and not allegiance to the emperor whatever it is. It was worded in such a way that (28:00) there was an assumption that you had other allegiances, you know. In a sense if you answered it, you were guilty one way or the other, but the most important thing is that they were trying to weed out those who had some sympathy for Japan. But unfortunately, it included those who had strong feelings about the unfairness of that questionnaire so, you know, they would answer, no. And so they were sent to Tulelake. 28:49 End of Video 3 This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 14 of 27 �BEGINNING OF TAPE FOUR INTERVIEWER: Can you tell me a little bit about from the time you left Florida and getting to go overseas, what kind of things happened from there? MORISHITA: Okay, well I want to mention that one time in Florida, something that is very good that happened. You know you get day leaves and you go to Jacksonville and I was having lunch in a restaurant and there was a man there, a Caucasian man and he tells the waitress, I’m picking up that tab. So it was a very nice thing. Also when I was there, one of my mentors from El Monte High School, Bob Berlin happened to be in Florida, so we were able to hook up and have a meal together. So that was a very nice thing. INTERVIEWER: Tell me more about this man who picked up your tab in the restaurant. NAKAMURA: I was just in there to have a lunch and he saw me with my uniform and unlike some people I think experienced being thrown out or not being served or – he was very generous and he just picked up the tab. Told the waitress I’m paying for it. And that was a really high point in my experience in Florida. Well, from Florida we went back to camp to see my family, (2:00) my brother, younger brother, sister and my father. And then from there we were flown by this cargo plane again, noisy, cold and hard seats to Maryland. And I believe it was Fort Meade, Maryland where we finally were housed and we were supposed to regroup and be sent overseas. Well, one day one of the medical officers spotted a person with some measles. And so from that day on, every day we would march and it was cold, you know, it was February, late February and we would march in front of the medical officer or someone who would view us and we would have to take of our pants off and show back of our buttocks and the backs and then they’d say, go this way, that’s for those who didn’t have measles, this way for those who had measles. So every day there were several people who would be going to the hospital. And before long there were more people in the hospital than going the other way. And I was one of them. So I was in this floor and in this huge barrack of a hospital and I was on the second floor and we all had these bunks and if you ever had measles, you are not really feeling too sick, maybe a little itchy but not very sick so, you know, the guys would get up and talk. And some of them would be playing (4:00) cards and you know, doing some things you probably shouldn’t be doing. And there was one nurse for this whole ward. And she happened to be an officer. And she got tired of telling, you know – so she said, I want all of you to go to your bunks and get underneath your covers and take your pajamas bottoms off and hang them up. Well, we all had to do that. And then she said, if any of you get out of bed, you are going to be court martialed for indecent exposure to an officer. So we had to behave ourselves. But the measles finally went through the whole battalion and the quarantine was lifted, but it took quite a while because every day there were more people coming in and you know showing signs of measles. And so finally we were shipped to New York ready for – to board ship to go overseas. And we were in Niyack, New York and as I was saying I have a very good experience there in that the USO and the community seemed to really welcome us and treat us very well, knowing we were going overseas. So that part was good. But about fifteen or twenty years ago, I took my wife there thinking (6:00) what a great place that was. And it has changed and it was nothing like I had pictured it. So I must have glamorized this whole thing, you know, in my head. From there we were to get on these “liberty ships” to go over to – in my case to France. And I looked at this ship and it looked like a row boat to me, you know. And I am not very good on a boat and so I started to get sea sick even before I got on the ship. But we finally made it and I was a pretty sick guy going over seas. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 15 of 27 �INTERVIEWER: How did the trip take, do you recall? NAKAMURA: I think we left, I don’t recall. It must have taken at least ten days. It seemed like a month, but we finally made it to Le Havre, France. INTERVIEWER: And you were seasick the entire voyage over? NAKAMURA: Well, I was sick quite a bit of the time. Let’s say I certainly didn’t enjoy myself. I learned to do some carving; we took the toothbrush handles and made the various pieces of sculpture and things like that to file away the time. And as I recall we had to do a lot of nonsensical work like chipping paint off, you know, and then painting. It’s like digging a hole and filling it up, just to keep us busy. No I was not a very happy (8:00) voyager. But we got to France and immediately – well, one thing that I enjoyed was when we got out was the Army crew there had coffee for us and it’s the first time I’ve seen coffee actually made from the coffee bean. The coffee bean was in the thing and you scoop it up and you drink the coffee and it was really quite good. And we were then taken to a railway station and put on some cattle cars. And again it kind of reminded me of Tulare. Because it kind of had that smell. I think they had rounded off cattle and they put us in. And it seemed rather cruel for us to be in there but, I understand it was a way of camouflaging the transportation of our troops from Le Havre to Marseille in southern France. And that’s how we got there and I don’t recall that we had seats. I think we just sat on the floor. Anyway, it was not a very pleasant trip. And as cattle cars, it seemed like much of it was closed. I just recall that it was a grueling trip and I was glad to be in Marseille. INTERVIEWER: What were impression; when you came into Le Havre for the first time there must have been quite a bit of damage in the countryside as well, what were your impression s coming here for the first time and seeing the results of war? NAKAMURA: Well, I don’t recall seeing too (10:00) much because we were in the harbor and then we were loaded up and taken to the train station. I don’t recall our spending any time there at all. And in the cattle cars I don’t recall seeing too much devastation and so maybe others did but I don’t recall any ravages of war at that time. I just knew that we were being transported; we didn’t know exactly where at that time. INTERVIEWER: Did you encounter any of the local civilians at that time getting on the train? Were they surprised to see a battalion of Japanese Americans? NAKAMURA: I don’t recall. There were a few people that we saw as we were going to the train. I think that they were more out of curiosity. I didn’t know any French. I think I saw more in southern France. By in large they were friendly and curious. I don’t know. I was young and just taking orders, going from one place to another. INTERVIEWER: Were you excited to be in Europe? NAKAMURA: Not exactly. I was not excited to – it was part of my duty to be there. It was just a new experience and from that standpoint, yes, it was some excitement in that. But not in the sense of looking for some adventure. INTERVIEWER: So tell me what went on when you got to Marseille? