Interviews with Japanese Americans in Utah

The Utah Endowment for the Humanities funded the Oral History Institute (OHI) of Salt Lake City to conduct interviews with members of different ethnic minorities and racial groups. The people chosen to be interviewed were from Utah's Black, Greek, Jewish, Japanese, Mexican, Hispanic, Chinese, Ute and Italian communities; and were in most cases fifty-five years of age and older. A Caucasian group was also interviewed by the OHI to gain a perspective of ethnic and racial group interaction. The goal of the project was to try to determine how and to what extent each minority culture had been impacted by the larger Utah culture.
This particular series of interviews with Japanese people took place from 1984 to 1988. Events recalled by the interviewees span the time period from the early 1900s to 1988. Included in this collection are the transcriptions of the interviews. Corresponding cassette tapes and photographs are located in the Multmedia Archives (P0306). The Oral History Institute of Salt Lake City created a photo-documentary exhibit from this project, entitled "Working Together: A Utah Portfolio.
Common themes within the interviews are family life, work, religion, immigration experiences, discrimination, and relations with the Mormon establishment in Utah. Of interest are the many reminisces of family internment during World War II at Topaz, Utah, and Heart Mountain, Wyoming. In addition, the experiences in the armed forces of many interviewees and the military intelligence career of Mitsugi Kasai are highlighted.