Oral history interviews with June Monroe and Kazuko Atomura conducted by Cecilia Winchell and Stefani Evans on July 14 and July 19, 2022 for Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In the first interview, Kazuko Atomura describes her childhood in Taiwan and Tokyo, Japan, and shares both happy and difficult mememories of that time. Atomura eventually moved to Los Angeles, California, where she reconnected with a man she previously met in Japan. She married him and together had their daughter, June Monroe, and another son while living in Corpus Christi, Texas. After difficult medical procedures involving Atomura's husband and Monroe's younger brother, Brian, the family relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. Monroe recalls attending Las Vegas High School and Bonanza High School, and the struggle of making new friends as a young person. In the second interview, the mother and daughter discuss racism, discrimination, and identity. Kazuko Atomura recalls her many experiences with discrimination as a result of both her appearance and language barriers. June Monroe discusses how she came to be proud of her Japanese heritage, while Atomura discusses some of the community activities she has been involved in since living in Las Vegas including the Japanese Culture Club and odori dancing. Then, both Atomura and Monroe discuss Monroe's brother, Brian, who received two kidney transplants; one from Monroe's father and one from Monroe herself. Atomura talks about the shrines she has built for Brian, the experience of him being on dialysis, care taking, and his final days. Monroe shares about her activism with organ donation, being regularly involved with the Nevada Donor Network and helping to pass significant pieces of legislation within the area of organ donation.
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Oral history interview with Cynthia Mun conducted by Vanessa Concepcion and Stefani Evans on March 31, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Cynthia Mun discusses her upbringing near Seoul, South Korea and her family's immigration to Los Angeles in 1974. She talks about her parents' employment as a seamstress and a janitor, as well as the educational mentors she encountered who helped her to succeed at Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena and later at Yale University. Mun shares her corporate employment history, including helping to launch the Pandora streaming service and creating an accessible platform for E-book use before the creation of Amazon Kindle. Mun talks about her career working at MGM International and how this opened the door for her mother to become an MGM employee and access better working conditions with union employment.
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Oral history interview with Talia Levanon conducted by Barbara Tabach on January 21, 2019 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. In this interview, Levanon discusses her role as the Director of Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC), an organization that provides trauma care and counseling in Israel and around the world. She recalls that three weeks after the 1 October shooting, she and a team from ITC arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada to offer training and support and worked closely with Las Vegas Metro Police Department.
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Interviewed by Laurents Bañuelos-Benitez. Nery Martinez was born in El Salvador, he describes his childhood as one filled with war and violence. When Martinez was five years old, the small country of El Salvador erupted in civil war. Martinez describes the panic that he saw growing up, never being certain when violence could occurred. The 12 year war took up the entirety of Martinez's childhood. After the war, the country was left in runes, seeing little hope for recovery, Martinez left El Salvador for Las Vegas where his brothers had fled earlier during the war. In Las Vegas, Martinez was able to find work in the service industry, at the same time attending English classes at night. Martinez is currently working as a bartender within the Culinary Union. Interview conducted in Spanish.
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