Amache Relocation Center
C:\master\lesson.amache.5dp
1. New Left. Out of the generous expectations and the
social upheavals of the sixties emerged the phenomenon
of "Sansei activists,” third-generation Japanese Americans
angered by the way Mike Masaoka and the JACL had
collaborated with their jailers two decades earlier, sharply
critical of the quietism of the Nisei, and unable to
understand why they had not resisted through any means
available, legal and illegal. These veterans of the civil
rights and antiwar movements and of the campus revolts
helped establish Asian American studies programs that
reopened old questions and old wounds-as JACLer Bill
Hosokawa complained, they "Would keep alive the
memory of that sorry national experience" (Pacific
Citizen, April 25, 1980). Richard Drinnon, Keeper of the
Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American
Racism (Berkeley, California: University of California
Press, 1987), 251.
The words “collaborator” and “collaborationist” have been
given a bad name by the World War II experience in
Norway and elsewhere. But no terms more aptly describe
most of those who exercised authority within the Japanese
American community. Roger Daniels, Professor of
History at University of Cincinnati, Asian America:
Chinese and Japanese in the United States Since 1850
(Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press,
1988), 235.
The JACL position of acquiescence to almost anything the
government proposed is not unique in the history of
American minority group leadership. One is reminded of
Booker T. Washington, who also preached the gospel of
accommodation, cooperated with the more enlightened
members of the white power structure, North and South,
and did everything within his power to silence such
militant critics such as W.E.B. DuBois. Roger Daniels,
224.
It has been suggested that the self-government groups
inside America’s concentration camps be compared to the
Judenrats or Jewish councils, which the Nazis set up to
aid in their governance of the Jews of Germany and
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Amache volunteer
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occupied Europe. Similarities exist, but there is one
overriding, fundamental difference: the men of the
Judenrats, however unwittingly, were collaborating in the
extermination of their people; the Japanese men who
helped supervise the evacuation and relocation were
collaborating in a process that eventually led to freedom
for most of their people. Roger Daniels, 235.
One senses, also, a lingering resentment against the JACL,
though it is rarely given violent expression by old-timers.
Rather it is the young who attack the organization’s static
accommodationist role, past and present, who prefer to
make folk heroes of men who led the camp rebellions, and
who would change the now ninety-chapter-strong bastion
of Americanism—if they were to have their way—into an
Asian-American coalition for maximum political clout.
Michi (Nishiura) Weglyn, evacuee at Poston (?), Years of
Infamy: The Untold Story of American's Concentration
Camps (New York: Morrow Quill Paperbacks, 1996),
279-80.
2. Resistance. "Some of my friends did protest and they Main Ideas:
Analysis:
refused to answer the draft and they were put into federal
Evaluation:
prison in Leavenworth prison. Everyday as kids we used
to see these people going off to war, 442nd and then we
would see these other guys going off to federal
penitentiary. I felt good about both," according to Thomas
Shigekuni. "I don't know how I felt good about both but I
did. I was proud of the guys who were going out for the
442nd, and I was proud about the guys who were refusing
to be drafted because I think they had a real good reason
for refusing to be drafted." Thomas Shigekuni, David J.
Foxhoven, Amache Reunion Interviews [Video recording]
(Denver, Colorado: Foxx Company, 1998), Denver Public
Library, Western History Collection, C940.531778 A479,
Tape 2.
"Of course there are some Japanese that are funny like
they don't report for the Army call and what not. But in
every race there are a few that are like that. Lillian
Kurahara letter to Dr. Garrison dated November 9, 1944,
Auraria Library archives, Lloyd Garrison file RG MSS008.
Amache would receive 1,050 evacuees from Tule Lake.
In return, 160 Amacheans would become candidates for
segregation and repatriation. Those evacuees going to
Tule Lake represent the fewest number of evacuees
deemed “disloyal" of any WRA relocation center. Robert
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Harvey, Douglas County School Teacher, Amache: the
Story of Japanese Internment in Colorado during World
War II (Dallas, Texas: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2004),
171.
During the war, Billie Tangioshi, Florence "Flo" Otani,
and Tsurko "Toots" Wallace, from Amache, worked
picking onion with German prisoners of war in Trinidad,
Colorado. T these three sisters, who were married to US
Servicemen and dated these POWs. They left a car behind
a billboard and a change of clothes to help them escape.
These three German soldiers headed South toward
Mexico, but wound up drunk in a nearby town. They
were arrested without injury, death or property damage.
