Paul Yamashita oral history interview, part 1 of 5, September 26, 2003

The interview begins with Paul Yamashita talking about his life, growing up in Hakalau Hawaii on a sugarcane plantation. He would attend regular and Japanese school and enjoyed playing games with friends and pounding mochi on New Years. Next, he talks about his family background, as his family would pass away, he and his siblings would live in orphanages on Hilo, until they finished high school. After that, he would move to Honolulu and work as a carpenter for the US Engineering Department. While there, he would experience the attacks on Pearl Harbor, seeing planes fly overhead and black smoke in the distance. He decided he would volunteer for the Army, saying that was the way he thought people would accept the Japanese Americans as Americans. He would get shipped from Honolulu to Camp Shelby in Mississippi.

video/m4v

0:28:43

2003OH0381_01_Yamashita

http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/381-Yamashita-Paul-1.m4v

1920 Dec 09

Yes