angeles, 1920-1950", the experiences of of second-generation japanese-american women. in the years surrounding world war ii. this 20 minute interview as part of booktv's college degrees. >> valerie matsumoto, when did japanese immigration to the united states begin and really take off? >> the first to come were students who came in 1890s and they were talking and said to have tried to strengthen imperial role. so the first went to hawaii and then by the 19 hundreds more were coming to the continental united states. two how big was that wave imax. >> we are talking as we work

backward, there were about 120,000 japanese-americans and two thirds of who were american-born in the continental united states. >> on the eve of world war ii, 120,000 japanese-americans in the united states. >> who were in fact incarcerated >> when one hears the term, what does it mean? >> it means literally first-generation and it refers to the japanese immigrant. it means second generation carefirst of u.s. citizens american-born children. >> is there a third generation as well?

>> yes, there is. >> so your printers came to the united states? >> yes, my mother and father came over 100 years ago. and there are family stories as to why they came. but certainly seeking economic opportunity and he went back when he was a teenager at the time and he went back later when he had earned enough money to bring back a wife. my grandmother was much younger. they were both teenagers from a small fishing area, my father and awful. when they were about 15 and 17. >> about a hundred years ago

imax. >> they came in the late 19 hundreds. >> nearly 100 years ago. okay, did they become citizens and were they allowed to become citizens? >> the japanese immigrants were able to become citizens in 1952 with the acting past and one set of grandparents chose to do that. >> what about your parents? they live here in southern california to . >> my parents were both born in 1926 and my father's family lived in orange county. he was actually born in gresham, oregon, he worked as a lumberjack for it while and he did many things and they ended up farming in southern

california. so my mother was born in northern california in oakland. >> valerie matsumoto is a professor at ucla and the tv is on the occasion in los angeles talking with professors about their books. we are getting into your book called "city girls." we will show that to you now, during world war ii, where were your parents? >> my mother's family was first incarcerated and then sent to cam. they ended up in the largest of the camps in arizona. and both of them began at the race track. so they had only just recently

vacated. >> did your parents -- did they talk about this remark. >> my father did not talk about this. but my mother has told me many stories about her experiences. >> who are who're the city girls you're talking about in your book imax. >> the city girls are the urban japanese-americans second-generation i got to have all the fun that my poor rule parents adopted to have because they grew up having to work. they are the second-generation of nisei girls and women who'd grew up in southern california who are able to participate in a wide range of things. and this includes a host of other organizations as well. >> your book runs from 1920 to

1950, japanese-americans didn't get citizenship until 1952, or is that the first-generation? >> their children, the second-generation were american citizens by birth. so they were able to participate politically. >> with a total california girls? >> absolutely. and so yes, they were a group that was founded affiliated with the ywca and they had lots of parties and dances and they were very good dancers and very active in social service and

community organizing. >> how similar to american society where they? >> i think that it is important to think about why they formed in the 1920s and 30s were a difficult time and certainly for young people they weren't always welcome in extra crypto activities. the series from school to school in terms of the level of acceptance or exclusion. but i think that by 1940 there were something like 400 nisei clubs giving testimony to the kind of difficulty in the larger society and other post-high school organizations.

>> what is the long-term effect of the club's? >> i think the clubs are tremendously important. there were nisei clubs that were active all the way to seattle and it goes down into san diego and there are probably other things that i'm not familiar with. but these clubs have been immensely important and many scholars have wondered why the japanese-american community was able to rebuild after their incarceration during world war ii. so i think that this is glossing over a lot of the hardships and i think it's really important to think about the underpinnings which was something that helps to train youngsters from the time that they are in junior high school.

they learn how to organize and put together are planned for the year to set goals and reach them from a very early age and in that work continues on for high school students for those that were either college age and on. and so i think that we can see women's participation being taught in tremper nominated in the same way that we can see that they were very active. one of the most interesting things is how many women became involved in this in the 1970s and 80s. those on the grassroots level and also being involved in legislative lobbying. >> was your mother nisei?

was she in the club? >> no, she grew up in east oakland. so she's doing a lot of farm work and they didn't have the access to transportation like the girls that i write about. should she was not able to do this. >> are these girls, the nisei girls, are they still friends to get together? >> yes, certainly the younger groups that formed during the war and after the war in their 70s, many of them do get together. they are called the jobs, it stands for just us girls. and they still get together and they meet regularly to play poker and they go together to las vegas once per year.

