7 Questions with Denny Kato, Researcher and Educator on the subject of Japanese-American Incarceration Camps of WWII

Born and raised in Cincinnati, OH, Denny graduated from Walnut Hills High School, and received

his BA from the University of Cincinnati. Denny was on active duty with the US Army as a 1LT in

military intelligence. Denny was involved with restaurant management for nearly thirty years.

For twelve years, Denny has been researching the history and events of the Japanese relocation

and the incarceration camps in WWII. He and his wife Janet have visited all ten major camp

locations doing this research project.

Over the past seven years, Denny has been giving lectures on the history of the camps,

nationwide via ZOOM for OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) for twenty-eight or so campus

locations. Additionally, he has given live presentations for several venues, notably the Harriet

Beecher Stowe House, the Art Institute of Cincinnati, and the Japan America Society. Most

recently he gave a presentation for a class at the University of Florida, in Gainesville. He has

also been the subject of several video profiles, articles, and radio interviews.  (Facebook Page )

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history?

I have always been a history buff.  My major in college was political science and I really emphasized foreign relations and I took a lot of courses regarding Asian studies and the Middle East.  

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

From a personal view, I have always been fascinated with history as I marvel at what humankind has accomplished but am revolted and repulsed by the human atrocities that man has afflicted on their fellow human beings.  There have been so many millions killed by men for various reasons, none good.

3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career?

Professionally,  history did not play much of a role.  I was in restaurant management for nearly thirty years and just about everything we did was focused on today and just a little to the future.  History was not a subject that came up very often in our conversations.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

 I personally look upon history not only as a reminder of human events, but also as a window to the future. To paraphrase Shakespeare, "What's past is prologue."  

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

American history has always been my favorite genre particularly the Civil War.  Although not an expert by any means of the events that occurred, I have always been drawn to the battlefields and the tactical/strategic aspects of the encounters.  My wife is very sensitive to 'spirits' and once on trip to Washington, D.C. we passed a road and sign that indicated directions to the site of the Fredericksburg battle.  She was sound asleep but suddenly awakened and she said she felt a 'chill' of spirits.  I told her we had just passed by the Fredericksburg battle site.  She had no idea that we were near the battlefield site and I doubt if she even knew of its significance.

6.         What is your specific connection to Japanese-American incarceration camps and how do you explore that interest?

My personal connection to the incarceration camps is that I had seventeen members of my family incarcerated in three separate camps.  It has been only in the past twelve years that my involvement has intensified.  I had just retired and we had planned a trip out west, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and Cody, WY.  My wife Janet asked me if I would be interested in attending the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage, an annual event that brought together survivors, descendants and speakers to tour the camp and engage in discussion groups.  In one of those groups that my wife and I attended, the moderator began the discussion with, "So everyone has heard about the Ringle Report?"  I had no clue as to what she was talking about. The Ringle Report, I learned later, was a report compiled by a Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Ringle, USN, naval intelligence, who submitted his report on December 20, 1942 detailing that the Japanese in the US did not represent a threat to the national security of our country.  I was embarrassed that I knew so little about the Japanese incarceration.  My wife and then committed to visiting all ten locations (we did so over the next several years) and after years of neglect, I dedicated myself to finding out my families' involvement in the incarceration.  As I started to learn about my family, I was queried by an old high school classmate if I knew someone who could give a lecture to her art class on the Japanese relocation.  Although I had not developed a presentation, I told her that I would do so, thus began a new direction for me, giving presentations on the Japanese incarceration camps.  I have been giving lectures for about seven years.

Currently I am associated with twenty-eight OLLI organizations nationwide, including Dartmouth, Carnegie Mellon University, American University, Florida State University, and the University of Virginia to name a few.  I also have given in personal lectures for the Art Institute of Cincinnati, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Walnut Hills High School, several library branches, the Japan American Society of Greater Cincinnati, and the University of Florida.  Additionally, I have also been the subject of several video profiles and radio interviews.  So what started as a research project about my families' involvement, morphed into the lecture series that I conduct today.

7.       Why is it important to continue teaching and learning about Japanese-American incarceration?

I used to conclude my presentations with the phrase "NEVER AGAIN".  Unfortunately with current events, our slogan has become "NEVER AGAIN IS NOW". I think it is important to not only educate people with the past events involving the Japanese in WWII, but how we are facing the same circumstances with 'brown people' today.  Many of the laws that were used against the Japanese in 1942, notably the Alien Enemies Act and others, are currently employed by today's ICE and CBP.  For example, even though the McCarren-Walter Act of 1952 granted the Japanese immigrants a path to citizenship, a part of that law has been used by the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to deport an immigrant.  It is absolutely frightening to see the similarities of 1942 to today.