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 16 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Well, it’s not a clear picture in my head because we got there, the unit, our 442​nd​ had just finished with a very, very heavy fighting in the mountains in France, northern France and they were in a sense in a recuperating mode with some scouts going out to see if there was any activity near southern France. And I was attached to one unit where I had to carry some ammunition, but by and large we were there for a little while and then we were put on the landing craft to be taken to Italy. And then again this was not a very happy experience for me because these landing crafts are like these big cardboard boxes floating on the water not going too fast. So I was quite sick and we ended up in Leghorn, Italy. In Italian, Livorno, not too far from Pisa; Carrera which is a (14:00) marble mining area so we got there and it was – let’s say we were assigned to do pretty hard task of surprising the enemy. We were sent there in a special secret mission so our troop movements were kept secret and I know that later when we captured some German soldiers that were very surprised that we were there and some thought we had gone home. Some thought we were still in France, but didn’t expect us to be in Italy, and the soldiers seemed to have a great respect for our unit. INTERVIEWER: So they knew about you, the Germans? NAKAMURA: Yes, apparently they did. I understand that they – it was pretty well known in the high command. We were attached to the 92​nd​ Division there and there had been a stalemate along the Gothic Line. So our duty was to crack that line and my company was assigned to go up this mountain, in the dark, we were supposed to advance in the dark and not used to climbing mountains and carrying heavy equipment and marching and walking or hiking in the dark all presented tremendous challenges for us, but (16:00) we had to climb up this mountain a little terrace at a time. And one of the incidences that took place was as we were climbing up as I mentioned, Tak Nakamura had the base plate and we were hiking in front of me and of course it was pitch black so you couldn’t see anything. We could just feel our way and we were told to break, you know, it was a little message whispering down, to take a break. And Tak thought he was going to be leaning against the cliff and he leaned back and he was on the other side of the little pathway and he fell down to the pathway down below, the next terrace. And we didn’t know he went down until we heard whispers, help, help, help, you know. And finally we discovered he was down below us and we got him right sided up. He was like a turtle, you know, because when the turtle is on its back, it can’t do anything. So he was like a turtle and we finally got him right side up and he wasn’t hurt and fortunately we were able to continue. And we kept moving, it was tough. Tough endurance test for us, pitch black, steep hill, slippery at time, nothing to hang on to and climbing higher and higher and (18:00) so we finally reached this little farmhouse by daybreak and this is where I told you, Tom Kinaga who is a leader in our platoon told me all the things that I should do to keep myself from being a target and also signaling the German Army that we were there, wanted to keep those things a secret. So apparently they suspected something because there was some shell fire and that’s when one shell came pretty close to our building. And to this day I have a hard time appreciating the sounds of certain kinds of firecrackers. It’s like the sound of a whistling shell. I don’t recall other things other than pushing on and on. And we finally pushed on till the war was over. And we were able to go into Genoa. By then the war was over and we had captured quite a few German soldiers. INTERVIEWER: Take me a step back, the first mountain that you were climbing, do you remember which mountain it was? NAKAMURA: I don’t remember the name. I know we started from an area near (20:00) Carrara and Pietrasante those were both good marble places. I just don’t know the name. I know it is in our history somewhere but I don’t remember the particular mountain. I just remember it was very steep and very challenging. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 17 of 27 �INTERVIEWER: If it were pitch black, how did you know who to follow or how to get up the hill? NAKAMURA: Well, we each followed each other. And someone in the front figured out how to get there. We had what was a “el personale;” it was a native Italian who was working for the Allied Forces. So he would guide us. And that’s how we managed. This fellow guided us to the places that we had to be. The command, the 442​nd​ command and the 5​th​ Army command decided where we should be at certain times. and that’s I think guided our being at certain places and why it was almost impossible to meet some of those expectations because it was such a, you know, steep place. INTERVIEWER: You were carrying ammunition for the mortars? NAKAMURA: Uh, huh. INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little bit about when you setup (22:00) to fire. What did you do? What was the procedure? How did you get Tak’s base plate off of his back? NAKAMURA: Yes, well one of the one of the things you’d have to do is there would be a fellow who, I think it was a gunner, who set the sights. He would set the base plate down, another person who had the tube for the mortar, that had a little legs on it, it was attached to the mortar plate. Then the gunner would position the right angle, which the mortar would be fired and then me who would have the ammunition, would hand the shells to the gunner. At the right time, they would push the thing in and they would detonate, it’d go off. Mortar is relatively short range shelling and you do this just before troops go advance and you do this just before the troops go advance. Or if he’s spotted a machine gun nest, you know, try to knock it out with mortar. But its amazing piece of weaponry for the size, because it can do quite a lot of damage. INTERVIEWER: How many shells would you normally shells would you normally carry? NAKAMURA: I don’t remember. Seems like we had, I don’t know if it was two, I don’t remember. I just remember it was heavy. And I don’t remember that. INTERVIEWER: You said earlier that as you guys progressed up, you would capture German soldiers? (24:00) NAKAMURA: Yes, we did capture some. I recall that when we captured some, then some members of our unit would be assigned to take them back to headquarters, further back so they could be interrogated. So I was not one of those who took prisoners back but I know that this happened and I saw some of the prisoners and I’m sure they gave some information which helped our troops. INTERVIEWER: Did you capture any yourself? NAKAMURA: No. I feel fortunate that I never had to shoot someone personally. We did capture prisoners who were being interrogated and things like that, but they were already captured and all we did was process them. Take contraband away from them and things like that, weapons and you know, knives and whatever. INTERVIEWER: What were your impressions of the German soldiers that you encountered? This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 18 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Well, they