Keeping Memories Alive: the Kamihira Family Story

In 1942, 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were removed from the West Coast and unjustly incarcerated by the U.S. government. The majority of these people were American citizens. Each person has a different story, a different path that took them to one of the ten "relocation" centers run by the War Relocation Authority. No matter where their story began, whether it be across the Pacific Ocean in Japan as an Issei (first generation) immigrant, or in a small farm in the Washington wilderness as a Nisei (second generation) Japanese American citizen, almost all those of Japanese ancestry faced racial bigotry and discrimination as the effects of WWII and Pearl Harbor spread throughout the world. And while the story of this incarceration has become better known in the past few decades, it is also without a doubt that the traditional Japanese "strong yet silent" demeanor has caused many stories to get lost as time goes on, and those who were unjustly incarcerated pass away and fail to tell their story to their children and friends. In my research, I attempt to trace my own Japanese family as they were directly impacted by incarceration after Pearl Harbor and beyond. Because the stories of their incarceration from my living family were often vague, and in some cases factually incorrect, I sought to document their experience in the broader context of the whole story of incarceration and relocation. The memory of the internment of the Kamihira family, and many other Japanese American families, has begun to slip through our fingers. I argue that it is because of lack of communication from the Nisei because of post traumatic stress disorders, or for respect of the Japanese cultural values that often support perseverance and suppression of emotions and self restraint and reserve.