The
following people took part in the workshop featured in the Children
of the Camps documentary:
Marion Kanemoto was born in Seattle, WA. She
was interned at Minidoka, Idaho. She was transported by ship
to be exchanged for prisoners of war in Japan at the age of 14.
She moved to Sacramento in 1970 where she worked as a school
nurse for the Elk Grove School District. Retired in 1988, she
began her work as a bilingual interviewer with the Florin Japanese
American Citizen League’s Oral History Project. She received
redress in 1996 after initially being denied due to her status
in the prisoner of war exchange program.
Toru Saito was born in San Francisco’s
Japantown. He was interned in Topaz, Utah, at the age of 4. He
is a retired mental health care worker. He currently performs
with his musical group called the Shanghai Bar Band, playing
30’s and 40’s music. He is married to Bessie Masuda
and resides in Berkeley, California.
Bessie
Masuda
was
born in Stockton,CA and raised in Lodi. She was interned in Crystal
City, Texas, at the age of 12. She is currently an artist working
in San Francisco, California, and is a mother and grandmother.
She is married to Toru Saito and lives in Berkeley, California.
Howard
Ikemoto
was
born in Sacramento, CA. He was interned in the Tule Lake camp
in California at the age of 2. He has 2 daughters, Reiko and
Amy, and lives near Santa Cruz with his lifelong partner, Julie
Connell.
Ruth Okimoto was born in Japan and arrived
in southern California with her family as Christian missionaries
before the age of 1. She was interned in Poston, Arizona, at
the age of 6. She recently earned her doctorate from the California
School of Professional Psychology researching organizational
psychology. Currently she is retired from corporate life and
balancing her independent contract work with her art. Her drawings
and paintings reflect the psychological and political impact
of her life in camp. She lives with her husband in Berkeley,
California.
Richard
Tatsuo Nagaoka
was
born in camp at Rohwer, Arkansas. After the war he grew up on
the family farm near Lodi. Today he is a self-employed grape
doctor in the Napa Valley. He also designs lamps and functional
art. His pieces appear in the Sundance and the Smith and Hawkins
catalog. He has appeared on occasional television commercials
and industrial print and video. He has renewed his connection
with four generations as he is a father, a son and a grandfather.
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