Poston 3 High School Yearbook 1945

Parker Valley High School
Campus Echoes Yearbook 1945

Honor Roll:

Fujimoto, Pvt. Kanehiro, ‘43
Fujisaki, Pvt. Minoru, ‘43
Fukutome, Sgt. Ben, FAC.
Furata, Pvt. Tokuji, ‘43
Furusho, Ruth, Cadet Nurse, ‘44
Hashimoto, Pvt. Yasuo, ‘44
Hayakawa, Pvt. John, ‘44
Hiratsuka, Pfc. Ernest, ‘43
Ishida, Sgt. Tatsuki,‘43
Kajiya, Pvt. Hiro, ‘43
Kiritani, Pvt. Mitsu, ‘43
Kitahara, T/5 Kay, FAC
Kurihara, Pfc. Lloyd, ‘43
Kushino, Dorothy, Cadet Nurse, ‘44
Mikasa, Miyoko
Miyamoto, Pvt. Gordy, ‘43
Miyashita, Pvt. Toshio, ‘43
Mukai, Cpl. Jiro, ‘43
Nakamichi, Kazuko, Cadet Nurse, '44
Nakamura, T/5 Noboru, ‘43
Noguchi, Pvt. Moe, ‘43
Ogino, Pfc. Willie, ‘43
Okada, Pvt. James, FAC
Okamoto, Pvt. Isamu, ‘43
Oto, Pvt. Henry, ’43
Oyama, Pvt. Minoru, ’43 (Honorable Discharge)
Ozaki, Pvt. Howard, ‘43
Sakamoto, Pvt. Johnny, ‘44
Segawa, Pvt. Fred, ‘44
Shiba, Sgt. George, ‘43
Shinoda, Pvt. Hitoshi, ‘44
Sogo, Pfc. Power, ‘43
Tajiri, Pfc. George, ‘43
Tajiri, Pvt. Tom
Takeda, Pvt. Junji, ‘43
Tsuchiyama, Sgt. Hideo, FAC
Uchida, Pvt. Hideo, ‘43
Urata, Pvt. James, ‘43
Uyeda, Pfc. M. ‘43
Uyeji, Pvt. Kattie, ‘43
Watanabe, Pvt. Frank, ‘43
Yamagata, Pvt. George, ‘43
Yoshimine, Pvt. Masao, ‘43

 

In Memoriam:
Nagata, Mary

Class of 1945:
Aoki, Kiyoshi-Reedley
Akiyama, Chieko-San Diego
Akiba, Johnny-Ivanhoe
Aoyagi, Yoneko-Reedley
Arata, Mary-San Diego
Domon, Sadao-Woodlake
Fujimoto, Fumiko-Arroyo Grande
Furuta, Michiko-San Diego
Hamai, Hiroshi-Pismo Beach
Hamai, Toshi-Pismo Beach
Hasebe, Jim-Ivanhoe
Hashiguchi, Amy-San Diego
Hatakeda, Homako-Visalia
Hiratsuka, Bernice-Oakland
Hirai, Josie-Sweetwater
Hazama, Teruko-Los Angeles
Hosaka, Nancy-San Diego
Horibe, Frank-Salinas
Iguchi, Kenji-Sweetwater
Inouye, Atsushi-Gardena
Kai, Eva-Santa Cruz
Kamiura, Bennie-Chula Vista
Kaneyuki, Ann-San Diego
Kiritani, Susie-Orosi
Kitahata, Ben-Reedley
Kitauchi, Shig-Orosi
Koba, Kazue-San Diego
Konishi, Teruko-San Diego
Kubo, Sadako-San Diego
Kunishige, Kiyoko-Reedley
Kurihara, Walter-Orosi
Kusumoto, Roy-San Diego
Mayumi, Misako-Chula Vista
Mayeda, Hideko-Dinuba
Masumoto, Toru-San Diego
Mizuki, Alyce-San Jose
Morikawa, Elaine-Visalia
Nagai, Akiko-Visalia
Nagata, Kunio-Lompoc
Nagata, Lilyan-Dinuba
Nakagawa, Mary-San Jose
Nakahara, Masako-Visalia
Nakahara, Michiko-Visalia
Nakamura, Masako-Arroyo Grande
Nakamura, Teruko-Arroyo Grande
Okino, Kiyoka-Santa Cruz
Ohashi, Sati-Wilmington
Ohashi, Mollie-Wilmington
Sadahiro, Harvey-Arroyo Grande
Oto, Betty, San Jose
Okino, Mariye-Visalia
Sakamoto, Hiroko-San Jacinto
Sakamoto, Jiro-Los Angeles
Sasaki, Jim-Reedley
Sekishiro, Kenji-Visalia
Sera, Yutaka-Visalia
Shiba, Ben-Orosi
Shinoda, Seichi,-Orosi
Shirokawa, Reuw-Santa Barbara
Suwa, Tatsuko-San Diego
Takanishi, Betty-Reedley
Takeda, Chizuko-La Mesa
Tanaka, Tomoe-Monterey
Tanaka, Mas-Coronado
Takeda, Sophie-San Diego
Uyeji, Mollie-San Diego
Uota, Masako-Woodlake
Togioka, Sayoko-Dinuba
Uzuhashi Tomoko-Los Angeles
Watanabe, Yoshiko-Visalia
Yamada, Bill-Reedley
Yamada, George-San Diego
Yamaguchi, Jane-Pacific Beach
Yano, Lillian-El Cajon
Yokota, Takashi-Reedley
Yokota, Tomiko

