This is a Warning

Threatening Letter left at Tomi's Dry Cleaning Business in Oakland after Pearl Harbor Attacks

In the days and weeks after Pearl Harbor, many Japanese businesses and storefronts had been attacked and not visited again.  Tomi’s shop was not in the heart of Oakland’s Japantown, and was not broken into or vandalized. But there was a note slipped under the door. It read, "This is a warning. Get out. We don't want you in our beautiful country. Go where your ancestors came from. Once a Jap always one. Get out. Look out." [Redress Hearings, San Francisco, Min Tamaki, 8/13/1981]

Fingerprinted in February and Not Knowing What Would Happen

Kay registered with the Oakland Defense Council’s County-Wide Civilian Volunteer Defense to receive basic training the week of January 5, 1942. The classes to learn about Civilian Defense Plan, Extinguishing Small Fires, First Aid, Identification of Persons and Property up to Incendiary Bombs and Their Effect and Chemical Warfare and its Effect. At that time, she would have considered herself as part of the civilian defense, not as one to be locked up in a couple months’ time. Kay described this period in an interview in 1990s to an oral history collector for the Quakers American Friends Service Committee:

"I recall that after, which was about two or three days later — I was actually working part time at a gift store on Grand Avenue in San Francisco. After I had finished my finals I was on the train going to San Francisco. I just couldn’t help [it], but tears came rolling down. It was a very emotional time. We could see these lines of trucks filled with soldiers coming across the bay. I guess they were being mobilized. I’m going the other way to San Francisco and I’m thinking to myself, “What will happen to us? We’re Japanese and the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor.” Certainly, war had already been declared. Well, the Japanese community as a whole was just absolutely devastated.

The Japanese stores were together. They were all either broken into or tomatoes, eggs anything was thrown at them. And then there was some violence. Some violence of home with windows being broken and so forth. All and all, from that and there was no TV then you know, but the radio kept blasting away the fact that since Pearl Harbor had been attacked, certainly San Francisco and the bay area was a fearful sort of area….all of the Japanese-American stores were ordered closed. That identified every shop and every owner. So therefore people stopped coming…So even when we reopened, people did not come to trade with us. Therefore our living [was] completely cut off. I remember my making stew week after week because that was the cheapest and more nourishing food. We had friends dropping by and staying for dinner and stew could be stretched. Something else could not be.”

By the end of January, life was carrying on for the Yamashitas, despite the fact that they were seeing their friends and fellow community members taken away by federal agents arresting community leaders and placing them in Department of Justice camps far away.

Kiyo, Sus' wife, continued her life in Berkeley, washing her 5 month old baby’s diapers- as many as twenty soiled diapers in a day. Her life was circumscribed by the weather, being able to put out the laundry to dry or not. Sus was going back and forth from San Francisco to check on the status of friends who had been taken away and detained.

At the end of January, 1942, Sus asked her to think about whether or not they should invest in a car. They had no idea that they would have to leave many of their possessions behind in a few months' time.

On Feb 4, 1942, a curfew was put into place in California by the US Attorney General Francis Biddle for all Japanese American citizens, and Japanese aliens (first generation immigrants who could not naturalize) and German and Italian nationals in the US. Two days later, on a rainy day, Kiyo, Chiz and Iyo went to see Marian Anderson sing at the Men’s Gym.

But their lives were indeed affected. On February 7, Sus went to help his mother fill out her alien property form and register for her Alien Registration Card. She was photographed, fingerprinted, and offered up her specs- forty years in the U.S., 4 feet 11 inches. By the end of February, Kiyo’s father had been taken in by the Silver Avenue Immigration Station to be transferred to a North Dakota prison camp.

This Japanese Problem

In Los Angeles, Raymond Booth of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) was aware that there were meetings taking place that would decide the fate of the Japanese on the West Coast. Booth wrote Feb 4^th 1942 to his colleague in Philadelphia,

“I hope I am not bothering you too much about this Japanese problem here on the coast, but the thing does tend to get thicker and thicker.  Conferences have been going on since Monday morning in Sacramento among Mr. Thomas C. Clarke, federal coordinator of enemy alien problems for the Western Command, Lieutenant-General DeWitt of the same area, Colonel W. J. Donovan of the State Selective Service, Governor Culbert Olson and Mr. W. J. Cecil, State Director of Agriculture.  What, if anything is being decided, I do not now know…In the meantime, however, the public continues to get more and more hysterical.”    

