Jeannette Arakawa
Jeannette Arakawa was born and raised in San Francisco, California. During the war, Arakawa’s family was forcibly moved to Rohwer WRA Concentration Camp. She discusses the “loyalty” questionnaire, how her parents responded, and the potential consequences of answering the questionnaire for the Issei generation. The family resettled in Denver, Colorado, which Arakawa describes as the worst experience of her life due to violence at school and feelings of isolation. She recalls one good friend who helped her through this difficult time. Arakawa’s family returned to San Francisco after the West Coast reopened to Japanese Americans. Arakawa attended Lowell High School and U.C. Berkeley, where she met a professor who validated Arakawa’s experiences of being unjustly incarcerated during World War II. Arakawa is an author, penning The Little Exile, a book about the forced removal and incarceration told from the perspective of a young Japanese American girl.
