Raymond E. Muraoka: A First-Grader at Manzanar

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

Family No. 3654 · Manzanar, California · Address 14-4-1

Before camp

Raymond's parents were American citizens — his father born in Hawaii, his mother in Gardena, California — and his father farmed. At the time of Pearl Harbor there were six children: boys of 11, 9, 8 and 6, and girls of 4 and 2. Raymond was in first grade, and never finished it: about three months after Pearl Harbor the evacuation order took him out of school. In camp one baby was stillborn, and a brother and a sister were born.

Much changed after the attack. The family burned most of their keepsakes from Japan in the fireplace and turned in weapons, radios and cameras to the police. They moved to the San Fernando Valley to be with Raymond's grandparents. They were treated differently, even as enemies; there was a popular song mocking "Japs". Los Angeles had blackouts and air-raid warnings — frightening for a child, and also a chance for spooky games.

They had little time. His father sold their new Plymouth; a neighbour offered to store their things and later disappeared. They took mostly clothes. Leaving their pets was hardest.

Manzanar

The crowded bus crawled toward an unknown place, with no home to return to. Arriving at dusk in April 1942, Raymond found a strange place of barracks in a desolate spot, still being built, where everything looked the same yet different. The family waited in a big group for their barrack assignment, and he remembers lining up for vaccinations and crying at the shot.

He missed the rest of first grade; second grade amounted to little and third was an academic disaster, but in fourth he was the third-best student in his class. Because the camp closed in November 1945, he didn't start fifth grade until then. In camp, he says, he learned to be Japanese — everyone was the same.

There were many relatives and family friends. The block's kids played marbles and tag, and eventually had a small swimming pool, gym bars and a basketball court. They learned chess young, and played a game called War that he was told was later patented and renamed Stratego — the original, he says, was better. He recalls a culture of introverts, yet most kids were mean; church, school and family gave him his happy memories. He used to watch the train in the distant hills and know that one day he would travel to faraway places like those in the movies.

After

They left as the camp closed, on November 15, 1945, after three and a half years, and were sent to a trailer camp across from Lockheed Aircraft, still camouflaged against Japanese air attack. Chow lines, little money and a bleak future made it humbling. For the returnees, camp wasn't "the experience" but the common ground: they were all Japanese and had to work together to be accepted back as Americans. At school most children assumed they came from Japan; later they faced much discrimination.

Still, Raymond sees camp as positive in one way: in a group where everyone was alike, race didn't matter, and they learned to judge people for who they were. He learned the value of family early — shy and timid alone, with his brothers he could take on the world. At 12, he says, he felt more mature than most 21-year-olds. He sold and delivered newspapers and worked on farms, and at 16 became a union produce clerk, helping support a family that now had eight children. Manzanar gave him lifelong friends — his best man was from Manzanar, and so was an usher at his wedding — and taught him to like people for who they are, an attitude that has filled his life with friends from school, college, the Army, work and his community.

Sources

• National Park Service, Manzanar National Historic Site, "Raymond E. Muraoka," an ID booklet. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/raymond-e-muraoka.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.