>> how important were these clubs to the girls during world war ii? >> i think the club was very important and it continues over not only with the limitations on their acceptance and the larger society, but they had immigrant parents who thrived upon things like dating and couples dancing. so the way ticket current approval for the activities that they wanted to try was to join a club with advisers and chaperones and they also formed a club as boys. this enabled the nisei to experiment and to gain social experience and to enjoy all kinds of things, including going out and going to places that their parents were not as familiar with like museums and

libraries. there are a range of activities at the club open up for them and this also included opportunities to study japanese culture and language as well as western etiquette and cooking. so it did permeated ethnic and generational ties and claims modern femininity and american identity. and so during the war when people were very demoralized, they were in a dead situation, there were few resources and they had nothing and they had lost everything. and also for young people, they felt that they had been exiled to the middle of nowhere. so the older nisei began to

organize clubs for the younger. some of the clubs continued, but new clubs formed for the younger kids, to give them something meaningful to do build with sports activities, dances. the things that they were trying to do to maintain row. one of the interesting clubs i think is one that was founded by an individual who is a friend of malcolm asked. during the war she was sent to the camp and she was a teacher of sunday school in santa anita and to realize that a number of hers did in had brothers who were serving in the military. she wanted to participate in the war effort. but she also wanted to give

girls something meaningful to do. so she started a club called the crusaders and they became immensely popular. what they did was they were writing letters for servicemen, sending them first two brothers and more and more girls join the club because they wanted to help out and they were sending letters to thousands of servicemen. i think she wrote 16,000 soldiers just by herself. and the crusaders continued throughout the war and the servicemen were very appreciative so eventually they were ready to send the letters in to send envelopes.

>> you said that nisei were allowed to serve in the army, is that a fair assessment of the situation for japanese-americans during world war ii? >> yes. all the japanese-americans who lived in the western coastal states were all incarcerated and during the war there was men that were recruited and drafted. there are many ironies in this situation and many brave men who agreed to go, and also those that resisted. so it's a very interesting situation and very complex in terms of the situation. >> when, if ever, did japanese american society get fully integrated into american

society? >> that is a really good question. do you believe that american society is fully integrated? >> i don't answer questions, i just asked them. >> i thought that was a prerogative of the interviewer. [laughter] i would say that it's interesting to think about the trajectory of japanese-american history and the position of the different generations. i think that we can see from the foundation of the first and second generation but this is giving a springboard for the third generation to become active in society in different ways. and i think that we can see this in the outgrowth of the japanese-american third generation who became involved in the asian american movement during the 19th season 1970s. and of course i was a period upgrade social prominence.

most people know about the fiscal rights movement and black power and the american indian movement. people are not always as familiar with the asian american movement and yet it was also very robust and they were very much inspired by black power and leaders like malcolm x. but looking at the organizational structure and the way that they did things in the way that they were having local communities needs and taking on issues, in some ways that they really follow the pattern. the prewar organizing of their parents. even though some of their parents were sort of horrified. i think it's partly because of their own organizational ability and commitment to communities that we can see that our outgrowth. and i would say that the fact

that their children were able to become so active and both generation seemed very active in the redress for her japanese-american reparations in the war, which we addressed and the civil liberties act of 1988. we can see this in the earlier activity. >> what sparked your interest in nisei culture and the nisei social world? >> i was giving a talk to a group of japanese-americans in tow who were all city youth and they had asked me about my first book about a foreign community and i was talking about how hard it was for adolescents growing up in the central valley and i asked them about their lives and they started telling me about the parties and the dances and the socialized in the penpal club and the gloved one advice

columns and a whole world opened up before me and i thought, i have to find out more about this. to that was the beginning for me of looking into the life of the urban girls and they had a very good time. >> is there a book about the other generation? >> there are studies. not yet, but we have talked about women's involvement in the asian american movement. >> what you teach at ucla we met. >> i teach asian-american history and i am coteaching a freshman class on interracial dynamics. presently i am teaching a class on asian-american history as well. >> we all want to take that class. on your asian-american history class, is it a general 101

course? >> yes, it's an introductory class. we start with immigration to hawaii and we talk about -- we talk about the chinese coming to the u.s. because of the gold rush. and there were chinese restaurant in san francisco from this time on in the restaurant seven popular since it leaves 1850s. so there's a very rich history going from early immigration which brings whole new influx of people from other parts of asia. >> "city girls" is the name of the book, "city girls: the nisei social world in los angeles, 1920-1950". professor valerie matsumoto here with us on c-span2 cemented their nonfiction author or book

that you would like to see featured on booktv? sent us an e-mail at booktv at c-span.org. tweet us at or post on our wall at facebook.com/booktv. >> we're joined here right outside of the history and biology room by justice of the courts sandra day o'connor. this is her fifth book, stories from the history of the supreme court, out of order. so when did you discover that you enjoyed writing? >> nothing changed there but there were just lots of things to write about. >> 40 doing at the book festival today? is i don't think you're talking about your book? >> no, not really. my brother has a new book out. and jim told me that