Below are four short transcripts from stories collected by Densho. Read the transcripts and then go to
Densho.org/Times
to hear and see the video of these four
individuals sharing their stories. While there, you may want to browse the more than 1,200 hours of video or 10,000 historic photos and documents available.
How can you learn history from those who were witness to it?
“You people bombed Pearl Harbor.”
In 1941, Aki was a 16-year-old Seattle high school student.
Aki later became a teacher in the Seattle Public Schools.
The Aki Kurose Middle School in South Seattle is named
after her.
“Well, I had just come home from church. And then we
kept hearing, ‘Pearl Harbor was bombed, Pearl Harbor
was bombed.’ I had no idea where Pearl Harbor was. My
geography was not that sophisticated. I had no idea, and
my father said, ‘Uh-oh, there is going to be trouble.’ And I
said, ‘Well, how come? ... Why should it bother me? You
know, I’m an American.’
And, then when I went back to school the following morning, December 8, one of
the teachers said, ‘You people bombed Pearl Harbor.’ And I said, ‘My people?’ All of
a sudden my Japaneseness became very aware to me ... I no longer felt like an equal
American.” — Densho interview, 1997
Aki Kurose
Courtesy of Densho
“The soldiers were the ones that
were crying.”
Walt was a young publisher of the
Bainbridge Island Review
when World War II started. Although it caused him to
lose advertisers, Walt published a weekly article about life
inside the camps written by various Bainbridge Islanders
incarcerated at Manzanar and Minidoka. This press coverage
helped make Bainbridge Island more welcoming to Japanese
Americans when they returned after the war. In this
interview, Walt recalls a scene from 1942, when Japanese
Americans from Bainbridge Island, Washington, were being
loaded on trains in Seattle.
“And they put them on a train and ... some of our kids ... ran along side the train, until
the train was moving at a pretty good clip and they couldn’t keep up anymore ... And
there were tears, tears on everyone’s faces ... The soldiers were the ones that were crying.
They knew, finally, what they really were doing and it just got to ‘em.”
— Densho interview, 1998
Walt Woodward
Courtesy of Densho
“History doesn’t repeat itself, it’s people
that repeat history.”
Nadine is a Muslim American whose experience post-9/11
is strikingly similar to that of Japanese Americans post-Pearl
Harbor. She recounts a frightening episode when federal
agents raided her family home in the early morning hours a
few months after September 11, 2001. She and her parents
were detained at the Seattle Immigration and Naturalization
Service Center for nine months. Eventually, Nadine and
her parents were released and granted permanent
resident status.
“My parents and I moved up here to Seattle ten years ago, in ‘92. When September 11
happened, and fifteen FBI and U.S. marshals and two INS agents razed our home, the
first thing I thought about was Pearl Harbor happening all over again ...
History doesn’t repeat itself, it’s people that repeat history. And if we just keep letting
that history repeat, we’re never going to get anywhere. I mean, I don’t want it to happen
to me, and I don’t want it to happen to others.” — speech at Densho event, 2003
Nadine Hamoui
Courtesy of Densho
“Right after September 11 they were
saying, ‘Take all of these Arab Americans
and Muslims and put them in camps.’”
Norman Mineta was incarcerated as a child at the Heart
Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming. He was
later elected to Congress, and served as Secretary of
Transportation under President George W. Bush. In this
interview, he describes a meeting of the U.S. Cabinet and
Congressional leaders the day after the terrorist acts on
September 11, 2001.
“Well, there’s no question that right after September 11 they were saying, ‘Take all these
Arab Americans and Muslims and put them in camps.’ And I said, ‘I don’t believe this.
What am I hearing?’ And so on September 12 there was a cabinet meeting, and it was
with the members of the Democratic and Republican leadership from the Congress.
Towards the end of the meeting, Congressman David Bonior from Michigan who was
the Democratic Whip, said, ‘Mr. President, we have a very large population of Arab
Americans in Michigan, and they’re very concerned about what’s happening, and about
what they’re hearing on the radio, television and reading in the paper about some of
the security measures that might be taken relating to transportation.’ And the President
said, ‘David, you’re absolutely correct. We are also concerned about this, and we want to
make sure that what happened to Norm in 1942 doesn’t happen today.’”
— Densho interview, 2008
Norman Mineta
Courtesy of Densho
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