Notes
Notes to Regular Joes and Betty Coeds
1. The Seattle Times calculated that there were 424 Nisei. "435 Japanese at the U.W.; Only 11 Alien-born," Seattle Times, March 5, 1942. Robert O'Brien gives a higher figure: 458 Nisei students. In any case, the University of Washington had the second-highest Japanese American enrollment in the nation, coming in second to the University of California, Berkeley, with 485 students. Robert W. O'Brien, "The Changing Role of the College Nisei during the Crisis Period: 1931-1945" (PhD diss., University of Washington, 1945), 7.
2. "That was the pressure among pre-war Japanese, that you had to get an education in a readily marketable area. So it would be either medicine, law was not quite as promoted, but certainly medicine was, you’d become a doctor and be bound to have economic security." Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Complete interview transcript.
3. Information Concerning American Born Japanese Students Facing Evacuation, 8 April 1942, Correspondence Series, Nisei folder, Ernest H. Wilkins Collection, Oberlin College Archives.
4. The grade point average in 1941 of Japanese American men was 2.520 and 2.716 for women (the mean for the university as a whole was 2.534). Robert W. O'Brien, "The Changing Role of the College Nisei during the Crisis Period: 1931-1945" (PhD diss., University of Washington, 1945), 15. For information on honors, see "Nisei Students Win Many Honors at Washington U," Pacific Citizen, June 4, 1942.
5. "University of Washington Nikkei reunion: commemorating the 75th anniversary of the University Students Club, (1922-1997)," (Seattle: University Students Club, 1997). After World War II, the clubhouse was renamed SYNKOA to commemorate members who were killed during the war. Each letter represented the surname of a former member: George Katsuya Sawada, Frank Masao Shigemura, George Yamaguchi, Hideo Heidi Yasui, Shigeo Yoshioka, William Kenzo Nakamura, Ban Ninomiya, Jero Kanetomi, Yoshio Kato, John Ryoji Kawaguchi, Francis T. Kinoshita, Takaaki Okazaki and Eugene Takasuke Amabe. Nikkei World War II Memorial Honor Role, University Students Club, Acc. 1853-002, UW Libraries Special Collections.
6. Japanese Student Club Quarterly, Fall 1926, UW Japanese Students Club, Acc. 1853-002, UW Libraries Special Collections. This is the only issue in the collection.
7. The close tie and cross-membership between the Japanese Progressive Women's Club and Fuyo Kai is evident in the minutes of the organization. Fuyo Kai minutes follow those of the Japanese Progressive Women's Club (JPWC) in the same book of minutes. The final note in the JPWC minutes states "A new organization to be formed for University girls only." The Fuyo Kai constitution and minutes of both organizations are available in Fuyo Kai, Acc. 80-26, UW Libraries Special Collections. Photograph from A Reunion Celebration of University of Washington Pre World War II Japanese American Women Alumnae, available in Fuyo Kai, Acc. 4363, UW Libraries Special Collections.
8. Fuyo Kai Fulcrum, February 6, 1942, Fuyo Kai, Acc. 4363, UW Libraries Special Collections.
9."The Facts," Fuyo Kai Fulcrum, February 6, 1942, Fuyo Kai, Acc. 80-26, UW Libraries Special Collections. Only this single issue is available in the collection. Images of the Fulcrum.
10. Minutes, 5 December 1941, Fuyo Kai, Acc. 4363, UW Libraries Special Collections.
11. Japanese American members of various clubs and organizations: Phi Beta Kappa (Fumio Yagi), Beta Gamma Sigma (Kiyoshi Yamashita and Martin Hirabayashi), Sigma Xi (Kazuo Kimura), Totem Club (Kiyoshi Kamikawa), Pan Xenia (Kiyoshi Yamashita, Martin Hirabayashi, Ryo Humasaka, Takashi Matsui, Andrew Morimoto, George Mukasa, Ken Sekiguchi, Tom Uyeno, Hiroshi Yamada, Ken Yorita), Home Economics Club (Yuri Fujii), Sigma Epsilon (Ruby Inouye, Kazuko Umino), Omicron Nu (Chiyeko Kiyono, Yoshiko Uchiyama), Pi Mu Chi (Minoru Araki, Norio Higano, Bryan Honkawa, Kazo Kimura, Eichi Koiwai, Haruo Kumaskura, George Kumasaka, George Sawada, Frank Shimizu, Ben Uyeno) and YWCA and YMCA (Lily Yuri Yorozu, Chiyo Nakata, Kenji Okuda, Norio Higano, Gordon Hirabayashi, David Miyauchi, William Makino, Seiki William Noro, Kazuo Tada, Tom Tamura, Howard Watanabe, Robert Yamauchi, Will Yasutake). Names gleaned from the University of Washington Tyee, 1942.
Membership in the honorary societies was low but grew in proportion to the number of students. For example there were four Japanese American students in Phi Beta Kappa in 1942, four in Zeta Mu Tau and three in Sigma Epsilon Sigma. Robert W. O'Brien, "The Changing Role of the College Nisei during the Crisis Period: 1931-1945" (PhD diss., University of Washington, 1945).
12. Gary Okihiro, Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999), 23.
13. Daisuke Kitagawa, Issei and Nisei: The Internment Years (New York: Seabury Press, 1967), 41.
14. Dick Takeuchi, "Can't Believe It's True — Japanese Students," University of Washington Daily, War Extra, Dec. 8, 1941.
15. Lee Paul Sieg, "Chance to Assert Loyalty Cites Sieg," Japanese American Courier, Jan. 1, 1942, p. 1. Berkeley President Robert Gordon Sproul, in the same issue, took a more vigorous stand: "The American citizen of Japanese ancestry is likely to be discriminated against because of superficial physical characteristics that have no influence whatsoever on the quality of his mind, the strength of his character, or the depth of his loyalty to the United States." Robert Gordon Sproul, "University Head Asks Confidence," Japanese American Courier, Jan. 1, 1942 .
16. Mike Masaoka, "Danger Yet Ahead, Secretary Thinks," Japanese American Courier, Jan. 23, 1942.
17. Frank Miyamoto, "War Places Second Generation in Lead Once Taken by Elders," Japanese American Courier, January 1, 1942.
Notes to Americans All
My attention was drawn to the University of Washington Daily by an article written by Robert Shaffer. Shaffer's article details anti- internment activism in the Seattle community within the University of Washington and local churches. See his "Opposition to Internment: Defending Japanese American Rights During World War II," Historian 61, no. 3 (1999):597-619.
