Kiyo Sato
Kiyo Sato grew up in the Sacramento Valley and was a young woman when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Sato had open discussions with her parents about what was happening to Japanese Americans. She describes what it was like to leave behind her dogs, get evicted and imprisoned at Pinedale Temporary “Assembly Center” and forcibly removed to Poston WRA Concentration Camp. Sato was able to leave camp and attend school in Michigan, but felt uncomfortable in the community and was questioned by the FBI. Although Sato faced discrimination in the process of applying to nursing school, she was eventually accepted to Western Reserve and joined the Air Force. She testified for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, and ends the interview discussing her belief that teaching and sharing the history of Japanese American incarceration is a necessity.