US District Court for the District of Colorado, docket
number 10387 Criminal. US Congress, House, Frederick
Betrays Wiener, Hearings before the Subcommittee on
Administrative Law and Governmental Relations,
Committee of the Judiciary, House Report 3387,
Japanese-American and Aleutian Wartime Relocation,
98th Congress, Second Session, June 20-27, 1984 and
September 12, 1984, 702; Editorial, Haruo Imura, editor,
Heart Mountain Sentinel, Vol. III, no. 20, (May 13, 1944),
4; WRA, "Weekly Press Review, For the Use of the WRA
staff,” (Washington DC: WRA, August 23, 1944), No 81,
6, Colorado Historical Society archives, RG #1269.
Main Ideas:
3. Revisionist History. Some historians, writing from
Analysis:
the isolation of their ivory towers, have contended the
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draft resisters were the real heroes of the JapaneseAmerican story because they had the courage to stand up
for a principle. These historians are wrong. The
significance is in the relatively small number of dissidents
in the face of gross injustice. The heroes are the men and
their families who demonstrated their faith in America. In
the postwar years, Congress passed remedial measure after
another to correct historical wrongs. In every instance it
was the record of Nisei military valor and sacrifice that
drew attention to past injustices and convinced those in
power that change had to come. Without that record the
fight for justice would have been infinitely more difficult.
There is persuasive reason to believe that Japanese
Americans, and other minorities, today would not be
enjoying unrestricted citizenship rights without the Nisei
record of unswerving loyalty. Mike Masaoka, JACL
President, with Bill Hosokawa, They Call Me Moses
Masaoka An American Saga (New York: William Morrow
3
And Company, Inc., 1987), 179.
Activists in the Sansei generation. Oddly enough their
passion focused on their past as well as their present and
future. Why, they began to ask their elders, had they not
resisted when their government violated their rights and
hustled them off into the WRA concentration camps?
Why had they been so gutless as to cooperate in the rape
of their Constitutional rights? The simple and practical
answer: It is difficult to stand up for principle when a
loaded gun in very nervous hands is pointed at your head.
Bill Hosokawa, evacuee at Heart Mountain, Nisei, The
Quiet Americans (Boulder, Colorado: University of
Colorado Press, 2002), 502.
The nine members of the Supreme Court met to discuss
and decide the Korematsu and Endo [Ex Parte Mitsuye
Endo, 323 US 283 (9th Cir. December 18, 1944), the case
that officially ended the Evacuation and Relocation] cases
on October 16, 1944 . . . Nisei troops of the 442nd RCT
were engaged in bitter house-to-house combat in the
French town of Bruyeres. Already veterans of the Italian
campaign, these members of the Army's "most decorated
unit" received more than 18,000 decorations for valor by
the war's end . . . The press also reported that more than
30,000 Japanese Americans had been released from
internment without incident . . . Like the rest of the public,
members of the Court read the newspapers. Peter Irons,
Professor of Political Science at University of California,
San Diego, Justice at War (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1983), 319-20.
Mitsuye Endo seemed like the perfect candidate for a test
case. She had a good background. Her brother was in the
Army, and her parents had never returned to Japan. She
represented loyal Japanese Americans. Unlike Fred
Korematsu, who tried to evade the law, Mitsuye Endo
obeyed it. The attorneys petitioned for a writ of habeas
corpus, a court decision that would declare that she could
not be imprisoned without being tried and convicted of a
crime. David K. Fremon, journalist who writes books on
history, Japanese-American Internment In American
History (Springfield, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, Inc.,
1996), 94-5.
4. American Soldiers. I can see what the JapaneseAmericans in our armed forces are fighting and dying for.
They are not only fighting for America but they are
fighting for the right of their families to live side by side
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with the more fortunate races that have made our nation
the great nation it is today. They are fighting for
tolerance. They are fighting to prove they and their
families had nothing to do with December 7, 1941.
Officer Dudley C. Ruish, Letter from the Pacific theater,
published in the Star Bulletin, Honolulu, Hawaii, 12;
Colorado Historical Society archives, RG #1269, FF 38.
There are a number of other Japanese Americans in the
company and there wasn't a single man in that outfit who
didn't like and respect those boys . . . many of these boys
have parents and sisters and brothers in relocation centers.
They are there not because they aren't loyal Americans,
but the government has seen fit to put them there as purely
precautionary measures. Though they are not happy about
it, the Japanese-Americans soldiers understand and
appreciate the necessity for such action under the
circumstances. Second Lieutenant Morris Kritz, letter
from the South Pacific published in PM, New York, May
4, 1944, 6-7; Colorado Historical Society archives, RG
#1269, FF38.
"We find a condition behind our backs that stuns us. We
find that our American citizens, those of Japanese
ancestry, are being persecuted, yes, persecuted as though
Adolph Hitler himself were in charge . . . I'm putting it
mildly when I say it makes our blood boil . . . We shall
fight this injustice, intolerance, and un-Americanism at
home! We will not break faith with those who died . . .