Former Classmates:
Amino, Florence
Hosaka, Ayako
Karasawa, Richard
Kasai, George
Kubota, Henry
Matsuda, Fred
Matsumoto, George
Matsumoto, Marian
Matsushima, Yutako
Miyamoto, Toshiye
Nakamura, Michiyuki
Nishida, Terry
Segawa, Tom
Shiba, Miyeko
Shimaji, Roy
Shinoda, Mickey
Shinohara, Jim
Tajiri, Akira
Tanaka, Akira
Wake, Betty
Yasuda. Michiko

Camp 2 High School Yearbook 1944-1945

Top of Form

Miles E. Carey High School 

  El Chaparral Yearbook 1944-1945

Administration:

Duncan Mills- Project Director

Kenji Uyeno- Poston Two Administrator

P.T.A.

Michio Abe- Secretary/Treasurer

Kosaku Hibino- Japanese secretary

John M. Kubota- President, Parent-Teachers' Association

Fred Masumoto- Vice-President

Instructors

Abe, James-Commercial

Courage, Mary B- 9^th & 12^th Core Studies

Decker, Harriet-Home Economics, 8^th Core Studies

Ferris, Mary C- 9^th Core Studies, Spanish, General Science

Hall, Hazel- Algebra, Latin, Home Economics, Trigonometry

Harris, Arthur L. Superintendent of Education

Kadani, Otis- Physical Education

Kanagawa, Robert K- Commercial

Ketchum, Frederic-7^th Core Studies, Agriculture

Kerber, Viola-Mechanical Drawing, Music, Arts & Crafts, 8^th Core Studies

Lutz, Lewis- Wood Shop

Makeshima, Dorothy-Commercial

Matsushita, Mitsuko-Commercial

McLaren, Dallas C- Principal

Michael, Ruby F-7^th 8^th Core Studies

Robertson, Georgia D- Vice-Principal, Trigonometry

Sharvy, Shervy-11^th Core Studies

Smith, Minnie Condy- 11^th Core Studies

Sullivan, M.L- Chemistry, Biology, General Mathematics

Takeshita, Masao-Mechanical Drawing

Wolfe, Jean- Home Economics

Yokoi, Mary-Commerical

School Office Staff

Higashioka, George

Imoto, Kiyoko

Kono, Mary

Oku, Betty

Takata, Yuriko

Senior Class

Arima, Mitsuko

Asami, Terry

Dohi, Ben

Endo, Nancy T.

