Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Mary Saito Tominaga (94.49.33)
Read this document closely.
This is a telegram to Kiichi Saito. Three of Mr. Saito’s sons served in the United States Army during World War II including his son George, who is referenced in this telegram.
Mary Saito Tominaga and Kazuo Saito video interview (November 2, 2010), Japanese American National Museum
Watch this video of George Saito’s brother Kazuo and sister, Mary.
Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Mary Saito Tominaga (94.49.41)
In 1944, while attacking a hill in Italy, George’s younger brother Calvin, who was also serving in the army, was struck and killed. This is from a letter George sent home to console his grief-stricken father.
Dad—this is no time to be preaching to you but I have something on my chest which I want you to hear In spite of Cal’s supreme sacrifice, don’t let anyone tell you that he was foolish or made a mistake to “volunteer.” Of what I’ve seen in my travels, on our mission, I am more than convinced that we’ve done the right thing in spite of what has happened in the past. America is a damn good country and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
– George Saito, letter to his father, July 11, 1944
Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Mary Saito Tominaga (94.6.77)
This document is George’s indefinite leave card, issued by the government as a way to monitor any subversive behavior in its American-born citizens of Japanese ancestry. This card gave George permission to leave Amache concentration camp. Soon after its issuance, George enlisted in the United States Army and served in the segregated 442nd RCT in Europe.
Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Mary Saito Tominaga (94.49.33)
In 1942, the United States government forced the Saito family to leave their home in Los Angeles, California, where George had a produce market. They were sent to Granada concentration camp, also known as Amache. (One brother, Kazuo, was sent to Heart Mountain because he lived in a different part of Los Angeles than the rest of his family.)
Amache is where the Saito family was living when 25-year-old George volunteered for the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team. George hoped that his service would free his family from unjust imprisonment. Together with his younger brothers Shozo and Calvin, George was sent to Europe, where he fought as a loyal American who strongly believed in his country. This sentiment of loyalty was shared by many young Japanese Americans who fought for their country despite its great violation of their civil rights.
Miné Okubo, Untitled (Departure and segregation of pro-Japanese to Tule Lake, Central Utah Relocation Project, Topaz, Utah, 1942–44), c. 1942–44, ink on paper. Japanese American National Museum, Gift of the Miné Okubo Estate (2007.62.197)
Look carefully at this drawing by Miné Okubo. Examine all the details in the foreground, middleground, and background.
In her book Citizen 13660, originally published in 1946, Ms. Okubo wrote the following about her image:
The program of segregation was now instituted. One of its purposes was to protect loyal Japanese Americans from the continuing threats of pro-Japanese agitators. Tule Lake, one of the ten original centers, was chosen as a segregation center for the disloyal. In the fall of 1943 thirteen hundred Topazians (about one tenth of the total) were sent there. The group included all who had said they wished to return to Japan; the “no, nos,” that is, those who would not change their unsatisfactory answers to the questionnaire when they were given a chance to do so; all who remained under suspicion of disloyalty after investigation by the War Relocation Authority and the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and close relatives who would rather be segregated with their families than separated from them.
Whatever decision was made, families suffered deeply.
Loyalty questionnaire, 1943, Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Frank S. Emi (96.109.19)
This is a page of the loyalty questionnaire administered to Japanese Americans while they were imprisoned in concentration camps. Take a look at questions 27 and 28.
Imagine if you were a young American citizen of Japanese descent incarcerated in a concentration camp and presented with these questions.
The War Department and the War Relocation Authority (WRA) scored the answers to the loyalty questionnaire by ranking them according to Americanness and Japaneseness. Especially problematic were questions 27 and 28. Question 27 asked if Nisei men were willing to serve on combat duty wherever ordered and asked everyone else if they would be willing to serve in other ways, such as joining the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Question 27 was an insulting question to some who were angry about being incarcerated. Question 28 asked if individuals would swear unqualified allegiance to the United States and forswear any form of allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. The problem this question posed was that Issei were not allowed to become American citizens—if they forswore allegiance to the Japanese emperor, they would become stateless, without any connection to a government; and the Nisei, who were American citizens, never had any allegiance to the Emperor of Japan.
At most of the incarceration camps, Japanese Americans answered “yes” to both questions 27 and 28. However, many were uncomfortable making this agreement to serve in the military at the same time that the US government was suspending their constitutional rights. For this reason, there were some who answered “no” to both questions. Labeled as disloyal, they were sent to the Tule Lake Segregation Center.
LIFE Magazine Vol. 16, No. 12 (March 20, 1944), Japanese American National Museum, Gift in Memory of Hugo W. Wolter (97.329.96)
Without reading the caption, look closely and answer the following questions:
Now read the caption of the photograph.
Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Charles and Lois Ferguson (93.3.1)
This is an excerpt from a speech written by Joe Kurihara while he was an inmate at Manzanar concentration camp. Mr. Kurihara was born in Hawai‘i and served in the United States Army during World War I. During his incarceration, Mr. Kurihara was an outspoken dissident leader against the US government’s unjust imprisonment of Japanese Americans.
Due to his actions as an agitator, Mr. Kurihara was transferred from Manzanar to Tule Lake, the segregated center for Japanese Americans who were alleged to be disloyal.
Mr. Kurihara’s anger eventually led him to renounce his US citizenship and go to Japan, where he lived out the remainder of his life.