1. Dick Takeuchi, "Can't Believe Its True — Japanese Students," University of Washington Daily, December 8, 1941. Takeuchi later became editor of the Camp Harmony News-Letter and the Minidoka Irrigator, both camp newspapers.
2. Bill Duncan, "Without Hate and Without Fear," University of Washington Daily, December 8, 1941. According to the 1942 university yearbook, Duncan "went almost directly from his own 'War Extra' to Uncle Sam's service" (Tyee, 1942).
3. "Two Campus Groups Ask 'Tolerance,'" University of Washington Daily, December 9, 1941.
4. "Japanese Aides at Schools Hit," Seattle Times, February 24, 1942. The petition read: "We, the undersigned citizens and patrons of the City of Seattle, herewith voice our disapproval concerning the Japanese office help in the education system of the City of Seattle, for the security of our children. There are Japanese girls employed in twenty Seattle Schools who could easily divert emergency telephone calls."
5. Bill Edmundson, "To the Mothers," University of Washington Daily, February 26, 1942.
6. Russ Braley, "Behind the Headlines," University of Washington Daily, February 26, 1942.
7. See Daily issues for February 27, March 3 and March 5 .
8. "Japanese Girls Resign Positions in City Schools," Seattle Times, February 25, 1942. "Resignation of Japanese O.k'd," Seattle Times, February 28, 1942. Mrs. Sekor, leader of the Gatewood mothers is quoted: "I think that's very white of those girls." Sally Kazama, a secretary at Whittier School in 1942, later contended that the pressure to resign was applied by James Sakamoto, head of the Seattle chapter of the Japanese American Citizen League (JACL): "Well, we are at war and to show we are good citizens we must resign. This is being good citizens by resigning, in effect. This is what he said. Some of us were under protest. We were almost coerced into signing. Either that or be fired." Sally Kazama, interview by Louis Fiset, August 16, 1995. The Seattle Public Schools made a public apology and compensated the fired clerks in 1986.
9. Calvin Schmid, a UW professor, worked with the military to map out the restricted areas and managed to keep Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington outside of the restricted zone. As Robert O'Brien explained:
One of the things that probably doesn't get recorded is that sometimes people who work in quiet ways can be very effective in making democracy function, and one of these was Calvin Schmid who was asked by the military to draw the maps and the plans for the evacuation of Japanese and Japanese Americans. Calvin was looking at a map of California, and he drew the line straight north so that the eastern parts of Oregon and Washington would be still available for Japanese and Japanese Americans, and these people did not have to be evacuated. I doubt if many people know this about Professor Schmid because he's a quiet person about this sort of commitment, but he had this commitment. The result was, of course, that we could relocate students in Pullman and Whitman College and others in the eastern part of the state.
Robert O'Brien, interview by Howard Droker, April 24, 1975, Robert W. O'Brien, Acc. 2420-003, UW Libraries Special Collections.
10. "Campus Japanese Face Evacuation," University of Washington Daily, March 4, 1942.
11. Jack Sheedy, "Over the Coals," University of Washington Daily, March 4, 1942.
12. "Very Solly - No Wanty," University of Washington Daily, April 14, 1942 and "The Nisei and 'Never-Never' Land," University of Washington Daily, May 12, 1942.
13. "Guest Editorial," University of Washington Daily, March 6, 1942. See also the column reprinted from the Philippines News Letter by Bill Hosokawa, "Americans All," University of Washington Daily, February 4, 1942.
14. "Safety Valve," University of Washington Daily, March 17, 1942. There is a typographical error in the Daily giving the name Nakate rather than Nakata. "Behind the Headlines," University of Washington Daily, March 6, 1942.
15. "Nisei Send Thanks for Gift Books," University of Washington Daily, January 28, 1943. See also the corresponding article, "Former U. of W. Students Will Meet Next Week," Minidoka Irrigator, December 30, 1942.
See also other selected Daily articles dealing with Japanese Americans.
Notes to Exigencies of War
1. For instance, fewer than two pages are devoted to World War II in Charles M. Gates, The First Century at the University of Washington, 1861 – 1961 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1961).
Notes to Phase I
1. Floyd W. Schmoe, Acc. 0496-008,
UW Libraries Special Collections.
2. Robert W. O'Brien, The College Nisei (Palo Alto: Pacific Books, 1949), 2.
3. Travel requirements for buses, trains and cars were all issued in mid-December, 1941. All in: Vice-President for Student Affairs, Acc. 71-38, UW Libraries Special Collections. A.S.U.W. is the Associated Students of the University of Washington; all students were issued an ASUW card.
4."Japanese Student's Club Discusses War Problems," University of Washington Daily, Dec. 16, 1941. See also Letter from the Dean of Men requesting birth certificates for Washington born Japanese, 12 December 1941, Vice-President for Student Affairs, Acc. 71-38, UW Libraries Special Collections.
5. "Japanese Student's Club Discusses War Problems," University of Washington Daily, Dec. 16, 1941. See also: Minutes, 12 December 1941, University Students Club, Acc. 1853 -002, UW Libraries Special Collections. Also attending were Jesse Steiner (Sociology), Dean Newhouse (Dean of Men), Mae Dunn Ward (Dean of Women) and Harold Adams (assistant to the Dean of Men).
6. See: Lee Paul Sieg, "Chance to Assert Loyalty, Cites Sieg," J.F. Steiner, "Brilliant Array of Young People Found at Washington University," Frank Miyamoto, "War Places Second Generation in Lead Once Taken by Elders," and John McGilvrey Maki, "Restless Students Should Wait Until Called, and Train Selves," all in Japanese American Courier, January 1, 1942. In the same issue, University of California, Berkeley President Robert Gordon Sproul was clear in his support of Japanese Americans: "The American citizen of Japanese ancestry is likely to be discriminated against because of superficial physical characteristics that have no influence whatsoever on the quality of his mind, the strength of his character, or the depth of his loyalty to the United States." Robert Gordon Sproul, "University Heads Asks Confidence," Japanese American Courier, January 1, 1942.
