The Copy Machine That Rewrote History

A woman sent to an incarceration camp as a teenager returns decades later with a copy machine to expose the truth about Japanese American confinement.

The Copy Machine That Rewrote History

This episode tells the story of Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, who, after being incarcerated during World War II, dedicated her life to uncovering the suppressed history of Japanese American internment. It explores the personal cost of seeking truth when official narratives conflict with lived experience.

Person: Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga Event: Japanese American incarceration Date: February 1942 Location: Manzanar, Jerome, Rohwer Document: Executive Order 9066

- Aiko Yoshinaga was a 17-year-old honors student in Los Angeles when Executive Order 9066 authorized the forced removal of Japanese American. - Her high school principal denied her a diploma, claiming Japanese American were responsible for bombing Pearl Harbor. - To avoid separation from her partner, Aiko strategically eloped before being sent to the Manzanar incarceration camp. - After the war, she left the camps with $25 and no diploma, working clerical jobs for decades. - Forty years later, guided by Michi Weglyn, Aiko arrived at the National Archives with her own discount copy machine to research the incarceration.

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