VJ Day 2020: Japanese Recalls Internment 75 Years After Surrender Ending WWII
Published Date: 9/2/2020
Source: Bloomberg QuickTake News
As Japan marks the 75th anniversary of the surrender ceremony on September 2, 1945 that led to the end of World War II, 99-year-old Hidekazu Tamura recalls his memories at the U.S. internment camps. Born in Los Angeles to Japanese farmers, Tamura was studying aircraft engineering when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order in 1942 to the incarceration of an estimated 120,000 people of Japanese descent. Tamura was first sent to Tule Lake, a segregation center for those deemed disloyal, where he joined a group of people who would march around the camps wearing a symbol of devotion to Japan. "Wearing headbands, bugle in hand, and in rows of four we lined up. And there were about 10 guard posts and from above, they aimed their machine guns at us,” says Tamura, “these were American soldiers who had just returned from war and hated the Japanese. They were itching to shoot at us." He was later transferred to Santa Fe Internment Camp which was his fourth and last camp. When he was released in November 1945, Tamura was still in disbelief that the war had ended. "Until I got to Japan, I didn't believe Japan had lost," he recalls. "Even after I heard the Emperor's speech in America, I still didn't believe Japan had lost." Even though he resisted in the camps, Tamura says he always liked Americans. "No feeling enemy, anything like that though. When I talk to the American people, I didn't think that we are fighting each other. Myself, I don't like to fight." Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm QUICKTAKE ON SOCIAL: Follow QuickTake on Twitter: twitter.com/quicktake Like QuickTake on Facebook: facebook.com/quicktake Follow QuickTake on Instagram: instagram.com/quicktake Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2FJ0oQZ Email us at [email protected] QuickTake by Bloomberg is a global news network delivering up-to-the-minute analysis on the biggest news, trends and ideas for a new generation of leaders.