We have fought the Japanese and are recuperating to fight
again. We can endure the hell of battle, but we are
resolved not to be sold out at home." Pfc. Robert E.
Borchers, 22 year old Marine a veteran of Guadalcanal,
originally from Chicago, who wrote a letter to the
American Legion, Time magazine, December 20, 1943, 1,
Colorado Historical Society archives, RG #1269, FF38.
5. Heroes of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team/100th Main Ideas:
Analysis:
Battalion/ MISers. According to the Infantry Journal
Evaluation:
Press, First Lieutenant Daniel K. Inouye . . . crawled up
the slope to within five yards of the nearest gun and tossed
two hand grenades into the nest. Before the enemy
recovered, he stood and raked the second machine gun
nest with fire from his tommy gun, killing the crew. He
was hit once, but continued to fire at the other machine
gun emplacements until his arm was shattered by a
grenade. In spite of his pain, he refused evacuation and
directed the final assault, which carried the ridge. In the
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attack, 25 Germans were killed an either others captured.
Though recommended for the Medal of Honor, he
received the Distinguished Service Cross. Washington
Nisei Veteran's Committee, US Congress, House,
Hearings before the Subcommittee on Administrative Law
and Governmental Relations, of the Committee on the
Judiciary, Civil Liberties Act of 1985 and the Aleutian and
Pribilof Islands Restitution Act, Part I., House Resolution
442, 99th Congress, Second Session, April 28 and July 23,
1986, Serial No. 69, US GPO, Washington, 1986, 668.
In Burma with Merrill's Marauders, Sergeant Roy
Matsumoto crept within yards of an enemy unit preparing
to attack . . . then crawled back to the Marauders . . . He
shouted in Japanese the order to charge, to which they
dutifully responded, attacking prematurely. When the
action ended, 54 enemy were dead, with no casualties to
the GIs. He was awarded the Legion of Merit. Mike M.
Masaoka, reporter with the 442nd RCT, former JACL
President, US Congress, House, Hearings before the
Subcommittee on Administrative Law and Governmental
Relations, Committee of the Judiciary, House Report
3387, Japanese-American and Aleutian Wartime
Relocation, 98th Congress, Second Session, June 20-27,
1984 and September 12, 1984, 203.
On Saipan, Sergeant Bob Hoichi Kubo entered a large
cave with only a .45 pistol, laid it down before eight
enemy soldiers . . . and succeeded in getting them to
surrender along with 122 civilians. Kubo was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross for his unbelievably
courageous feat. Mike M. Masaoka, 203.
PFC Sadao Munemori's outfit was pinned down by heavy
enemy fire. Munemori volunteered to go into action with
hand grenades. He knocked out two machine gun nests.
He was rejoining his comrades in a shell crater when an
activated grenade caromed off his helmet. Munemori
instantly rose in a withering hail of bullets, and dived to
smother the grenade with his own body just before it
exploded. He was blown in half. He was awarded the
Congressional medal of Honor . . . Munemori was a good
Buddhist. Allen R. Bosworth, American's Concentration
Camps (New York: WW North & Company, 1967), 17.
5. Orville C. Shirey, Americans: The Story of the 442nd Combat
Team (Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1946.
From the beginning of the draft in November 1940 to
December 1945, 25,778 Japanese Americans were
inducted into the armed forces, 438 officers and 25,340
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enlisted men. An estimated 13,500 were from the
continental US and 12,250 from the Hawaiian Islands.
569 killed in action, 81 died of wounds, 3,713 wounded,
81 missing in action and 4,444 total. Page Smith,
Professor of History at UCLA, Democracy on Trial: The
Japanese-American Evacuation and Relocation in World
War II (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 309.
The 442nd Combat Team became the most decorated unit
in the US Army, totaling up over a thousand citations,
ranging from the Congressional Medal of Honor to 249
Silver Stars and 597 Bronze Stars. By the end of the war
it had suffered a totals of 4,430 casualties, 569 killed,
3,713 wounded. Page Smith, 352.
Main Ideas:
6. Amache's Soldiers. In January 1943, I came in from
Analysis:
school one day. My mother said your older brother
Evaluation:
volunteered from the service. My mother asked me what I
was going to do. I told her that I was going to volunteer.
She asked, "Why?" I said, "We're stuck in a place like
this. What are you going to do? Sit here and rot until the
place closes down? If you do that you're not proving to
the government anything. Now is the time we have to
prove to the government that they made the mistake and
get as much volunteers to volunteer, and then prove to the
government they were wrong in doing it." Even though
we had Japanese faces, we were born and raised in this
country, so this is our country. Japan isn't our country.
