Memories of Japanese American Incarceration, Across Generations
Speaker 1: 00:00 Since the start of the pandemic, Asian Americans around the state have faced racist attacks in recent weeks that violence has intensified an 84 year old man died after being violently attacked in late January in his San Francisco neighborhood, a 91 year old man was pushed to the ground in Oakland's Chinatown neighborhood. Earlier this month and here in San Diego, a Filipino woman in her eighties was attacked while riding on the trolley, the anti-Asian violence we're seeing today evokes a painful time in history for Japanese Americans Friday, Mark the anniversary of president Roosevelt's executive order that forced some 120,000 people into incarceration camps during world war II, as part of the Yancy memory projects, collaboration with StoryCorps today, we're bringing you a conversation between lifelong friends, 95 year old Gary's who DAMA an 88 year old Yutaka Yamamoto. They talk about their memories of Japanese American incarceration camps during world war two and how they adjusted to life afterward. Gary starts us off. Speaker 2: 01:07 We're very close friends from way back. We've known each other since, uh, 1951. My dad came over from Hiroshima when he was 16 years old. So he came into the city of Stockton and opened up a grocery store. My dad was getting ready to transfer everything over to my second oldest brother, Ben. And that's when the war broke out. So we were not given a notice of one week to clean up our business. So my dad went around Stockton to find out some grocer who buy the stock that was in the store. He found a store and buy it all at 60 cents on the dollar. My dad had agreed to it and then he waited and waited for them to come pick it up. They, before we had to leave, he came and gave my dad 15 cents on a dollar and my dad had no way to get out of it. So he took it Speaker 3: 02:16 1941. A state law has existed between the United States and the Gaffney standby. Speaker 2: 02:29 The thing I remember most was that from December 7th on every day, the teacher that I had was a Caucasian lady. She would turn the radio. Speaker 3: 02:40 They're nice. No broadcasting company brings you the latest news from the far East, the war zone. I'm from it. Speaker 2: 02:45 The news naturally was about the war and the Japanese. At that time, nobody said we were Japanese, that he was a nickname Jack. And that was of the slangs that I, to this day, I I've never forgotten. It's very painful to hear people call you a jab. I remember that was a big shock. I remember going to school. I think I was in the fourth grade then and I told my teacher who was a Caucasian. I won't be coming to school from tomorrow. And her only reply was, Oh, no, not no goodbyes or nothing. I never forgot that incidents because my home life also took a drastic change. My parents ran a laundry business in Chinatown, after the notices were put up around the neighborhood, stating that all people of a Japanese interest must move by a certain date. And it was about seven days, seven days, seven days, the government would allow us only what we can carry into the camps. So we couldn't take our furnitures automobiles radios. If it contained the short-wave van. For some reason, my dad and my mother had sense enough to, uh, one of the first thing they did was, uh, bought five dinner set made out of metal, one fan electric fan one hot pan and a five sleeping bag. They had sense enough to buy those items to take into camp because we could only carry, bring what we can carry. Speaker 2: 04:37 A lot of the public was not aware of the fact that we were put into camps. I hope nothing like that happens again to any nationality. We went through to an assembly center and we were there for about six months. And then we were supposed to go to roar Arkansas. My oldest brother had a TB and he was in a Sanitarium. So the government told us any family has a sibling with TB free, go to Arizona where it's dry climate. They will send their sibling there. Well, we went to Arizona and our brothers weren't sent there. So that's the second time the government and I didn't get along or ended. Uh, my parents received a letter from, from their parents saying that, uh, uh, don't come back to Japan because there's no place to raise a family. So my dad decided to come back to Fresno. We couldn't, uh, walk around and feel comfortable. Never miss somebody would either drive by a walk by and they would look at us and say you dirty, nothing would round me up more than to hear a person call me at Jack. Speaker 2: 06:17 And I was drafted into the Korean war. And then when my time came after two years to service, they shipped me home. And as they came home to Alamosa Colorado, I packed up and left the family to come to Fresno. My second oldest brother Ben was living now live with them. And I started to go to Fresno state. That's when I met your taco guy was working for the gas station and you won't buy the gas station quite often, but I finally met him and we've been good friends. Yeah. 70 odd years. And the other thing that I remember is Ronald Reagan's time when we got the reparation, the American government, uh, allocated $20,000 to each person that was put into the camp. Each person knows a life rich wasn't enough. Speaker 1: 07:32 You've just heard a conversation between lifelong friends, Gary Sue DAMA, and Yutaka Yamamoto. They were speaking as part of a collaboration between StoryCorps and the Yonsei memory project, which is an intergenerational effort to capture the voices of Japanese Americans in the central Valley.