Endo, Tetsuo

Etow, Shigeru

Fujii, Ben

Fujita, Fumi

Fujitsubo, Haruo

Fukutomi, Fujie

Hada, Setsuko

Harada, Kenji

Hasegawa, Hiroko

Hatashita, Ritsuye

Hayashi, Sus

Hironaka, Pete Kazuo

Ichinaga, Orden Y.

Iida, Francis

Imoto, Shigeru

Ito, Elwood Yasushi

Iwasa, Yoshio

Kamei, Hiroshi

Kaneno, Amy

Kato, Roy

Kitamura, Chizuko

Kitamura, Kiyoko

Kiyohara, Isao. "Lefty"

Kojima, Tom

Kokka, Norio

Kudo, Goro

Matsui, Alice

Matsuo, Phil

Menda, Mitsuye

Morimune, Helen

Murata, Helen

Nakagawa, Tad

Nakano, Mitsuro

Namba, Yuriko L

Nishimoto, Roy

Nitta, Mary

Nomi, Mary

Oda, Jack S.

Ogami, Terry

Ohno, George

Oka, Bob M.

Oku, Betty K.

Oshita, Tommy

Sato, Shiro

Sato, Teruo

Soda, George

Sukekane, Kikuye

Taniguchi, Jim.

Teramoto, Chiyoko.

Tokushige, Hideo

Tsutsui, Marvin M.

Urakawa, Earry

Watari, Hideo

Watari, Tazuko

Yaji, Jim T.

Yamamoto, Grace M.