7. Testimony of Floyd W. Schmoe and Bernard G. Waring, American Friends Service Committee appears in: House Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration, National Defense Migration. Part 30: Portland and Seattle Hearings: Problems of Evacuation of Enemy Aliens and Others from Prohibited Military Zones, 77th Cong., 2nd sess., 1942, 11526-11535. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), was and is, a Quaker organization. During World War II, the AFSC was instrumental in establishing the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council.
8. Ibid, 11557-11564. See Steiner's complete statement and transcript.
9. Ibid. See Steiner's complete statement and transcript.
10. Steiner stated:
In our efforts to deal with this problem, progress can be made by dividing the second generation Japanese into two classes; first, those who are thoroughly Americanized and who identify themselves completely with American life; and second, those who through dual citizenship and long visits to Japan have tended to identify themselves with the Japanese Nation. Among the members of this latter class are found frequently the so-called "kibei," those who were born in this country but were sent to Japan in early childhood to be brought up by their grandparents and educated in Japanese schools and then returned to this country in later adolescence to get an American education. Since they have a good reading as well as speaking knowledge of the Japanese language, they were the ones who often found employment in Japanese exporting and importing firms in American cities and thus remained to a large extent under Japanese alien influence. It is not assumed, of course, that all 'kibei' are more closely attached to Japan than to America, but it is this group that is likely to be most responsible for the widely prevalent feeling on the Pacific coast that all American-born Japanese are lacking in loyalty to America.
Ibid.
See Steiner's complete statement and transcript.
11. Ibid, 11598-11599. See O'Brien's complete statement for a partial list of Japanese Student Club members and alumni that were in the Army.
12. Ibid. See O'Brien's complete statement .
13. Ibid, 11590. See Aller and Coon's complete statements and testimony.
Notes to Phase II
1. Lee Paul Sieg to Dean Faulknor, 6 March 1942, UW School of Law, Acc. 84-008,
UW Libraries Special Collections. Photograph of Lee Paul Sieg taken from the 1941 Tyee.
2. An interesting aside: Robert O'Brien credits UW professor Calvin Schmid with ensuring that eastern Washington and Oregon remain out of the restricted area.
One of the things that probably doesn't get recorded is that sometimes people who work in quiet ways can be very effective in making democracy function, and one of these was Calvin Schmid who was asked by the military to draw the maps and the plans for the evacuation of Japanese and Japanese Americans. Calvin was looking at a map of California, and he drew the line straight north so that the eastern parts of Oregon and Washington would be still available for Japanese and Japanese Americans, and these people did not have to be evacuated. I doubt if many people know this about Professor Schmid because he's a quiet person about this sort of commitment, but he had this commitment. The result was, of course, that we could relocate students in Pullman and Whitman College and others in the eastern part of the state.
Robert O'Brien, interview by Howard Droker, April 24, 1975, Robert W. O'Brien, Acc. 2420-003, UW Libraries Special Collections. See further excerpts from the interview.
Apparently eastern Oregon and Washington were excluded because "the natural forests and mountain barriers" divided the states while in California these natural barriers were located in the eastern half of the state so the entire state was designated a restricted military area. J.L. DeWitt, Final Report: Japanese Evacuation form the West Coast, 1942 (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1943), 15.
3. Robert O'Brien, interview by Howard Droker, April 24, 1975. See further excerpts from the interview. Tom Bodine remembers that "the staff at the University of Washington, from the president down, worked hard at this project of helping Japanese American students on campus get into colleges in the east. It wasn't easy because colleges in the east were prejudiced against them as everybody was. Fearful that they were going to be traitors or something." Thomas Bodine, Thomas Bodine: Japanese American internment, student relocation, World War II (Philadelphia: American Friends Service Committee, 1991), page 6. The list of proposed list recipients for this letter included major public universities such as the University of Michigan and Ohio State and smaller institutions such as Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster. See Proposed list of college presidents to whom the form letter would be sent, UW President, Acc. 71-34 Box 129, UW Libraries Special Collections.
4. UW President L.P. Sieg to Oberlin College President Ernest H. Wilkins, 10 March 1942, Correspondence Series, Ernest H. Wilkins Collection, Nisei folder, Oberlin College Archives. The letter from Sieg to Dale can be found in Vice President for Student Affairs, Acc. 71-38, UW Libraries Special Collections. The letter was drafted by Robert O'Brien at the request of President Sieg. See memo from O'Brien to Sieg, 6 March 1942 in UW President, Acc. 71-34 Box 129, UW Libraries Special Collections.
5. Japanese Evacuation Report #7. Joseph Conard, Collector, Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford.
6. Information and suggestions for evacuees, Vice-President for Student Affairs, Acc. 71-38, UW Libraries Special Collections. Those listed as willing to accept transfers were University of Idaho, University of Colorado, University of South Dakota, University of Nebraska, University of Kansas, Kansas State College, Iowa State College, University of Montana, Montana State College, University of Minnesota, Oberlin College, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Utah, University of Denver, State College of Washington, and Gonzaga University. Those unwilling were Iowa State University, University of Wisconsin and the University of Illinois.
The twenty-five Japanese American students accepted at Earlham College between 1942 and 1945 are listed in the description of the Uyesugi Japanese American Collection, Earlham College Libraries, Richmond, Indiana.
For an interesting discussion of this situation at the University of Pennsylvania, which denied admission to all Japanese Americans between Pearl Harbor and 1944, see Greg Robinson, "Admission Denied," Pennsylvania Gazette, Jan./Feb. 2000. http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0100/robinson.html
7. Letter from the University of Colorado outlining student requirements for transfer, 23 March 1942, Vice-President for Student Affairs, Acc. 71-38, UW Libraries Special Collections. See also the further interpretations and letter of April 17, 1942.
8. See correspondence between Oberlin College and the UW: Sieg to Wilkins, 10 March 1942, Wilkins to Sieg, 19 March 1942, O'Brien to Wilkins, 26 March 1942, O'Brien to Wilkins, 11 April 1942, O'Brien to Ruth Forsythe, 22 August 1942, Forsythe to O'Brien, 27 August 1942. All letters courtesy of the Ernest H. Wilkins Collection, Oberlin College Archives.
Makino's and Okuda's entry into Oberlin was announced in the Pacific Cable on September 9, 1942 and January 18, 1943.
9. Robert O'Brien to Ernest H. Wilkins, 29 June 1942. Letter courtesy of the Ernest H. Wilkins Collection, Oberlin College Archives.