Bonus:  In 2022, Kato's wife and daughter published an award-winning children's novel, called Finding Moon Rabbit set at the Heart Mountain camp near Cody, Wyoming.  For more information, go here.

According to Kato:

  When my wife asked me to go to the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage twelve years ago, little did I know that she already had an idea for a story.  She had researched Estelle Peck Ishigo, the Caucasian wife of Arthur Ishigo and their ordeal at the Heart Mountain and had already written a story about a Japanese American girl and her life after camp. But she was working on a 'prequel', the story of a young Japanese American girl and her first year at Heart Mountain.  This historical novel introduces real life characters and stories that actually occurred in the camp.  She decided to involve our daughter Jennifer, an aspiring writer, to join her in this project.  Jan was having difficulty marketing the book because the publishing industry has long sought 'authentic voices' and as soon as they would see that my wife was Caucasian, the doors closed.  She ended up doing a hybrid publication, utilizing a publisher but most of the marketing and promotions we did ourselves.  Now she has two books awaiting publication this year from a mainstream publisher, Reycraft Books.

"Finding Moon Rabbit" is historical, in that information is provided about the incarceration itself.  Jan also uses headlines from the camp newspaper, the "Heart Mountain Sentinel" to start her chapters and provide a reference to the events that happened in the camp.  The middle grade book not only tells the story of a young girl in the camps, but also provides young readers with some history of the relocation and incarceration as well. 

 

7 Questions with Tony Bernard, Author of The Ghost Tattoo

 

Tony Bernard grew up sailing, surfing and swimming on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, being raised with his younger sister and brother by his hardworking father Henry, a local family doctor. He initially studied dentistry at Sydney University before following his dad into medicine, undertaking his medical training at Nottingham and Cambridge Universities in Britain.

After returning to practice in Newcastle, regional NSW and Sydney, he spent his career working in the emergency department of Mona Vale Hospital, the same hospital in which his dad had previously worked for many years. More recently, he also works in the emergency department of the new Northern Beaches Hospital.

His father Henry was his hero, and it was natural that he followed him into the medical profession. Yet it was one thing to idolize Henry and another to understand who he was and what he had gone through. Over decades and during multiple trips to Europe, Tony found himself on a path of discovery, eventually writing his father's memoirs shortly before his death in 2016. What began as a journey to understand his father became the uncovering of an extraordinary holocaust survival story.

Tony lives on the Northern Beaches of Sydney with his wife Jennifer and daughter Sarah.

His book, The Ghost Tattoo, was published in September or 2023. His website is https://www.tonybernard.com.au/

1. How and when did you get  hooked on history? I have had lifelong interest in history from childhood due to my father’s interest in both history  and current affairs .This stems from his life experience as a Holocaust survivor. We grew up discussing  past events particularly from the Second World War. 2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life? I studied history at high school but it is now one of my main hobbies combined with  geopolitics and  current affairs as well. At school I never fully appreciated the importance of documentary evidence.  History to me had been the telling of stories about past events. One of the things I am proud about in my  book 'The Ghost Tattoo’, is that fact that my father’s Holocaust survival story is backed by evidence.  When I showed a draft of my book to the historian at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM), he told me  that the things described my book needed to be supported with evidence and that he would help me.  In particular he helped me get access to the files of the war crimes trial at which my father was a witness. After reading the finished book, he now says that he is unaware of any other Holocaust survivor with  as much evidence backing up their story as in my father’s case. 3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career? I am a medical doctor and am very aware of the history of medicine and how rapidly medical practice  changes. And medicine like history is evidence based. We have all just experienced the biggest medical  crisis of our lives in the Covid 19 pandemic, which will be a major defining historical event of the early  21st century. 4. Why is studying/knowing history important? History explains so much of the world in which we live. And because history is the product of human  existence, it is affected by human behaviour. Thus, we see history repeated because human behaviour is  repeated. And with increasing understanding of the forces driving geopolitics, history becomes less of a  random series of events and more of a ‘predictable’ science. 5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why? Because of my father’s Holocaust experience including the loss of his parents and wife, as well as his  multiple near-death experiences, I am interested in twentieth century history, particularly the Second  World War period. The Holocaust was the defining point of difference about the Second World War,  even though there have been some attempts at genocide in previous wars ( e.g. the Armenian genocide  by the Turks in WW1). But I believe the twentieth century could really be called the Eighty Years War,  starting in the Balkan Wars around 1912, leading to WWI, which led to the birth of communism and  fascism, which led to WW2, then the Cold War, which lasted until the collapse of the USSR in 1991. One of the best things to come out of the 20th Century is the accountability of governments in  democracies to their people.  WW1 was started by unaccountable monarchies whereas by the end of  the 20th Century democratic governments around the world are held much more accountable for the  lives of their soldiers and citizens.                                                                        Tony Bernard podcast appearance 6.         What prompted you to uncover your family history as documented in The Ghost Tattoo?    Initially my father had me record his oral history of his early life and Holocaust experience for the  record for family and friends. However, the more I researched over the years, the more I learned and  uncovered, culminating in the documentary evidence I found including access to the war crimes trial  records I mentioned earlier. It was not until I wrote the final chapter of the book that I came to  understand my father’s regret and turmoil about the role he played in the Holocaust.   I just ask the reader; What would you have done in his position? 7.          What did you learn about yourself and your family from this experience?  I have come to realise that, in effect, my father is having me explain to the world his position and role  during the Holocaust. He is getting me, on his behalf, to put on the record for history, what he had seen happen in the Tomaszow Jewish Ghetto during this terrible time.