Yamamoto, Shigeko

Yamamoto, Yuriko

Yamashita, Mary

Yasukawa, June

Yoshiki, Marie H

Yoshizaki, George

Poston 1 Graduating Class of 1945

POSTON HIGH SCHOOL

Graduates of 1945

Akiyama, Chizuko

Baba, Harry

Emoto, May

Fujimi, Shig

Fujimoto, Akiyoshi

Fujita, Betty

Fukawa, Koji

Fukaye, Louise

Fukuda, Tomi

Furukawa, Shiro

Furuya, Iris

Goda, Sam

Hashimoto, Haruko

Higuchi, Mas

Higashi, Kasuhisa

Hiroto, William

Hirahara, Bob

Hiraoka, Anthony

Hokama, Setsuko

Honda, Jack

Horiuchi, Tsuyoshi

Horiye, Bob

Hoshino, Kazumi

Ikeda, Kiyoko

Ikuma, Kikue

Imamura, Betty

Inada, Shiori

Inouye, Kei

Itano, Hiroshi

Kaii, Smiley

Kamao, Rima

Kariya, Kiyoko

Kato, Edward

Kato, Sachiye

Kawanami, Shigeru

Kawanuma, Kasu

Kinoshita, Ben

Kinoshita, Keige

Kohatsu, Mitsuko

Komatsu, Koko

Kondo, Makiko

Kushida, Eleanor

Kusumoto, Faye

Kuwahara, Setsueo

Masutani, Yukie

Matsumoto, Emiko

Matsuno, Shigako

Miyada, Ruth

Mayeda, Charles

Miyake, Henry

Miyamoto, Toshiye

Mori, Susumu

Murakami, William

Muramoto, Masami

Murase, Takashi

Nagareda, Chie

Nagareda, Emmy

Nagasaki, Teruko

Nagase, Harold

Nagata, Mary

Nagato, Iseko

Nakahara, Takako

Nakamoto, Aiko

Nakahara, Jackie

Nakamura, James

Nakamura, Sanami

Nakano, Frances

Nakashima, Yoshito

Ninomiya, Molly

Nishida, Hiroko

Nishijima, Lillian

Nishimura, Yoshi

Nishioka, Frances

Nobuto, Masaru

Noda, Irene

Noguchi, Shigeharu

Obata, Betty

Oda, Masayo

Ogata, Teiko

Ogura, Shiyuko

Ohye, Michiko

Okita, Helen

Ohta, Roy

Ono, Joe

Otsu, Jits

Sakaki, Jeanne

Sakamoto, Ayako

Sakaye, Linda

Sakuda, Nancy

Sasaki, Fred

Sase, Rose

Seki, Shizuko

Shibata, Tadashi

Shindo, Richard

Shintaku, Ayako

Sunago, Miyoko

Suzawa. Mary

Taira, Mary

Takahash, Pauline

Takii, Edith

Tamura, Akiko

Tamura, Florence

Taniquchi, Tsurue

Tanaka, Tamotsu

Tanouye, George

Tateishi, Fumiko

Tatsumi, Ben

Tawa, Ken

Torimaru, Yuri

Tsuchimori, Kazue

Tsuchiyama, Kazumi

Tsuchiyama, Shigeko

Ueki, William

Uyeno, Dorothy

Wada, Henry

Wakamiya, Aiko

Watanabe, Isabel

Yagyu, Ruth

Yamada, Rose

Yamada, Shig

Yamaguchi, Dorothy

GRADUATES UNABLE TO APPEAR

Fukuda, George

Hama, Shoji

Higashi, Tamio

Hirabayashi, Kazuo

Hirata, Akira

Hori, Frank

Horibe, Satoru

Ikeda, James

Ikeda, Inez

Iseda, Kho

Ishino, Henry

Ishida, Toshiko

Ito, Kazuko

Kato, Kimie

Kishaba, Harry

Kodama, Oscar

Koike, Thomas

Kojima, Haruye

Kosaka, George

Maruyama, Mamoru

Matsubara, Shoji

Miyamura, Hiroshi

Miyata, Johnny

Mukai, Masato

Murakami, Masaru

Nagai, Hitoshi

Nakanishi, May

Nakano, Jack

Nishi, Hideo

Nishita, Satoru

Noritake, Toshiyuki

Obata, Ken

Okamoto, Frank

Ono, May

Sakai, Kiyoshi

Sakamoto, Hiroko

Seko, Misao

Shigemasa, Ray

Sugimura, Emi

Takanabe, Mary

Takata, Tom

Tanaka, Sachiko

Toyosaki, Fusako

Tsuchimoto, Yoshiaki

Tsuji, Mary

Ukegawa, Joe

Umeta, Amy

Yamaguchi, Masako

Yoshioka, Lloyda

Homecoming

In Visalia, California, three shots from a high-powered rifle were fired in the house occupied by Sam Uyeno (Poston 309-9-B) and 10 other Japanese on February 27, 1945 Sheriff S. Sherman disclosed. Investigating the shooting, the sheriff discovered a small unoccupied building near Uyeno's place had been burned by trespassers later the following night. The building was owned by Frank Sakaguchi, (Poston 309-6-A) who is at the Poston, Arizona camp.  Two bullets entered the living room and one in the bedroom of the Uyeno home. Although bullets passed near some of the 11 occupants, none were injured.  Uyeno relocated from the Poston Relocation Center and returned with 10 of his family and relatives, including his elderly parents and several children. 

John Shiokari

 John Shiokari, 22, (Poston 19-11-B) who recently returned to his alfalfa ranch near Lancaster, reported shots were fired into his home and pump house on February 23. Six rifle shells, purportedly bearing Army markings, were found near his house.

Shoikari was evacuated to the Poston Relocation Camp and returned to his ranch on February 15.

 Reported in the Topaz Times, June 8, 1945.

     Sheriff S.B. Sherman of Kings County revealed last week that someone had fired two rifle shots into the home of Kaudy Mimura, 32, of Orosi, California (Poston 309-13-C) . No one was injured by the shots.

Kaudy Mimura

 Reported in the  The July 9 edition of the Gila News-Courier; story originally from the Arizona Daily Star of June 3, 1945.

     In the town of Parlier, California,  the law abdicated in favor of community opinion, in the case of the farmer who fired a shotgun into the home of Charles Iwasaki, (Poston 308-3-B) a Japanese American. The guilty an was given a six-month sentence—suspended.  

