#17 "United States POW in Japanese Internment Camps"
- Podcast Teaser Trailer
-
Episode Preview -- "United States POW in Japanese Internment Camps"
- Guest Biography
-
Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga was a prisoner in the Manzanar Internment camp in the deserts of California. He spent a large chunk of his young-adulthood inside of the camp, arriving at the age of 17. He grew up in Los Angeles and when Pearl Harbor occurred his whole life changed. He was quickly ostracized from his non-Japanese friends as they did not want to be referred to as “Jap Lovers.” Aiko sheds light on the struggles that occurred with being a Japanese-American, especially in the Manzanar Camp in his interview
Glenn Frazier was an American soldier stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded and captured him. He spent the majority of WWII in a Japanese POW camp doing forced labor. His interview highlights the atrocities he faced while captive including being strafed by Japanese planes for target practice. His interview highlights how the only thing that got him through it all was his hatred towards the Japanese and how he has come to terms with his hatred now, learning to forgive them, but not forget.
Osamu Mori was a Japanese man who served time in multiple internment camps during WWII. He grew up in San Pedro, CA and was born in 1928. When the war broke out he and his family were moved around from camp to camp, starting with Santa Anita. In his interview he goes deep into the details of life at these camps, including activities and meals they participated in. An example of an activity that Osamu participated in was snake hunting. Osamu’s interview sheds important light on the hardships of living in an American Internment camp.
John L. Stensby was an American soldier stationed in the Philippines at the beginning of World War II. He was eventually captured and forced to work in the shipyards as a slave building ships for the Japanese navy. Stensby claims that he was the only American to sink a Japanese battleship by himself. He did so by welding a steel plate to the bow of the ship using a faulty method so when the Japanese launched the battleship it quickly had a hole and sank in the harbor. This was an embarrassing defeat for the Japanese and shows what kind of man Stensby was.
Henry Wilayto was an American marine who surrendered at the battle of Manila and was forced to march the Bataan Death March where he expierenced tragedies such as 650 of his fellow soldiers being killed a day. Wilayto became a grave digger in the cemetery within their POW camp. He and his men would work all day only to return to their “mess hall” and receive little to no rations. John lost fifty pounds and was extraordinarily malnourished by the time he was freed. - Episode Number
- Students Podcasting History Episode #17
- Episode Title
- #17 "United States POW in Japanese Internment Camps"
- Episode Date
- April 22, 2025
- Key Words
- Japanese Internment Camp, Barracks, POW, Manzanar Internment Camp
- Episode Introduction
-
This Podcast will take a deep dive into the ins and outs of how U.S. Prisoners of war were treated by the Japanese v.s. the American Internment Camps that held Japanese Americans. This topic is one of serious depth and hurting, but one that is very interesting. The podcast will cover the housing, food, and overall environment of the average prison camp from the two perspective sides. It will discuss the intricacies of all three topics according to many first hand accounts. Many examinations and books have studied this topic, especially about one side or the other, but not many have compared the two. It will be a very interesting topic to listen and learn about.
I will be adding an in depth discussion on the ins and outs of Japanese POW camps v.s. US Internment camps. It will allow the listeners of my podcast to understand just what horrors were committed in each and how they affected the prisoners who were captured. These horrors would cause the mental deterioration and breakdown of many soldiers and cause serious amounts of hatred towards their wartime enemies for years after, and for some, the rest of their lives. It is a topic that relates to today as many feelings are still portrayed today whether through pop culture or passed down through generations. It will be very fascinating to study and research for the podcast. - Hosted By
- Mason Cogswell
- Host Biography
- My name is Mason Cogswell and I am a student at Sewanee: The University of the South. I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina where I enjoy hunting, fishing, and being outside. I attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA for high school. Episcopal is a boarding school that attended for all four years before attending Sewanee. I grew up with a knack for history, always finding myself most interested in the time period between the American Revolution and the American Civil War. I pursued as many history classes as I could in highschool and visited as many museums as I could in nearby D.C. This interest in history has driven me to become an American Studies major here at Sewanee, a major that dives deep into American history and literature. Along with my American Studies major, I plan on completing a Business minor. With these tools I plan on entering the world of business, particularly Commercial Real Estate, after I graduate Sewanee, although it is a bit early to tell.
- Guest
- Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, Glenn Frazier, Osamu Mori, John L. Stensby, and Henry John Wilayto
- The Show
- Students Podcasting History is an educational resource developed by students in Dr. Andrew Maginn’s History of the United States II course to highlight crucial movements in American History through podcasting. The students research and interpret primary and secondary sources to discuss pivotal themes, people, and events in the United States' history from 1865 through the present. Through creatively sharing these narratives and learning digital tools, these students hope to make history more accessible and exciting for the general public.
- Source
-
Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, “Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga Oral History Interview conducted by Emiko and Chizuko Omori, March 20, 1994,” Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, https://densho.org/
Andrew Maginn, “World War II,” History 202: History of the United States II, class lecture, Sewanee, The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, February 28, 2025
Concord Oral History Program, Henry John Wilayto, and Renee Garrelick, “Henry John Wilayto Oral History Interview conducted by Renee Garrelick, 1940,” Henry John Wilayto Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.02940/
Diane Burke Fessler, “Japanese Internment Camps Philippines 1941–1945 Prisoners of War: ‘You Don’t Know What Freedom Is until You Lose It,’” in No Time for Fear: Voices of American Military Nurses in World War II, 79–104, East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 1996, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/j.ctt13x0p49.10
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order No. 9066, February 19, 1942, History Matters, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154
Glenn Frazier, “I Needed Revenge – Four Years in a Japanese Prison Camp,” Memoirs of WWII, August 2, 2019, 12:15, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezKfWZW_DJs
Gravitas Documentaries, “Forgive Don’t Forget – When Japan Surrendered to the U.S.,” Gravitas Documentaries, July 9, 2023, 03:42, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY2Kvyyl26g
Mikiso Hane, “Wartime Internment,” The Journal of American History 77, no. 2 (1990), 569–75, https://doi.org/10.2307/2079186
Osamu Mori, “Osamu Mori Oral History Interview conducted by Richard Potashin, April 14, 2010,” Manzanar National Historic Site Collection, Densho Digital Archive, Segment 8, https://densho.org/
Theresa Kaminski, Angels of the Underground, New York, Oxford University Press, 2016
Veterans Memorial Museum, Rebekah Adams, John L. Stensby Sr., and Stephen Poniatowski, “John L. Stensby Sr. Oral History Interview conducted by Rebekah Adams, Stephen Poniatowski, and John L. Stensby Sr., 1939,” John L. Stensby Sr. Collection, Veterans Memorial Museum, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.00454/ - Contact Information
- https://www.andrewwyattmaginn.org/Digital_Humanities/s/studentspodcastinghistory/page/home