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The Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies I The Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies From a Three-Cornered World: New and Selected Poems by James Masao Mitsui Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple by Louis Fiset Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II by Gary Y. Okihiro Storied Lives Japanese American Students and World War II Gary Y. Okihiro WITH A CONTRIBUTION BY Leslie A. Ito U niversity of Washington Press Seattle and London To the nisei students and their collaborators in resistance This book is published with the assistance of a grant from the Scott and Laurie Oki Endowed Fund for the publication of Asian American Studies, established through the generosity of Scott and Laurie Oki. Copyright © 1999 by the University of Washington Press Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG IN G-IN-PUB LI CATION DATA Okihiro, Gary Y., 1945- Storied lives : Japanese American students and World War II / Gary Y. Okihiro ; with a contribution by Leslie A. Ito. p. cm. — (The Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-295-97764-7 (cloth : alk. paper).—ISBN 0-295-97796-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. World War, 1939-1945—Japanese Americans. 2. Japanese American college students—Social conditions. 3. Japanese American college students—Economic conditions. 4. Racism—United States—History—20th century. 5. United States—Race relations. 1. Ito, Leslie A. 11. Title. 111. Series. D753.8.038 1999 98-51100 940.53'o89’956073—dc2i CIP The paper used in this publication is acid-free and recycled from 10 percent post-consumer and at least 50 percent pre-consumer waste. It meets the minimum requirements of American Na tional Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. © © C O N T E N T S Acknowledgments vii Preface ix 1 An Uneventful Life 3 2 Toward a Better Society 28 3 Exemplars 49 4 Yearbook Portraits 73 5 A Thousand Cranes 98 6 Antiracism 118 Afterword: Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund by Leslie a . ito 140 Notes 152 Bibliography 167 Index 174 v AA CC KK NN OO WW LL EE DD GG MM EE NNNTTTSSS Kesaya E. Noda first approached me to undertake this book project, and from the beginning Lafayette Noda and Nobu K. Hibino have helped me in my work. My associate in this venture, Leslie A. Ito, wrote a marvelous undergraduate honors thesis on this subject that inspired me, and my research assistant and graduate student, Mary Ting Yi Lui, sent hundreds of letters to colleges and universities and organized their responses. I am grateful to the scores of archivists and alumni office staff members, not all named in this book, who ren dered invaluable and generous assistance in searching their records and sending me whatever information they could find on nisei stu dents at their institutions. Former student relocation staff members and nisei students graciously admitted me into their lives and allowed me to record their reminiscences. Thomas R. Bodine and Lafayette Noda commented on the draft manuscript that became this book, along with the two perceptive, though anonymous, readers chosen by the University of Washington Press. This account is clearer and more accurate as a result. Having now published three books with the University of Washington Press, I must mention with gratitude the support given to me (and the field of Asian American Studies gen erally) by the Press and especially its associate director and editor-in- chief, Naomi B. Pascal. Finally, Cornell University and the Japanese American National Museum provided me with the funds to carry out this research, which took me across the country. All of the materials gathered for this project are on deposit at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. Like the subjects of this study, I am indebted to the many who have helped me. vii PP RR EE FF AAACCCEEE I must confess that I resisted the idea of this slender text, Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II. When first asked by Kesaya E. Noda to write yet another history of the wartime experi ence of Japanese Americans, I refused the suggestion. Not another book on a much-discussed subject, I thought to myself as I looked out the window to the sleepy Charles River below in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was at the time concerned about the continued emphasis of Asian American Studies on Chinese and Japanese Amer icans and subject matters like the transcontinental railroad and wartime concentration camps. I agreed with Elaine Kim’s ringing call for the field to move £Cbeyond railroads and internment,” and thought that I had done my part in promoting those centrisms that have advanced but also retarded the field’s development. And I loathed the prospect of further complicity in a topic that has, I must say, become an industry of sorts motivated by disagreeable political and economic interests for their own ends. Although hugely important, America’s wartime concentration camps was not the entirety of Japanese, much less Asian, American history. So my initial impulse was to decline Noda’s proposal. I had other commitments, I demurred, and was hopelessly behind in my work. But she persisted and told me about the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund, described by Leslie A. Ito in this book’s after word, and I was intrigued and moved by the story of how a group of former nisei college students had joined together decades later to help another group of students, Southeast Asian refugees, who were like them victims of war. I thought the deed amazing and wonderful. My enthusiasm for the subject matter warmed when archivists and staff members from dozens of institutions offered their assistance in response to my query for help. Many expressed great interest in this IX