Charles K. Iwasaki

  L.B. Crosby, the justice of peace, defended his leniency with the plea that feeling in the community was such that he did not feel that public opinion would support any other sentence. The community decided that if he was lenient with the guilty man, there would be no more shootings.  "It will be our national shame, and not merely a matter of one state, if this situation is not corrected. These Nisei were removed from their homes and business due to an army order under the stress of military necessity. Most of them have behaved in a manner which displayed exceptional poise and dignity under extreme stress. Now, the government which ordered them removed, has issued orders for their return. It is up to the government to see that they are permitted to return to their homes and businesses without being met with gun fire and arson at the hands of some super-patriots. It is equally a task for the government which moved them to see to it that they have the protection, under the law to which they are entitled. They obeyed the law when they were moved. the law should insure them safety as they return."

NDGW Opposes New Army Plan

Source: Amache Pioneer Newspaper 

May 5, 1943

FRESNO, April 30--Opposition to the formation of specially trained Japanese Army units was expressed by Native Daughters of the Golden West, Fresno chapter.

     They also demanded that Congressional action be take to deprive all Japs of American citizenship.

     Said the group: "More than 90 per cent of the Japs, both foreign and native-born are loyal to Japan.  America has no place for these people..... The War department should immediately abandon plans for the formation of special Japanese units."
 

Postcard by Ben Sakoguchi

Postcard: http://www.bensakoguchi.com/larger/camp_group5_larger8.php

The Library

     Nine-year-old Katherine Tasaki (Poston 15-3-A) wrote to Clara Breed, a San Diego city librarian, "This time there are more books, but before they didn't have half as much, so the children's books and the juvenile books were all mixed up on the same shelf. Since there are so many books [now], the library is cut in two sections. One half is the adults' books and the other half is used for juvenile and children's books." ⁴¹
     By the end of December, 1942, over a year after the events that had led to their internal exile had begun, Fusa Tsumagari  (323-11-D) wrote an answering letter to her friend, Clara Breed. 
     At the time, Miss Breed was writing an article for the Library Journal on the establishment of libraries in the camps, and had written to her friend Fusa, requesting all the information that all the young Nisei could locate on the Poston libraries at Camps I, II and III. 
     With the help of her brother, YukioTsumagari  (323-11-D) , Fusa was able to gather a quantity of material which she duly reported. 
     She found that the Poston library system was divided into two branches; an Education Department, and the Poston Public Library. Further, each branch functioned as an independent unit, administering the policies, procedures, and regulations laid down by the Poston's Head Librarian, who was usually an evacuee hired by the camp administration.⁴²   

      The Central School Library for the entire camp complex was located at Poston II, and was supervised by Ethel Manning, a former California State Library worker from Colusa, California. She was employed by the WRA, who funded only the educational component of the Camp library system. Miss Manning supervised the distribution of school supplies including: text books, collateral reading materials, periodicals, and other miscellaneous readings materials. It is interesting to note that there were no maps of Arizona in either the educational or public libraries at Poston.⁴³   The Central School Library served all three of the Poston camps.  

Sources: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/96summer/nikkei.htm

http://www.usfbloggers.com/feeds/two-librarians-and-the-internment-of-japanese-americans.html

John Collier's speech 6/27/1942

Speech of Hon. John Collier

Commissioner of Indian Affairs

June 27, 1942

Fellow citizens and fellow American:

     I have to admit to a feeling of rather acute himility in standing before you, and I feel rather tongue-tied.  I have been here only a little while.   I was here at the very beginning when the first three hundred of you came.  This time I have been here for the last two days.

     The impression I have now is the same one I had on the terrible two days when the first three hundred of you came--the impression of great physical discomfort, hardship, and of perfectly marvelous human spirit throughout the colony.  And it is that impression which give me this feeling of almost being bashful in talking to you.  Also, I cannot help talking to you as the representative of more than 100,000 of our fellow people, of whom you are a part, and to who this sudden removal from your homes has come as a shock--even a bitter blow.  You have come through, you are passing through, an ordeal.  Of course, you are not passing through any greater ordeal endured by people all over the world, but it is a bitter and shocking ordeal.