Fifteen days after Booth wrote this letter, all the Japanese would know the verdict of this secret meeting.  President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 ordering the removal of all persons of Japanese Descent from the West Coast, which the community first heard about in the form of flyers on telephone poles.

A Message to Our Neighbors on the Day of Evacuation

On the day of evacuation (or forced removal), Oakland church leaders sent an open letter to the Japanese Americans, offering help from women of the church.

“We who know you best have complete confidence in your devotion to the democratic ideals for which America stands. We recognize how serious is this dislocation in your lives… We promise that we will work to the end that after the war is over you and your children shall have in all the freedom which we expect for ourselves."

Sus and Kiyo

Kimi and Bob's photo album

Oakland High School Photo, Sus in back

Kiyo's Diary

Kiyo married Sus in 1940 and kept a diary for the year of 1942 which details her daily life and records the changes leading up to her forced removal and her separation from her mother and father and siblings (the Kitano Family), as well as her husband's family (the Yamashita Family). She writes about updates on her toddler, Kimiko, alongside updates of the war-- travel restrictions, contraband cameras, a Japantown transformed into a ghost town, the fall of Bataan, and a family feeling the stress of moving into smaller and more confinded quarters, first all into one house and then by the end of April into horse stalls.

Excerpts from Kiyo’s Diary before Forced Removal of her family:

Sunday, February 15
Clear
...Kimiko started chattering very much today...

Sunday, March 29
Clear
...We took several pictures of Kimiko since we won’t be able to take our camera for the duration.

Monday, March 30
Clear
Spent all day in the kitchen preparing for the dinner we gave for Mr. and Mrs. Tibbits, and Mr and Mrs. Purcell. Sus did not go to S.F., intending to help at home, but he could not do a thing to help since he went to W.C.C.A office to turn in our flashlight and camera, and ask about commuting to S.F. for business...

End of March 1942 Extra Pages in Diary
This month, things certainly happened fast. Evacuation became a definite order, and along with that came curfew hours between 9 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and 5-mile travel restrictions for us Japanese-Americans and enemy aliens. Some Germans and Italians were exempted by a later proclamation, but no Japanese. Along the war front, Java and D.E.I fell to Japan, the battle of Burma is going on, and Gen. MacArthur is in Australia...

Wednesday, April 1
Clear
Tonight we heard over the radio that the third Evacuation order (the first was the evacuation of Japanese from Bainbridge Island near Puget Sound in Wash., & the second was a certain portion of L.A.) including the northern and western sections of San Francisco, and all of San Diego. I phoned home and learned from Masako that north of California and west of 19th Avenue was the boundaried for that order. This includes the Clay Street Hotel of ours. Chiz phoned later to ask if she could come back here...Sus went to the JACL to help with fingerprinting. I worked on my Red Cross examination, and finally finished at 7:00 p.m...

Thursday, April 2
Cloudy
...Talked with Mom [Kiyo’s mother] over the phone. They are very busy packing and preparing to leave for Manzanar in Owens Valley. She said she could not arrange to go to Tish’s so that means our family will be separated…Jr. phone tonight to sort of say good-bye.

Friday, April 3
Rain
...Chiz, Eddie and John came over and stayed for dinner. They—the whole family is going to move in on us because we do not want to become separated in case Oakland and Berkeley are evacuated separately. Eddie is staying over tonight...

Saturday, April 4
Rain
Sus and Eddie went out this morning to the Oakland house to help. Sus at the same time went to get a permit for us to go to visit Mom in San Francisco tomorrow. I baked a cake to bring to her. They are getting all ready to go to Manzanar reception center in Owens Valley...