were I think they were quite disciplined group of people. Some of them told use that they had run out of ammunition. They saw us but they were helpless. They would have liked to have shot us but they said they didn’t have enough ammunition. (26:00) And I said, oh, gee that’s too bad, you know. I would say, that after a while we had these various prisoners at various compounds and we were guarding some and I felt that they were just as human as we were. Well, in one of the camps they were housed, they had a musical. They enjoyed music and they would invite us, we were supposed to be guarding them and dance and sing with them and so I’d say, you know, there were a lot of humanity that was shown in spite of the fact that we were enemies trying to fight each other, but the war was over and they were going to be taken back to Germany eventually. Many of them were used to provide a number of services. When my unit the M Company went back to the United States, I was assigned to L Company and we later in the Florence area northern Italy and we were shipped back south to Foggia and the prisoners there did all the cooking at the officers mess hall and I had the very serious duty making sure the cooks wore hats. You know, (28:00) they had to invent jobs for us because we were waiting our turn to go back to the states and there weren’t enough things to do. And I know I had this big job being in the officer’s mess hall and asking the German cooks to be sure to wear your hats. INTERVIEWER: Did they speak enough English that you could communicate that way or? NAKAMURA: Well they understood by sign language and my poor German and their poor English, some of them understood some English. 28:43 End of Video 4 BEGINNING OF TAPE FIVE INTERVIEWER: Tell me now a little bit more about – you were there towards the end of the war – when you found out the war was actually over and how the people in your unit felt about V-E day? NAKAMURA: Well as I recall somehow that day didn’t make a tremendous impression on me. But it was a happy day of course. We knew that as far as the Italian campaign was concerned, since we broke through the Gothic Line and we had the soldiers, German Soldiers on the run that end was getting pretty close, so perhaps it wasn’t as big a surprise. But I think we were all very happy with the fact that it was over. And that we were able to go into cities in northern Italy as the allies over the fascists, so I’d say it was a great thing, but I don’t recall the fireworks going off or anything like that. It’s just a course of events and we were very happy about that. INTERVIEWER: Did the resistance – the actually battles themselves stop effectively – like when the… NAKAMURA: As far as I know the German soldiers gave up their arms. As I recall they even had a hard time accommodating all of those who were surrendering. So I think they realized that the war was over. (2:00) And so they turned themselves in. They had them large camps. I don’t recall any resistance after the war. There may have been, but I’m not aware of any, I think they were just willingly turned themselves in. Turned in everything, all weapons. I know we had piles of guns and various ( ). INTERVIEWER: So when the war ended, tell me a little bit about your duties that happened from there until you guys shipped back home. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 19 of 27 �NAKAMURA: Well after the war ended of course we were processing prisoners and taking away the contraband materials and housing them. Then we were assigned guard duty to make sure they didn’t escape. I don’t think they wanted to escape so it was not really a hard thing. Because of the guard duty, there were a lot of soldiers and not a lot of duty to perform. We had a lot of guard duty and at one point I was fortunate to have an opportunity in place of guard duty, I could go to the – there’s a Army college training or university training center at the University of Florence. When I had that opportunity, well sure, I’d volunteer to do that. And so I was able to take chemistry and psychology (4:00) at this training center and it kind of helped me with fulfilling my undergraduate work later on. So that was a very good experience, while there in Florence, you know, I was surrounded by very good architecture and art. So some of that kind of went into my being. So I grew more and more interested in the arts at that time. INTERVIEWER: Now this was run by the military? NAKAMURA: Yes, it was a military university training center, where they hired professors from the states to come over. And so I had a chemistry instructor from the states and a psychology instructor, pretty well known person and his name was Dr. Kerpendal (sp?). And very good instruction. I would say certainly better than guard duty. INTERVIEWER: When you were taking classes were you still in your military housing? NAKAMURA: Yes, well we were housed I think on the university campus. There were dorms set up and I don’t recall exactly how we lived at that time. But we were living near where the classes were being held. INTERVIEWER: All of you or just the students? NAKAMURA: No, just the volunteers who had taken this task instead of guard duty. It was much more pleasant and much better place. So wished I could have stayed longer. (6:00) But I just completed just two classes. INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little bit more about this just in terms of – you must have been able to interact with more civilians, more of the Italians and again Florence is just an incredible beautiful city. Tell me a little bit more about this time in your life. NAKAMURA: Well, I recall encountering some, they were friendly and I couldn’t speak much Italian and they couldn’t speak much English so it was, you know, hello and good-bye or good morning, this sort of thing. And maybe I’d ask where the bakery was so something. But I recall quite a pleasant encounter with the civilians there and also with the Army personnel there. It was okay, nothing stands out except my taking classes. INTERVIEWER: Did you go to the museums, were they still intact? Uffizi? NAKAMURA: Well, I know went to several things but I don’t recall. Having not had any art history or appreciation before then and so the names of the museums were not familiar with me at the time. But I know that I’ve seen some and some of my – fortunately some of my buddies were interested things that were cultural so it helped me. Other people have other interest so I was glad that some of my buddies (8:00) enjoyed looking at the scenery, hiking around going to see various artifacts around the city. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 20 of 27 �INTERVIEWER: So now you been, you’ve taken your two classes and its getting time to go home. How did the whole process of getting back to the states work for you? NAKAMURA: Well, you see I was there for a while and then we were assigned to various places and one was near Lake Cuomo and so there were some nice scenery. Then from Florence my M Company was sent home. The 442​nd​ went home, but some units remained and so at that point I was assigned to (Love)L Company. And we were assigned to Foggia which was an airbase in southern Italy. That was, well we had some harrowing experiences being there, even though it was a warm and dusty place. I mentioned that I was in charge of – making sure the German cooks had their hats on. But we were able to play basketball. The food was good. We had our own cooks and things. In that sense it was pleasant. We were able to travel once in a while outside of Foggia and one time we went on one of the Army trucks to Naples along the Amalfi drive. And from Naples we took a ferry to Capri, (10:00) the island of Capri so that was probably the most pleasant thing of being in southern Italy. And then coming back the driver of our vehicle like to play it rather close, we would hear the truck scraping the cliff as we were going around curves and we had wondered this was even more dangerous than combat. But we got back okay and the truck, the backings that we had for sitting down got worn out a bit. I think we had a fairly good time if you can call that fun in the Army because we had recreational time. And fairly good food and from there we were taken to Naples. And shipped back home. Again, we were on one of these little tiny ships. And again I was sea sick before I got on. But unfortunately as we were leaving the harbor the ship got some rope or something tied into the propeller and we were able to make it to the Mediterranean and out into the Atlantic when the propeller got wound up enough so that we were just floating. And so if you can imagine, a little boat floating was not a happy time for me. And finally (12:00) the tugboat took us to the Azores Islands and we were there for quite a while. We couldn’t get off the ship, but we were there so. One of the happy things that happened was with dollars you could buy fruit so they would throw up a basket with a rope on it, you know, we’d put the money and let the rope go down and we’d yell bananas, you know, pineapples, whatever. There were some nice fruit in the Azores. So we’d have some fresh fruit. And that’s probably the happiest time for being grounded – or INTERVIEWER: Stranded…. NAKAMURA: …Stranded there. Eventually we got on a larger ship and went into New York. And it was just tremendous to see this statue of liberty. That probably was more uplifting than the end of the war whatever it was that, you know, any other thing, just seeing the statue of liberty and knowing you are going back home was just great lift. INTERVIEWER: How did you first see the statue when you were coming into port? Was it a speck on the horizon that grabbed you as you, got larger? NAKAMURA: Well, yes. As I recall it was not a large form right away. As we got closer we knew what it was. It was just a tremendous uplifting experience. INTERVIEWER: And this was the first time you seen it? Oh, no you saw it on your way out? NAKAMURA: I don’t recall that we saw it on the way out and I don’t know why. Maybe I was too sick. I wasn’t interested in seeing anything so no, I don’t recall the statue of liberty when we were leaving, but it was sure a good sight coming back. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 21 of 27 �INTERVIEWER: Can I take you back just for a moment. You said that when you were going down, you had some harrowing experiences before you got down to do the guard duty and such; can you recount for me those? NAKAMURA: Well, this one experience of being in this farm house, as a result I think we got some eggs. But the shell burst near the farm house. I don’t recall that it actually hit it, but it made enough of a noise that it was really hard on my ears. INTERVIEWER: After V-E day as you were going back down towards Foggia… NAKAMURA: To Foggia, no I think that most of it was fairly safe. I don’t recall any bad experiences. You know there are reports of pick-pocketers in Naples and all this sort of thing; we didn’t have much to pick-pocket so it was much of a problem. INTERVIEWER: When did you come back? What month? NAKAMURA: I think it was September. (16:00) INTERVIEWER: So you heard about the end of the war in the Pacific by that time? NAKAMURA: Yes, I did. I think so. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember what the circumstances were and how you heard both about he bomb and the end of the war? NAKAMURA: I just know that many of us were horrified that the atomic bomb was used. Seemed like a terrible way to treat human beings but we also knew that we were in a war and that thing in war are not pretty. And one of the things I learned early on is war should be the last resort because there is untold human suffering in human lives, injuries and physical property and if you could avoid it I think we should always avoid it. And work out other solutions, sometimes you have to fight back, I think in the case of the Second World War being attacked and where you have a country that is treating people in such a way that they are being annihilated, you know, I think we have to step in. Like in Kosovo, you know, where there’s a tremendous amount of human suffering and there is a tyrant in power, sometimes you have to do that, but I think that all other means should be tried long before human lives are put at risk. (18:00) I think those of us who been in this situation where we know there is destruction. Decisions of this nature cannot be done light heartedly. And has to be thought through very, very carefully and unfortunately there are people that think that it is a snap. They think that it’s a glamourous thing. And things can be done almost surgically. But it doesn’t work that way. There are many other repercussions of bombing or shooting people. That you don’t hear about. So that has made a big impression on me it has been with me for a long time. I don’t see war as a solution unless it is absolutely necessary. INTERVIEWER: Let’s step forward, when you came back to New York, please tell me about the process of getting out of the military and what you did right after the war. NAKAMURA: Well, I don’t recall too much except that when I received my discharge papers and there was a stamp put on there saying “recommended for further military training.” I think that was the biggest blow that I ever had being in the military. (20:00) It was supposed to be a compliment, that I’m still eligible for further military training, but that was the last thing I wanted. I came back. I was in a reserve This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 22 of 27 �position for another couple months after I came back. I came back in September I believe and my official termination with the Army was in November so there was a period in which I was in the enlisted reserves, I was in the reserve position. And still in the Army but not quite ousted from the Army so I was very happy to get out. It’s not a thing that I would like to repeat. INTERVIEWER: What did you do then? When you got your discharge papers finally and you were allowed out. NAKAMURA: Well I went back to see my family in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. And my brother was working with a farmer there. My brothers, sister and father were living in a house in the town Scottsbluff. So we had a nice reunion and it wasn’t too long after that, that my older brother and I decided we’ll go to California and we drove here to California. And the hostility towards the Japanese Americans were still pretty heated up so we had a hard time finding a place to be housed and it was tough in that sense. But eventually we found a place. My brother, sister and father was still in Nebraska and he passed away; my father passed away in Nebraska while I was in California. Later on, we were able to bring them all, my brother and sister to California. And it was about that time that I started using my GI Bill and started at USC, and had some very good experiences there. INTERVIEWER: When did you decide to go into education? NAKAMURA: Well, I had several choices. I took a battery of tests with the Veteran’s Administration and