The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Alan Tanaguchi. Tanaguchi was a Japanese-American internee at the Gila River Camp in Arizona during World War II. At 19 years old, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Tanaguchi became a part of the internment program of the War Relocation Authority. He provides detail of life growing up in Stockton, California before December 7, 1941 and after, and experiences of bigotry and racism among his peers. He provides detail of his father being in the Justice Department internment group. He served as the dean of the College of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, and at Rice University in Houston. He designed an addition to the Nimitz Museum.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents a monologue by Jim Woods. Woods joined the Marine Corps in January of 1943. He served with the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, participating in the Bougainville Campaign in November of 1943, the Battle of Guam in 1944, landing on Emirau Island, the Okinawa Campaign in April of 1945 and landing on Japan on 30 August 1945. After Bougainville, the Raiders were disbanded and Woods joined the 4th Marine Regiment for the remainder of his service. He provides vivid details of his combat missions with fellow servicemen, anecdotal stories from his squad and witnessed heavy casualties at Okinawa. Woods was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George McColm. McColm was born on a farm in Kansas in 1911. In 1928, he was selected to go to Washington, DC where he met President Herbert Hoover and his wife. Graduating from Kansas State College in Manhattan in 1935 he began studying terrain, weather and demand in crop growing. He tells of recognition and honors he received in the agricultural field. Soon after the war with Japan began, he was offered a commission in the US Navy to participate in a special classified project. At the time, he was in charge of crops at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. McColm shares many of his experiences with the Japanese internees and expresses his opinion of the people he worked with. Upon being inducted, he went to Tucson, Arizona for boot training and then to Princeton University Naval School of Military Government. Upon completion of the training he was sent to the Civil Affairs staging area at the Presidio of Monterey, California. Upon his arrival he was assigned to a Top Secret staff working on the plans for the invasion and occupation of Japan. He concludes the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with J.L. Summers. While attending college, Summers entered the Army in November, 1940 when his unit, the headquarters battery in the 131st Field Artillery, was mobilized. Prior to that, Summers had been in the National Guard. En route to the Philippines, Summers' unit was redirected to Australia after the Japanese attack. From there, they went to Java. In March, 1942, Summers became a prisoner of war and wound up at Bicycle Camp in Batavia (Jakarta today). Summers describes life as a POW at Bicycle Camp. He was shipped out to the POW camp at Changi, Singapore in September, 1942 aboard the Dai Nichi Maru. In January a train trip and another hell ship ride occurred to Burma. Once there, Japanese trucks took Summers and the other POWs to 18 Kilo Camp where they were to build the railroad to Thailand. From there, he went to the 40 Kilo Camp in March, the 80 Kilo Camp in June, and the 100 Kilo Camp in late August. Throughout this time, Summers suffered from tropical ulcers on his legs, malaria, wet beriberi, dysentery and dengue fever. When the railroad was completed, Summers …

The National Museum of the pacific War presents an interview with John Fitch. Fitch begins with a summary of the naval career of his father, Admiral Aubrey Fitch. Fitch joined the Navy in early 1942. He was assigned to the USS Wasp (CV-7) just before it sank, then to the USS Hornet (CV-8) just before it sank. He was finally assigned to CASU-3 and sent to Guadalcanal. He reflects on what it was like for him in the service while having a high-ranking father. In April, 1943, Fitch transferred aboard the USS Nicholas (DD-449). Fitch shares several anecdotes of his experiences aboard the Nicholas while engaged in the fight around the Solomon Islands and in the Slot. During the Battle of Kula Gulf, Fitch went aboard a whaleboat and rescued survivors from the USS Helena (CL-50). Fitch attended a gunnery school at Noumea before reporting aboard the USS La Vallette (DD-448) in October 1943. He describes being at the Marshall Islands invasion. In July 1944 Fitch returned to the US and put the USS Benner (DD-807) into commission. He recalls battling kamikazes while aboard the Benner on station off the coast of Japan toward the end of the war. Fitch …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lewis Walker. Walker was commissioned