Walt Yoshida was a Japanese American man living on Terminal Island. He was the brother of Amy Yoshida, and a family friend of the Nakayama family.
On The Terror: Infamy, Walt Yoshida was portrayed by Lee Shorten.
History[]
In December 1941, he was getting married in a few months. Several of his friends, helped by a local naval officer named Marlon, hosted a bachelor party for him at a local brothel. They hid this from their families by claiming that they were going with him to see the film Down Mexico Way, featuring Gene Autry. His sister, Amy, described him as being "as Japanese as rice," stating that he could never imagine that she was dating a hakujin (white person) from the island's Naval Station. ("A Sparrow in a Swallow’s Nest")
Following Executive Order 9066, he and his family were forced to leave Terminal Island. As they headed off to a hotel in L.A., he suggested to Chester Nakayama that he might see his girlfriend Luz Ojeda there, only for Chester to tell him that the relationship was over. Later, everyone was sent temporarily to the Hidden Gate Farms and made to live in horse stables. There, his father encounters the bakemono Yuko Tanabe, who causes him to pick up a gun and point it at Chester and his own son, Walt. He then instead approaches a group of soldiers, and aims it at them. Though everyone shouts for him to stop, he does not and is shot dead by the soldiers. Before he does so, he tries to warn Chester to leave. Later, Walt asks Chester why his father would tell him this, but he doesn't know. The next morning, the group is placed on another bus and sent to the Colinas de Oro War Relocation Center internment camp. ("All the Demons Are Still in Hell")
At the camp, Walt works together with Chester and Toshiro Furuya to build a fence on the orders of American soldiers. They meet a new arrival from San Francisco, Ken Uehara, who seems to get on well with Walt's sister, Amy. He is a witness as Hideo Furuya, possessed by Tanabe, tries to strangle his own son. When asked by Chester about it, he replies that he thinks that Furuya simply cracked up, like his own father did. Chester asks him if his father had said "you have to go" to both of them, but Walt clearly recalls it as "Chester, you have to go." Later, when Chester's girlfriend has a fall, he tells Walt that he thinks that it wasn't an accident and that he can't help thinking of what his father said. Walt sarcastically wishes him good luck when it comes to leaving. Later, after getting a job as a translator, Chester walks with Walt, who asks him how much he told Luz. He tells her that he only told her that it was a good job, and they hug each other goodbye. ("Gaman")
Under the influence of Yuko Tanabe, a soldier at the camp, MP Nessler, climbs the camp's watchtower and jumps, committing suicide. A broken glass is discovered in his hand, resulting in a raid of dormitories throughout the camp to search for contraband saké. The Yoshida dormitory is among those raided and when saké is discovered under the floorboards, Walt professes to having made it. For this, the camp's chief, Major Bowen, sends him to the stockade. ("The Weak Are Meat")
He was eventually released from the stockade, as he wast just one of many individuals at the camp that Major Bowen felt deserved punishment. In February 1943, he was one of only a few individuals who had anything positive to say when those at the Colinas de Oro were made to fill out the Statement of United States Citizen of Japanese Ancestry, a loyalty questionnaire. Though Ken Uehara was upset about it, he stated that it was the first time that anyone had mentioned anything about them possibly getting out of the camp and suggested that they might get the chance to enlist in the war effort. Later, when Ken started rousing the others at the camp, trying to get them to refuse to fill out the questionnaire, Walt groused that he was only happy when he was rocking the boat. To this, Ken objected that if he didn't, he was as bad as the ketoh locking him up. ("Shatter Like a Pearl")
By July 1943, he had joined the war effort and was sent overseas to join the fighting in Italy . ("Taizo")
Walt Yoshida in Uniform
He returned temporarily to the Colinas de Oro in January 1945, having served a tour in the 442nd Infantry, rising to the rank of lieutenant. There, he was reunited with his sister, Amy, who was worried that there apparently had not been any action taken following her sending a recording to Washington D.C. of her conversation with Major Bowen about Bowen having killed Ken Uehara. He chastised her for having done so, saying that men like Bowen always get away with things like that. Later, he sat at a recruitment table, taking papers from those eager to join the army. He, however, warned Toshiro Furuya against it, telling him that they sent the members of his unit to the places that were deemed too dangerous for white people. Toshiro, however, insisted, saying that he was tired of being treated like a kid and that he had seen so much death around him that all he wanted to do was kill. Sometime afterward, Walt danced with Amy at a party for his homecoming and her release from the camp via a sponsor. ("My Sweet Boy")
He watched as his fellow Japanese Americans were released from the Colinas de Oro, which was shut down by order of the United States Supreme Court, then shipped off with Toshiro to continue fighting in the war. ("Come and Get Me")
Behind the scenes[]
- In an interview, Yoshida's actor Lee Shorten describes Walt as a typical guy who is about to get married and has no real worries in his life who is forced to grow up fast. He stated that while he hopes viewers are entertained by the show, he hopes also that they gain a little more of the history behind it if they didn't know it before.[1]