They consider us foreigners. You have to let bygones be
bygones. Now is the time we have to prove them wrong.
Thomas R. Tanaka, Oral Interview with Thomas H.
Simmons in Denver, Colorado, Colorado Historical
Society archives, Denver, Colorado, RG VTBT1530.
Likwise, James Kanazawa enlisted from Amache's block
11G. Kanazawa said that, "He enlisted to fight for his
children's place in society--so that they would hold up
their heads, so that they too would feel that their place,
their rights were worth fighting for. Bob Hirano editor,
Granada Pioneer, December 16, 1942, Vol. I, No 16, 2; A
Draft age Nisei, "Letter to the Editor," Granada Pioneer,
Vol. I, No 40, February 20, 1943, 2; Tadao Fujii, Letters
to the Editor, Granada Pioneer, Vol. I, No 40, February
20, 1943, 2; Tom Sasaki, Granada Pioneer, Vol. I, No. 44,
March 3, 1943, 2.
"The attitudes of high school boys were uniformly
favorable. Very few objected to military service and an
even smaller number subsequently became 'draft evaders,"
7
according to Superintendent of Education and Amache
Lloyd A. Garrison. "A notable lift in morale was noted
and the boys in service became a symbol of citizenship
and a source of pride to the entire student body." Lloyd
A. Garrison, Amache CEO, Final Report (Amache,
Colorado: Granada Relocation Center Printing Office,
1945), 133.
Our mission is not an experiment but marks the radical
extension and broadening of a policy, which has always
been intended that ways should be found to return you to a
normal way of life. US War Department, Bob Hirano
editor, "War Department in Message to Evacuees,"
Granada Pioneer, Vol. I, No. 35, February 9, 1943, 1.
7. Camp Newspaper. Recently Lt. General John L.
DeWitt publicly took a stand against the return of the
evacuees to the West Coast, declaring "a Jap's a Jap"
whether he is a citizen or not . . . Less than a week after
his public statement, he was made to look a fool by
signing a proclamation, in accordance with the War
department policy, allowing freedom of movement in the
Western Defense Command to Nisei soldiers on furlough.
His actions and statements are of a man desperately trying
to justify a mistake he made--and which the nation is
beginning to recognize as a mistake--that of mass
evacuation. Khan Komai, "To be Pitied," Granada
Pioneer, Vol. I, No. 59, April 24, 1943,
"Without parents, sisters, and friends sharing and
accepting responsibilities too, by supporting the
enlistment program, we would have failed to show the rest
of America that evacuation was unnecessary. American
cannot question the loyalty of our volunteering. Edith
Kodama, Granada Pioneer, Vol. I, No. 42, February 25,
1943, 2.
This week saw the vanguard of volunteers leaving the
center to be inducted into the service of our country.
Theirs is a heavy burden for they go forth to fight
American's enemies, not only in distant lands, but also at
home. They fight for the future of America and the future
in America for people of Japanese ancestry. America's
battle and the Nisei's battle go hand in hand. They war is
against intolerance, injustice and despotism. Bob Hirano
editor, "Goodbye, Good Luck," Granada Pioneer, 2. Vol.
I, no 54, April 7, 1943, 2.
Main Ideas:
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8. Governor Carr. Ralph L. Carr, Governor of the State
Main Ideas:
Analysis:
8
of Colorado, 1939-1943. In the hysteria of World War II, Evaluation:
when others in authority forgot the noble principles that
make the United States unique, Colorado’s Governor
Ralph L. Carr had the wisdom and courage to speak out in
behalf of the persecuted Japanese American minority.
"They are loyal Americans,” he said, "sharing only race
with the enemy." He welcomed them to Colorado to take
part in the State's war effort and such where the times, that
this forthright act may have doomed his political future,
thousands came, seeking refuge from the West Coast's
hostility, made new homes and remained to contribute
much to Colorado’s civic culture and economic life.
Those who benefited from Governor Carr's humanity have
built this monument in grateful memory of his unflinching
Americanism and as a lasting reminder that the precious
democratic ideals he espoused must forever be defended
against prejudice and neglect. Sakura Square Monument
(Denver, Colorado: Sakura Square Merchants, August 21,
1996).
Carr, although widely criticized as a "Jap lover," did not
hesitate to continue standing up for the rights of Japanese
Americans. He lost the Senate election by 3,642 votes out
of a total of 375,000 votes cast. Political observers said
Carr would easily have been elected to the Senate had he
remained silent on the Japanese American issue. Bill
Hosokawa, Colorado's Japanese Americans (Boulder,
Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2005), 93.