social work, teaching, and art was some of the areas that they felt I would be successful so when I first started out I wasn’t really sure that, that was the way I should be going but midway through my art training I thought that would be a good way to utilize my skills and my interests and a lot of things came together so that’s when I decided I’d like to (24:00) give a try in being a teacher. So I took teacher training courses and fortunately some of those courses tied in with my master’s program so I graduated with a pretty high honors then I enrolled in the graduate program. And because I had taken some of these courses for teacher training as an undergraduate I had a kind of a leap forward advance with my master’s. So after graduating with my bachelor’s I almost had my teaching credential and I needed one more course and very fortunately the rival university UCLA; the head of the teacher training program looked at me and said you know we’ll take you in. So I did my student teaching and my second half requirement of my student teaching there at Emerson Junior High School and just had a terrific experience. And I had a credential and I was looking for a job. And there were many places that they wouldn’t even interview me and some places did and one place they had me come back time and time again. And finally one of the administrators that was (26:00) on the interview committee said we’d like to hire you but there is a board member that has a very strong objection to your background, my ethnicity. So it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Whittier Union High School district had a superintendent who was very open and was glad to hire me. And fortunately my wife had gone to the University of Redlands and one of her superintendent was a trustee at University of Redlands. So that provided a nice entrée. And once he saw my papers and my recommendations, he hired me. And I was the first Japanese American; first Asian American to be hired in the district. In the following year, you know, hired some other people. 27:12 End of Video 5 BEGINNING OF TAPE SIX INTERVIEWER: Yosh, tell me a little bit about your time at Rio Hondo? That whole experience I think is a phenomenal part of your life. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 23 of 27 �MORISHITA: Well, for eleven years I was a teacher at Whitter High School. When Rio Hondo College was formed, I was lucky to be the first faculty member to sign a contract with that college so I came in as a faculty member and chair of the fine arts department and I was able to help in the design, you know, as a consultant, design of the college on the hillside. It was an extremely good experience working with a small group of people for a while as they grew. And the college was on a small elementary school campus for a while with fountains which were about knee high, you know, we had just a very good start. And I was department chair and art professor for ten years and then along the way I was given more responsibility and in 1973 the trustees appointed me the dean of community services. So I had for a while dual responsibilities in community services and fine arts. But then in 1973 I was in community services and later on in 1980’s I was given more responsibilities in student services and eventually I became a vice-president. (2:00) And I say I stumbled into administration and I had responsibility at times from student services, community services and the institutional development. So I had a lot a good help all along the way. I had people who were very supportive from the board of trustees, to the administration and faculty. So I can say it was a very fulfilling life. I enjoyed it. INTERVIEWER: What did you like the most about being an educator? NAKAMURA: Well, I think it’s helping people. Sometimes it can really change a person’s life, so I think you can make an impact on people either in groups or as individuals. I think that is good, and being able to give back to the community some things. So I think it’s a type of service wear the people giving the service gains as much or more than the person being served. So I’d say from the standpoint of teaching and administration. I learned more from those whom I am trying to help. INTERVIEWER: So as I am looking at your life I am constantly impressed at the entire impact that education has been such a big part of your life. You also later on, went back to your original high school Can you tell me a little bit about (4:00) your (El Monte) high school. NAKAMURA: Yes, there was a member of the staff of the college, a trustee from El Monte serving on the board of trustees, and I happened to mention at a luncheon that there’s just an empty part of me that seems to be not filled up because I’ve always wanted to have graduated from El Monte High School. And he said, well let me see if I can do something about that. Well, I didn’t hear for a while and then the principal of the high school called me and said, could you send me some information about yourself? Whether you were eligible to graduate from high school and what you’ve done since then. So I sent him a bunch of stuff. My resume and I guess he was quite impressed. So a few weeks later he calls and tells me could I come to this meeting I think it was in February 1999, the board with like to present you with a diploma. I said, oh that’s fine. He said, oh you can bring a friend or two and come over. And so I went, my gosh the room was filled and television cameras were there from ABC and several reporters from different newspapers and couple representatives from the state assembly. And so when the diploma was presented to me well there was the mayor of the city of El Monte with a proclamation and the proclamation from the trustees of the El Monte Union High School District. (6:00) In fact they were giving me the keys to the city and that was just a big thing. I didn’t realize it would be such a big thing, and the president and superintendent of Rio Hondo College was there as well as some other representatives and some friends from El Monte were there. So it was just a great experience and quite an emotional experience because it was something that I miss getting and I was just happy to receive. And I felt it was important because I was able to relay this story about the unjust incarceration that no person of Japanese ancestry was accused and tried and found guilty of any unlawful disloyal act. And I thought you know that type of message has to gone over and over because some of my classmates still remember some This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 24 of 27 �things that they heard on the radio and read in the newspapers about our subversive nature. There must be someone in there, they didn’t find anyone and so that’s one of the things that I found very important. INTERVIEWER: I know that later on when Congress was dealing with the issue of reparations the relocation, you actually testified in Congress? NAKAMURA: Uh, huh. INTERVIEWER: Can you tell us a little bit about the process, how you were selected and what it was like testifying in front of Congress? (8:00) NAKAMURA: Well, this is the commission on the relocation of civilians. And it was a commission appointed by the President and the Congress. And this commission went around the country, various cities and when they came to Los Angeles, I actually requested to be heard. And I am sure a lot of people requested to be heard. But I was selected along with my wife and her aunt and so we had an appointed time. We went there and we testified before this