in January of 1942 from the Midshipman School at Northwestern University in Chicago. He served a total of 4 years with the Small Ship Navy. He describes how these small ships, including submarine chasers and patrol craft served the war effort. In the Pacific, Walker commanded the USS SC-1272, and he describes its function, equipment and participation in the war. They traveled to Iwo Jima, Leyte, Okinawa, the Philippines, Saipan and Pearl Harbor. He describes a number of their missions, including dodging attacks from torpedoes and airplanes, and escorting a group of damaged ships from Okinawa to Saipan. They were the first American ship to enter Nakagusuku Bay searching for midget submarines. He describes their maneuvers during a typhoon. He was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Roy Powers. Powers was born on 1 August 1925 and graduated from high school in 1943. Upon entering the Army on 13 December 1943 he was sent to Camp Gordon Johnston, Florida for five weeks of basic training. In May 1944, he boarded the SS Extavia (1941) bound for Buna Bay, New Guinea. Upon his arrival he was assigned to LCM-513 with the primary function being off-loading Liberty ships. Four months later he was sent to the Philippines where he remained until Japan surrendered. He was then sent to Wakayama, Japan. He returned to the United States aboard the USS General M C Meigs (AP-116) during January 1946 and was discharged soon thereafter.

The National museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Dorothy Danner. Danner graduated from nursing school in Los Angeles in 1935. In 1939, she applied and was accepted as a nurse in the Navy. After a while, she received orders for the Philippines and arrived in early 1940 on a two-year assignment. Danner recalls the idyllic setting prior to the war before describing activities just after the Japanese invasion. She was stationed at a hospital at Sangley Point near Cavite in Luzon, Philippines. She was captured by the Japanese and interned at Santo Tomas starting in March 1942. Sometime in 1943, she was sent to Los Banos.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ken Towery. Towery joined the Army in early 1941 and was sent to Corregidor to join a coast artillery unit. He recalls several details about life under siege at Corregidor before he was captured by the Japanese and taken to Cabanatuan. He left the Philippines later that year and was taken to China. Towery shares his opinions about being a POW as well as several anecdotes. He also comments on being liberated by Russians and how the Russians and Chinese communists cooperated right after the war. When he was liberated, Towery was put aboard a hospital ship at Port Arthur.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ernest Gordon. Gordon was born in Scotland and joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1939 at Stirling Castle. He was sent to Singapore in January 1940 before the Japanese invaded. Gordon recalls defending the Malay Peninsula starting in January 1942. Gordon was the last to go over the causeway into Singapore before it was destroyed. As Singapore fell, Gordon escaped to Sumatra. When Sumatra fell, Gordon escaped on a sailboat but was captured asea and sent back to Singapore where he entered Changi. He was sent north to build the Death Railway. He describes the conditions along the railway and the work environment.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Donald Den Daas. Den Daas was born in Jakarta, Indonesia 4 November 1920. Upon graduating from the University of Jakarta in July 1940, he was called into the Royal Netherlands Army. Selected to attend the Royal Netherland Academy in Bandung, Indonesia, he graduated in March 1942 as a warrant officer concerned with logistics. Soon after the Japanese invaded, he was placed into a prisoner of war camp at Bandung. He escaped from the POW camp in April 1942, and describes the measures he took to avoid capture. After escaping he traveled to Surabaya where he joined forces with four others and made plans to sail to Australia by a small fishing boat. Before the plans could be carried out they were betrayed and the boat owner was arrested. Remaining in Surabaya, he joined a group of former Academy cadets, who began making sandals and doing miscellaneous jobs to sustain themselves. He was arrested by the Kempeitai in September 1944 and he graphically describes the torture he endured. Soon after the atomic bomb was dropped, Den Daas and some others who had endured torture were shipped to a camp …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Margaret Gillooly. Gillooly moved to the Philippines with her parents in 1938 and was a teenager when the Japanese invaded. She discusses her struggles as a student during internment and conditions within the internment camps she encountered. She was living in Cebu City when the war started. Her parents were visiting Manila. They