If we do not extend humanity's kindness and
understanding to these people, if we deny them the
protection of the Bill of Rights, if we say that they may be
denied the privilege of living in any of the 48 states
without hearing or charge of misconduct, then we are
tearing down the whole American system. Ralph Carr,
The Colorado Council of Churches, The Japanese in Our
Midst (1943?), Dean A. Schwartz, Patriotism Amidst
Prejudice: The Irony, Individuality and Impact of
Patriotism at Amache (Boulder, Colorado: Honor's Thesis,
University of Colorado, Denver Public Library, Western
History collection C323.650978 S399pat 1979, 1979), 1.
Interpreting the Constitution as a lawyer, I could take no
other stand. That part of the Declaration of Independence
about all men being created equal and being guaranteed
equal rights as citizens has no amendment excluding
Japanese, Jews, Catholics or anyone else. Ralph Carr,
"Carr Thinks Stand on Evacuees Just, but Costly in
Politics," Heart Mountain Sentinel, Vol. II, no. 37,
9
(September 11, 1943), 6.
Governor Clark, of Idaho, had more colorful views: "Japs
live like rats, breed like rats, and act like rats. We don't
want them buying or leasing land and becoming
permanently located in our state." Larry Dane Brimner,
Voices From The Camps: Internment Of Japanese
Americans During World War II (New York: Franklin
Watts, 1994), 34.
4. Sue Kunitomi Embrey, The Lost Years, 1942-46 (Los Angeles,
California: Moonlight Publications, 1972), 39.
Main Ideas:
9. Cooperation. The camp also contained a Fire
Analysis:
Department, Post Office, Police Department, a hospital
Evaluation:
and a camp co-opt. The co-op was known as the Amache
Consumer's Enterprise Incorporated, owned and operated
by the residents. Started with a total of $25,000, on
January 25, 1943, the co-opt's volume of business reached
an average of $30,000 per month. Inside the U-shaped
building, that housed the co-op, a clothing store, variety
store, shoe store, with a repair shop, a cleaning and
pressing agency, a barber shop and beauty parlor, a
jewelry and watch repair shop, newspaper department,
radio repair shop, and optometry supplies were all
available to the residents. George Hidaka, Amache
Reunion 1994, Las Vegas, Nevada (Denver, Colorado:
Colorado Historical Society, RG 978.898Am11r, 1990), 3.
By contributing their own labor, growing their own crops
and raising their own meat, meals cost an average of $.31
cents a day, which was below the WRA's allotted 46 cents
per day. Thomas Shigekuni, David J. Foxhoven, Tape 2.
The Hospital furnished all medical and surgical services to
the evacuees, except in special cases. Staff included a
chief medical officer, and a chief nurse, appointed by the
War Relocation Authority, and seven registered nurses.
The center supplied five doctors, two nurses, and thirty
nurse’s aides, from the center, with the total hospital
personnel consisting of 219. Hidaka, Amache Reunion
1994, 3.
10. Camp Government. This project started with one of
Amache’s two successful protests. “In the hope that Issei
might have a place in the center’s self government set up,
fourteen Nisei block managers this week tendered their
resignations to Project Director James G. Lindley and
recommended that Issei block advisers be appointed to
replace them.” Bob Hirano editor, “14 Nisei Managers
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Main Ideas:
Analysis:
Evaluation:
Tender Resignations,” Granada Pioneer, Vol. I, No. 17,
December 19, 1942, 1.
According to Shigeru Hashii, Chairman of the Community
Council, in April 1943, the camp council adopted its own
governing charter based on their study of the Mayflower
Compact, the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of
Independence. It contained provisions which: discouraged
aiding and abetting escape, disturbing the peace and
resisting arrest. It prohibited gambling, public
drunkenness, prostitution, and interfering with the
religious observances of any resident. Shigeru Hashii,
Ordinance No. I. An Ordinance Defining and Regulating
Offenses in the Granada Relocation Center (Amache,
Colorado: WRA, April 5, 1943), 2, 3, Colorado Historical
Society archives, RG #1269.
An internal security officer, also a member of the WRA
staff, headed the police department, which was made up to
an evacuee chief of police, three captains, eight sergeants,
and forty-eight patrolmen. The Amache police controlled
jurisdiction inside the center, while the military police
controlled the areas outside. Melyn Johnson, graduate of
Oklahoma Panhandle State University, Phi Alpha Theta
regional conference paper, “At Home in Amache A
Japanese American Relocation Camp I Colorado,
Colorado Heritage, (Denver, Colorado: Colorado
Historical Society, 1989 Issue 1), 5-6.
Camp residents assumed responsibility for maintaining
order within Amache. Internal security was maintained by
a “special police force composed largely of able-bodied
evacuee residents,” headed by a non-evacuee chief,
Harlon M. Tomlinson, a former member of the Wichita,
Kansas police department and two Caucasian assistants.
