Densho

In addition to highlighting her voice in the Catalyst, we also wanted to share a clip from one of Satsuki’s oral history interviews with Densho from 2019. We share this clip as the twelfth installment of our 30 Stories for 30 Years series.

On this Memorial Day, we want to share an oral history interview of decorated World War II veteran and member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Fred Shiosaki, describing the rescue of the "Lost Battalion” in World War II.

We are heartbroken by the passing of Kyoko Nancy Oda, a giant in the Nikkei community and one of our oral history narrators.

In honor of Densho’s 30th anniversary, we wanted to share a special message from our staff. These are 30 words reflecting our mission and symbolically representing our 30 years of existence. This statement captures our commitment to the past, present, and future.

“I remember breaking down and crying. I couldn't explain to her why I had given up that name and how because I had recently regained my feeling of pride and everything, I didn't want to use it because it was special now.”

Densho Oral History Program Manager Virginia Yamada describes the importance of documenting present-day voices and experiences as we live through historically significant and unprecedented events that demand critical attention and documentation.

“If I couldn’t accept curfew, how could I accept this? … I couldn’t, I can’t accept it. It’s worse.”

In the tenth installment of our 30 Stories for 30 Years series, George Yamada describes how he chose to pursue a chick sexer career.

“I think what I felt as a child is they hate us so much, they don’t even want to see us as we go through towns.”

“I got a knot in my throat to try to keep from crying.” For the eighth installment of our 30 Stories for 30 Years series, William Marutani reflects on the emotional weight of witnessing testimonies during the 1981 Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) hearings.

What was Densho like in the ’90s? Things looked a little different then, but the heart of our work has remained the same. You had to be there. Or…were you? Tell us what you remember, or what surprises you, in the comments. #Densho #90sNostalgia #DenshoLegacyArchive

For the seventh installment of our 30 Stories for 30 Years series, Mary Hirata reflects on her mother’s journey to the United States as a picture bride in the early 1900s.

“We didn’t have separate rooms. It was like a regular barrack, we all slept next to each other.”

For the fifth installment of our “30 Stories for 30 Years” series, Mutsu Homma reflects on her time at Amache (Granada) and an encounter she never forgot: a soldier’s question, “Are you a human being?”

Each year, February 19th brings us back to a crucial date in 1942. On that day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, a decision that authorized the forced removal and incarceration of over 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry, most of them U.S. citizens.

“When you walk through that gate, you know you lost something.”

As part of Densho’s “30 Stories for 30” Years series, this segment from Mike Murase’s oral history centers on the sentiment that inspired him to help found Gidra, the groundbreaking Asian American publication, which is now viewed as an introduction to Asian American activism.

Today, on Fred Korematsu Day, we honor the man whose refusal to comply with the mass removal and confinement of Japanese Americans during World War II became one of the most significant challenges to government authority in U.S. history.

As part of Densho’s “30 Oral Histories for 30 Years” series, this interview with Peggie Nishimura Bain offers a vivid reflection on creativity, ingenuity, and survival under incarceration, revealing how everyday acts of creation carried meaning far beyond their materials.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2016, a moment of protest became a moment of invitation.

As the first installment of Densho’s “30 Oral Histories for 30 Years” series, this interview with Dale Minami offers insight, challenge, and inspiration, inviting us to reflect on how history shapes who we are and what we owe one another.

Eiichi Edward Sakauye filmed life at the Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming between 1943 and 1945 on 8mm film. Decades later, he revisited that footage, offering voice-over reflections that bring these images into fuller view.

During his first Christmas at the Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho in 1942, Tsuguo “Ike” Ikeda remembers that the holiday spirit still found a way to shine.

Diana Morita Cole was born in the Minidoka concentration camp, Idaho. Although the closure of the camps began in December 1944, Diana’s family still lived in Minidoka until October 1945. When she was just a year and a half old, her family left for Chicago, Illinois.