     As I watched the decisions being made--the decisions that there must be this removal of our Japanese people from the Pacific coast, I could not dispute the practical necessity of it.  Probably, it was an inevitable thing.  None the less, it was action, which, in the nature of it, was loaded with injustice.  Thousands and thousands of deep, bitter, individual injustice had to be done and was done in this removal, although, I imagine you agree that it was inescapable by then.

     It came about that the organization, of which I am the chief, was requested to administer this, which is the  largest of the Relocation Centers, the largest of the colonies.

     We agreed to accept the responsibility upon a clear and written understanding that the Administrative authority here would be in us.  By which, I mean, in the Department of the Interior, in Secretary Harold Ickes and me.  That was because we were determined that if we became involved in this resettlement work, if we became responsible for it, we were determined to carry out certain philosophies and certain principles of motion.

     I shall tell you what those philosophies and principles are in a  moment.  I shall also guard my statement by saying that we are not in a position to do just anything we want to do.  What we do here, we will collaborate with you in doing.  It will be done within a nation engaged in what is actually a life and death war.  It will be done in a great population which in increasingly possessed of war psychology--necessary and desirable that it is that way.

     Whatever we do here is within the bounding control of the Army and of the War Relocation Authority.  Both of those entities, the Western Division of the Army and the War Relocation Authority have shown that they are broadminded, socially minded and free toward you.  Nevertheless, our thinking may not be identical with theirs at every point.  In talking to you  tonight, I can only do so as if I were speaking to one or two of you.  It is because of what is in my mind--in my heart.  It is because what I think and feel is what the Secretary of the Interior  thinks and feels, and what the whole personnel of the Office of Indian Affairs think and feel, it may have an interest for you.

     Here you are, 7500 in number.  Tomorrow or the next day five hundred more will come, and groups of five hundred will follow rapidly.  Before long there will be 20,000 here. And that number may be increased to 30,000 later.  Here in the middle of the huge Mojave Desert area, at the moment of greatest heat, and with a hot season still three months ahead,  you have come, most of you to stay here for probably a good while to come.  It is anybody's guess, but the best opinion, I am able to make a contact with, does not look for this war to come to an end soon.  It thinks in terms of several years of warfare before the peace.  And when the peace comes, it is very likely that there will be an interim period--not a sudden, hurriedly improvised peace arrangement such as was represented by the catastrophe of the Treaty of Versailles of the last war.  Peace, itself, may require a period of time up to years.  It is probable that you here will be looking forward to four, five, or six years of life in this place.  A period of life long enough for your children to have had, during that time, nearly all of the experiences for developing character, personality, and bent in life for all the years thereafter.  Some of you middle-aged young people will be in your earlier middle age and many older people will end their lives in this colony.

  We, who are here to work with you and serve you, will gear our thoughts to that sort of opportunity--to a quasi-permanent setup which  might not go on for five or six years, but which should be treated and developed as though it were to go on that long.

     We see you  gathered here, bringing with you almost every type of occupational ability.  People from the country and people from the cities, and people from towns between the country and the cities.  People from industries, from mercantile enterprises, from proprietary farming to tenant farming. People unlearned in books and people deeply learned in books and science.  Almost the whole range of American life, in its experience and in its equipment, is going to be represented by you who are permanently of us.  Fundamentally, we are one people.  You are here among us for all time.  You will be a growing population here among us in your country.

     Here you are assembled, 20,000 or 30,000 of you, uprooted from what you have been dong, from where you have been living and brought together in this huge settlement.

     We realize that what can eventuate under these circumstances, in a place like this, could under wrong methods be a very destroying, agonizing, a permanently embittering experience.  It could be that.  But we are equally certain that if the job here be handled in the right way with the right spirit, then there can come about, here in this Colorado River Colony, a kind and a degree of positive happiness that will be far out and beyond the happiness and experience of most Caucasian communities all over this country.

     Our job is to work with you toward making this place a truly happy place where individuals and families will be giving themselves utterly to the community and winning a reward of inward power and inward joy.--Greater than anything external in the whole world.

