Name
|
Sex/Gen
|
Camp(s)
|
Notes
|
Paul Bannai
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1920; son of Shino, brother of Lilian, and Rose; college student; 442nd soldier; first Japanese American elected to CA Legislature 1973.
|
Shino Bannai
|
F
Issei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1899 in Japan; mother of Paul, Lilian, and Rose.
|
Joan Beyers
|
F
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1930; sister of Shirley; lived in camp as the daughter of white WRA teacher.
|
LaPriel Strong Bush
|
F
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1930, her father was the white WRA director of Adult Education at Manzanar; attended school outside camp, but lived in camp and socialized with Japanese American children.
|
Frederick P. Causey, Jr.
|
M
|
Manzanar, CA
|
7th grader in 1942; lived in camp as the son of the camp’s Civil Engineer.
|
Sue Kunitomi Embrey
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1923; sister of Midori and Tets; Manzanar Free Press editor; Civil Rights activist and leading figure in the movement to preserve Manzanar.
|
Kazuko Tsubouchi Fujishima
|
F
Nisei
|
Jerome, AR
Rohwer, AR
|
In high school in 1942, graduated in camp in 1944.
|
Margaret D'Ille Gleason
|
F
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1879; lived in Japan from 1908-18 working with the YWCA, and the Red Cross in Siberia; served as the chief of Community Welfare at Manzanar and played a key role in reconciliation after the Manzanar revolt.
|
Fumi Manabe Hayashi
|
F
Nisei
|
Topaz, UT
|
B. 1926; attended high school in camp.
|
Yayoi Okuno Hirashiki
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1926; father taken away by the FBI; parents returned to Japan after the war.
|
William Hohri
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1927; graduated in camp in 1944; Civil Rights and Redress activist and author; brought an unsuccessful, but ground-breaking class action lawsuit for incarceration, United States v. Hohri, in the 1980s.
|
Masaji "Mas" Inoshita
|
M
Nisei
|
Gila River, AZ
|
22 years old in 1942; father arrested by the FBI; served in the Military Intelligence Service in the Pacific.
|
Kazuko Oyamada Iwahashi
|
F
Nisei
|
Topaz, UT
|
B. 1930; was in elementary school; first sent to Tanforan Assembly Center and then to Topaz; involved in many youth activities in camp.
|
Midori Kunitomi Iwata
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1925; sister of Sue and Tets; graduated in camp in 1943.
|
George Izumi
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1921; husband of Grace; drafted into the US Army from Manzanar.
|
Grace Kato Izumi
|
F
Nisei
|
Jerome, AR
Rohwer, AR
|
Wife of George; graduated from high school in 1940; temporarily located to Chicago from camp.
|
Rosie M. Kakuuchi
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1925; graduated from high school & played sports in camp; her sister Ruby died, along with her newborn twin girls, in the Manzanar hospital in 1942.
|
Eiichi “H.E.” Kamiya
|
M
Nisei
|
Rohwer, AR
|
B. 1936; father arrested by the FBI; attended grade school in camp.
|
Kazuko Toji Kato
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1933; attended grade school in camp.
|
Rose B. Kitahara
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1924; daughter of Shino; sister of Paul and Lilian; worked as a nurse in Manzanar.
|
Tetsuo Kunitomi
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1930; brother of Sue and Midori; attended grade school in camp; joined the army after camp.
|
Ralph Lazo
|
M
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1924; Mexican American who voluntarily entered camp to be with his Japanese American friends; drafted into the army from camp in 1944.
|
Ayako Nomura Machida
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
High school student; recalls how friends treated her differently after Pearl Harbor; eventually left camp to attend nursing school in Illinois.
|
Sho Maruyama
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1927; father arrested by the FBI; graduated from high school in camp in 1944 and then volunteered to serve in the army.
|
Lillian I. Matsumoto
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1913; earned her degree in social work; before the war, she worked at Shonien children’s home in LA; she and her husband Harry oversaw the Children’s Village at Manzanar, home to more than 100 children, and the only orphanage in a WRA facility.
|
Mariagnes Aya Uenishi Medrud
|
F
Nisei
|
Minidoka, ID
|
B. 1925; her father was picked up by the FBI; she visited injured Japanese American soldiers in a hospital in NY, a “devastating experience,” and encountered racial hatred.