Sunday, April 5
Cloudy/Rain
This morning we brought Kimiko with us and went to see Mom on Eddie’s car. The whole house was a mess for they had almost everything packing for their leaving tomorrow. I signed some papers regarding the care of the house to the Trust Dept of the Anglo California National Bank. We had lunch together with Tish’s family and Mrs. Ikemone and all the Kitanos except Harry and Tommy, at the Chinese restaurant, then came home. Jimmy Hirano dropped in, then the Ben Furutas, then Mrs. Kawasaki with an Easter present for Kimiko. Sus’ family moved over into our house tonight. Everyone except John who is staying at the Oakland house for a few days to clean things. Today certainly did not feel like East Sunday to us...

Monday, April 6
Clear
...He [Sus] got a trunk ready for us to pack things in. We sold our bedroom set- it was heartbreaking to see it go...I phoned Mom at 4:15 p.m. today, but Mr. Ryan answered the phone ans said that they had left already. They were supposed to go to Manazar but at the last minute, they had to go to Santa Anita race track...

Tuesday, April 7
Cloudy/Rain
Mama and the rest probably reached Santa Anita this morning on Sakako’s birthday...Another evacuation order affecting two areas in Los Angeles were issued last night. They are to leave by the 13th and 14th...

Thursday, April 9
Rain
Still no letter from Mama and the rest. Sus packed all day long and got quite a bit cleared away. Chiz went up town to see if she could find a dentist, and came home with the news of the fall of Bataan...

Friday, April 10
Cloudy
...I wrote to Papa tonite. Sus packed a little Later, we talked to Chizu and Eddie until 12:30.

Saturday, April 11
Cloudy
...Received a letter from Mama. She is fine, and we were relieved to hear that things weren’t quite as bad at Santa Anita...

Monday April 13
Cloudy/Rain
...John took me up town for an hour this afternoon. We looked at some luggage, and I bought some stockings at Penney’s.

Wednesday, April 15
Clear
...They are having a bit of difficulty trying to sell Mother’s store, and everyone is in a terrible mood...

Thursday, April 16
Rain
...Kay came home thinking she had the measles, and everyone was mad again...

Friday, April 17
Cloudy
...Went to the W.C.C.A office with Chizu this morning to get a pass to go to San Francisco tomorrow...

Saturday, April 18
Clear
...Bought a sunbonnet and some sox for Kimiko on Fillmore, and some panties and a slip for myself at the former Nakagawa Company. San Francisco Japanese town certainly looks like a ghost town…We came back to Berkeley and took a ride around the campus before we came back to this hectic household. We celebrated Chizu’s 34th birthday tonight. Wrote to Papa tonight. Tokyo was bombed by American planes according to the papers and the radio.

Saturday, April 25
Clear
Sus went to the office this morning, and intended to go to register at the WCCA office at First Congregational Church at Channing Way for evacuation purposes this afternoon. He went with Kim, but came home because it was too crowded. An FBI agent called him up this morning to ask about a “Suziyama” and said he’d call later but he didn’t. Sus said that a Mr. Jacobs of the FBI came to the office to inquire about Mr. C Yohsino...

Sunday, April 26
Clear
This morning Sus went to register as head of the family for all of us. He went at 7:30 and did not come back until 11 a.m. He has to go back Tuesday again...

Monday, April 27
Rain
Sus went to S. F. for the last time today...

Tuesday, April 28
Clear
Brought over things to store at Evelynn’s to her, including Kimiko’s crib and chifferobe...

Wednesday, April 29
Clear
Today was a very busy day for us. In the morning, Sus went to the office for about an hour. As soon as he came home, he, Kimiko, and I went shopping in Berkeley. I bought my boots and some cosmetics, while he got his boots, and evacuation pants and shirt. After that, we went to Austin Studios to get our pictures taken. We then rushed home and started in packing. Pancho came over to see us and brought us a box of candy. Mr. Fujii who is to rent the house after us also came. Then, Mr. Ford came to get our furniture. We packed until 2 a.m., and then slept on the mattress on the floor.

Thursday, April 30
Rain

Today was one of the worst, if not the worst day I have ever experienced in my life. We awoke early, and after much frantic packing (while Sus went up to the Bank of America), we finally got started to the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, Calif. After being delayed there 1 ½ hours, we finally got started at 2:20 p.m. on buses, in pouring rain...