Mary Suzuki, college student evacuee at Amache,
Attitudes of Evacuees on Resettlement at Granada
Relocation Center (Greeley, Colorado: Colorado State
College of Education, UNC Archives RG7 S7 F22, 1944),
15; Forrest G. Foxster, Granada Internal Security Final
Report quoted by Harvey, Amache, 98.
11. Local Reaction. When it was announced, we had
8,000 Japanese Americans coming in, my father who was
a young man, I think he was 29. He was a very respected
man in the community. He talked to a lot of people about
this. He said these people are Americans, why the
government is sending them here we don't know, but they
are to be treated with respect. To his credit he had great
11
Main Ideas:
Analysis:
Evaluation:
influence. He was a pharmacist who treated minor cuts
abrasions and bruises. He treated the community
livestock. He would treat them for cuts and diseases. He
had a terrific reputation. And when he asked people to
think about this very carefully, they responded. I don't
ever recall anyone in the community making a bigoted
remark about these people at all. Bruce C. Newman,
David J. Foxhoven, Tape 4.
November 14, 1942 Homemaking and agriculture classes
visited Lamar High School.
January 12, 1943 Amache Indians lay basketball at
Granada-girls team plays Granada. IV.
January 29, 1943 Granada High School opens gym to
Amache pupils.
January 29, 1943 Amache Basketball team plays at
Hartman. IV.
February 26, 1943 Amache Victory Concert ($5,000 in
Bonds sold). IV.
March 9, 1943 Amache High School basketball teams vs.
Holly at Granada.
March 10, 1943 Amache Indians play Granada team at
Granada. IV.
April 9, 1943 Student Council officers attend meeting of
Colorado Association of Student Councils at Fort Collins.
April 10, 1943 Delegates of FHA Conference at Golden.
April 24, 1943 Amache pupils win honors at State Music
Festival at Hugo.
May 4, 1943 Kit Carson High School seniors visit
Amache.
May 4, 1943 Kit Carson High School students visit
Amache. IV.
May 8, 1943 Ordway, Colorado Seniors visit Amache
schools.
September 25, 1943 Carey McWilliams addressed
students.
November 4, 1943 Granada students inspect High School
coop.
November 11, 1943 Pickup Team plays football with
Team from Holly.
December 17, 1943 Amache Indians play Granada.
December 21, 1943 Amache Varsity team plays McClave
at Amache.
December 26, 1943 Basketball team leaves for Denver for
series of games.
December 26, 1943 Varsity basketball squad leaves for
Denver barnstorming tour.
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January 19-20, 1944 17 FFA boys attend Denver Stock
Show.
January 14, 1944 Vocational Ag Boys visit Stock Show.
January 15, 1944 Vocational agriculture boys attend
Western Stock Show at Denver.
January 18, 1944 Amache Indians play McClave High
School
February 18, 1944 First Amache High Graduates and
students drafted for Selective Service.
February 10, 1944 Two Hi-Y members attend Kansas City
Conference.
March 23-6, 1944 Amache sends three Delegates to
Homemaking Conference at Fort Collins, Colorado.
March 25, 1944 30 members of Johnson, Kansas, Youth
Fellowship Visit Amache.
March 28, 1944 Members of Glee Club and eight
instrumentalists attend Music Festival at Pueblo.
March 25, 1944 thirty members of Johnson, Kansas Youth
Fellowship visit Amache.
April 1,2, 1944 Girl Reserve Conference at Amache
attended by representatives from Denver, Colorado
Springs, Pueblo and many other towns in the area.
May 13, 1944 Homemaking regional meeting sponsored
at Amache. Girls from Holly, Wiley and Springfield
attend.
May 13, 1944 Homemaking Department Hostesses to
Holly, Wiley, and Springfield at all-day conference.
September 15, 1944 WRA Director Dillon S. Myer,
Addresses Student Body at Assembly.
October 6-8, 1944 Hi-Y sends delegates to conference at
Pueblo.
October 6, 1944 Hi-Y members to Pueblo conference.
November 11, 1944 Armistice Day football game
canceled by Wiley.
November 11, 1944 Armistice Day football game
canceled because of pressure by Wiley parents.
Locale
Organized Events
Granada
6 and continuous
Lamar
2
Prowers County
21
Pueblo
5
Denver
5
Colorado
5
Kansas
3
Total
47
61% of the secondary schools’ organized outside events
13
were in Prowers County. Lloyd A. Garrison, Final
Report: Education Section (Amache, Colorado: WRA,
1945, Greeley, Colorado: UNC Michener Archives
D769.8.A6 F553 1945), Sections II and IV.