|
Shirley Meeder
|
F
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1931, sister of Joan; lived in camp as the daughter of a white WRA teacher.
|
Helen Sugiyama Mishima
|
F
Nisei
|
Gila River, AZ
|
Attended school in camp; relocated to Detroit in 1945.
|
Atsufumi Archie Miyatake
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1924; graduated from high school in camp in 1944; son of photographer Toyo Miyatake who smuggled a camera lens into camp and took several thousand photos.
|
Albert Mizuhara
|
M
Nisei
|
Topaz, UT
|
B. 1930; attended junior high school in camp; husband of Phyllis.
|
Phyllis Yeiko Hirata Mizuhara
|
F
Nisei
|
Poston, AZ
|
B. 1930; sixth grader in 1942; her father was arrested by the FBI; wife of Albert.
|
Frank Mori
|
M
Nisei
|
Gila River, AZ
|
B. 1920; met and married his wife in camp; joined the Military Intelligence Service and served in the Pacific.
|
George H. Morishita
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA |
B. 1931; had mostly Mexican American friends as a child in LA; served in Japan and Korea during the Korean War.
|
Gloria Hisako Tamura Morita
|
F
Nisei
|
Tule Lake, CA
|
High school age; worked in mess halls and offices in camp before locating to Chicago; one brother was a “No-No Boy” and renounced his US citizenship.
|
Raymond E. Muraoka
|
M
Sansei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1935; attended 1st – 4th grades in camp; one of 8 children, his baby sister died in camp in 1942.
|
Aiji Nagano
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1927; brother of Momo; their father was arrested by the FBI; graduated from high school in camp in 1944 and volunteered for the US Army
|
Joe Nagano
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1921; chemistry major at UCLA when war broke out; student relocation to Chicago in 1943 and drafted into the Military Intelligent Service in 1945; served in Occupied Japan.
|
Momo Nagano
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1925; sister of Aiji; their father was arrested by the FBI; attended high school in camp and wove camo nets to support the US war effort.
|
Grace Shinoda Nakamura
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA |
B. 1927; sister of Larry; her father died when she was six; she saw one of her classmates, 17-year-old Jimmy Ito, shot and killed during the Manzanar revolt.
|
Mitsuru J. Nakamura
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1926; attended high school in camp; his father was a bystander during the Manzanar revolt and was shot in the shoulder.
|
Claire Ayako Harada Nakashima
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1923; graduated the summer before Pearl Harbor; her father was arrested by the FBI; worked at the Manzanar Hospital before relocating to MN in 1945.
|
Bill Nishimura
|
M
Nisei
|
Poston, AZ
Tule Lake, CA
Santa Fe, NM
Crystal City, TX
|
B. 1920; father arrested by the FBI; “No-No Boy” segregated to Tule Lake in 1944; renounced US citizenship and became active in the camp’s pro-Japan Hoshidan movement; removed from Tule Lake and interned in Dept. of Justice camps until 1947; eventually regained his US citizenship and remained in US.
|
Rose Matsui Ochi
|
F
Nisei
|
Rohwer, AR
|
B. 1938; small child in camp; Civil Rights activist and first Asian American woman to serve as Assistant Attorney General; instrumental in efforts to establish Manzanar National Historic Site.
|
Joyce Okazaki
|
F
Sansei
|
Manzanar, CA |
B. 1934; grandfather arrested by the FBI; attended 3rd - 5th grades in camp before relocating to Chicago; photographed by Ansel Adams for his wartime book Born Free and Equal.
|
Robert Katsumasa Okazaki
|
M
Nisei
|
POW Camp #33, Petawawa, Ontario POW Camp #101, Angler, Ontario
|
B. 1917 in Canada; organized “Nisei Mass Evacuation Group” to protest Canadian incarceration; released in 1946 & lived on the street for the next 2 years.
|
Jun Okimoto
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1924; graduated from Manzanar High School in 1943; considered himself a “terrible student” in camp and “hated” his Japanese ancestry.
|
Sam H. Ono
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1926; his mother died when he was six; he graduated from Manzanar High School in 1944.
|
Bo T. Sakaguchi
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1925; had 6 older siblings attending medical and dental schools when war broke out; a “quiet and an above average student who was not enthused” in camp, drafted into the army a week after the war ended.
