Personal Stories and Video of Camp and Loss of Rights
Kiyo Yoshimura
"We were transferred to a permanent camp called relocation center. We were housed in a barrack. One big room with cots and a potbelly stove. We furnished the space with home made table and benches. Every thing was communal like what we had experienced at the Assembly Center. There were dust storms in the summer, and snow in the winter. The Relocation Camp was in a remote area, far from any civilization with guards posted on the corners of the camp site, ready to shoot if anyone tried to climb over the barbed wires....We did not know if we would ever be able to return to our home again and resume our former life. The uncertainty and being incarcerated made it very difficult...Camp life tended to create family breakdowns because the parents in many instances lost parental control over the children. ...There is a word in Japanese which describes the spirit that helped us cope with our situation. That word is "gaman" which means to endure. Despite the injustice of the situation. The Japanese evacuees tried to make the best of their situation. They did not give up hope." Kiyo Yoshimura, Letter to Author Jan. 11, 2014.
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Enoch Kanaya
"We were prisoners surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. Otherwise we were treated humanely. " Enoch Kanaya, Letter to Author Dec. 17, 2013. |
Joe Yasutake
"I was nine years old when we were sent off to Minidoka, an internment camp in Idaho. It was in the desert and hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. After a year, we were sent to Crystal City Internment camp in Texas. Both camps were surrounded by barbed wire and there were guard towers with soldiers armed with machine guns. Joe Yasutake, Letter to AuthorJan. 21, 2014 |
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Diary of Stanley Hayami, January 2, 1943 (Japanese American National Museum)
"that I had. So that reminds me of the story my Sunday school teacher Yosh Kodama told us, which really makes me feel ashamed of myself. Far away in New Mexico in an isolated spot, there are a few very poor Mexicans who attended a certain mission. These poor people were told by their priest that the kids in Heart Mountain wouldn't have a very good x-mas this year because they didn't have an income and because they were uprooted from their homes and sent into camps. Well these people were poor themselves but they wanted to help us anyway. They went to their priest and said they didn't have much money and that the nearest store was about fifty miles away, what could they do? The priest answered by going to that store, buying some gifts, and bringing them back. He exchanged these gifts for chickens, vegetables, and such that they could spare and took these back to the store in exchange for the gifts. I think I'll remember this forever. Today in History class our teacher discussed our situation with us. She says that as a whole the general public doesn't know us and thinks that we are all bad. She warns that if we go out for private relocations, not to go where there are already too many |
Japanese, because we would then tend to be conspicuous and would be hated all the worse, but instead she suggested that we go to some small town where no Japanese lives, because then the community will get to know us as individuals. She also says that she thinks we got a raw deal. She doesn't see where German and Italian aliens are more dangerous than Japanese American citizens.
Jan. 9, 1943. Did practically nothing today. In the morning I walked with Jimmy Yada and James Nokada to the Clinic so Jimmie could have his lip examined. We visited too before we found out the doctors weren't there. In the afternoon I watched some kids in Block 1 ice skate and visited Polito, gee he's getting big, cute too! I carved half a set of chess in Pomon and I don't feel like making the rest so I am going to make it into a necklace for Sack." |