Almost 2,000 internees remained in Colorado after the
closing, but others went to Ohio, New York, Indiana,
Nebraska, Illinois, and other states. Chicago was a
favorite place to resettle because the press was fairminded. However, the greatest number returned to
California. Melyn Johnson, 10.
Partly as a result of Arkansas hostility, after the West
Coast reopened to the Japanese, only 140 of the 17,000
internees in Jerome and Rohwer chose to set up residence
in Arkansas.44 Diane C. Fujino, Heartbeat of Struggle
The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama (Minneapolis,
Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2005), 57.
44. Linda Sue Parker, "Community versus Camp: Japanese American
Relocation Centers at Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas, 1942-1945"
(master's thesis University of Oklahoma, 1974), 1-17, 49-72; Daniels,
Prisoners without Trial, 67, 131; "Population of States, by Sex, Race,
Urban-Rural Residence, and Age: 1790-1970," Historical Statistics of
the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington, DC: U.S.
Bureau of the Census, 1975), 24.
12. Beet Harvest. The pleas of Prowers County beet
farmers offer an example. They were threatened with a
loss of 60,000 tons because of the labor shortage. The
situation was presented by the evacuees themselves at a
meeting of the assembly of the colony. The [evacuee]
assembly voted unanimously to come to the aid of the
farmer-neighbors. Lee Casey, Rocky Mountain News,
November 27, 1942, 6, Colorado Historical Society
archives, RG #1269, FF27.
The volunteer evacuee army swelled to 1,300 and assured
that the Southeast Colorado beet crop would be brought
in. Lee Casey, FF27.
Lamar finds Jap evacuees good Yankees" proclaimed an
October 24, 1943 headline in the Lamar Daily News.
George Lurie, A Legacy of Shame: The Story of
Colorado's Camp Amache (Denver, Colorado: George
Lurie, 1990), Denver Public Library Western History
Collection C940.5317 L974Le 1990, 64.
Several months after it was passed, Lamar's ban on liquor
sales to internees was quietly repealed. Although
internees were still prohibited by the WRA from bringing
liquor into Amache, on excursions into town, they were
14
Main Ideas:
Analysis:
Evaluation:
permitted to patronize local drinking establishments.
George Lurie, 64.
Main Ideas:
13. Wiley Football Game. When Amache High School
Analysis:
planned a football game against the nearby Wiley High
Evaluation:
School in Colorado, the event was called off shortly
before it was to begin because parents of some of the boys
from Wiley said their children could not play. A student
leader from Amache wrote to students at Wiley that her
brother, like their brothers, was in France serving in the
U.S. Army. She noted that the game was to have taken
place on Armistice Day, which commemorated a previous
"war to end all wars." She implored, "How can we show
the world the road to brotherhood when we at home do not
practice it?" Thomas James, Exile Within: The Schooling
of Japanese Americans 1942-1945 (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1987), 135.
38. Amache Hi It 4 (November 13, 1944), BAN 67/14 L4.84. Final
Report, Education Section, Amache, 1945, BAN 67/14 L3.00.
I do not understand why the folks of Wiley boys would
not want them to play football against us because we have
done nothing to harm them in playing basketball during
the last two seasons. But I hope few of those Caucasian
people who are that way, soon think of us being no
different than the rest of the Americans. I think we, as a
whole, should write Wiley and other schools and our
community and show them that we live like an ordinary
Americans. We believe in her flag, the constitution, etc.
We have Nisei soldiers fighting overseas for our rights, for
our country, which is America, as it is theirs. If they
realize that America is a country of equality where no one
is superior than others. Kiyoshi Sugimoto letter to Dr.
Garrison, Auraria Library archives, Lloyd Garrison file
RG MSS-008, 19.
I believe the greatest weapon we have against
discrimination is truth! The truth is that we cannot fight
discrimination with discrimination. The people who
discriminate against us are ignorant of the facts, hence we
must show them the truth and this we accomplish by
education and explanation, not by getting angry, bitter or
by hating . . . I believe that you and hundreds of other
Caucasians are doing a great deal to combat the
discrimination against us but I also believe that in us, the
Japanese-Americans, be the final power to overcome it,
for we ourselves must prove to the rest of the country that
we are equal and just as American. The 442nd Combat
15
Team, of which my brother is a member, and the 100th
Infantry Battalion are helping prove this but we at home
must back them up and also do something. Audrey
Nakake letter to Dr. Garrison (Denver, Colorado: Auraria
Library archives, Lloyd Garrison file RG MSS-008,
November 9, 1944), 19.
