Joe Nagano: From Manzanar to Chief Chemist at Hyperion

Manzanar National Historic Site publishes short "ID booklets" on Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. This is Joe Nagano's first-person account, retold in hubnx's own words.

Family No. 5075 · Manzanar, California · Address 14-12-4

Los Angeles

Joe's father, Sanezumi Nagano, came from Kochi, Japan, in 1906, went back in 1918 and married Umeko Terauchi in 1919. Back in the United States he was secretary of the Japanese Christian Church, then became a flower grower. Joe was born in an apartment in the church, delivered by a midwife; he had a brother, Towru, and a sister, Masako.

He went to University High School, whose students included the future stars Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin and Werner Klemperer, and played tennis — his favourite pastime — with Peter Viertel, who later married Deborah Kerr. He graduated in 1938 and was studying chemistry at UCLA when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The family grew wary and stayed near home; some people turned unfriendly, especially on buses, but close friends did not change.

Leaving

With four to six weeks' notice, the family stored their furniture in the house, rented it out through longtime friends who collected the rent, and sold their Model A Ford. Joe took mostly clothes, albums and treasured books; hardest to leave were the radio, his sword and knife collection, and his friends. He never got the things he left behind back. Parting from the neighbours was tearful.

On April 26, 1942, the five of them rode a bus six hours to Manzanar — Joe's first trip more than 50 miles from Los Angeles — with a flat tyre in the desert, arriving at 3 p.m. to a cold, stark, barren place. Their bags were dumped on the sand; cousins helped them to their room at Block 14, Barrack 12, Apartment 4. Their friends were scattered across several blocks.

Firsts

In camp Joe worked in public works, on water supply and waste treatment. He danced, played baseball and cards, and had his first date — his first date, first job and first telephone all came at Manzanar. He remembers the teachers who helped him leave for college, and says church services kept his spirits up.

Turned away by Juniata College in Pennsylvania after first being accepted, he left in January 1943 for the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. His horizons widened: he saw the High Sierra, worked his way through college — not easy — graduated and got his first job as a chemist in Chicago.

Drafted in January 1945, he trained at Camp Robinson, Arkansas, went to the Military Intelligence Service Language School in Minneapolis and served a year in the occupation of Japan. Back in Los Angeles in 1947 he met some resistance to getting a civil-service job, but step by step built a career with the city: 33 years in sanitation, as chemist, chief chemist and laboratory director at the Hyperion Treatment Plant.

He just did his best day by day, he says, and it worked out well. His advice to students: work hard and honestly and keep learning, and promotions will follow.

Sources

• National Park Service, Manzanar National Historic Site, "Joe Nagano," an ID booklet. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/joe-nagano.htm
• More: Manzanar ID booklets.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.