Note: I regularly update this post with new links and information, so check back and/or bookmark this page!
Click to Jump to Section:
I. Facebook Photo Essay
II. Recorded History Talks
III. Animated Short Films
IV. Documentaries and Other Videos
V. Miscellaneous Media
VI. Recommended Books
VII. Photos
VIII. Take Action!
IX. Places to Visit
February 19th is the Day of Remembrance. This is the day in 1942 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It is the date when Japanese Americans remember this disastrous and dangerous Executive Order and its impact on our families, our community, and our country. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves of and educate others on the need for constant vigilance to prevent fear and xenophobia to be twisted and manipulated to undermine and attack our civil liberties and Constitution.
– photo by Dorothea Lang
I am often asked about my mom’s family’s experience as Japanese Americans during WWII. Mom was a 4th to 6th grade girl when her family was forced from their home in Hood River, Oregon, and sent to Tule Lake, CA, for one year, then Heart Mountain, Wyoming, for 2 more years. Four of her brothers served in the US armed forces in the Pacific theater. Below are links and recommended readings on the subject. I continue to update my list. I have published its current version here for the easy access and sharing by others. The list contains general information as well as links to personal pictures and stories.
Update (literally hot of the press!) — A new, revised, expanded, and retitled edition of my mom’s memoir will be released by OSU Press on March 5, 2024. It is available for pre-order now (I received my first copies on Feb 13th). Learn about it, order your own copies, and see the next talks and book signing events by clicking here.
I. Facebook Photo Essay
Here are 22 pictures showing step-by-step the story of my mother’s family’s unconstitutional incarceration. It is public so even people who don’t use FB can view it.
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II. Recorded History Talks
Here are several video recordings of talks my mother and I have delivered on the topic of Japanese American incarceration over the years.
If I had to pick my favorite talk, it would be my online talk for the Brown Alumni Clubs from February, 2022.
| Description | Date | Length |
| Toby’s interview with the Tigard Talks Podcast | March, 2023 | 1 hr |
| Toby’s Feb 19th talk at the Tigard Library | Feb, 2023 | 1.5 hrs |
| “200% American” Toby interviews his mom for The Immigrant Story podcast | Jan, 2023 | 43 min |
| Toby’s Hybrid talk for Race Talks i. Introduction (11 min) ii. OPB Documentary: “Oregon’s Japanese Americans” (1 hr) iii. Toby’s Presentation and Discussion (1 hr) | May, 2022 | 2 hrs |
| Toby’s Online Talk for Brown Alumni Clubs of OR and CA | Feb, 2022 | 2.5 hrs |
| Toby’s Online Talk for Take PART | Jan, 2022 | 2 hrs |
| Toby’s Talk at the Kennedy School, Portland, OR | Feb, 2020 | 2 hrs |
| Toby’s interview with Rise ‘n Shine Podcast | 2021 | 55 min |
| Mom’s talk at Old Francis School, Bend, OR | Sept, 2017 | 105 min |
| Mom’s talk at Old Church & Pub, Wilsonville, OR | Feb, 2016 | 82 min |
| Mom’s talk to Portland Humanists Club | Aug, 2015 | 75 min |
| Mom’s talk at Edgefield, Troutdale, OR | Aug, 2014 | 80 min |
III. Animated short films about Japanese American incarceration
Executive Order 9066 – 3:22 long – includes recording of Eleanor Roosevelt strongly opposing the Japanese American imprisonment at timestamp 1:24
Searchlight Serenade – animated film about dance bands in the incarceration camps; 14 minutes
Yamashita – 10 minute wordless animated film depicting incarceration from a little girl’s point of view
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IV. Documentaries and Other Videos
And Then They Came For Us, a 2017 award winning documentary featuring George Takei and many others and the photographs of Dorothea Lang. I highly recommend you purchase a copy for yourself. 40 minutes.
Excellent one-hour documentary, Oregon’s Japanese Americans, produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting. My Aunt Bessie is featured throughout, and names and pictures of many family members are included.
Common Ground – San Jose Chinatown and Japantown – 13-minute documentary describing how two Asian villages co-existed and supported each other through the adversity of racism in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Shikata Ga Nai: An Inconvenient American – an excellent 27-minute documentary by recent high school graduate, Lauren Yanase. She collected excellent archival photos and videos and interviewed her own family members who were incarcerated at San Anita Racetrack, and then Heart Mountain, WY. She won the prestigious Girl Scouts Gold Award for this work.
An American Contradiction – A 12-minute short documentary by Vanessa Yuille, whose mother was born in the Heart Mountain concentration camp.
The Legacy of Heart Mountain – excellent 24 minute documentary. Mom and her family were here for two years.