10. Editorial quoted in "Oberlin Finds No Cause to Regret Admitting Nisei," Minidoka Irrigator, June 26, 1943.
11. Figures from Robert W. O'Brien, The College Nisei (Palo Alto: Pacific Books, 1949), 141.
12. "Committee Formed to Assist Nisei," University of Washington Daily, April 22, 1942.
13. For documents relating to the establishment of the NJASRC see M.S. Eisenhower to C.E. Pickett, 5 May 1942 and John J. McCloy to C.E. Pickett, 21 May 1942. About O'Brien's appointment as director see Robert O'Brien, interview by Howard Droker, April 24, 1975.
14. Form letter to faculty, 10 April 1942, Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, BANC MSS 67/14 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. The letter was signed by five faculty members: E.R. Wilcox of Engineering, Howard Nostrand of Romance Languages, Robert O'Brien of Sociology, Dean Newhouse, the Dean of Men, and Linden Mander of Political Science.
George Yamaguchi would later enlist in the Army. According to the World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel from Idaho, he died during the war of non-battle causes. Another source, NCOs the Military Tradition, a publication of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, states that Yamaguchi, a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps, was killed in a plane crash on August 13, 1945 in Okinawa.
15. Evalene Hall Jenness provides a more detailed description of the process. "This plan was drastically altered in July 1942 when the Department of War and the WRA signed a memorandum of agreement pertaining to the student relocation program. The agreement listed an eight-step process to facilitate the transfer of Japanese American students. The procedure now included a dossier on each student that went to the project director of the assembly or relocation center that included many documents such as the student's questionnaire form, high school and college transcripts and letters of references. The project director sent the completed application to a WRA regional director with the project director's student recommendation, the rest of the dossier as well as a copy of the applicant's fingerprints. The regional director then forwarded 'the essential data to the appropriate FBI, ONI [Office of Naval Intelligence], and G-2 [Army intelligence] offices for a record check' of each student. Once the record check was completed, the student's dossier was sent to the WRA office in Washington which passed it on to the Division of Military Intelligence (DMI) at the War Department for a clearance check. The DMI granted or denied clearance, notified the WRA, then the WRA sent word to the NJASRC in Philadelphia. The Council notified the school as well as the student of approval. The WRA then issued a pass to the student so he or she could travel. Lastly, the DMI, 'inform[ed] the Commanding General of the Military or Corps Area of the presence in his area of such relocated student.'" Jenness, Evaline Hall, "Japanese American College Students during the Second World War: The Politics of Relocation," (PhD diss., Indiana University, 1993), p.174-175.
Dillon S. Myer, Director of the War Relocation Authority, even went so far as to send a letter to college and university presidents noting that "any student relocated at your university through the efforts of the Council will have undergone a thorough investigation as to his loyalty to the United States." Dillon S. Myer to college and university presidents, 7 August 1942, American Friends Service Committee, Acc. 4791, UW Libraries Special Collections.
16. "Facts about Student Relocation," Pacific Cable 1, no. 6 (1942):1.
John H. Provinse, Chief of the Community Management Division of the War Relocation Authority, further explained why certain schools received clearance:
Despite a sifting process designed to eliminate the possibility of releasing any student of doubtful loyalty, the first lists of cleared educational institutions were limited to rather small schools in locations removed from defense centers or other installations of military importance. In addition to these restrictions, there were a certain number of schools in the cleared category which were unwilling to accept Japanese-American students because of misunderstandings as to the status of the students or the nature of the program or unfavorable sentiment in the community. At the same time, a number of the larger institutions were eager to extend a welcome to this dislocated group, but the presence of training or research programs being carried on for the Armed Services precluded their admission.
He also noted that until January of 1944 there were a number schools prohibited to Japanese Americans:
At that time the Office of the Provost Marshal General assumed responsibility for security measures for all branches of the Armed Forces; and the regulations were relaxed to provide that if a student of Japanese ancestry would submit a Personal Security Questionnaire and obtain the approval of that Office, he might attend any school in the United States outside the military areas of the West Coast. For the first time it was possible for the Nisei to attend such schools as the University of Chicago, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, and some of the large State Universities in the Middle West. After a trial period during which the number of denials was negligible, the last restrictions were removed on August 31, 1944, and Japanese-American students may now be accepted at any educational institution on the same basis as other schools.
Provinse, John H. "Relocation of Japanese-American College Students: Acceptance of a Challenge," Higher Education 1, no. 8 (1945):1-4.
17. See: Telegraph from Kuroda to Newhouse, 7 April 1942, Telegraph from Newhouse to Walker, 7 April 1942, Walker to Newhouse, 4 April 1942 and Newhouse to Walker, 13 April 1942. All in: Vice-President for Student Affairs, Acc. 71-38, UW Libraries Special Collections.
18. See "Nisei Girl Writes from Idaho Jail," Pacific Citizen, June 11, 1942. Chihiro Kikuchi Correspondence, Acc. 3711, UW Libraries Special Collections. Evidently the UW did attempt to get new accommodations for the students, see Joseph W. Conard to Robert O'Brien, 20 April 1942, Vice President of Student Affairs, Acc. 71-38, UW Libraries Special Collections.
19. Carl Ronning, a student at Washington State College, published an open letter to the Governor of Idaho in the Idaho Argonaut college newspaper on May 3, 1942. This article was later reprinted in the Daily and in the Washington State College paper, The Evergreen on May 6, 1942.
In contrast to the University of Idaho, the College of Idaho accepted twenty-one Nisei students, approximately 10 percent of the student body. William W. Hall Jr., The Small College Talks Back: An Intimate Appraisal (New York: RR Smith, 1951), 67.
20. See: Information and suggestions for evacuees, Procedure for students wishing travel permits to attend other colleges, Procedure for withdrawal for evacuating Japanese students, and Evacuation of Japanese Students, Vice-President for Student Affairs, Acc. 71-38, UW Libraries Special Collections.
21. "University Places 58 Nisei in Other Schools," University of Washington Daily, May 20, 1942. The local Student Relocation committee chaired by O'Brien, had secured admissions in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah and Washington.