This is a photo of Hermann Wiese, the Gestapo Chief in Tomaszow in November 1942 at the time of the deportation of the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto to the Treblinka death camp.

He personally selected Bernard's grandmother Theodora for the train to the death camp.

It comes from the Hessisches Archive in Darmstadt.

This is Bernard's father's registration form at the Dachau concentration camp from 27 October 1944.

7 Questions with Pia Jordan, Author of Memories of a Tuskegee Airmen Nurse

 

Pia Marie Winters Jordan is producing a multi-media documentary on the Army Nurse Corps members who served with the Tuskegee Airmen at Tuskegee Army Air Field during World War II. Her mother, Louise Virginia Lomax Winters, was a First Lieutenant and one of those nurses.

She is a retired associate professor in the Department of Multimedia Journalism, School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. She was also one of the advisers to the Morgan State University Association of Black Journalists. She came to Morgan in August of 2008. She taught students in broadcast news writing, reporting and producing as well as internship preparation, senior capstone and media studies. For more information about her Tuskegee Army Nurses Project:  http://www.tuskegeearmynurses.info/

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?  

I was more hooked on journalism, but my uncle, Dr. Edgar A. Toppin, Sr.,  was a historian, author and a professor at the former Virginia State College in Petersburg, Virginia.  He wrote several books dealing with the Black Experience and had a television show dealing with Black history in the 1960's.  One of his books was A Biographical History of Blacks in America Since 1528. I have learned he wrote ten books in his lifetime.  He was also a past president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).  I was proud of his work.  I also loved to visit Harper's Ferry, West Virginia where I saw where my father attended courses at Storer College which provided an education for blacks and the story of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.

 

   2.  What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

I have come to value the roles different people have played in determining the direction of history in our world.  I like knowing the backstories of incidents that are happening today.  It goes back to the saying by Edmund Burke-"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."

3. How does history play  a part of your professional life/career?   

Since learning about my mother's participation during World War II as a Tuskegee Airmen Nurse, I have come to appreciate how the participation of people in history, no matter how large or small, can play a great part with regard to the world's stage.  Now that I am retired from broadcast journalism and teaching the subject, I have spent more than a decade researching and learning about the period of World War II.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?  

Studying and knowing history is important because it can provide answers to future concerns of a nation good or bad.  We can learn what has worked or what hasn't in policy decisions and conflicts between countries.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?  

I personally like learning about and looking at the history of the Elizabethan Era.  I find it fascinating understanding the hierarchy of the lords and ladies, etc.,  dress, health concerns, political environment, transportation, etc.

   

6.       How did Memories of a Tuskegee Airmen Nurse come about and how did you research the book?  

When I started teaching multimedia journalism at a university in Maryland, a colleague saw I was distraught after not having done anything about my mom being a Tuskegee Airmen Nurse--especially after she had some minor strokes and ended up in a nursing home.  My colleague encouraged me to get started now by first interviewing the nurses.  Well that was in 2008 and in 2009 I began interviewing the nurses and any Tuskegee Airmen who knew them while on the base.  I literally have been visiting archival sites around the country to research the period when the Tuskegee Army Flying School was in operation. I have visited nurses and airmen in California, Maryland and New Jersey.  I have visited archives and museums in Washington, D.C., College Park, Maryland, Riverside, California, Detroit, Michigan, Montgomery, Alabama, Tuskegee, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