     Now to be more specific.  From Wade Head, through all the others, the hope is to help you in the capacity of just doing that--helping you work out your own arrangement here, you own system of human relations, your own municipal government, you own economic enterprise.  Our people are  not here to tell you how to do these things.  Still less to do these things for you.  You are here due to a chain of circumstances over which you had not the faintest control.  Circumstances due to change all over the world.  You are  here in the capacity of full citizens of the American commonwealth.  Being here in that capacity, it is for you to determine your own fashion of life, you own methods of cooperative action, to make you own life.  And our function here is to facilitate your action in any way that we can and then to protect your liberties in so far as we have power.  When I say protect your liberties, I mean your liberties--all those liberties as citizens of the United States.

    I have to go a little further to convey, not to all of you, but to some of you, what we hope might in retrospect two to five years hence in the future, have meaning.  We in this country join with the people of England, the people of Australia, with the Free French, China, etc., in asserting that Democracy is the right way of life.  We are waging a war for Democracy.  The war is going to be won.  There is not the slightest doubt.  But when we look around within our own country, whether it be on a national or local scale, we do not find that Democracy had been achieved. It has not been achieved in any of these countries and certainly not in the United States.  Our Democracy is an imperfect, embryonic institution as yet.

     Democracy means this--that all of the functions of citizens, not only the political functions but also the economic functions, and the social relationships are so organized and carried on that every human being, as he comes up through the years of his childhood, could participate with increased activity in the dominant functions of society.  Democracy means that everybody takes an active responsibility.

     Life in a Democracy, where we merely enjoy certain privileges such as guarantee of the Bill of Rights, is not a very inspiring thing as compared to the quality of life and challenging experiences in a through and through democracy where the whole local community unites in mutual service and in service to the great society.  The outcome of this whole, awful world struggle--this awful travail that has the whole world in its grip--the ultimate outcome of the struggle will be determined, not on the battle field, but in this area of which I speak--whether or not the nations will be moved from behind the mere shadow--the pale promise of democracy and march into creative life which makes real Democracy. Unless we do this, and unless all the countries do this, any peace established will be merely an interlude-a breathing space until the next war.

     You are in the middle of a tragedy.  You have come through shock, tragedy, and great loss into a situation where the measure of your happiness is determined by your ability to endure what is ahead of you, by your ability to join hands in mutual aid and common enterprise of a useful and helpful nature.

     If you come through with flying colors, you will have produced within five years a social demonstration.  A demonstration, politically, economically, and socially of a very challenging nature--of a very inspiring and illuminating and challenging nature which will be thrown out to the United States and the whole world.  That can be, and there is every indication that it is going to take place here--a flowering of mutuality, of teamwork, of cooperative thinking and cooperative work, and of cooperative education, which may, and I think will, make this community something which five years from now, will be in term of social history  twenty-five years ahead of the State of Arizona, of the State of California, and of the bulk of the United States.  If it can be done that way, anything that you are doing now will be for a brief moment because such results for post war solutions will be enormous.  Anyone in this room will gladly give his life now if could be sure that there will be an emergence of happy humanity out of the present agony and horror.

     In this community of yours, you (we) will be not only gaining for yourselves satisfaction, and power, and fame, but will be rendering to this country and to the other countries, including Japan, a momentous sociological human service, lasting peace and a happy humanity.  These things are within your power to do and to have.  I am moved because thing are happening in that direction.  Our own personnel is moved in that way.  I am not only speaking my own thought but just as much that of Wade Head's thoughts, Nell Findley's, and those of all the others on the staff of this project.

     I am speaking of one more thing.  I am satisfied in my own mind, and we of the Government are satisfied that this colony, as the  months go on, is going to provide a democracy of the efficiency and the splendor of cooperative living.  It is going to provide that for the advantage of the country.  That is our belief, and it is our purpose.  Believing that, we are also greatly concerned that the development of this great social experiment shall be recorded as it goes ahead.  We are very much concerned that we and you shall know what is happening as it unrolls so that we can draw individual, economic, and sociological conclusions by the results obtained here. 

