Kenji Kawano oral history interview part 1 of 3, May 16, 2007

Kawano begins the interview speaking about his family background including his father, that was involved in World War Two. He talks about the samurai spirit and childhood values that would lead him to a career in graphic design and then photography. At the age of 22, he would move to America to pursue his passion of photography, and while there would find that he had an interest in the Navajo code talkers. He began a project in which he would talk with and photograph the Native American code talkers and publish them in a book. Next, he talks about responses to the book and the process for how it was all put together. He would go on to work more with code talkers and even get some of his work into the Windtalkers movie. He talks about the Native American soldiers and how meaningful they were to the war.

video/m4v

1:01:36

2007OH0767_01_Kawano

http://www.goforbroke.org/oral_histories/mp4/767-Kawano-Kenji-1.m4v

1949-06-21

Yes