Tom Brokaw’s visit to the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage. This 4-minute story was broadcast on “Morning Joe” on July 30, 2019, and features a couple clips of mom.
Milton Eisenhower, WRA – The rounding up, building of camps, and imprisoning of Japanese Americans was carried out by the War Relocation Authority (WRA), whose director was Milton S. Eisenhower, brother to the Supreme Allied Commander and later U.S. president, Dwight Eisenhower. This 10 minute newsreel is narrated by Milton Eisenhower and is full of propagandistic platitudes and simplifications typical of the time (views held by some still today)
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V. Miscellaneous Media
Finding Strength in a Complex Heritage – A written story and 43-minute podcast recording of me interviewing my mom about her experience growing up in Hood River, memories of the 3-year incarceration in concentration camps, and the racism experienced after her return to Hood River. This conversation was recorded in May, 2022 when mom was just one month shy of 90 years old.
Jap-American Defended – This article appeared in the September 27, 1946 edition of the Anniston Star in Anniston, Alabama. It describes my eldest uncle, Taro “Tot” Asai returning home to Hood River after serving in the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific Theater. Three other uncles of mine are mentioned. I don’t know who wrote it, and how the story made it all the way to Alabama. The original scan I have is badly faded and nearly unreadable.
Oregon Japanese American Veterans’ Stamp Dedication – In June, 2021, the US Postal Service for the first time issued a stamp honoring Nisei Soldiers of WWII. This video is the dedication ceremony from the Oregon Historical Society. At around 29:40, my brother narrates a 2-minute video segment about Sgt. Harold Okimoto, who helped liberate Dachau. You may read more about it by clicking here.
Order 9066 Podcast – This is an excellent 8-chapter (plus bonus episodes) podcast. It covers many facets from the lead up, the announcement, the rounding up, men who enlisted, men who resisted, and the post-war experience. Highly recommended!
Radiolab Presents: More Perfect – American Pendulum I – This excellent podcast episode examines the Korematsu v. United States case, which upheld the constitutionality of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans, and considered one of the Supreme Court’s worst decisions.
Renunciation Act of 1944 – The government wanted to deport the perceived “troublemakers,” especially among the more active and vocal prisoners at the Tule Lake camp, but you cannot deport US citizens. So Congress passed this law to allow people to renounce their citizenship. In the fog of war, insulated from news, mail censored, and so on, nearly 6000 people chose to renounce, and effectively became citizens of no country.
Wayne Collins – Wayne M. Collins is the late, great lawyer who fought tirelessly for 20 years to overturn the renunciations of thousands of Japanese Americans.
Wayne Collins’ son’s talk – Collins’ son gave a barn-burner of a speech which I recorded at the 2014 Tule Lake Pilgrimage. The audio is mediocre.
Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, 1925-2018- Herzig-Yoshinaga worked tirelessly, sometimes 50- to 60-hours per week poring over opened document archives during the 1970s. In 1982, she happened to notice a document the army had tried to destroy “which provided concrete proof that the army had seen no ‘military necessity’ to deprive 120,000 Americans of their rights.” Check out this video of her describing when she found the document.
Grace’s Questions
The grade school daughter of a classmate of mine read a story about a Japanese American girl who was sent to an incarceration camp. Her classmates and teacher had a bunch of questions, so I invited them to write them out and send them to me. They did, and mom and I answered them. Here are their questions and our answers.
Panama Hotel and a Talk With Students
Junior high students in Seattle reading Hotel On The Corner of Bitter and Sweet (see below) invited me to discuss my family’s wartime experience and the history of the Panama Hotel, which I highly recommend you visit.
Dorothea Lange’s photographs
Famed photographer Dorothea Lange was hired by the U.S. Government to photograph the “evacuation” and “relocation” of the tens of thousands of Japanese Americans to show how orderly, humane, and just it was being carried out. After her photographs were reviewed, the bulk of them were seized, censored, and impounded. They were only recently uncovered in the last decade.
Euphemisms – If you use the terms “internment camp,” “relocation,” etc., I invite you to read my blog entry about the power of words and rejecting the euphemisms used to describe this dark chapter in U.S. History.
Densho – Densho means “to pass on to the next generation.” This online reference site documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during WWII.
Toby’s Op-Ed – In 2018, Oregon Senator Merkley proposed the “No Internment Camp Act” (S.3567).” I wrote an op-ed in favor of this bill and collected the signatures of 18 family members. It was published in the Medford Mail Tribune on Sunday, November 10, 2018. You can read it here. Local TV station KOBI ran a news story about mom tying her history to Sen. Merkley’s bill.
