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Visiting Amache, At Last
By HARRY K. HONDA
Friday, July 25, 2008
A veteran journalist realizes a longtime goal of visiting all 10 WRA camps.
Harry Honda poses in front of the Amache memorial in Granada, Colo. dedicated to World War II Nisei soldiers who were killed in action, during the pilgrimage to Amache held during the Fourth of July holiday.
Some may have visited all 10 War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps in less time — but for me, it was 65 years. Frank and Joanne Iritani accomplished this mission in three or four years and published a 68-page booklet, “Ten Visits” (San Mateo, Calif., Japanese American Curriculum Project, Inc.,1994), filled with facts, photos, personal notes; but more important, hand-drawn road maps.
My number 1 WRAcamp-to-visit was Rohwer, Ark., in 1942 to see my parents, friends from Los Angeles and Maryknoll Father John Swift on a three-day pass from Abilene, Texas (Camp Barkeley), where Iwas stationed during the war. At another visit, my younger sister Kayo introduced me to the Rohwer Outpost staff where she was a typist, its editor Barry Saiki, the creator of Li’l Neebo, George Akimoto; sports editor Fred Oshima, a columnist today for the San Francisco Nichibei Times.
Number 2 would be Jerome, Ark. in 1942 to visit the Koyama family who had lived several houses down from St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Mariposa Ave. Mr. Koyama and my dad came to America on the same ship from Fukuoka-ken in 1900.
Still in Army khakis on a furlough in 1943, it was to number 3 Manzanar to meet my school and church friends, Brother Theophane, and classmate Tom “Watson” Takahashi (who was later ordained) and with Sue Kunitomi (Mrs. Embrey). Then to number 4 Gila River, Ariz., Camp 2 to visit cousins on my mother’s side, the Monji family (David, Midori, Emiko and Naomi). There met Aiko Yoshinaga (Mrs. Jack Herzig).
In early 1942, the Army forbade Nisei GIs to go home and help pack their personal effects for storage while Japanese were ordered into assembly centers and WRArelocation centers, but later Nisei in uniform were able to visit the West Coast.
Little Tokyo as It Became Bronzeville
Between camps number 3 and number 4 was seeing a wartime bruised Little Tokyo (to be known as Bronzeville), and catching up with Maryknoll Father Lavery, who offered me a room at the rectory on Hewitt Street.
Viewing storefronts covered with newspapers or curtains, the trash-laden gutters and sidewalks of Little Tokyo, then believed the Issei shopkeepers would never come back. Maryknoll Fathers also thought likewise and released the school to the Archdiocese. By year-end ‘45, my parents were in Los Angeles again.
Bronzeville was being reclaimed by Issei business. “Sho-Tokyo” was rekindled as churches and temples served as hostels. And Maryknoll School began to enroll pupils in 1948.
Six More Campsites to Go
My visits to the rest of the WRA campsites happened postwar, usually after a national JACL Convention.
Number 5 Tule Lake was stopping at the monument on State Highway 139 south of the Oregon border after the 1962 JACL national in Seattle, where I met cameraman Carl Iwasaki of Time-Life and again in Denver at the recent JANM conference.
Number 6, Minidoka, was after the Intermountain District’s 1000 Club function at Jackpot, Nevada, with Seichi Hayashida of Boise Valley Chapter who drove us to the Historic Site during Idaho’s Centennial celebration in 1990. For ICD, Jackpot seems to be the happy hub for chapters from Snake River Valley to
Idaho Falls and the three Utah chapters in the Ogden-Salt Lake area.
Wrangling the Wyoming Perimeter Number 7 Heart Mountain, Wyo., was a stop after the 1992 JACL national at Denver to register my name and leave a business card at the roadside monument. This was a motor trip circling from the Mile-High city north to Mt. Rushmore, across the northern plains of Wyoming to Heart Mountain, Yellowstone, down to Jackson Hole, Rock Springs and across the state to
Cheyenne to meet Evelyn Kirimura, PC editor in San Francisco (1939-42) at her hometown.
Number 8 Topaz was a full day trip from Salt Lake City (150 miles) in August 1994 with convention JACLers (I sat by a great story teller Utah-born Sen. Nishiyama from Japan) to visit the Topaz Museum (onetime recreation hall barrack) at Delta, Utah, and the Topaz roadside memorial 16 miles west. What high school teacher Jane Beckwith and other had in mind to have Topaz designated a National Historic Landmark was approved last year.
Number 9 Poston, Ariz., was an assignment to cover the October 1992 dedication of a monument, which was constructed adjacent to the Camp 1 fire station in midsummer by Nisei volunteers from Sacramento. Present were 2,000, including PC cartoonist Pete Hironaka of Dayton, Ohio, and one JACLer from Tokyo, Bert Fujii.
Amache, Last but Not the Least
Finally, number 10 Amache being an offsite program for JANM’s conference over the Fourth of July holidays this year at Denver’s Hyatt Regency, my quest of visiting all 10 WRA camps was fittingly accomplished. The long excursion by bus to Amache and back consumed more than 12 hours.
The trek began with breakfast bento on the bus, then burrito lunch, gazing at artifacts and historic photographs at the Granada High School gym and a video presentation at the school auditorium accompanied by comments from Amache Preservation Society members. Some wearing green T-shirts were elderly Nisei who served as advisers. One was retired Air Force Col. Paul Maruyama, a U.S. Olympian at the first judo competition at Tokyo in 1964. His coach Yosh Uchida of San Jose, JANM board member, told me how proud he was of the ethnic make-up of his team.
By 2 o’clock, the six buses headed west to the campsite a short distance from the school. A minister from Tri-State Buddhist Temple led with prayers at the cemetery monument bearing the names of the 31 Nisei GIs killed in action who had volunteered from Amache. What a memorable ending, I said to myself.
A small group of Californians, with Midge Ayukawa, Ph.D. of Victoria as guide, visited all 14 Japanese Canadian interment campsites plus three highway projects in British Columbia inside one week by tour bus in September, 2000. Some then wondered how many days and flights it might take to visit the ten campsites in the Lower-48.
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Harry K. Honda is former editor emeritus of the Pacific Citizen and chronicler of Little Tokyo history. |
