Passing Time in the Camps with Baton Twirling

Keeping Japanese Performance Arts Alive in the Camps Passing Time in the Camps with Baton Twirling Takayo Fischer’s Love of Acting Started with Shibai Facing Prejudice as a Japanese American Teenager in Chicago after the War Takayo Fischer on Her First Time Expressing Outward Affection to Her Parents Being Confused about Racial Identity in Postwar United States Shock of Her Granddaughter Not Knowing Her Japanese Heritage On the Difference between Being a Role and Playing a Role Working on the Set of Pirates of the Caribbean and Meeting Keith Richards The Emotional Toll of Being Incarcerated in Camp during World War II Representing her Family and the Japanese American Community in Acting Sister’s Trauma from being Incarcerated during World War II Her Approach to Preparing for Roles Getting the Role of Gwennie in The World of Suzie Wong

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I was also – I knew how to twirl a baton in camp. So I brought my – you know, you could only take what you could carry. I carried my baton, and I twirled in camp, and I ordered boots from the catalogue. I think it was either Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward catalogue, and I don’t remember which one I got it from, but I had major boots, and I had a little outfit, and I just had a little book also, and I would watch, you know, when I would see other people, a parade or something. And I basically taught myself how to twirl. It was pleasurable and it was – because it was something you had to do by yourself, you know? Hour after hour, so that was a nice thing to have.

Date: November 8, 2018
Location: California, US
Interviewer: June Berk
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

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