22. Robert O'Brien, interview by Howard Droker, April 24, 1975. See further excerpts from the interview. There is no mention in the Camp Harmony News-Letter or in the Minidoka Irrigator of visits from Sieg. There is a brief mention of students receiving their diplomas by mail in the Seattle Times:
Evacuated Japanese students, who were to receive their diplomas at the University's Commencement exercises June 12, will get them by mail after the University is sure of their whereabouts, the office of Dr. L.P. Sieg, president, said today. They may not be received until some time after the end of the University term. There are less than 20 Japanese graduating seniors the office said. Some had completed their work and others made arrangements with heads of departments to complete it by correspondence, and until all grades are received the University does not know the exact number of those who will receive diplomas.
"Japanese to Get Diplomas by Mail," Seattle Times, June 2, 1942.
23. The Camp Harmony News-Letter carried stories on O'Brien and student relocation on June 12, June 25 and July 7, 1942.
24. The questionnaires were created by the National Student Relocation Council for all students (high school graduates, transfers and those entering graduate school) wishing to relocate to colleges and universities. Students were required to fill out the questionnaire in triplicate. See page 1, page 2 and page 3. Questionnaire included as Appendix F in Robert W. O'Brien, "The Changing Role of the College Nisei During the Crisis Period: 1931-1943" (PhD diss., University of Washington, 1945).
25. John H. Provinse, "Relocation of Japanese-American College Students: Acceptance of a Challenge." Higher Education 1, no. 8 (1945):1-4.
Notes to A Privilege and a Duty
1 Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 3 August 1942, Higano Family Papers, Acc. 2870, UW Libraries Special Collections.
2 Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Complete interview transcript.
3. Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Complete interview transcript.
4. Ibid. For other reactions of Nisei students at the UW see Takeuchi, Dick, "Can't Believe It's True — Japanese Students," University of Washington Daily, War Extra, Dec. 8, 1941.
5. Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Complete interview transcript.
6. Gary Okihiro, Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991), 23. By March of 1943, there were more than 400 arrests of "alien" Japanese in the Seattle area. According to an FBI memorandum dated March 2, 1943, the Seattle office of the FBI reported 413 arrests of Japanese aliens and seven arrests of citizens of Japanese descent. See Memorandum for the Director, re: apprehensions of Japanese individuals, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Custodial Detention, FOIA file 100-2, section 2. http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/custodet.htm
7. Daisuke Kitagawa, Issei and Nisei: The Internment Years (New York: Seabury Press, 1967), 41.
8. Memo, 3 September 1942, American Friends Service Committee, Acc. 4791, UW Libraries Special Collections. Transcription and page images. Available electronically: FOIA file 100-11392, section 1. http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/committe.htm
9. Henry Okuda later had a hearing in Fort Missoula and was released on basis of old age (he was 74). He was prevented from returning to the Seattle area, now designated a restricted zone by the Army, and was paroled in April of 1942. He went to Spokane sometime in June of 1942. He rejoined his family on October 15, 1942 in the Granada Relocation Center in Colorado. Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Complete interview transcript. Also see Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 24 June 1942.
10. See Okuda to Piper, 17 March 1942, Heiji Henry Okuda Papers, Acc. 2345, UW Libraries Special Collections.
11. Members of the committee chaired by Robert O'Brien, the advisor for Japanese American students, were "Floyd Schmoe, instructor in forestry, Dean of Men Newhouse, Dean of Women May Dunn Ward, Jesse Steiner, professor of sociology, John Maki of the Far Eastern department, and Frank E. Goodnough of Wesley Foundation. Student members of the committee are Joan Hatton, North Burn, Kenji Okuda, M.D. Woodbury, Ruth Haines and Hildur Coon." "Evacuees Head for Eastern Schools." University of Washington Daily, March 31, 1942.
12. Public Proclamation No. 3 is quoted in "Curfew for all Coast Japs Ordered by Army." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 24 March 1942. DeWitt is further quoted urging all citizens to report any violations of the curfew "as a patriotic duty." He warned the Japanese "that evacuation has started and will continue until all Japanese and Japanese-Americans are removed from the critical areas and zones."
13.Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano 4 April 1942 and 12 May 1942.
14. How the Puyallup Assembly Center got the name Camp Harmony is a mystery. Certainly the name appears in an article in the Japanese American Courier on April 24, 1942. Some, alluding to the boredom prevalent in the camp, referred to "Camp Harmonotony." See "Local Paper Praises Center Art, Staffs Posters Lauded," Camp Harmony News-Letter, July 18, 1942. Kenji Okuda preferred to call it "Camp Hell": "I prefer to call this place Camp “H” instead of Camp Harmony." Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 12 May 1942.
15. Ibid. Photograph of the "Barracks at Camp Harmony, Puyallup, 1942" from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, no. 1986.5.6680.1. Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, Washington.
16. Okuda probably arrived in Puyallup on or slightly before April 28, when the first contingent "of cooks, bakers, and other technicians" arrived. See Bill Hosokawa letter dated 7 May 1942 in the Emergency Defense Council of the Seattle Chapter, Japanese American Citizens League, Acc. 217-6, Box 18, UW Libraries Special Collections. Also see "Pick Advance Guard for Puyallup Camp," Japanese American Courier, April 24, 1942.
17. The observer, Joseph Conard of the American Friends Service Committee, went on to say, "There will be approximately 40 rows of these rabbit hutches. 4 hutches to a row, 6 rooms to a hutch. Each room is about 20 feet square and separated from the next room by a partition that runs up part way to the roof. Each room is to house a Japanese family." Japanese Evacuation Report #8, April 2, 1942, Joseph Conard, Collector, Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford. For more information about the Puyallup Assembly Center see the Camp Harmony Exhibit and "Puyallup Assembly Center." Jeffrey F. Burton et al.,"Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites" (National Park Service, 1999). http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropolgy74/index.htm.
18. For a further description of the camp and a larger version of the map, see Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 12 May 1942.
19. Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Transcription of complete interview.
20. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 30 May 1942. In an interview, Okuda described the job as "disseminating information coming down with orders from WCCA or information about what might happen, what have you. Mimeographed material that would be sent over, posting them, and so on. Then assisting anyone who wanted assistance, whether dealing with anybody else." Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Complete interview transcript.
21. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 30 May 1942. He continued,
On this first Memorial Day after our fateful entrance into a frightening, devastating war . . .thousands of young Americans have already perished and other thousands are fighting furiously dying and killing . . . there is nothing in this camp to remind us of that occasion except a memorial service this evening at 7. No military parade will we see; no valiant or half-hearted display of armed might . . .just a quiet service for those Japanese pioneers who have died striving that we, their children, might inherit something of that Great American ideal, Democracy.
22. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 10 July 1942. These same regulations prevented Kenji's father from rejoining the family in Puyallup and the family from relocating to Spokane. In this letter he also refers to General DeWitt, commander of the Fourth Army and promulgator of the proclamations, as "Dim Witt."
23. The report provides the Army's perspective on the JACL administration:
At the Puyallup Assembly Center the 'Evacuee Adminstration Headquarters' under the leadership of James Yoshimori Sakamoto, blind editor and publisher of the Japanese-American Courier and past president of the Japanese-American Citizens League, succeeded in maintaining harmony and peace for a period of from six weeks to two months. Friction then broke out when a rival group led by Thomas Shinao Masuda and Kenji Ito, both Seattle nisei attorneys, who had just succeeded in gaining acquittal in Federal Court on charges of being unregistered agents of the Japanese government, challenged the Japanese American Citizens League groups authority. Sakamoto'’s supporters, in endeavoring to maintain their authority, adopted the stand that as loyal partriotic Americans the Nisei should make the best of the camp, which was to be a temporary inconvenience at most, and do all possible to cooperate with the United States Government in every way. The opposition, led by Masuda and Ito and supported by most of the kibei group (American born but educated in Japan) and the most pro-Japan element among the alien body, argued that the internal camp administration was undemocratic and un-American because its officers were not duly elected by popular vote and that the Japanese-American Citizens League was a tool of the United States Government agencies such as the Army, Navy and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and had been remiss in its duty to its members and the Japanese community in general when it failed to fight the evacuation orders (at least as pertaining to the Nisei) in the courts.To ascertain the view of the Japanese in the Camp the Wartime Civil Control Authorities Camp Supervisor called for a vote of confidence in the Japanese American Citizens League and its administration at Camp Harmony. All evacuees at the center 15 years of age and older were given the opportunity to vote. An overwhelming vote of nearly five to one in favor of retaining the Japanese American Citizens League internal adminstrative body resulted.
Report on the Evacuation and Relocation in the 13th Naval District (Seattle, Washington), Prepared by the District Intelligence Office, March 25, 1943, Papers of the U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, part 1,
Reel 2 0337 [1532-1570].
24. Also see the newsletter article, "Landslide Majority Votes to Retain Japanese Staff," Camp Harmony News-Letter, June 17, 1942. Interestingly, Area A, had the highest no vote, 27 percent.
25. Esther Schmoe was the daughter of Floyd Schmoe, an instructor at the University of Washington, a profound pacifist active in the American Friends Service Committee and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Esther Schmoe would go on to marry Gordon Hirabayashi in 1944. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 24 June 1942. According to the newsletter, "Voters were asked merely to indicate "yes" or "no" in reply to the query 'please signify whether or not you have confidence in the present Japanese Administration.'""Landslide Majority Votes to Retain Japanese Staff," Camp Harmony News-Letter, June 17, 1942.
26. Confidential report from the Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army (Seattle branch) dealing with conditions at the Puyallup Assembly Center, 14 August 1942, United States Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Papers of the U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Part 1, (Frederick, Md. : University Publications of America, 1984), Reel 7, 0856. Also see selections from Pacific Cable .
27. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 10 July 1942. Eventually, tired of fighting for CO status, Okuda registered knowing he would be classed 4-F because of his poor eyesight. Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Complete interview transcript.
28. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 3 August 1942.
29. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 27 August 1942. Kenji began this letter in Puyallup and added a second part, dated August 30, from Merced.
30. Kenji Okuda to Mr. and Mrs. Farquharson, 9 September 1942, Mary Farquharson Papers, 1942-1945, Acc. 397-5, UW Libraries Special Collections.
31. Confidential report from the Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army (Seattle branch) dealing with conditions at the Puyallup Assembly Center dated August 14, 1942, United States Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Papers of the U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, (Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1984), Reel 7, 0856. Check slips, notes, dealing the relocation of four subversive Japanese from Camp Harmony, August 17-27, 1942, United States Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Reel 7, 0856. Western Defense Command and Fourth Army memo to FBI concerning the American Friends Service Committee, 3 September 1942. Federal Bureau of Investigation in American Friends Service Committee, FOIA file 100-11392, section 1.
32. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 27 August 1942. Later he recalled his departure and the trip to Merced:
When Bill Mimbu and I were called, I guess we just had lunch, which means between 12 and 1, and we got a note hand carried over by a lady, asking us to go immediately to McGovern's office. This was a day or two before we were to start packing to go to Minidoka. Bill and I, according to my recollection, speculated on what the heck we were being called over on such short notice. And then we were ushered in to McGovern’s office. And we were informed by him that we had to be ready to catch the 4:30 train out of Puyallup, to go to California. That I was going to Merced and Bill was going to Stockton. I have some notes on it. My notes indicate that we got the impression that this was an order directly out of San Francisco. That it had come out of probably Bendetsen’s office, or whatever out of the Western Defense Command. I can remember being extremely upset. . . . So for awhile I was thinking well what would happen if I just sit here, come and haul me away and put me on the train. But ah, then my mother and sister and friends all said, that’s ridiculous, you’re going to go anyway, might as well make the best of it. So we were ready when the pick up came and put us on the train with two guards, civilian guards. Slow, dirty train. Bill got off first at Stockton. Apparently, my notes say, Bill and Merrie were given berths for the night on the train. For some reason my mother didn’t get a berth although she was much older than they were. We just sat up the whole time. We got off close to midnight in Merced. Apparently they had a camp ambulance there to greet us, to pick us up and take us to the camp. Then we discovered we had relatives in the camp. Shortly thereafter, less than a week later, they gave us temporary quarters, because they were already starting to move people to Colorado.
Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Transcription of complete interview.
33. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 14 September 1942. Image: Photograph No. NWDNS-210-G-E509; "Granada Relocation Center, Amache, Colorado. A general all over view of a section of the emergency . . ." Dec. 12, 1942; War Relocation Authority, Record Group 210, Series G, Item E509 [Electronic Records], National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. For more information on the camp at Granada see "Granada Relocation Center" In Jeffrey Burton et al., "Confinement and Ethnicity." http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/anthropolgy74/index.htm.
34. He refers to the words of Thomas Kelly, a Quaker thinker, "Suffering stretches the heart, but oh – the agony of that stretching." Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 14 September 1942.