were reunited a year later at Santo Tomas Internment Camp. Gillooly remarks on how the camp was organized and governed, how food became scarcer toward the end of the war, and the daily routine of camp life. She also discusses the liberation in February, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ray Hunt. Hunt joined the Army Air Corps in early 1939. After training, Hunt became an aircraft mechanic and went to the Philippines in November, 1941. He was captured on Bataan and made a prisoner of war. Hunt describes his experiences on the Death March. Along the way, he escaped and was aided by Filipinos until he was healthy enough to join a guerrilla band in Tarlac. Hunt describes his activities and the command structure of his guerrilla organization. When the Allies invaded Luzon, Hunt’s band of guerrillas created havoc behind enemy lines. He received a battlefield commission retroactively sometime in 1945. He stayed in the Army, retiring in 1959.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents a monologue by Jim Woods. Woods joined the Marine Corps in January of 1943. He served with the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, participating in the Bougainville Campaign in November of 1943, the Battle of Guam in 1944, landing on Emirau Island, the Okinawa Campaign in April of 1945 and landing on Japan on 30 August 1945. After Bougainville, the Raiders were disbanded and Woods joined the 4th Marine Regiment for the remainder of his service. He provides vivid details of his combat missions with fellow servicemen, anecdotal stories from his squad and witnessed heavy casualties at Okinawa. Woods was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George McColm. McColm was born on a farm in Kansas in 1911. In 1928, he was selected to go to Washington, DC where he met President Herbert Hoover and his wife. Graduating from Kansas State College in Manhattan in 1935 he began studying terrain, weather and demand in crop growing. He tells of recognition and honors he received in the agricultural field. Soon after the war with Japan began, he was offered a commission in the US Navy to participate in a special classified project. At the time, he was in charge of crops at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. McColm shares many of his experiences with the Japanese internees and expresses his opinion of the people he worked with. Upon being inducted, he went to Tucson, Arizona for boot training and then to Princeton University Naval School of Military Government. Upon completion of the training he was sent to the Civil Affairs staging area at the Presidio of Monterey, California. Upon his arrival he was assigned to a Top Secret staff working on the plans for the invasion and occupation of Japan. He concludes the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank Tremaine. Tremaine was born in Detroit, Michigan 30 May 1914. Following his graduation from Stanford University in 1936 he went to work for United Press. Following assignments in various cities he was transferred to Honolulu as the local bureau manager in 1940. He interviewed General Walter Short in November 1941 about the defense of Oahu in the event of attack by Japanese forces. Tremaine recalls witnessing the attack on Pearl Harbor and dictating messages for transmission to the United Press office in San Francisco telling of the Japanese attack. He remarks on the chaotic conditions in downtown Honolulu and of dud American anti-aircraft shells falling throughout the island. He also mentions police and military authorities rounding up Japanese Americans to be sent to internment camps. He eventually relocated to Admiral William H. Halsey’s headquarters at Noumea, New Caledonia, where he covered the war. He also covered the war from Admiral Nimitz’s headquarters on Guam. He was unable to report on the conflict on Saipan between Marine General Holland Smith and Army General Ralph C. Smith due to censorship restrictions. H report on the experiences of Ensign George …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Mei Nakano. Nakano is a Japanese-American and was an internee at the Amache Internment Camp in Colorado. She was born in 1924 in Olathe, Colorado. She provides detail of her life growing up in Colorado and various prejudices she received from teachers and classmates. They moved to Los Angeles, California in 1935 where she graduated from high school. She provides detail of the discrimination she and her family received in California, particularly after 7 December 1941. As notices were going out to other Japanese-American families regarding evacuation, Nakano describes her family’s preparations for the inevitable. They were evacuated by the War Relocation Authority to the Santa Anita Racetrack and in 1942 transferred to the Amache Internment Camp in Colorado. She provides much detail of life in these camps. Nakano returned to California after the war.