"My father happened to be targeted perhaps because he was not only a fisherman with access to a boat, but also because he was a scrap metals collector.... So that, I guess, was sufficient for the FBI to arrest him the night of Pearl Harbor. And that's the last I saw of him...until two and a half years later." (Video Interview, 9:15)
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Robert Hiroshi Kono |
Robert Kono [detail from video] | World War II, 1939-1946
Civilian
Los Angeles, CA
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Robert Kono, a second-generation Japanese-American, was only nine years old when the United States entered WWII. His father was arrested the night of the Pearl Harbor attack and it would be over two years before Robert would see him again. Soon afterwards, Robert's family was moved to one of the Japanese-American internment camps in California, and they shuttled around various camps in the U.S. until the war was over. Robert has since written a book about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit of Japanese-Americans who fought against the Nazis in Europe, as well as a collection of short stories.
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