7.       One of your ultimate goals is to make a documentary. Where does that project stand and how can people help?   

Raising the money to produce the documentaries will be the next goal.  It will take funds to hire, videographers, graphic artists and a producer to help complete a first rate project.  I have been asked about curriculum for students in studying my book, Memories of a Tuskegee Airmen Nurse and Her Military Sisters.  Maybe, that could also be a goal.  I have set up a GoFund Me site for future projects. ( https://www.gofundme.com/f/b84v9y-tuskegee-army-nurses-project?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=widget&utm_campaign=p_cp%2Bshare-sheet )

 

7 Questions With Kim Campbell, Director of Interpretation and Preservation, Coastal Georgia Historical Society

 Kim Campbell is the Director of Interpretation and Preservation with the Coastal Georgia Historical Society and has managed the World War II Home Front Museum since September2018. In this capacity, she supervises daily operations on-site, assists with educational and interpretive programming, and helps maintain the Society’s historic buildings. Campbell previously served as the Director of Preservation Field Services at Historic Macon Foundation from July 2017 to September 2018 and was the Preservation and Education Coordinator at the same organization beginning in November 2014. Before moving back to Georgia, Campbell worked as a National Register of Historic Places contractor for the Historic Columbia Foundation. She holds a master’s degree in public history with a concentration in historic preservation and a certificate of museum management from the University of South Carolina, as well as a bachelor’s degree in history from Mercer University in Macon.  Campbell is a published researcher, most recently in the National Council on Public History essay collection Preserving Place and in the South Carolina Historical Quarterly. Campbell also researched and wrote the material for the National Register of Historic Places listing for the James and Olive Porter House. For more information about the World War II Home Front Museum, see their web page https://www.coastalgeorgiahistory.org/visit/world-war-ii-museum/ 

1.         How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?

I don’t really have many memories of a time when I wasn’t interested in the past. One of my first distinct memories of engaging with history was on a field trip to the Ocmulgee Mounds in Macon, Georgia as a second grader. I was fascinated by the idea that I was literally walking where people had been hundreds and thousands of years before and was so curious about their lives. I still feel that historic places offer people today a tangible connection to the past that makes history feel real in a way almost nothing else can.

2.         What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

While I largely research and present local history professionally, I engage in a much wider range of historical topics in my personal time. In the past year, I’ve read histories on everything from the role of fast foot in civil rights (I highly recommend Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain.) to a book about the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled Egypt in her own right. I’ve also watched documentaries about subjects from videogames to Malcolm X.

 

Besides providing entertainment, the practice of history informs how I navigate everyday life. Knowing how to research a topic and sort through whether or not a source is reliable are both really helpful skills in navigating the largely digital world we now live in.

3.         How will history play  a part of your professional life/career?

I’m a practicing public historian, so I’ve built my career around researching history and then interpreting and presenting it to as many people as possible, with a particular emphasis on reaching people outside of the academy. Essentially, my career doesn’t exist without history.

4.         Why is studying/knowing history important?

Imagine for a moment that you are dropped into a moving car and told to drive to a particular town. In order to navigate to where you want to go, you have to figure out where you are, and since you’re still moving, the best way to figure out where you are is to learn where you’ve already been. History is a lot like this car scenario; you can keep moving forward without bothering to figure out how you got to where you currently are, but the chances you’ll successfully find where it is you want to go without that information are pretty slim. We have to understand our past in order to make informed decisions for how to create an equitable and just future.

5.         What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

As a public historian, my work often has me study a topic briefly, interpret that history for a specific audience, and then move on to the next topic. The one subject I consistently return to though is memory. Memory is the public perception of history, and we can study it through monuments, novels, historic markers, films, and many other aspects of popular culture. In addition to sometimes having fun source material to examine, memory also gives me a view of what someone like myself may have presented to the publics of the past.

6.         How did the WWII Home Front Museum come into existence?

From 2006 to 2016, the Coastal Georgia Historical Society operated the Maritime Center at the Historic Coast Guard Station on St. Simons Island. That museum had exhibits on subjects like the Coast Guard, archeology, marsh ecology, and World War II. When the Society updated the exhibits in our other property the St. Simons Lighthouse Museum, we discovered that the World War II story in our community was far too large to fit on a single panel in that exhibit on St. Simons Island history. By 2016 it was time to update the Maritime Center, and since the Coast Guard played a major part in Glynn County’s World War II story, we decided this was the best home to share this narrative.

7.         What is the main story your museum aims to tell?

The World War II Home Front Museum brings to life Coastal Georgia’s extraordinary contributions to winning World War II. Through immersive galleries and interactives we tell the stories of ordinary Americans doing their part to win the war. While the details of our story are specific to this area, the overarching narrative of sacrifice and participation in the war effort played out in countless small towns, large cities, and rural farms across America.