35. Kenji Okuda to Eleanor Ring, 9 November 1942, Ring Family Papers, Acc. 4241, UW Libraries Special Collections.
36. Kenji Okuda to Eleanor Ring, 9 November 1942.
37. The council created a constitution for the Granada Christian Church which required baptism for membership. Kenji saw this as a "blunder" that would "limit this Kingdom of God." "Perhaps my idea of the Church isn’t the orthodox, but how can we build the Church Universal upon the orthodox where that has resulted in a thousand Church Infinitesimals. If we expect Christianity to become a stronger force, we shouldn’t try to make all Christians believe the virgin birth of Christ for example. Believe what they may, it is their fundamental actions and ideas which count!" Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano 7 November 1942.
38. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 7 November 1942.
39. Kenji Okuda to Eleanor Ring, 9 November 1942.
40. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 7 November 1942.
41. "Living in a Relocation Center," Talk given at Oberlin March 2, 1943, Correspondence Series, Ernest H. Wilkins, Nisei folder, Oberlin College Archives.
42. He explained, "It is to them that we must make ourselves heard . . . from the inside of these camps as well as the outside. To them must be presented the challenge of the tensions which face us… a great man does not become so by overcoming little things . . . no . . . it is by overcoming huge things (either physically or mentally speaking . . . thus this camp existence can so temper our faith and strength that no odds will deter us, or so soften us that ours will be the subservient, blindly obedient path akin to that of the Indians or Mexican pariahs." Kenji Okuda to Mr. and Mrs. Farquharson, 1 January 1943., Mary Farquharson Papers, 1942-1945, Acc. 397-5, Box 1, folder 1, UW Libraries Special Collections.
43. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 11 December 1942. , Higano Family Papers, Acc. 2870, Box 1, folders 9-11, UW Libraries Special Collections.
44. Kenji Okuda to Mr. and Mrs. Farquharson, 8 November 1942.
45. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 10 July 1942.
46. " Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 14 September 1942. Image from the Joseph McClelland Collection, MSS-009, Photograph #16, Auraria Library, Denver, Colorado.
47. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 3 August 1942.
48. L.P. Sieg to President Wilkins, 10 March 1942, Correspondence Series, Ernest H. Wilkins Collection, Nisei folder, Oberlin College Archives.
49. Wilkins also offered to admit Norio Higano, Richard Imai and Koichi Hayashi. Norio Higano instead entered the University of Chicago. In his place, Bill Makino entered Oberlin in the fall of 1942. See Ernest H. Wilkens to L.P. Sieg, 19 March 1942, Correspondence Series, Ernest H. Wilkins, Nisei folder, Oberlin College Archives.
50. Provinse, John H. "Relocation of Japanese-American College Students: Acceptance of a Challenge," Higher Education 1, no. 8 (1945):1-4.
51. See M.S. Eisenhower, first Director of the War Relocation Authority to C.E. Pickett, of the American Friends Service Committee 5 May 1942. Copy in an American Friends Service Committee publication, "Japanese Student Relocation," American Friends Service Committee, Acc. 4791, UW Libraries Special Collections. John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, to C.E. Pickett 21 May 1942. Form Letter from Dillon S. Myer, second Director of the War Relocation Authority to College and University Presidents, 7 August 1942, American Friends Service Committee, Acc. 4791, UW Libraries Special Collections. For more information on the NJASRC see the following: Allan W. Austin, "From Concentration Camp to Campus: A History of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, 1942-1946," (PhD diss., University of Cincinnati, 2001); Evaline Jenness Hall, "Japanese American College Students during the Second World War: The Politics of Relocation," (PhD diss., Indiana University, 1993); and Gary Y. Okihiro, Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999).
52. Ann Koto Hayashi, Face of the Enemy, Heart of a Patriot: Japanese-American Internment Narratives (New York: Garland Pub., 1995), 54-55.
53. "And the fellow that was very helpful in all of this and worked really intensively with, particularly young people up here to help them get to college was Tom Bodine, who was a volunteer with the Friends Service Committee, who was in the student relocation efforts of that organization. We had voluminous correspondence on why my case seemed to be held up." Kenji Okuda, interview by Louis Fiset, August 9, 1995. Transcription of complete interview.
54. National Japanese American Student Relocation Council. How to Help Japanese American Relocation." Philadelphia: NJASRC, 1944.
55. Robert O’Brien to Oberlin College Secretary to the President, Miss Ruth T. Forsythe, 22 August 1942, Correspondence Series, Ernest H. Wilkins, Nisei folder, Oberlin College Archives. O'Brien even suggested wording for this community acceptance letter from the mayor: "We are not aware of any local condition which would make it inadvisable for Bill Makino and Kenji Okuda who are American citizens of Japanese ancestry and who are fully accepted for admission by Oberlin College, to live as students in this community. Or perhaps his own spontaneous statement: Anyone whom the college accepted we’d take without question."
56. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 24 June 1942.
57. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 10 July 1942. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 27 August 1942.
58. "By the way, it seems that the National Student Relocation Committee is not finding a clear path . . . the Army is the most stubborn obstacle, and I hope that Pres. Sproul and several other men meeting the President, I believe, about this will have its beneficial effects." Kenji Okuda to Eleanor Ring, 26 July 1942. According to an article in the Pacific Cable, as of September 1942, "156 colleges have accepted students. Of these 111 have been cleared by both the army and navy, 13 await navy clearance and the remaining 32 await both army and navy clearance." It was not until August 1944 that all universities and colleges were open to Nisei students. For more information on clearance of schools see John H. Provinse, " Relocation of Japanese-American College Students: Acceptance of a Challenge." "Oberlin has apparently been approved by the Army – I don’t know about the Navy, but I think that the latter will approve..." Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 27 August 1942.
59. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 27 August 1942. The August 27 letter is in two parts. In the first, written from Camp Harmony, Kenji was fairly optimistic about his future: "my hopes are reasonably high." The second part, written from the Merced Assembly Center after his abrupt departure from Puyallup, is pessimistic. Tom Bodine worked for the NJASRC. See Hirabayashi article and other excerpts from the Pacific Cable, a newsletter published by the Seattle area American Friends Service Committee and Fellowship of Reconciliation.
60. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 14 September 1942. The NJASRC sent a form letter out to all Nisei students awaiting relocation stating that "Do not think that we have forgotten you. As the opening of fall terms approaches we are as anxious as you to see results instead of merely continuing to hope. . . . That more of you have not yet been able to go is owing to the fact that every college and university which might enroll you must first be approved by five government agencies, two of which have their hands more than full fighting a war." Conard to Nisei students, 18 August 1942, Historical Council Material, Volume II, NJASRC Papers, Hoover Archives, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University. Cited in Evaline Jenness Hall, "Japanese American College Students during the Second World War," 183.
61. Kenji Okuda to Mr. and Mrs. Farquharson, 1 January 1943. Dillon Myer, director of the WRA assured college presidents that only loyal students would be allowed out of the camps. "The Kibei groups who have been partially educated in Japan will not be granted leave either from assembly centers or relocation centers to attend colleges." Dillon S. Myer to College and University Presidents, 7 August 1942, American Friends Service Committee, Acc. 4791, UW Libraries Special Collections.
62. Kenji Okuda to the Ring family, 6 January 1943. He praised in the same letter the work of Tom Bodine, Floyd Schmoe and Robert O'Brien, "A few are leaving camp very week for school — the effects of Mr. O’Brien’s, Mr. Schmoe’s and Tom Bodine’s influences are self-evident when we study the number of students who have left Puyallup and Minidoka for school with the record of other centers — at least 40 left Idaho, and there were only about 250 altogether at that time. As I try to catch up with the fellows and girls I know, I find them scattered almost all over the U.S. — from Washington State to Simmons College in Boston —' from the U of Utah to Guilford College in North Carolina. The more I talk with those in this center, the more convinced I am that I was very fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest where the economic, political and social tensions were nowhere as great and to have know people like yourselves." Brief mentions of his departure to Oberlin were published in the January 18, 1943 edition of Pacific Cable and the January 14, 1943 edition of the Granada Pioneer.
63. A form letter sent by the NJASRC's Tom Bodine explicitly used the term ambassdor of goodwill: "Every Japanese American, whether still on the project, waiting for an educational leave, resettled in college or on an employment leave, is an ambassador of goodwill, paving the way for others along relocation lines." Cited in Allan W. Austin, "From Concentration Camp to Campus: A History of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, 1942-1946," (PhD diss., University of Cincinnati, 2001), 178-179.
64. "Procedure for Analysis of Student Qualifications," NJASRC, "Pacific Coast Branch, Japanese Situation," Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford. Cited in Gary Okihiro, Storied Lives, 39.
65. "Oberlin Offers a Friendly Welcome to Seventeen Japanese- American Students," Oberlin News-Tribune, October 1, 1942.
66. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 8 March 1943.
67. Okuda recalled his reception at Oberlin in Oberlin Alumni Magazine, "Reflection on the 40's: The Impact of the War Years," Fall 1995: 10-13. Tom Bodine's remarks cited in Allan W. Austin, "From Concentration Camp to Campus," 168.
68. See letters to Norio Higano for March 8, 1943, March 28, 1943 and June 10, 1943.
69. See the following Oberlin Review articles: "Candidates State Aims", 23 March 1943 and "The Election of Okuda", April 9, 1943. Also see other Oberlin Review articles.
70. According to the Time article, "A typical evacuated Nisei student is Oberlin College’s lanky, 20-year-old, bespectacled Kenji Okuda. Son of a former Seattle expressman, he was raised as a Protestant, stood second in his high-school class of 500. At the University of Washington he was Y.M.C.A. president. Hustled into a Colorado relocation project (his parents are still there) after Pearl Harbor, he was released early this year. At Oberlin, Kenji heeled the college paper, made a hit, became student-council president." "Okuda, Kojima and Company," Time June 21, 1943, p.?. His election was also covered in The Christian Century, April 14, 1943 and in camp newspapers such as the Tulean Dispatch April 8, 1943.
71. Clipping from the Minidoka Irrigator, 10 April 1943. Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 28 March 1943. He would later muse that his election was perhaps "an indication of widespread student objection to the evacuation, or as a gesture of defiance." "Reflection on the 40's: The Impact of the War Years," Oberlin Alumni Magazine Fall 1995: 10-13. Gordon Hirabayashi in a letter to Eleanor Ring mentions the election: "From Oberlin comes the news that Kenji Okuda is the new student body prexy. Things have a way of happening in a hurry — it seems Kenji just landed on the campus. He has a way of getting around, does very well as a speaker, has a good booster in Bill Makino, finds very favorable climate among the students there. Ken went through a lot of hell, but he stayed on the beam and I guess that is noticeable to others. That was truly good news to have."
72. Gordon Hirabayashi to Eleanor Ring, 15 April 1943.
73. "Each student released can and should be such an emissary! How many, though, are? We decry the shortage of leaders, but are we in our own small ways doing what we can do for the other Japanese who are less fortunate? What a dilemma!!!" Kenji Okuda to Norio Higano, 7 November 1942.
74. "A Privilege and A Duty", Minidoka Irrigator, October 2, 1942.
75. Many of Okuda's letters to Norio Higano mention his travels and speaking engagements. See March 8, 1943, March 28, 1943, June 10, 1943, July 15, 1943, December 28, 1943. For an example of one of Kenji's talks see "Living in a Relocation Center," Talk given at Oberlin March 2, 1943. Correspondence Series, 2/7 Ernest H. Wilkins, Box 58, Nisei folder, Oberlin College Archives. Mention of the sit-in in "Reflection on the 40's," 10-13.
76. He had already stopped by "Cleveland, Toledo. Detroit, Kalamazoo, Chicago, Oshkosh and other smaller and less well-known communities." Kenji Okuda to Eleanor Ring, 20 September 1944. Also see "Kenji Okuda to Speak at YBA," Rohwer Outpost, 30 September 1944, page 3 and "K. Okuda Reflects on Local Nisei's Apathy," Rohwer Outpost, October 7, 1944, 3.
77. "Racial Problems Will Be Discussed," Seattle Times, June 3, 1945.
78. Restrictions were lifted in December 1944 with the promulgation of Public Proclamation Number 21. For an extensive discussion of the lifting of restrictions see "Ending the Exclusion," Personal Justice Denied: The Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, pp. 213-244. Kenji Okuda to Eleanor Ring, 9 June 1945.
79. Kenji Okuda, email message to author, 27 September 2002. Photograph courtesy of the Oberlin Alumni Magazine.
80. Oberlin Alumni Magazine, "Reflection on the 40's: The Impact of the War Years." Fall 1995: 10-13.