More than 4,500 people passed through the gates of the Santa Fe Internment Center, 1942 to 1946. Courtesy of the National Archives.
Rev. Kodo Fujitani (left) with his son Yoshiaki (right) at the Santa Fe Internment Center, June 1944. Courtesy of the Fujitani Family.
Yoshiaki Fujitani, born in Hawai`i and an American citizen, volunteered for the top-secret U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service in his 20s. He trained at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. On his first furlough, he traveled to Santa Fe to visit his father, Rev. Kodo Fujitani.
Rev. Fujitani was a Buddhist minister who had been arrested in Honolulu and exiled to internment in New Mexico with hundreds of other Japanese resident aliens. Yoshiaki found his father behind a high barbed wire fence, in a “stockade-like place.”
Author Gail Okawa interviewed Yoshiaki about his experiences.
“The meeting with Dad in Santa Fe is very vague in my memory. All I remember is that we compared our lives in camp, me in the army, and him in detention camp. We were having the same kind of food, like powdered eggs and luncheon meat. We both complained about the breakfast food...I think the rest of the time was spent talking about the family.”
Following World War II, Yoshiaki spent four months in Tokyo and six months in Washington D.C. working as a translator for the Pacific Military Intelligence Research Service. When he received news that his father had suffered a heart attack, he served out the rest of his enlistment in Wahiawa, Hawai`i, while his father recovered.
Yoshiaki eventually continued the family tradition of becoming a Buddhist priest. After his ordination, he joined the Wailuku Hongwanji Mission on Maui as the associate minister to his father.
"I didn't have any thought of changing anything, but I felt there was a need to continue the transmission of Buddhism. And so, after the war, when I had discussions with Dad, I thought that an American into the ministry was necessary for the continuation."
Out of the 700 individuals incarcerated on Angel Island during the war, several stories were collected for AIISF’s Immigrant Voices. Other stories have been told in books like Poets Behind Barbed Wire, an anthology of tanka poems that paints a deeply personal profile of their lives in the Wartime Relocation Camps during World War II. The collection includes illustrations by artist George Hoshida and poets—Keiho Soga, Taisanboku Mori, Sojin Takei, and Muin Ozaki. Both George Hoshida and Muin Ozaki were briefly incarcerated on Angel Island in 1942.
Click the images below to read their stories.
TAKEO AKIZAKI
Honolulu, HI
HISAJIRO INOUYE
San Jose, CA
SHIGENAGA BROTHERS
Honolulu and Kahului, HI
HIKOSHICHI HIGUCHI
Monterey, CA
NAKAMURA BROTHERS
Reedley, CA
REV. ASATARO YAMADA
San Jose, CA
GEORGE HISHIDA
Fresno, CA
OTOKICHI MUIN OZAKI
Hilo, HI
WAKIJIRO YUKI
Los Gatos, CA
GEORGE HOSHIDA
Hilo, HI
CHOKICHI SATOW
Fresno, CA
NENTARO IDE
Concord, CA
YASUTARO SOGA
Honolulu, HI
During World War II, sons of Japanese “enemy alien” internees served in the U.S. military, including in the legendary 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the top-secret Military Intelligence Service. They joined other volunteers from Hawai`i and sons of those incarcerated under Executive Order 9066 at War Relocation Authority camps throughout the United States. Many of these servicemembers advocated for their fathers’ release, and some were able to visit them in the camps.
The U.S. government documented 210 sons of Hawaiian internees in military service and an unknown number from West Coast internees. Seven of the sons from Hawai`i were killed in action, and many more were injured during the war.
Nisei (first generation born in the U.S.) daughters also served in the armed forces in non-combat roles such as clerks, cooks, drivers, nurses, and typists.
