The Center for Oral History (COH) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is seeking to interview individuals who, as young Japanese Americans during World War II, were removed from their places of study, training, or employment on the West Coast and incarcerated in various assembly centers and relocation camps.
COH was recently awarded a grant to undertake the research/interviewing project entitled “Captive on the U.S. Mainland: Oral Histories of Hawaii-born Nisei.” The grant was awarded by the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program administered by the National Park Service.
There were over 3,000 Japanese American students enrolled in institutions of higher learning in California, Washington, and Oregon at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Among these students were a few from Hawaii, including men and women seeking not only bachelor’s degrees but advanced degrees in fields for which training was not available in the islands. In addition to students, there were Hawaii-born Japanese Americans who were employed on the West Coast.
The Center for Oral History through documentary research and community contacts, is attempting to locate Hawaii-born individuals who were working, training, or studying on the West Coast at the time of wartime incarceration. The interviews will focus on such topics as: their childhood and youth in Hawaii, prewar experiences on the West Coast, incarceration and release, and postwar lives.
The goal of this research/interviewing project is to educate the public that World War II confinement and its impact was not limited to the older, more established Hawaii Japanese and their families. Rather, Hawaii Nisei – striving to realize the American Dream on the West Coast –were not immune to confinement and its impact.
Anyone with knowledge of persons able and willing to participate in this interviewing project may call project director Warren Nishimoto at 808-956-6260 or send e-mail to wnishimo@hawaii.edu.