We were assigned to Barrack 14, Room 36, and the sight that met my eyes was sorely disappointing. Our “apartment” is a converted stable, two-room affair, with constant draft and inadequate lighting. There is no broom here so we cannot sweep out the terrible mess. At least it doesn’t smell “horsey” for which we should be thankful. Our baggage didn’t arrive until 10 p.m.—we just waited in the cold, empty room until then. Everything was either damp or soaked in the rain, which made things very uncomfortable.

...The lavies, by the way, are something terrific if the one I visited today is any criterion. It smells terribly, the water doesn’t flush well, and there is no privacy. We would much rather use our little covered pail than to go to the ‘back house’. Today, there were two men and two ladies sitting in a 4 toilet lav. No “Men” or “Women” signs were outside—just “No Solicitors Allowed”—hence I don’t know who was in the wrong room. Anyway, I’ll have to investigate a bit to find a cleaner and better throne. Good thing we brought Kimiko’s old crib, for the rough handling has broken off one wheel, and the sliding panel of one side does not work.

To see complete diary entry transcription.
[The diary is to be photographed in fall of 2015.]

Mine Okubo's drawing in Citizen 13660 entitled View of Interior of Benji's Barrack."

Swallow's Nest

Kiyo's Diary describes the first week at Tanforan. Her baby, Kimiko, has trouble sleeping from all the hammering. Everyone is trying to make furniture and fix up the drafty horse stall accommodations. There is no privacy in general, least of all the bathrooms, where there are no stalls. The only place that is properly set up is the laundry and ironing room, and Sus once goes there to heat up the milk for Kimiko. Kiyo hears news from the war, and writes about the a rare pat of butter that she tries to cherish. She notices a bird building its nest in the barrack she is moved to from the horse stall section of the racetracks.

Friday, May 1
Clear

…Kimiko woke up twice last night—she was terribly restless and didn’t sleep well at all. I took her bottles to the Formulae Kitchen in the Mess Hall and took one hour to have her milk made…Everyone started in carpentering today, and made so much noise that poor Kimiko could not take her nap. Not only during the daytime, but also at night, Sus’ sisters and brothers kept hammering, so Kimiko didn’t sleep until about 10 p.m., crying all the while. The loud radio, constant talking and shrieking, and hammering is enough to make anyone nervous...

Saturday, May 2
Clear

The mud has almost gone now with clear weather two successive days.…Did some washing today. There is one barrack full of wash tubs in double rows, and is very good. There is a barrack next to it for drying clothes, and next to that is an ironing room. It seems to be the only unit that is complete—…


Monday, May 4
Clear

Today Sus and Mr. Okamoto (across the way) boarded up the back wall separating our rooms, so we are much warmer now. John and Eddie boarded up the front cracks, which make our room more comfortable…

Tuesday, May 5
Clear

We were given orders to move today to Barrack 59, Rms. 4 and 5, but it is a new barrack with 6 people in each room...Today was Boys Festival, but we did not observe it at all…Kay and Mother left today for Washington, D.C. They will be gone for at least three weeks…

Wednesday, May 6
Cloudy

Kimiko’s nose is still running and she has now developed a cough. However, she seemed to be in good spirits today…There is a swallow’s nest at the corner top of our room, and we could hear them chirping. We saw the Mother swallow getting food for the baby ones this morning.

Thursday, May 7
Clear

Just one week ago today, we came here to Tanforan, but it seems as though we have been here for months… Went to Iyo’s tonight for some of their Oakland friends came today and brought cheese, cake, etc., so had a regular feast.

Friday, May 8
Cloudy

Terribly cold, windy day today. More people are still coming in. Today, the San Leandro, Hayward, Centerville people came...Mr. Uchida was released and came to Tanforan today. We have not seen him as yet, but we heard that he was very thin…Every night Sus’ family prepares “snacks” for we do not have much to eat and on top of that, we eat early. However, the food is getting much better, and we are getting fresh vegetables and salads now.

