JACL to Hold Panel on Manzanar Guayule Rubber Project, Oct. 18
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008

Frank, left, and Glenn Kageyama

The GLAS Chapter of JACL will be holding a special panel on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. entitled “Manzanar Gua­yule Rubber Project” featuring Frank Kageyama a former Manzanar internee and his son, Dr. Glenn Kageyama at the Merit Park Recreation Hall, 58 Merit Park Dr. in Gardena.

During World War II, Frank Kageya­ma was among a group of several dozen Japanese American chemists, horticul­turists, and machinists at Manzanar who made a unique contribution to America’s 18 war effort. To alleviate America’s war­time rubber shortage, they worked under the guidance of Dr. Robert Emerson in partnership with the California Institute of Technology to develop methods of cultivating, harvesting, and extracting rubber from guayule, a desert shrub.

At age 92, Frank Kageyama is one of the few remaining members of the guayule project. After the war, he and Hugh Anderson (Business manager for the Manzanar Guayule project) traveled the world promoting the production of guayule as an alternative source of natural rubber.

Frank Kageyama will talk about Dr. Emerson and share a few of his recollec­tions of a very unique part of Manzanar’s history, and an important part of the internees’ efforts to support the U.S. even while behind barbed wire.

Frank’s son, Dr. Glenn H. Kageyama (California State Polytechnic Univer­sity-Pomona), will then describe some of the accomplishments of the Manzanar Guayule Project and demonstrate guayule processing.

An exhibit featuring photos, stories, and products manufactured from guayule will also be displayed.

For info, call Louise at (310) 327-3169 or Miyako at (310) 839-1194.