February 19, 2026 / 6:23 PM PST / CBS LA
Today, the country is observing "Day of Remembrance" for Japanese American internment during World War II and one San Pedro man tells his story about surviving and serving.
Ed Nakamura turned 100 years old in August and he's come to terms with his internment experience, aware that there aren't many survivors left.
"I grew up in Auburn, Washington, going to high school. And then the war started. That of course, changed completely our way of life," Nakamura said.
Following the Pearl Harbor attacks, on Feb. 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which forced 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry into American internment camps. The Nakamuras were sent to Tule Lake Relocation Center. "With just our clothes on, that was it," Nakamura recalled.
Edward Nakamura, Japanese internment camp survivor. CBS LA
Families lost everything; their bank accounts were drained. Thousands of people were crammed in small barracks, braving cold winters.
After nine months of incarceration, Nakamura and his older brother were given a rare opportunity to leave the camp and help the farming workforce in Idaho. That's where he graduated from high school.
Despite his family still being in the government internment camps, when Uncle Sam came knocking, Nakamura answered the call.
"Lo and behold, I was drafted," he said. After basic training in a segregated, Japanese American bootcamp in Mississippi, Nakamura volunteered to join the U.S. Army's military intelligence service. He was first deployed to the Philippines, then to post-war Japan as an interrogator.
Following his honorable discharge, Nakamura returned to the U.S., married his sweetheart Mary and worked at Hughes Aircraft Company for 37 years.
One year before Nakamura's retirement, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, formally apologizing to Japanese internment survivors.
"I think it was long deserving. A long time coming. Sometimes I wish they recognized it from day one," he said.
He and fellow Japanese American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their patriotism and valor overseas while battling discrimination at home.
"The government recognized that, so I have much more peace," Nakamura said. "We should not be forgotten or ignored. And that it's human nature to discriminate, so we have to try to minimize that, and try to love each other best we can."