Saturday, May 9
Clear

We cannot go to Mess Hall #8 since we moved to a different barrack, so we went to the Main Mess Hall today, and waited in line one whole hour—7:45 to 8:45 a.m. for our breakfast. It was the same way at lunch, but dinner was not so crowded as we went very early…We read in the Examiner and Chronicle of the Allied victory in the big naval battle off Australia. The war seems very far away to us here, yet that is why we are placed in this position...Had one pat of butter for the first time today since we got here. We probably won’t see butter again for quite a while so we enjoyed every bit of it on a somewhat leathery pancake.

Letter from Chiz to Kay, May 27, 1942

If We Cannot Live As Free People

Chiz writes to her sister Kay on May 27, 1942 after a month in the racetrack, living in a horse stall. Chiz records details of her "new life." They need trash collection, brooms and mops and other such basics and cannot talk to the administration in a meaningful way. She writes,

“We are constantly aware of this regimentation and regulation and our feeling is that of confinement and held as sort of prisoner for not other crime than that we were unfortunately of Japanese descent. We have educational, recreational, church and all such programs but they will of no avail if we cannot practice and live as free people. As an American, I revolt because it was my understand ing that we were sacrificing our homes, our life, that we had worked and planned for our children and ourselves- as a patriotic duty. Evacuating for military reason- and all such reasons which I question now. I challenge any American to stack up their record against any of us and see if we hadn’t been as good or better Americans in deed and to thing today- we and our children (3rd and 4th gen. Amer.- who have to live in this country after the mess is over) have to be confined to concentration camps. If we are to really be victorious- fighting for the preservation of democracy and our way of life, we had better review the constitutionality of all this right here in the U.S.A. If we feel this way now- I wonder how we shall fee two years –or 3 yrs hence. Really, Kay, when I see small children and growing youngsters- I can’t stand this life.”

Kay's Trip to Washington D.C.:  A Strange Reprieve from Detention

In a very unique circumstance, when the rest of her community was kept at Tanforan or at other Assembly Centers unable to go out, eat regular food, go to the movies or leave the gates, Kay was called by the federal government to testify in a legal case in Washington D.C. in which charges were brought on a Japanese propagandist group called the Japanese Committee on Trade and Information for failing to register as foreign agents.

How she got mixed up in this had to do with her involvement in U.C. Berkeley's student activities. She had been involved with the Japanese American Women's Student Association which had invited speakers to discuss current affairs and the conflict between Japan and China or Manchuria. When one of the speakers cancelled at the last minute, the Japanese Consul sent a speaker who was later charged with distributing pro-Japan political propaganda. Kay was called to testify in the trial in Washington D.C. and left Tanforan after a few days, accompanied by her mother on a cross-country train trip. See trial documents here. Incidentally, Sus (Kay's eldest brother) knew three of the Japanese men accused by the U.S. government. Two of them had been in his wedding party pictured above. [Mr. Takeuchi is standing on Kiyo's right and Mrs. Takeuchi standing on Sus' left. Standing behind Sus' right shoulder is Mr. Terao, who was the only Mitsubishi executive who lived in Berkeley; others in San Francisco. The man who is standing behind Tomi and Mr. Takeuchi is either Mr. Inouye or Mr. Tsuji, and the man who is standing behind Mrs. Takeuchi and Motoji Kitano is either Inouye or Tsuji. Mr. Takeuchi was back in Japan prior to 12/7/41 and the other 3 executives were arrested and taken to the Silver Ave. Immigration Station (Sus tried to visit them but was turned away) before being shipped off to the Dept. of Justice Prisoner of War camp in North Dakota. Mr. Obana is not in the photo.

The family wrote to Kay and Tomi to give updates on what was going on in Tanforan. This unique trip opened up a can of worms for the family. Kay was on the edge of confinement, allowed out when the rest of her family and community was confined within a makeshift camp. She wanted to advocate her cause to sympathetic white allies and escape the drudgery of detainment. Her letters sent from the train and her destinations display Kay's optimism in the ability of allies to help internees, her own ambitions, and her naivete. The trip also created the conditions for a correspondence to record the first few weeks in Tanforan. These individuals may not have recorded their experiences otherwise.

