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Description
Midori Komei, who is also one of the narrators in this series, interviewed Fran Kaji on September 22, 2003. Ernie Tsujimoto monitored the recording equipment and Jeanne Tsujimoto took notes during the interview. Fran Kaji grew up in Gardena as the daughter of pioneer physician Kikuo Tashiro. She remembers Gardena as it changed form a rural to suburban community. Her family moved to Fresno to avoid incarceration but was eventually incarcerated at the incarceration camp at Poston, Arizona. After leaving the camp, Kaji endured primitive conditions at a Colorado sugar beet farm and moved to Denver before WWII ended. After the war, her family resettled in Boyle Heights where she married Bruce Kaji and moved back to Gardena. She and her husband became involved in civic activities, including the sister city programs. They also helped to found the Japanese American National Museum in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles. Kaji was interviewed as part of the South Bay History Project created by the South Bay Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. Includes sixteen oral histories reflecting the various experiences of South Bay Issei and Nisei. Some grew up on farms and others in suburban area; some were incarcerated during WWII in incarceration camps and some spent all or part of the war working and living in other parts of the US or Japan. All of them returned to the South Bay after WWII and observed the changes that have occurred in area through the end of the twentieth century.
Identity and values--Nisei Identity and values--Issei Industry and employment--Medicine Geographic communities--California World War II--Mass removal ('Evacuation') World War II--Incarceration camps World War II--Leaving camp--Work leave World War II--Leaving camp--'Resettlement Activism and involvement--Civil rights Activism and involvement--Civil liberties Community activities--Associations and organizations--Japanese American Citizens League
Place
Gardena, California Incarceration Camps--Poston (Colorado River)
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