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Item
Title
Oral history interview with John Murakami [Sound Recording 04]
Date(s)
- 1992-07-14 (Creation)
Extent
Audiocassette; 00:31:37
Name of creator
Biographical history
John Yoneo Murakami was born in Sherwood, Oregon, in 1919. His parents, Shuichi Sam Murakami and Yaeno Goto, immigrated to the United States from Japan around 1917. When Murakami was 7 years old, his family moved from their farm in Sherwood to Portland, where his father owned a grocery store, called Johnson Street Grocery. Murakami dropped out of high school in his sophomore year and later earned his GED. In 1942, he and Sumi Matsushita were married. That same year, Murakami's family was among the Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. government at the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho. Murakami enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the European Theater during World War II. He was injured in France and was discharged in 1945. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. After his discharge, he returned to Portland and worked in construction. He then taught building construction at Benson Polytechnic High School. After ten years of marriage, John Murakami and and Sumi Murakami adopted two children. After John Murakami’s retirement in 1984, he was active in numerous community organizations, including the Japanese Ancestral Society, the Nisei Veterans Committee, and Portland Taiko. He died in 2005. In 2011, he was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
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Scope and content
Tape 3, Side 1. This oral history interview with John Y. Murakami was conducted by George Katagiri from July 13-20, 1992, at Murakami’s home in Portland, Oregon. The interview was recorded as part of the Japanese American Oral History Project, which was conducted by the Oregon Historical Society to preserve the stories of Japanese Americans in Oregon. This interview was conducted in three sessions. In the second interview session, conducted on July 14, 1992, Murakami continues discussing playing baseball in the Nisei Baseball League, as well as his interest in other sports. He also talks about his social life as a teenager. He speaks about a few instances of prejudice that he experienced. He discusses his experience in the U.S. Army, serving in the European Theater during World War II. He also talks about the U.S. government’s incarceration of his family at the Minidoka War Relocation Center, and about his marriage to Sumi Matsushita. He then discusses his life in Portland after his discharge from the Army in 1945, including working in construction and teaching building construction at Benson Polytechnic High School.
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Conditions governing access
Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
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Languages of the material
- eng
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Subject access points
- Japanese Americans--Oregon
- Grocery trade--Oregon--Portland
- Japanese American baseball players
- Baseball--Oregon--20th century
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
- World War, 1939-1945--Japanese Americans
- Japanese Americans--Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945
- World War, 1939-1945--Concentration camps--United States
- Minidoka Relocation Center
Place access points
Name access points
- Katagiri, George (Contributor)