Before going back to Tanforan, Kay returned to the West Coast and stayed in San Francisco long enough to attend a conference. After attempting to get a job in Washington and feeling the pressures of her family to return, Kay finally made it back to Tanforan. Upon her return, she face detainees who were suspicious of her connections and motives thereafter. Over a year later, on April 13, 1943, General John L. DeWitt of the Western Command Army would famously say before the House Naval Affairs Subcommittee, "A Jap's a Jap. There is no way to determine their loyalty... This coast is too vulnerable. No Jap should come back to this coast except on a permit from my office." Kay was a strange outlier at this time, the only Japanese American in San Francisco in May and June of 1942.

To see more of Kay's Summons Papers to testify.

Kay in Junior High School in Oakland

Kay is not as brutally honest in her usual correspondence letters to her white friends on the outside as she is in this letter to a Caleb Foote, member of Fellowship of Reconcilation and friends, dated August 4, 1942. Kay describes her surrounding and mental state (nightmares) in Tanforan stall with window looking out to Guard Tower. Two and a half months have taken tolls on the family's mental states- "mental suffering is simply awful". She describes the noisiness, lack of privacy, atmosphere "like a goldfish in a bowl", being confronted by an internal policeman when reading a letter, the horse smell that stinks up the stall despite cleaning, the ways the people try to make their stalls more homey with gardens, ponds, fish made out of carrots etc. She comments that people wear their usual clothes despite the confined concentration camp environment. She tells about barrack living, Mr. Obata, lack of partitions, and privacy, the noise at night, and her preference for the horse stall despite the smell (presumably ove the shared barracks). She talks about mess-hall eating, eating in 15 minutes, and the difference from her life before. Kay records the embarrassment of the latrines and showers with no doors or curtains, and feels confused about how to greet familiar faces in such a situation. She and her sister decide to miss meals to wash their clothes with hot water. She sympathizes with army men. There are increasing cases of insanity, and the deaf are being sent to Tule Lake. School supplies came from American Friends Service Committee and Dr. Wagoner of Mills College. She describes the courses offered at makeshift schools without any books or materials and all in one room.  Kay describes the Obata Art School, the Hobby Art Show, the socio-economic and age differences in camp- "an experiment in social living". Issei are patient and take Americanization and etiquette classes in the afternoon. She is happy that her father is not here to witness this. She says the Nisei are the most embittered for losing all that they have worked for to support a family and a living equal to their education. Kay includes anecdotes of children playing outside of her stall. "There are four children who constantly right play outside of our door (third generation children, 4-5 yrs of age). Yesterday, they were playing war and picked one child to be "the Jap"-- the poor fellow kept crying out that he didn't want to be "the Jap"-- they insisted they could not play war unless he played his part."  Kay's nephew draws pictures of American planes shooting down German and Japanese planes, and asks to go home. One mother secludes her 3-year-old child with deformed fingers in a stall refusing to let him go to preschool or see other children. She fears how the children will develop being secluded, not seeing any Caucasian children. She respects the cooks, waitresses, maintenance crew, and wonders what they are thinking about this situation. Kay worries about the teenagers who know that their rights are being violated and are confined to supervised, forced activity. She talks about the Army using Kibei to teach Japanese or do translation for the Military Intelligence. She explains her shock at being interned in a concentration camp, because she was ready to join any service after December 7th, 1941. There is no free speech or self-government. Dr. Uyeyama was sent to Tule Lake for telling off an official. There are new restrictions on visitors - a list of 50 denied entry.

To browse a collection of Kay's work and friend correspondence, click here. To see family correspondence during 1942, click here.

Some highlights include:

1942 8 28, Letter from Kay to Miss Kirven, Kay tried to circulate a survey about conditions but the camp administration was clamping down

1942 8 30, Handwritten letter, friends of Kay plan to visit her in Tanforan in August.

1942 9 7, Letter from Kay to Caleb Foote, Kay describes customary contriband search of 20 men.

1943 3 4, Fellowship of Reconciliation to Kay