ACCESS THE ONLINE HANASHI ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVES
More than 700 interviews with summary descriptions are available online.
Can't find what you're looking for or having trouble accessing our online library? Contact our Hanashi staff for assistance.
SELECTED ORAL HISTORY 'SHORTS'
View the following clips from our Hanashi oral history archives.
Historical Significance
Reasons for Serving
Displays of Courage
Reflections on Pearl Harbor
Incarceration Experience
Japanese American Segregated Units
European Theater
Pacific Theater
Positive Aspects
Hardships of War
Personal Experiences
Choichi Shimabukuro Interview Length: 1:56
Choichi Shimabukuro explains how the experiences of war changed his life.
Hideo Kami Interview Length: 1:00
Hideo Kami shares his war experiences with his children and hopes they can learn from them.
Dick Narasaki Interview Length: 2:24
Dick Narasaki elaborates on what the 442nd did at the Gothic Line and how its exploits helped with redress.
Keyo Takabayashi Interview Length: 2:21
Keyo Takabayashi shares his reasons for volunteering in spite of what injured soldiers of the 100th Battalion told him.
Colonel Young O. Kim Interview Length: 2:43
Colonel Young Oak Kim describes when he was first transferred to the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate).
Don Seki Interview Length: 1:44
Don Seki discusses how he felt about the attack on Pearl Harbor and why he decided to volunteer.
Hiromi Suehiro Interview Length: 2:44
Hiromi Suehiro reflects on how he did not want to bring shame to his family by being a "coward."
Colonel Young O. Kim Interview Length: 2:10
Colonel Young O. Kim describes part of the experience at Anzio that would eventually earn him a Distinguished Service Cross.
Senator Daniel Inouye Interview Length: 2:13
Senator Daniel Inouye describes the battle in which he loses his right arm.
Harry Akune Interview Length: 2:17
Harry Akune describes his first parachute jump onto Corregidor Island.
John Togashi Interview Length: 2:05
John Togashi recalls the reaction of his peers after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Senator Daniel Inouye Interview Length: 2:15
Senator Daniel Inouye recalls what happened on December 7, 1941 and how he felt about the surprise attack.
George Matsui Interview Length: 1:01
George Matsui shares his take on Executive Order 9066 and briefly discusses the notion of "shikata ga nai."
Joseph Ichiuji Interview Length: 1:55
Joseph Ichiuji depicts life in camp and how everything changed for his family.
George Katagiri Interview Length: 2:25
George Katagiri describes his experiences at the "assembly center" and his realization of the seriousness of the situation.
Joseph Ichiuji Interview Length: 1:53
Joseph Ichiuji makes the distinction between the American incarceration camps and the German concentration camps during World War II.
Colonel Christopher Keegan Interview Length: 1:36
Colonel Christopher Keegan discusses how the mainland and Hawaiian Japanese Americans came together to form the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Rusty Kimura Interview Length: 2:16
Rusty Kimura gives a look into the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS).
Isamu Inouye Interview Length: 2:29
Isamu Inouye gives his opinion on how his unit was different from a Caucasian unit.
Colonel Iwao Yokooji Interview Length: 1:59
Colonel Iwao Yokooji shares his thoughts on the comparison between Caucasian soldiers and Japanese American soldiers.
Motoyoshi Tanaka Interview Length: 1:35
Motoyoshi Tanaka describes his and his fellow soldiers' harrowing experience at Monte Cassino.
Ron Oba Interview Length: 2:12
Ron Oba talks about life as a cook for the 442nd and how close he was to the front line.
Tsuneo Takemoto Interview Length: 1:41
Tsuneo Takemoto remembers some of his experiences at Bruyères where several men were lost in battle.
Thomas Espineda Interview Length: 2:17
Thomas Espineda shares his memory of his first experience at battle.
Norman Ikari Interview Length: 2:05
Norman Ikari describes the effects of the German 88 shell.
Larry Sakoda Interview Length: 1:36
Larry Sakoda opens up about the rescue of the "Lost Battalion."
Hideto Kono Interview Length: 2:13
Hideto Kono describes one incident of cave flushing in Iwo Jima.
George Takabayashi Interview Length: 2:26
George Takabayashi remembers his first POW interrogation and the reaction of the captured Japanese soldier.
George Katagiri Interview Length: 1:45
George Katagiri recalls how Japanese civilians viewed him.
Warren Tsuneishi Interview Length: 1:50
Warren Tsuneishi shares how he felt about fighting against the Japanese.
Grant Hirabayashi Interview Length: 1:18
Grant Hirabayashi goes into detail about the mission of Merrill's Marauders in Northern Burma.
Makoto Takiguchi Interview Length: 1:16
Makoto Takiguchi explains how important camaraderie and friendship are between fellow soldiers.
Grant Hirabayashi Interview Length: 1:29
Grant Hirabayashi expresses how he felt upon returning to the US.
Takejiro Higa Interview Length: 1:15
Takejiro Higa looks at the positive side of being sent to the Pacific Theater.
Ray Nosaka Interview Length: 2:02
Ray Nosaka discusses the difficulty of wartime killing and fighting when everyone is human.
Ray Nosaka Interview Length: 1:50
Ray Nosaka shares one of the hardest things he had to experience in the war: confronting a soldier's parents about their son's death.
Takejiro Higa Interview Length: 2:08
Takejiro Higa shares the hardship of returning to Okinawa as a soldier during World War II.
Rusty Kimura Interview Length: 1:37
Rusty Kimura explains how he got his nickname of "Rusty."
Harry Akune Interview Length: 2:00
Harry Akune talks about the time a Dutch-New Guinea boy mistook him for a Japanese soldier and tried to trick him.