commission. And the contents of it are in the Congressional Record and the contents are also in the booklet about the various testimonies. So that’s how it came to be. And I felt it was very important to give them my story because it’s a little different from many others. INTERVIEWER: Excellent. Now I know that another very theme in your life, and actually in your entire family’s life has been art. Can you tell me a little bit about how you started in art? How you first discovered your skills? NAKAMURA: I had again some very valuable people that helped me out. My very good friend when I was growing up Kats Arakawa was quite an artist and I would watch him and I think he had an influence on me. When I was in high school I did some (10:00) illustrations to kind of doctor up my essays that I had to turn in and it seemed to help my getting a better grade. And I did some carvings and things while I was in camp also. But I was in Europe and I saw some of the art there which kind of increased my awareness, but I had been tutored by some people like Richard Sortom(sp?) who was a watercolorist and when I entered USC and started taking formal art classes, I found that it was a good choice. And so I developed my art skills and in the mean time I seemed to have also developed my leadership skills because my fellow students elected me president of the art club. And it was a very active club on the USC campus. So from there I did all kinds of things that seemed to help me be better equipped to deal with other human beings. So it seemed like a natural step for me to go into teaching and I maintained my skill and interest in art. All the time from the time I graduated I exhibited in a number of places and my wife who I married in 1950 has been a very strong companion supportive companion and she herself is very good in art. And is a painter, photographer, digital artist and for some reason art permeated the atmosphere in our home. And so all of our children seem to have a lot of interest, so my daughter is a good writer and she is a very good photographer, but she is an immigration attorney. My son Daniel is a computer engineer and a mathematician and he is going to have a job starting Monday as a high school math teacher in San Francisco. But he is an outstanding origami artist. He is considered a master in this area. He does things from a quarter of an inch to twenty-two feet and then my son Joel is probably the most well-known amongst us as an artist because he did the “Earth Day” poster for state department and the poster hung in every US Embassy in the world. In the year 2000. And in the year 2002 he did the paintings for the printed programs for the openings and closing ceremonies of the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and those paintings are in the museum in Park City, Utah. And he has done many other things. So they are all much involved in art. We’ve had seven family exhibitions. My daughter-in-law Paula This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 25 of 27 �Stinson does paintings; so my daughter-in-law Kathleen was a art minor, but she does sewing and things like that beautifully done and perhaps the most creative thing she and my son Joel have done is they created two beautiful grandchildren who are quite good in art. The granddaughter Paloma just - we think is just a phenomenal small artist. She could have a solo show in no time. And my wife’s brother, my brother-in-law Larry Shinaga is a well known transportation designer. And he designed the stingray Corvette in 1963, Corvette and designed several of the Corvettes. The Covair, the Boss Mustang, recreational vehicles all kinds of things. He’s probably the best known automobile designer, you know, in the US. So we are a bunch of artists as well as we do other things. And I’m very proud of them, you know and they seem to support me. We support each other and we have a good time when we get together. We celebrated my 88 birthday in Ventura in June and my grandchildren got some things out of the driftwood out of the beach (16:00) and created some terrific construction. So we were happy group of people who do art as well as other things. INTERVIEWER: That’s great. Tell me a little bit about your own art though. What mediums do you personally like to work in? NAKAMURA: Okay, I’ve done quite a few things. One thing I’ve even done ceramics and I have some things that I’m fairly proud of that I discovered early on. But my talents lay elsewhere, so I’ve done some sculpture and I do graphics form etchings, wood cuts, lineo-cuts, lithographs, serigraphs and recently doing a lot of stencil graphic works. And I’ve done some encaustic melted wax painting. I do acrylic painting, watercolors, drawing; just about all forms of art. Digital art, I’ve done quite a bit work with the computer, so I enjoy doing all of these but recently my work has been in graphics that is I do monotypes and mono prints, where I print using hand power. Sometimes rubbing colors into paper using stencils or I paint on a warm or hot plate and print off of that and so (18:00) I’ve enjoyed doing art for a long time. And I have told my students that you can go to art galleries, you can talk about art, you can you know argue about art and all these things, but some day you just have to do it. And so I’m taking my own advice by doing more of it. INTERVIEWER: Excellent. We are coming towards the end of this tape, but I’d like to ask three questions of you. NAKAMURA: Sure. INTERVIEWER: Now the first is first of all, is there anything that I didn’t ask you that you’d like to speak about? NAKAMURA: Well, I think I’ve spoken quite a long time. I can’t think of anything just now. I’ve won a lot of awards as an artist and as a teacher, was the teacher of the year. The first one in the high school district and I was involved in community services and received national person of the year award there. So there are a whole host of awards that I’ve received including, fellow of the college award at Rio Hondo College. And just recently the Whitter Cultural Arts Commission honored me by being an honoree of one of their dinners for those who gave service to the community through art in a significant way. I’m very pleased with what I’ve done and I’m still giving back to the community with being on the Art in Public Places Advisory Committee. And I’ve been on for many, many years but now I’m off of the Whitter Cultural Arts Commission and at Hillcrest Church, the Hillcrest fine arts board; I was a chair for that as long as I can remember and I’ve fortunately been termed out as a member so I’m taking a sabbatical this year. This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 26 of 27 �INTERVIEWER: Awesome. Let me ask you my final two questions. NAKAMURA: Sure. INTERVIEWER: First is, what lesson should the general public take away from the experiences that you’ve encountered in your life, in the sense of service, but also as an educator and as an artist? NAKAMURA: Okay. First thing is a matter of losing one’s liberty. And that you should try very hard to uphold the letter and spirit of the Constitution. That’s one thing and to take someone’s liberty away, purely because of ethnicity, appearance, gender whatever it may be, I think is very wrong and I think our experience should strengthen our resolve to do better. Another thing that I’ve learned is you take every experience as a building block for something else. That’s very important. Regardless of whether the experience is positive or negative, that there is something that you can learn from this