AKIYAMA​,​ Kameno

I came through Seattle first, then lived in Portland. During the war, I was in a camp. Life in the camp was “not so good, not so bad.” You know, when people hear about the internment camps, they always worry. But once we were actually there, I don’t think it was as bad as everyone had imagined at first. It was hard, of course, but maybe the kind of hardship you could live through and almost forget. That’s why I say it wasn’t too bad. I went back to Japan three times—1928, 1936, and 1953. My father always says that if I go back again, I shouldn’t come back here. But honestly, I like life here better than in Japan. Even if I did go back, there wouldn’t be much to talk about. Once I told them everything that’s been happening here, that would be it. People in Japan don’t really understand what life is like in America, and I don’t really understand what things are like there anymore. This interview is part of the DMHJNY's new exhibit Issei: Portraits Of The First-Generation Japanese New Yorkers which is on view here: https://www.historyofjapaneseinny.org/issei/