     With that thought in mind, some three or four weeks ago, I went to see Admiral McIntire, President Roosevelt's personal physician and liaison officer of the Navy.  I gave my thought of what should happen here--a scientific record of what is occurring.  I found that Mr. McIntire was already thinking the same thoughts.  He got the Navy to detail one of its scientists, Dr. Alexander Leighton, allowing him to come down to Parker to make an adequate scientific record of the whole experience in Parker colony. Dr. Leighton is a member of the staff of John Hopkins Medical School--a scientist and sociologist with whom we have had occasion to do work in the past, and profoundly impressed with his human attitude and profundity as a thinker.  Dr. Leighton will be here in the capacity of Director of Public Health.  He will make studies in order that the whole world will read when the scientific record is done.

Source: http://azmemory.lib.az.us/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/ahfreloc&CISOPTR=93&filename=39.pdf

The Voice of the Nisei message

This is an English translation of the item "Handbill with List of Demands by the Voice of Nisei" (ARC Identifier 2641503) that was posted at the Colorado River Relocation Center in Poston, Arizona. (circa 1944)

TO THE GENTLEMEN OF 17 YEARS TO 38 YEARS OF AGE

As you know fellow Americans, at last they did recognize and realize that we are Americans.  We are going to be drafted soon, just like an American outside enjoying the freedom and liberty.  But, don't you think they should reconsider the steps that they had taken?

As we believe that Mr. Roosevelt's speech at the Congress was not merely an excuse to draft us to soldier's and die in vain, we are demanding the following as an American Citizen:

(1) Personal apology from Gen Dewitt regarding his statement "Jap is Jap" and be expelled from his office.  We also want apology from Major Bowron and Gov. Warren, and American Legion of Cal.

(2) Freedom, Rights and Privilege should not be denied in California, militarily, economically, and politically.

(3) Open the barb-wire and withdraw the Guard-duty of M.P.

(4) Such signs as "No Jap," "You Rat", "No Orientals or Colored admitted" and etc. which were familiar in California, must be taken down throughout the U.S.A.

(5) No discrimination upon Japanese securing occupations.

(6) Every opportunity must be given to the Japanese soldier for advancement in the Air Corps, in the Army, and in the Marine Corps.

(7) Japanese soldier must be mixed with other Caucasian soldier to fight side by side.

      VOICE OF NISEI

John Collier vs Dillon Myer

      On 18 March 1942, President Roosevelt created the War Relocation Authority (WRA) and appointed Milton Eisenhower, a minor official in the in the Department of Agriculture, as its director.  Earlier that year, Vice President Henry Wallace had recommended at a cabinet meeting that President Roosevelt appoint John Collier director of the War Relocation Authority, in charge of the Japanese-American internment, "because of his expertise in community living".  (1)

Collier was Roosevelt's Commissioner of Indian Affairs.  When Roosevelt appointed Milton Eisenhower instead of Collier, Collier was placed in charge of 20,000 Japanese-American inmates incarcerated at the Colorado River Indian reservation near Poston, Arizona.  Eventually Collier had a falling out with Eisenhower's successor, Dillon Myer, who became director of WRA on 17 June 1942.  Myer envisioned the eventual dispersal of all Japanese-American prisoners throughout America to prevent their return to the "Little Tokyos" on the West Coast. (2)

Collier had his own plans to use the Japanese-Americans at Poston in "social experiments."  They were to convert 25,000 acres of land into productive farm land that would produce surplus food to feed American troops.  Collier told the internees that this experiment in communal living could raise their morale and restore their faith in democracy, and at the same time it would demonstrate to other Americans "the efficiency and splendor of the cooperative way of living".  (3)

On another level, Collier envisioned Poston becoming a "social science research  laboratory,  which might yield "scientific results" which could then be applied to "American administration of former Japanese islands in the Pacific Ocean." (4)

Primary source: Francis Feeley. The Idealogical Uses of JAs in US Concentration Camps".

Available at: http://www.paradigme.com/sources/SOURCES-PDF/Pages%20de%20Sources04-1-3.pdf

References cited: 

1. Kenneth Philip. John Collier's Crusade for Indian Reform. (Tucson, AZ., 1977) pp. 208-209.

2. Ibid., p. 209.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.