Miné Okubo, Untitled (Departure and segregation of pro-Japanese to Tule Lake, Central Utah Relocation Project, Topaz, Utah, 1942–44), c. 1942–44, ink on paper. Japanese American National Museum, Gift of the Miné Okubo Estate (2007.62.197)
As evidenced by the artifacts here, the story of Tule Lake is not a simple one. In July of 1943, Tule Lake became a segregated camp where only Japanese Americans who were alleged to be disloyal based on their answers to the loyalty questionnaire were sent. Among those designated disloyal were United States citizens, including young children; families who had sons fighting overseas in the US military; World War I veterans; and others.
During this time, Japanese Americans were faced with impossible decisions.
Imagine you are a young person incarcerated in Tule Lake. You are a United States citizen because you were born here; however, your government has imprisoned you and labeled you as disloyal. You are of Japanese ancestry, but maybe you’ve never even been to Japan.
Hisako Hibi, Untitled (A man in contemplation), 1944, oil on canvas, Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Ibuki Hibi Lee (96.601.34)
Look closely at this artwork.
Consider setting, mood, color.
Notice the barbed-wire fence and guard tower depicted on the left side of the painting.
Notice the solitary figure.
Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Frank S. Emi (96.109.32)
Like the fence and guard tower depicted in the painting of Topaz, similar means of security existed at the other camps. This photograph is from a different camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. It is inscribed on the back.
Security guards armed with guns kept a watchful eye on the interior of the camp from inside the towers while military police patrolled the external areas.
“Questions and Answers for Evacuees: Information Regarding the Relocation Program” pamphlet, 1942, Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Norio Mitsuoka (91.19.6B)
This is part of a pamphlet the War Relocation Authority distributed to Japanese Americans as it was preparing to remove them from their homes. As you read the definitions, pay close attention to word choice, noting phrases such as “convenient gathering point”; “opportunity for orderly, planned movement”; and “pioneer community with basic housing and protective services provided by the Federal Government.”
Knowing what we now know about America’s concentration camps:
Miné Okubo, Untitled (Preparing wreaths for Wakasa memorial, Central Utah Relocation Project, Topaz, Utah, 1942–44), c. 1942–44, ink on paper, Japanese American National Museum, Gift of the Miné Okubo Estate (2007.62.179)
Examine this drawing by Miné Okubo.
This is a depiction of the funeral service for 63-year-old James Wakasa, an inmate at Topaz War Relocation Center. On April 11, 1943, Mr. Wakasa, an Issei, was fatally shot by a guard while walking his dog on the inside of the fence at the Topaz War Relocation Center. According to the guard, Mr. Wakasa was walking too close to the edge of the camp’s barbed-wire fence and, despite verbal warnings, he didn’t move away or turn around. People who knew Mr. Wakasa said he was hard of hearing and most likely didn’t respond to the guard because he didn’t hear him, not because he was disobedient. The guard, Private First Class Gerald Philpott, was found not guilty in a court-martial trial.
Hisako Hibi, Untitled (A man in contemplation), 1944, oil on canvas, Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Ibuki Hibi Lee (96.601.34)
The government said the fences and towers were there to protect the inmates. However, the memories of those who recall soldiers’ guns pointed at the inmates, and events like the killing of James Wakasa, indicate these protective measures were in fact meant to secure the Japanese Americans out of fear they were a dangerous threat to those outside the camps.
Hisako Hibi, the artist who painted this image, recounts a day at the Tanforan Assembly Center when she ventured near the barbed wire fence with her sketchbook. She writes:
“I was busily moving the color pencil sand crayons on the paper when an internal security officer came and took away the sketch without saying a word. I was terrified and too afraid at the time to ask him what was wrong with sketching that scene.”
Tsumagari family migration map
Japanese American families experienced a great deal of migration and displacement during this period. Many families such as Fusa’s were split up with individual family members going to different places for various reasons. This map shows some of the places that the Tsumagari family members lived before, during, and after World War II.
Clara Breed Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Elizabeth Y. Yamada (93.75.31S)
This is an excerpt from another letter Fusa wrote to Miss Breed. Miss Breed was the children’s librarian at San Diego Public Library from 1929 to 1945. When her young Japanese American patrons were forced into concentration camps with their families in 1942, Miss Breed became their reliable correspondent, sending them books and assisting with requests for supplies. Through her actions, she served as a reminder of the possibility of decency and justice in a troubled world.
When Fusa wrote this letter, she had already left camp in Poston, Arizona, and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where her sister and brother-in-law were living.
Even without reading the letters Miss Breed wrote to her students, one can find many things revealed in letters the students wrote to her.
Clara Breed Collection, Japanese American National Museum, Gift of Elizabeth Y. Yamada (93.75.31EW)
It was not uncommon for Japanese Americans to take different migration paths from other family members. There were many reasons for this. In some cases, the head of household was removed first and taken away. In the Tsumagari case, Fusa’s father was first taken to a Department of Justice camp. College-aged Japanese Americans, such as Fusa’s brother Yukio, could go to schools farther inland, away from the coast if they could find a school willing to accept them. Since Fusa’s sister Fuji and brother-in-law Bill lived in Los Angeles, they were sent to a different camp from Fusa, who was living in San Diego. The concentration camp to which individuals were sent was most often determined by their residence at the time of incarceration. After being released from camp, securing a job often determined where an individual resettled. Work is what drew Fusa to take a different path from her mother after leaving Poston and join Fuji and Bill, who were working in Minneapolis.