Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Sue Tokushige tells her audience at West Valley College that she was moved to an internment camp just 10 days after her baby was born.

Speakers share stories about Japanese internment camps

Many in audience had not heard of these times

By Leigh Ann Maze

During a presentation on Japanese internment camps in America during World War II at West Valley College, several people in the audience said they had never heard of such camps. By the end of the presentation on March 21, they had learned all about this time in American history through the stories of people's lives.

Megumi, a Los Gatos performance artist and storyteller, moderated the discussion among a panel of six guests. The panel was made up of three women who were interned in the camps; two women whose parents or grandparents had been interned; and one woman who is an activist on the issue. The guests spent most of the two-hour presentation answering questions from the audience of about 50 people. Their answers were their personal stories, illustrating life in the camps, and how the experiences affected them.

Speaker Aki Okuno recalled how her father tried to get rid of any incriminating evidence of allegiance to Japan, before the internment. He burned the family's Buddhist altar and cut the blades of the long sashimi-knives. Megumi said it was not uncommon for families to destroy or burn traditional Japanese items and photographs.

Speaker Sue Tokushige was a young mother of 20, with a 10-day-old baby, when she was sent to a camp in Arizona with her husband. She said the government did not supply milk for her baby. Because she was unable to breastfeed, she fed her daughter only water for 10 days. She recalls with glassy eyes how a doctor told her that, for a person who seemed well-educated, she did not take good care of her baby. "My daughter still pays for it today, health-wise, for the way our government treated us," Tokushige said.

The speakers said that they had only a few days or weeks to give away or sell their personal belongings before going to the camps. One speaker said her family sold their truck for $20.

Some, like speaker Eiko Yamaichi, were able to store their belongings with a trusted friend. But most Japanese, they said, had to start over with what they carried out of the camps. Speaker Julee Ogawa's family returned to find the shed where they stored their belongings, vandalized.

The speakers recalled other details of life in the camps, such as the pervasive dust, the straw-filled mattresses, the bits of cardboard they hung in the public restrooms for privacy, and the jobs they held and the schools they attended.


Photograph by Kathy De La Torre

Los Gatan Megumi, a performance artist and bilingual storyteller gives a brief history of the internment camps. The picture behind her suggests the mood on the West Coast at the time.




The presentation was organized by the WVC English Department and sponsored by the WVC library, as part of a series of presentations for Women's History Month. Megumi and her guests were introduced to WVC by a close friend, Miyoko Osone, who emigrated to the United States from Japan eight years ago with her husband, and is now a student at WVC.

Megumi gave a brief overview of the history of Japanese-Americans in the U.S. through a presentation of photographs, including images of the speakers' families. She began the brief history lesson at the turn of the century and ended with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the 1942 internment of Americans of Japanese descent living in the Western United States. Megumi then turned the discussion over for questions from the audience.

Many of the speakers have become activists, educating school children about the camps. They lobbied for an apology and redress from the U.S. government, which finally came in 1990.

Tokushige testified before Congress about her experiences in the camps. Many of the speakers will make a pilgrimage to the Tule Lake internment camp in Northern California this July.

"Although we were denied our constitutional rights I would hate to see them denied to any other person," said Okuno, who was 15 when she was sent to a camp with her family. "That is why it has been my endeavor to educate people, so that they will be constantly aware and not let this kind of thing happen again."

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A collection of Megumi's photographs on Japanese internment camps will be on display in the West Valley College Library until April 5.

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