|
Saburo Sasaki
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1934; attended elementary school in camp; his family relocated to Cleveland, OH in 1945.
|
Daisy Uyeda Satoda |
F
Nisei
|
Topaz, UT |
B. 1927; father arrested by the FBI; active in student activities, graduated from high school in camp in 1945; attended college 40 years later. |
Wilbur Sato
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1929; evicted along with all other Japanese American families on Terminal Island, CA, with only 48 hours notice in February 1942.
|
Mas Segimoto
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1929; 6th grader when war broke out; father arrested by the FBI along with most other men on Terminal Island; snuck out of camp to go fishing.
|
Lawrence Kiyoshi Shinoda
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1930, brother of Grace; attended school in camp; served in the Korean War; grew up to become a world-renowned auto designer who helped design the Corvette Stingray, Boss Mustang, Camaro Z28, and Jeep Grand Cherokee.
|
Hayao Hy Shishino
|
M
Nisei
|
Gila River, AZ
|
B. 1924; senior in high school when war broke out; principal refused to give him his diploma in 1942—he didn’t get it until 1988; wove camo nets in camp for US war effort; his brother accidentally drowned during Hy’s 21st birthday celebration in MN; drafted then discharged from the army when his father became terminally ill in 1946.
|
Bill Susumu Taketa
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1926; his father died when he was ten; attended a segregated school pre-war; freshman in high school when war started; wove camo nets for the US war effort; graduated from Manzanar High School in 1945 and served in the Military Intelligence Service.
|
Hikoji Takeuchi
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
Tule Lake, CA
Bismark, ND
|
B. 1921; shot by an MP after receiving permission to collect scrap wood to build furniture for his family’s barracks; hurt and angry because of his incarceration, he was sent to Tule Lake Segregation Center and then Bismark, ND; went to Japan after the war but returned to the US in the 1950s.
|
Tadashi Tatsui
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1929; in junior high when the war began; relocated to Chicago; served in the Korean War.
|
Mary M. Teramoto
|
F
Nisei
|
Jerome, AR
Rohwer, AR
|
9th grader when war started; enjoyed school in camp; returned to CA in 1945.
|
Hank Umemoto
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1928; recalls “the whole world seemed to collapse before my eyes…”
|
Kinichi Watanabe
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
Tule Lake, CA
|
B. 1934; his 4 year old brother died in Manzanar, and another brother was born there two years later; attended 1st – 3rd grade in camp before being segregated to Tule Lake.
|
Arthur Loren Williams
|
M
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1928; in 1912 his grandfather bought an apple farm in the pre-war town of Manzanar; 30 years later, his father was hired as the white WRA Assistant Chief of Internal Security at Manzanar; Arthur lived in camp and attended school in Independence.
|
Shigeru Yabu
|
M
Nisei
|
Heart Mountain, WY
|
B. 1932; the only Japanese American in his Fremont elementary school, his teacher cried when he was taken away; in 2007 he published the children’s book “Hello Maggie!” about his experiences taming a magpie to be his camp pet.
|
Jun Yamamoto
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1923; college student at UCLA when war broke out; volunteered for the 442nd and fought in Italy and France, including the “Rescue of the Lost Battalion;” Jun’s unit suffered 800 casualties (including 54 dead) to rescue 200 Texans of the 36th Infantry.
|
Kazuyuki Yamamoto
|
M
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1924; junior in high school when the war began.; relocated to Chicago in 1945.
|
Lilian Bannai Yamamura
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1922; daughter of Shino, sister of Paul and Rose.
|
Homer Yasui
|
M
Nisei
|
Tule Lake, CA
|
B. 1925; his father was arrested by the FBI; Homer relocated to Denver to attend college in 1942; Homer’s older brother Minoru deliberately challenged a curfew order and took his case, Yasui v. United States, all the way to the Supreme Court.
|
Harry Kiyoto Yasumoto
|
M
Nisei
|
Gila River, AZ
|
4th grader when the war broke out, he was allowed to finish the school year before being sent to camp; played football in camp.
|
Yaeko Munemori Yokoyama
|
F
Nisei
|
Manzanar, CA
|
B. 1919; she had just finished training to be a nurse when the war began; Yaeko helped set up the Manzanar hospital; her brother Sadao was killed while fighting with the 442nd in Italy; he was the only Japanese American to win the Medal of Honor during World War II.
|