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VI. Recommended Books
From Thorns To Blossoms – this revised and expanded version of my mom’s self-published book (originally titled “Made in Japan and Settled in Oregon” – see below) was released on March 5, 2024. It tells the story of her parents coming to America, raising their children, and surviving the mass incarceration resulting from Executive Order 9066.
Tule Lake by Ed Miyakawa – a novel based on history of the Tule Lake camp, which became one of the most notorious of all the camps including a stockade and tanks, and where torture and uprisings occurred. Ed is an architect who lived in Newport, OR many years and designed some major buildings and private homes there. He and his wife lived in WA and adopted and raised many special needs children from around the world. Ed passed away in 2022.
We Are Not Strangers – a graphic novel by Josh Tuininga. This is the unusual and extraordinary story of friendship and allyship between an immigrant Sephardic Jew and his Japanese American friend both living in Seattle. The artwork is beautiful and the story deeply moving and a model of intersectional allyship spanning decades.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. This novel is about the Panama Hotel in Seattle, which you really should go visit. Many Japanese American bachelors lived in the hotel, and the tea room there has a hole in the floor with glass where you can see a room where families stored belongings before they were quickly shipped away to camps. Looking through that hole is like looking back in time nearly 80 years.
Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence by Linda Tamura. Tamura grew up in Hood River (where my relatives live) and interviewed many Japanese American soldiers about their experience, especially the racism they experienced when coming home after serving. The cover photo shows 4 men, 2 of whom are my uncles. Tamura has written many books on the subject and they are all good.
Stubborn Twig by Lauren Kessler. This is the story of Min Yasui, a young Japanese American lawyer who fought the constitutionality of the anti-Japanese American restrictions all the way up to the Supreme Court. He lost the case, but in 2015 was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the only Oregonian, I believe to receive this award. The Oregon legislature voted in 2016 to make March 28 “Min Yasui Day.” The Yasui family was friends with my family (the Asai family).
Just Americans: How Japanese Americans Won a War at Home and Abroad by Robert Asahina. This focuses on the military exploits in both the European and Pacific theaters by Japanese Americans. The exploits of the famous 442nd Infantry Regiment, comprised entirely of Japanse-Americans, the most decorated unit in U.S. military history are just few of the stories. The late Senator Dan Inouye was a member, and he lost his arm during the heroic and bloody battle at Colle Musantello. I don’t think I’ll ever forget his story recounted in this book.
From Thorns To Blossoms, by Mitzi Asai Loftus. This is the new revised, expanded, and retitled edition of my mom’s book (originally Made in Japan and Settled in Oregon) and tells the story of my grandparents coming to the US, raising 8 kids, and living through WWII. It just been published by OSU Press and is available for purchase!
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VII. Photos
My visit to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, April, 2018
Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in Portland, 2012 – 4 of my uncles received Congressional Gold Medals, posthumously.
Tule Lake Pilgrimage, July, 2014
VIII. Take Action!
Right To Be (formerly Hollaback!) Bystander Intervention Training – sign up for free training on how to safely intervene when witnessing acts of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.
LinkedIn Anti-Racism Training – LinkedIn offers some excellent training. Although a personal LinkedIn Learning account can be expensive, check your public library for free learning account access
Innovation Law Lab – Lawyers, activists, coders, and translators collaborating together to end isolation and exploitation of immigrants and refugees.
Project Implicit from Harvard University – Take a free Implicit Association Test (IAT) developed at Harvard. Improve your self-understanding about bias.
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IX. Places to Visit
Minidoka National Historic Site – Jerome, ID – one of the incarceration camps I visited and wrote about here.
Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, Powel, WY – excellent visitor’s center at the site of Heart Mountain, where my mother’s family were incarcerated for two years. I attended a pilgrimage there with my mother in 2019 and wrote about it here.
Japanese American Historical Plaza – Waterfront Park, Portland, OR
The History Museum of Hood River – See the exhibit “A Long Road to Travel: The Service of Japanese American Soldiers in WWII” until Dec 31, 2022, after which it will move to JAMO (see below)
Eugene Japanese American Memorial – next to the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, OR, this memorial commemorates the sacrifices of those who suffered wartime incarceration. My mom’s name appears on at least 3 separate stones.
Japanese American Museum of Oregon (JAMO, formerly Oregon Nikkei Center – 411 NW Flanders St, Portland, OR
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Historic Panama Hotel – 605 1/2 So Main St, Seattle, WA, 98104 – Located in the International District, this historic hotel, featured in the novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, has amazing historical photos, as well as a plexiglass window in the floor allowing one to see into the past. I wrote about it here.
Finding Ojiisan, Finding Myself 
Thank you for getting your mom’s story and your story out there!
We cannot let people forget what happened.
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