Japanese in America

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the US turned to Japan for workers in the late 19th Century, they probably never foresaw that one day soon they would imprison those who arrived, their successors, and their families, en masse in camps around America.

To hear about the Japanese American experience through history, Don is speaking to Kristen Hayashi. Kristen is Director of Collections Management & Access and Curator at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Together, Kristen and Don explore the initial migration from Japan, the work offered, and the treatment of these first generations of Japanese Americans in life and under the law. They also discuss the contradictions of the Second World War - when some 120,000 people were forcibly moved to internment camps whilst, in Europe, an all Japanese American unit became the most decorated unit of its size in US history.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello all, welcome to American History Hit.
0:04.9	I'm Don Wildman.
0:05.8	Just jumping in to say happy holiday season to you all, hoping it's a fun one with family
0:11.4	and friends and good health and prosperity ahead.
0:14.9	I can't wait for you to hear what we have planned for the new year for 2025.
0:19.7	We start strong right in January with the presidency of
0:23.1	Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Then we're sailing to the North American shores of early Jamestown,
0:29.0	journeying to the battlegrounds of Vietnam, and so, so much more. It's a new year with lots planned.
0:35.1	It's just great to be able to do this, to do these podcasts and talk
0:39.8	with the great guests we have. It's a real honor. And as always, thank you so much for listening.
0:45.8	Today we have a fantastic episode for you from earlier this year when I spoke with Kristen
0:50.3	Hayashi of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles to find out about the lives
0:55.8	of Japanese Americans throughout the generations. Please enjoy. Autumn, 1944, World War II in Europe.
1:08.2	The first battalion of the U.S. Army 141st Regiment out of Texas is stranded on a
1:13.9	hillside in the Vosges Mountains of eastern France. 270 troops cut off behind enemy lines. Situation
1:21.2	critical. Not far away, though, the Army's 442nd regimental combat team, including the 100th Battalion,
1:29.0	is resting after having liberated two French towns from Nazi control, only a few short weeks
1:34.5	after arriving in Europe. Despite a shortage of troops, the 442nd is ordered back into action
1:40.8	to attempt a rescue of those stranded troops, soon to be known as the Lost Battalion.
1:46.0	Trudging up and down steep grades, picking their way through fields and ravines littered with
1:50.8	landmines. The 442nd lives up to its motto, Go for Broke. For six interminable days, troops are
1:58.4	engaged in pitched combat, until finally, three companies break
	...

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