experience. I have found that certainly has helped me. Lots of negative things have happened but finding things that I can build on is helped. And trying to help others enriches your own life. Much more than you enrich someone else. So I think that’s another area, service to other is pretty important, and not only for others but for yourself. INTERVIEWER: Great, my last question is because these interviews become part of our collective Japanese American heritage, but they are also available to your family, your children, and your grandchildren. NAKAMURA: Uh, huh. INTERVIEWER: What message would you pass on to not only your children but their children and their children? NAKAMURA: Well, I think what I just said about learning from every experience. That sometimes there are things that you can’t change. I mean, you can’t choose your parents. And if you happened to be born with certain characteristics, you know, you take that as a foundation from which to build. So would say, you take every experience, every background and build on it as best you can. And I think that if you maintain a positive attitude a lot of positive things happen. And don’t like to dwell up on the Executive Order 9066 and the evacuation as being victims all the time. That even as victims we find opportunities so I would say, find opportunities with every experience that you have. INTERVIEWER: That’s beautiful. (24:00) All right, that’s the end then. NAKAMURA: Okay, I appreciate the time and effort that you people have put in. INTERVIEWER: Thank you for coming down and speaking with us. It’s tremendous that we get this opportunity, just to see, you know what your life and history was like. So Thank you. NAKAMURA: You are welcome. 24:20 End of Video 6 This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only by Go For Broke National Education Center. Page 27 of 27 � 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 Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, August 20, 2005 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 Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview transcript [full interview], August 20, 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nakamura, Yoshio: narrator Iketani, Todd: 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. 27 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 2005-08-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. West Covina, 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 2005OH0595_T_Nakamura https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/9498a8483e61261c9b05e3c5c3bf486b.xml b06e579c1936f59588c2533d0813733a 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 Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, August 20, 2005 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/595-Nakamura-Yoshio-6.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1925 Jun 30 Location of Birth Rosemead, California Incarceration Facilities Tulare Temporary Detention Facility Gila River Concentration Camp War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Yosh Location of Basic Training Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Rhineland Campaign Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns The Gothic Line 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/. Description An account of the resource Yoshio Nakamura talks about his career working with Rio Hondo College and being an art teacher. Next, he discusses his opportunities to speak out about the Japanese American experience in WWII. Lastly, he gives some advice to future generations about his own life experiences. Subject The topic of the resource Community activities--Associations and organizations Industry and employment--Arts Industry and employment--Educators Laws and legislation--redress and reparations Activism and involvement 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. 0:24:20 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-08-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. West Covina, California Title A name given to the resource Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, part 6 of 6, August 20, 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nakamura, Yoshio: narrator Iketani, Todd: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher 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 2005OH0595_06_Nakamura art Awards Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Congress education opportunity teaching testimony https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/5d157d270428fff5d4aea9711708ca92.xml b3f95b64b202ede6d9e4dd3ec228e760 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 Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, August 20, 2005 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/595-Nakamura-Yoshio-5.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1925 Jun 30 Location of Birth Rosemead, California Incarceration Facilities Tulare Temporary Detention Facility Gila River Concentration Camp War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Yosh Location of Basic Training Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Rhineland Campaign Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns The Gothic Line 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/. Description An account of the resource Yoshio Nakamura discusses the end of the war in Europe, and getting the opportunity to study some university classes in Florence, Italy. Next, he talks about his journey back to the United States, and the process of being discharged from the army. Lastly, he discusses his return to California, and then the steps he took to become an educator. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--Military service--Discharge World War II--Military service--Travel World War II--Study and teaching World War II--Prisoners and prisons Industry and employment--Educators 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. 0:27:12 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-08-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. West Covina, California Title A name given to the resource Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, part 5 of 6, August 20, 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nakamura, Yoshio: narrator Iketani, Todd: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher 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 2005OH0595_05_Nakamura college discharge papers education German POWs Italy military travel ship teaching https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/5a72b445da596810f6b132777195aa8c.xml 117652b0dbbac4821d46d1ebdf6eb381 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 Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, August 20, 2005 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/595-Nakamura-Yoshio-4.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1925 Jun 30 Location of Birth Rosemead, California Incarceration Facilities Tulare Temporary Detention Facility Gila River Concentration Camp War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Yosh Location of Basic Training Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Rhineland Campaign Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns The Gothic Line 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/. Description An account of the resource Yoshio Nakamura recounts a touching story about a Caucasian man buying his lunch, and then the process of going overseas to Europe, but his unit gets quarantined due to an outbreak of measles. Next, he discusses meeting up with his unit in southern France and then on to Italy for the fighting along the Gothic Line. Lastly, he describes night marching up an unfamiliar mountain, and German POWs. