Oral History Collections of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area

A row of cassette tapes from the oral history collections.

Photo credit: NPS/Sundra

 

The oral history program at Golden Gate National Recreation Area has been ongoing almost since the creation of the park in 1972. The Park Archives currently holds hundreds of interviews which cover a range of topics and feature voices of those who have been personally involved with the lands that make up the GGNRA. In addition to the voices of former military figures, Alcatraz prisoners, and park officials, the GGNRA’s Oral History Collections also include survivors of the 1906 Earthquake, visitors of the former Cliff House and Sutro Baths recreation centers, army wives and children, lifelong dairy farmers, students of the World War II-era Army Intelligence Language School at Crissy Field, environmental activists who helped preserve the park from development, and many others. The collections represent unique perspectives on the history of the park and of the San Francisco Bay Area.

 
A 3.5-inch floppy disk containing interviews from the Presidio Oral History Project.

Photo credit: NPS/Sundra

Why Oral History?
Oral history is a means of creating an historical record that does not otherwise exist in the surviving documentation. Oral history is performed by recording the spoken reminiscences of an individual on audio or video tape. The individuals selected for participation in oral history programs are usually people who have been significant in various events, programs, or in their own right, contributing to society in some field of endeavor such as politics, art, literature, education, etc. Though the written records tell much of the story, they do not always show the human side. Oral history can significantly enrich the telling of stories that deserve to be told by including the human voice and providing a richness of detail and description that does not exist in the official record of human endeavor.

Oral histories are subjective memories of individuals. Recollections of events may have been altered by the passage of time, physical or mental deterioration of the subject through aging, or the deliberate recreation of events for personal reasons. The creation of the oral history is facilitated by an interviewer who operates the equipment, introduces the line of questioning or topics to be discussed and keeps the interview focused. The taped interview is transcribed into written format, then edited by the subject of the interview, often called the narrator. Personal and programmatic bias may enter into the process at any point in this process. Like any other source, an oral history should serve as only one aspect of historical research on an individual, event or time period.

The Following Oral History with Thomas T. Sakamoto is an excellent example of the use of oral histories.

 
Portrait shot of Thomas Sakamoto in uniform.


“I felt all along that I am American…”

Thomas Sakamoto (GOGA 35228)
Thomas Sakamoto was a soldier of Japanese ancestry who served in the US Army during World War II and for many years after. Drafted prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Sakamoto witnessed firsthand the changing perspectives of Japanese citizens in the United States during the war. While Sakamoto himself served as a translator both at Crissy Field’s Army Intelligence Language School and on the Pacific front, his family was interned at a camp in Arkansas for the duration of the war. Sakamoto also witnessed the aftermath of the US bombing of Hiroshima. His oral history interview includes reflections on growing up in San Jose and on the years in which he was sent to Japan for the equivalent of high school, before extensively detailing his experience in World War II. Sakamoto reflects on the conflicted experience of Japanese Americans during the war in this important interview.

Thomas Sakamoto and NPS staffmember Steve Haller have granted their rights to this interview to the National Park Service, US Department of the Interior. This interview is provided for online users by Golden Gate National Recreation Area for the purpose of education and research. Users wishing to publish or otherwise use this interview should contact the GGNRA at (415) 561-2808.

 
 

More GGNRA Oral Histories

 
These oral histories may be used for any legitimate non-commercial public or press use with proper credit given to the National Park Service. If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact the Park Archives and Records Center’s reference archivist at 415-561-2807 or Contact Us.


For a Complete List of Oral Histories Available by Topic

Last updated: July 9, 2024

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Golden Gate National Recreation Area
201 Fort Mason

San Francisco, CA 94123

Phone:

415-561-4700
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