Post War Trajectories
Post War Trajectories
What was it like for the Yamashita family to re-enter free society. Many had been able to use their closeness to white supporters to get them privileged access to freedom and leave clearance. Other members of the family had to stay in camp. What happened once the war was over? Did the family return to their home in Oakland and their businesses (of dry cleaning and farming?) Some members had grown up over the course of the war. This section traces the resettlement period of incarceration history when Japanese Americans tried to re-build their lives. The dispersal of this family represents one story of the rest. What was the lived experience of resettlement?
John was contracted by the War Relocation Authority to run a hostel in the Oakland Methodist church building that he grew up in. After having gone to Garrett Seminary and graduating, he returned to the hall where all of the Japanese American congregational members' belongings were stored since the time of removal in April 1942. John worked with the support of his friend Ish Isokawa, who may have been supporting in the work as a volunteer, as well as a white member of the Church and caretaker of the building during the war, Lee Mullis. Together they worked to house returning Japanese Americans on cots in the church and ship belongings to the Japanese Americans who decided not to come back to Oakland. An inventory of items and a correspondence across states.
Sus with children. To see a collection of photographs of Sus and Kiyo's family in the 1950s-1970s.
Kay, 1966, in Chicago Apartment To see a collection of photographs of Kay in the 1950s-1960s.
Iyo and Min's Family in Oakland with kids, Ellen, Ann and Don Tamaki To see a collection of photographs of Iyo and Min's family in the 1950s and 1960s.
John Yamashita. To see a collection of John and Asako's family photographs from the 1950s- 1960s.
Marty Uyeki and her parents Kimi and Bob Ono. To see a collection of Marty and Eugene's family photos from 1950s-1960s
Photograph in Chiz' personal collection
Returning to Oakland
John Yamashita and Ish Isokawa, a friend from church, returned to Oakland in February of 1945 to organize a hostel for Japanese Americans who were returning to Oakland area and to ship the property that had been stored there when Japanese American members of the Oakland Japanese Methodist Church (at 797 10th Street) were first detained in spring of 1942. The property had been cared for by Lee Mullis, a white member of the church. The War Relocation Authority entered into an agreement with John where the WRA would give them cots and mattresses for a specific period to be used to help resettle Japanese Americans. See this letter from Roscoe, a WRA Assistant Project Director to another WRA official and this contact drawn up for John by the WRA.
John and Ish Isokawa would write letters to the people who had stored property in the church to coordinate the return of their property at their own expense.
The list to the left has names and addresses. Many are still the barrack number at Topaz. Some are at Tule Lake without a barrack number included. Some have already received clearance and resettled to Midwestern cities like Chicago, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio.
The papers were kept how John had organized them into manila folders.
The Manila Folders are as followed. Some of the hostel files have been uploaded.
Bank Statements
WRA [War Relocation Authority]
Office of Price Administration
Thank you's
Thank you's II
Thank you's III
Other hostels
Warehouse Storage
Storage Bus
Untitled Folder I
Hostel Property
Blankets Linens
Food Receipts
Laundry
Returnee Correspondence
Hostel Reservations
Yoshimura Storage
Topaz Correspondence
Isokawa
Eastern Correspondence
Rivers (Gila) Correspondence
Untitled Folder II
Tule Lake Correspondence
Looking for Work in New York
After being allowed to leave Topaz in 1945, Sus did not head back to Oakland, but moved to New York looking for work. He wrote back frequently to his wife Kiyo who took care of their two children, Kimiko and Ken. His FBI file reveals that he was being followed in New York by agents.
Dispersal
Here are images of the Yamashita siblings in the 1950s and 1960s. Did the siblings disburse after the war from their varied paths away from Topaz? Did they recoalesce in Oakland? How did this impact the way the next generation moved through the world?
Kay is pictured in her apartment in Chicago, suave and living in a cosmpolitan city. She would later teach her nieces how to drink certain cocktail drinks before, during and after dinner. Sus and Kiyo would raise their five kids in New Jersey, after staying a few years after the war in Oakland. Iyo and Min moved back to Oakland and raised their three kids there in the West 10th Methodist Church. John pastored this church before being sent down to lead a Japanese American church in Los Angeles. John and his wife, Asako, would move there and raise their two kids in Crenshaw and Gardena. Tom and his wife, Carol, lived in Hong Kong and raised their three kids. Chiz lived in Oak Park with her husband Ed, and worked as a nurse in Cook County hospital in Chicago and would get her nieces and nephews summer jobs there. Marty volunteered to dig ditches in Germany with the Red Cross after the war and then got a masters in social work and settled in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband Eugene. Kix went to college. Kimi and Bob moved back to Berkeley. Ted joined Military Intelligence Service and worked in Japan in the postwar years.
How did these locales affect the directions that these families took?
Housing Discrimination in Evanston