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--European Theater--"The Gothic Line" World War II--Health aspects World War II--Medical care World War II--Military service--442nd Regimental Combat Team World War II--Military service--Travel 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. 0:28:43 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-08-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. West Covina, California Title A name given to the resource Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, part 4 of 6, August 20, 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nakamura, Yoshio: narrator Iketani, Todd: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher 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 2005OH0595_04_Nakamura German POWs Gothic Line Italians liberty ship measels military travel mortar https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/b16bd6c0f7e84bdb2e208f12ddf221f6.xml 88db1f9ee3960858541bec88a055e098 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 Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, August 20, 2005 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/595-Nakamura-Yoshio-3.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1925 Jun 30 Location of Birth Rosemead, California Incarceration Facilities Tulare Temporary Detention Facility Gila River Concentration Camp War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Yosh Location of Basic Training Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Rhineland Campaign Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns The Gothic Line 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/. Description An account of the resource Yoshio Nakamura talks about his school experiences while at Gila River, and his involvement setting up student organizations. Next, he discusses getting his draft notice, traveling to Camp Blanding, and the training he did there. Lastly, he talks about his personal feelings about going to war, the invaluable lessons taught by experienced soldiers, and his thoughts about the loyalty questionnaire. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--American Concentration Camps--Education World War II--Military service--Basic training World War II--Loyalty Questionnaire World War II--American Concentration Camps--Gila River 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. 0:28:49 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-08-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. West Covina, California Title A name given to the resource Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, part 3 of 6, August 20, 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nakamura, Yoshio: narrator Iketani, Todd: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher 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 2005OH0595_03_Nakamura basic training Camp Blanding draft notice Gila River Hawaiian soldiers Heavy Weapons Loyalty Questionnaire student government https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/d9ff71222f7ce612dd4461997fe63a19.xml b37062811c7cfdc29d9369e869a8af70 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 Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, August 20, 2005 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/595-Nakamura-Yoshio-2.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1925 Jun 30 Location of Birth Rosemead, California Incarceration Facilities Tulare Temporary Detention Facility Gila River Concentration Camp War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Yosh Location of Basic Training Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Rhineland Campaign Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns The Gothic Line 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/. Description An account of the resource Yoshio Nakamura recounts the experiences of evacuation to the Tulare Temporary Detention Facility. Next, he describes the transfer from Tulare to the Gila River Concentration Camp. Lastly, he discusses his father's difficulty living in the camps, what it was like to live in the camps, and the educational facilities and the ingenuity of one typing teacher. Subject The topic of the resource World War II--American Concentration Camps--Gila River World War II--Temporary Detention Facilities--Tulare World War II--American Concentration Camps--Education World War II--American Concentration Camps--Facilities, services and camp administration World War II--American Concentration Camps--Medical care and health issues 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. 0:28:38 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-08-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. West Covina, California Title A name given to the resource Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, part 2 of 6, August 20, 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nakamura, Yoshio: narrator Iketani, Todd: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher 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 2005OH0595_02_Nakamura concentration camps education father Gila River injury teacher Temporary Detention Facilities Tulare https://ndajams.omeka.net/files/original/34b3c9840c4bb04a9d16c4d277c41c8c.xml 437a9d8aa8571e7253c5b02b88829967 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 Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, August 20, 2005 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. URL http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/595-Nakamura-Yoshio-1.m4v Date of Birth [YYYY-MM-DD] 1925 Jun 30 Location of Birth Rosemead, California Incarceration Facilities Tulare Temporary Detention Facility Gila River Concentration Camp War or Conflict World War, 1939-1945 Branch of Service Army Entrance into Service Drafted or Volunteered Drafted Nickname Yosh Location of Basic Training Camp Blanding, Florida Unit of Service 442nd Regimental Combat Team Campaigns/Battles Rhineland Campaign Northern Apennines and Po Valley Campaigns The Gothic Line 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/. Description An account of the resource Yoshio Nakamura begins the interview with his family's background, how the family adapted to life without a mother, and the family's farming business. Next, he describes his elementary and high school experiences and activities. Lastly, he recounts learning about Pearl Harbor, the community's reactions, and his elementary teacher visiting him and other Japanese Americans at the Gila River Concentration Camp. Subject The topic of the resource Education--Primary education Industry and employment--Agriculture World War II--American Concentration Camps--Gila River World War II--Pearl Harbor and aftermath Education--Secondary education 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. 0:29:14 Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-08-20 Spatial Coverage Spatial characteristics of the resource. West Covina, California Title A name given to the resource Yoshio Nakamura oral history interview, part 1 of 6, August 20, 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nakamura, Yoshio: narrator Iketani, Todd: interviewer Go For Broke National Education Center: publisher 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 2005OH0595_01_Nakamura Blackouts brothers Farming father Gila River Pearl Harbor sister teacher