Federal High School participated in no inter- or
intraschool programs, with the exception of a few
challenge basketball games between the elementary school
and high school. Although [Coach Robert] Tate organized
two football teams and coached them himself, they never
played outside the barbed-wire fence. Cheerleaders yelled
and screamed, and parents and faculty attended the few
games that the two teams played, but only within the camp
enclosure. Karen L. Riley, Schools behind Barbed Wire
The Untold Story of Wartime Internment and the Children
of Arrested Enemy Aliens (New York: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002), 140.
Main Ideas:
14. WRA. "Not very many of us who worked in the
Analysis:
camp were or are proud of what happened then. But it
Evaluation:
seems like the more time that goes by, the more distorted
people's memories of the camp become. The evacuees at
Amache were well treated. It wasn't a ramshackle camp
like some people make it out to have been. And I never
witnessed or heard of anything being abused or
mistreated. It certainly wasn't a pleasant experience for
these people, but everyone made do. The atmosphere was
surprisingly nice consider the circumstances. Naturally,
the women evacuees seemed more amenable than the men
in their attitudes. William Easton, the camp librarian,
George Lurie, 93.
Our teachers lived on the campsite. They originally had to
fight to be on the campsite. They lived on the camp just
like the rest of us. We had some good teachers. Dr.
Garrison taught us physics. George Watanabe, David J.
Foxhoven, Tape 1.
In the rather patronizing words of one evacuee at Granada
(in May 1943): "Most of the appointed staff are all right.
They try to do the right thing. Many times they don't
understand the psychology of the Japanese Americans and
consequently make mistakes, but they are honestly trying
to help the evacuees.... They have only two or three
Hitlers among the staff here, and while they make it hard
work for us sometimes, we know we can trust and work
with most of the appointed staff." Page Smith, 275.
16
When we arrived at Jerome, they put as many people as
possible on a truck to take us to our barracks in Block 45.
They shoved us, pushed us, and rammed us all in like
cattle. I felt like an animal. Dollie Nagai, evacuee at
Jerome Arkansas, Ellen Levine, A Fence Away from
Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II (New
York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995), 52.
15. Joe McClelland. All the Caucasian teachers . . . were Main Ideas:
all sympathetic. In fact, the whole project, with maybe the Analysis:
Evaluation:
exception of one man, I can think of one on the Caucasian
staff, were very sympathetic with the problem and with
the people. Because, you see, they worked with the
people. Joseph McClelland, Oral interview with Louise
Bassford in Fort Collins, Colorado on April 8, 1981, 15-6,
Auraria Library archives, Joseph McClelland files, RG
MSS-007.
I was one of the first WRA Staff, Caucasian Staff that
lived on the Camp. I lived out there for three days and
three nights, the only Caucasian on the town of 7,000
people . . . So most of the time I lived out there with them.
Joseph McClelland, 15-6.
If this thing was going to be successful, I knew that the
Japanese-Americans would have to respect me. And
living like they did was the first step. Joe McClelland,
George Lurie, 48.
I thought that these people's reactions were quite
admirable. Here they were, in the face of this unjustified
oppression and adversity, and they were saying: Okay, we
are in a mess. But we are Americans. We've got to prove
that by our actions. We'll go to these relocation centers
without protest. We'll do what we have to do." Joe
McClelland, George Lurie, 56.
16. Fence. "There was a barbed-wire fence between the
administration compound (where whites lived) and our
barracks. One day we went to Lindley and said, "We are
not P.O.W.s. We are here not because we want to be here,
but we are forced to come here. We want you to take that
barbed-wire fence down!" Then they did take it down."
Wataru Ishisaka, evacuee at Amache, Eileen Sunada
Sarasohn, The Issei: Portrait of a Pioneer, An Oral
History (Palo Alto, California: Pacific Books, Publishers,
1983), 203.
Having been in Santa Anita, where we had the fences, we
had the spotlights, we had guards, guard towers and
17
Main Ideas:
Analysis:
Evaluation:
armored cars patrolling the roads, which we did not have
in Amache. We did have MPs and we did have guard
towers, but they were not manned for a very long time.
Maybe it was such an isolated location, they didn't think
we would cause any problems. Henry Okubo, Oral
Interview with Thomas H. Simmons, in Littleton,
Colorado Denver (Colorado: Colorado Historical Society
archives, RG VT 978.898OK70i, February 10, 1994).
"Through the efforts of Project Director James G. Lindley,
contractors yesterday received notice to remove the
barbed wire fence between the administration area and the
rest of the center." Bob Hirano editor, Granada Pioneer,
Vol. I., No 13, December 5, 1942, 1.
Over 160 soldiers once stationed here, but only a minimal
force of 15 soldiers comprised the unit when the transfer
orders were received. Granada Pioneer, "Transfer Local
Military Force, September 5, 1945, Vol. III, no 89, 1,
Colorado Historical Society archives, RG #1269, FF 81.
18