Christmas Caroling your Captors

Heart Mountain – Kara Kondo describes Christmas caroling

(interned kids serenade a prison guard) from http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/nikkeialbum/items/485/


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To view video, Click Here. Kara Kondo recalls the effect Christmas caroling had on a young camp guard. (Others (not this one) are on YouTube)

“I was advisor to a high school girls’ group called Hijinks, and we went out caroling. And we went to the, to the guard towers where people were, the soldiers were stationed to guard us. And I can see the, I can just picture how cold it was and the frost glistening on the barbed wire and our singing songs. And I could — we thought we were being smart. [Laughs] But, and this poor voice that was almost choking with tears said, “Well, thank you.” And how lonely he must have been up there. Those are the kinds of memories you have about Christmas.”

Nisei female. Born 1916 in the Yakima valley, Washington, and spent childhood in Wapato, Washington. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, removed to the North Portland Assembly Center, Oregon, and then to the Heart Mountain incarceration camp, Wyoming. Was on the staff of the camp newspaper, the Heart Mountain Sentinel. Left camp for Chicago, Illinois, and lived in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Missouri before returning to Yakima, Washington. Became involved in political organization postwar, such as the League of Women Voters. Testified before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians during the redress movement, and became actively involved in groups addressing environmental issues. Kara passed away in 2005.

Courtesy of Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project

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