Tatsuno Municipal Museum of History & Culture

Interview with Toru Saito, internee at Topaz War Relocation Center

As a child, Toru Saito and his family were forced to leave their home in San Francisco to a government assembly center at the Tanforan Racetrack in nearby San Bruno, California.

Saito witnessed the suffering that Japanese Americans experienced. Saito discusses how Japanese Americans felt after being uprooted, how many had shown strength of character during this difficulty, and how they endured the racism they experienced during this period and after World War II. This clip is a selection from an hour interview of Yada for the documentary, _Time of Fear_, which shared the stories of Japanese Americans who were interned in Arkansas during the war.

Saito was among 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps under Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. Signed on Feb. 19, 1942, the order granted the U. S. government authority to relocate both citizens and non-citizens based on the fear that anyone with Japanese ancestry was a potential spy or saboteur.

This interview is a part of UALR's Center for Arkansas History and Culture's collection, Life Interrupted. Every month, the Center will release a new interview clip, leading up to our exhibit on Japanese American internment in Arkansas, which will open in September 2014.

Memories in the Dust: The Japanese American Experience

Lecture and presentation includes photos and personal experiences of the Japanese Internment Camp from survivors. Presentations on current partnerships at the Jean and Charles Schulz Library and the Sonoma State Anthropological Center also included. Lecturers included Henry Kaku of the Japanese American Citizens League, Lynn Prime of the Sonoma State University Library, Dana Ogo Shew of the Anthropological Studies Center and poet Jodi Hottel.
Event Date: May 11, 2016.