Kazuko Tsubouchi Fujishima: From a Fresno-Area Orchard to Jerome and Rohwer

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

Family No. 24796 · Jerome and Rohwer, Arkansas · Addresses 35-5-A and 29-9-D

An orchard in the Central Valley

Kazuko's father, Chukuro Tsubouchi, left Japan at 16 and reached Portland in 1916, where he worked in the paper mills. He later managed a 50-acre orchard in Hardwick, California, 30 miles south of Fresno — a settlement with a general store, post office, garage, blacksmith, meat market, packing house and elementary school. Kazuko was the third of four daughters: Sumiko, Akiko, Kazuko and Takayo.

When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Kazuko was a sophomore at Laton High School, playing third violin in the orchestra and in the tennis club. The family did not know what to expect or whom to trust. Their dog was poisoned.

Forced to leave

Removal came just as the family's finances were improving. In barely two weeks her father had to sell a new car, a console radio-phonograph, a refrigerator and a washing machine. A kind elderly woman stored their belongings and later shipped them to Chicago. Her father buried his beloved Japanese records, his shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and the family's Buddhist altar so the police would find nothing Japanese in the house. They took their omyogo (the symbol from a Buddhist altar), violins, clothes, photos and books.

In mid-May 1942 the family went to the Fresno Assembly Center at the fairgrounds. Sumiko was graduating from high school, and her hopes of college were gone. In October 1942 they were sent to Jerome, Arkansas, on a long, exhausting train ride; Kazuko was motion-sick the whole way.

Jerome and Rohwer

The family had two rooms. Each block had a mess hall, laundry and showers, men's on one side and women's on the other; the women's toilets seated three at a time and flushed constantly. There was no privacy anywhere, and the rooms were cramped. The girls of the block formed a club, the Victorettes, with a baseball team, and Kazuko and her older sister played violin duets at talent shows. In her senior year she had only two classes, so she worked at the co-op store for $19 a month.

She graduated from Denson High School, the camp school, in June 1944. Soon after, Jerome closed and the family was moved to the Rohwer Relocation Center, where she met her future husband; they married four years later, after his Navy service.

When the loyalty question came up in camp, her mother — in reaction to camp life — decided to return to Japan, and the family was to be transferred to Tule Lake. At the last minute Sumiko announced she would marry rather than go to Japan, and her father refused to split the family: they would stay in the United States.

Chicago

In September 1944 Kazuko left Rohwer with a one-way ticket to Chicago and $50, to work as a maid in a home in Highland Park, Illinois. Once out of camp and settled in Chicago, her mother changed her mind and was glad she had not gone back. Both parents became U.S. citizens when the law changed in the 1950s to allow it; they were proud of it, voted in every election and followed world affairs.

Not content to be a maid, Kazuko found her third job at an export firm, where she worked for 56 years, retiring at 74. The family was not politically active in the redress movement of the 1980s but supported it with money and by attending meetings.

Looking back, she says that as a Buddhist she sees change as constant: accept it and go with it; let the past teach you without dwelling on it; move forward with pride and conviction; be honest, do your best and believe in yourself.

Sources

• National Park Service, Manzanar National Historic Site, "Kazuko Tsubouchi Fujishima," an ID booklet. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/kazuko-tsubouchi-fujishima.htm
• More: the ten War Relocation Authority centers; Manzanar ID booklets.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.