Yoshiro Tokiwa
Yoshiro Tokiwa was a teenager when he was forced into Salinas Temporary WCCA “Assembly Center” and later, Poston WRA Concentration Camp. In this interview, Tokiwa discusses his cultural identity, answering the “loyalty” questionnaire and being drafted into the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and witnessing tension both between Japanese Americans in Poston over volunteering for the military. He explains how he witnessed the destruction of war and its effect on civilians while overseas and states his beliefs about the pointless nature of war. Tokiwa also explains what being incarcerated was like for a young person in Poston and speaks of the incarceration’s effects on relationships between members of the family and between people in the larger Japanese American community.
