Portrait: Aiko Jio

About two years ago I photographed a wonderful lady named Aiko Jio at the San Jose Day of Remembrance ceremony. At the time I did not know who she was, but I knew that I wanted to photograph a portrait of her for the Kioku project. One and one-half years later I was attending a volunteer picnic for the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee. While I was talking with a few people, I was surprised to learn that this lady was the mom of my friend Gary Jio. I told Gary that I would like to do his mom's portrait, and he immediately help set up our meeting.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Aiko Jio was born and raised in San Jose, CA. After the outbreak of WWII, she was incarcerated at Heart Mountain with her parents, her three sisters and five brothers. Before proceding to the internment camp, Aiko worked with the Japanese-American Citizens' League to help process other internees at the San Jose State University gymnasium located at the corner of 4th and San Carlos St.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Her family was first incarcerated at the Santa Anita Assembly Center before taking the long train ride through Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Colorado before arriving at Heart Mountain in Wyoming.

(Andy Frazer and Aiko Jio, photo by Gary Jio)

Aiko's future husband was already serving the U.S. Army when WWII broke out. They were married in Heart Mountain while he was serving. After he joined the Military Intelligence Service (M.I.S.), the family was reunited at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, MN.

Aiko's father, Torahiko Kawakami, was one of the Issei pioneers in San Jose. He ran the hostel for Japanese-Americans who returned to San Jose after the war.

Portrait: Aggie Idemoto

Aggie (Kadotani) Idemoto was only ten months old when her family was ordered to leave their home in Watsonville, CA and move to the Salinas Assembly Center. Her family was then sent to the Poston (AZ) concentration camp, where her dad got a job as Block Manager in Camp I. Poston was the largest of the ten WRA camps, with 20,000 incarcerees. Being in desert country, it was also the hottest, with some summer days reaching a sweltering 120 degrees.When the camp closed at the end of the war, Aggie's family had to wait for the last train to leave Poston because her mother was expecting a baby. When the last train eventually left, her mom had to carry a two-week old baby all the way back to Watsonville.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Her family temporarily lived at the Watsonville Buddhist Church, which was serving as a hostel. They eventually settled in Pajaro, and moved about within the Watsonville community as her father followed the crops. Aggie eventually became a school teacher and administrator in Oak Grove School District in South San Jose.

Aggie has provided leadership as a coordinator and interviewer for the REgenerations Oral History project, as well as for the Densho Project. She is the President, the Education Director, and the Human Resources Director of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj).

Portrait: Betty Shibayama

I met Betty Shibayama last February at the San Jose Day of Remembrance ceremony at the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin. We were talking about the photograph I took of her husband Arturo Shibayama the previous year. Betty was so pleasant and out-going that I immediately asked her if I could photograph her for the Kioku project.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Betty's family was living in Hood River, Oregon when they were told to leave their home and board the train for the assembly center. Her family was sent eight hundred miles away to the assembly center in Pinedale (Fresno), CA. After three months they were sent back north to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in northern California. After the "loyalty oath", Tule Lake became a segregation center, and her family was then sent to Minidoka, Idaho.

Betty told me that the dust storms in Minidoka was terrible. People had to wear towels over their faces whenever they went outside. The dust was so bad that Betty's mother developed asthma while in the camp. After the war ended, Betty's family moved to Chicago and her mother's asthma cleared up immediately.

Betty was the first lady, to be part of my project.

Portrait: Lawson Sakai

In January, 2010 I had the honor of photographing Lawson Sakai. When I originally began this project, I had planned to only photograph people who had been held in the internment camps. But at that point, I had never even heard of how some Japanese-Americans had served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. I also didn't realize that the all Japanese-American infantry was the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Lawson's family was not interned during World War II because they were living in Delta, Colorado, which was not inside the designated "Exclusion Zone". Lawson tried to enlist the day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, but he was refused because the government classified him as an "Enemy Combatant". But when the rules changed in late 1943, Lawson enlisted immediately. As part of the 442nd, he saw action in Italy, and later in the Battle of Bruyere, France; as well as the Rescue of the Lost Battalion in the Vosges Mountains in 1944, where he was seriously injured.

This photo session with Lawson was the first time that I was able to record some good quality audio interviews directly with my DSLR camera.You can listen to those interviews by clicking on the links below:

• Lawson talks about the 442nd RCT in the Battle of Bruyeres, France: LISTEN (2:32)
• Lawson talks about the 442nd RCT in the Rescue of the Lost Battalion in Biffontain, France: LISTEN (2:56)
• Lawson talks about his family's journey to Delta, CO. after Executive Order 9066: LISTEN (2:23)
• Lawson explains how some families protected their property through a legal trust after Executive Order 9066: LISTEN (2:20)

You can also read the TRANSCRIPT of the above interviews. 

Lawson is currently the president of the Friends and Family of Nisei Veterans organiztion, which supports and promotes former members of 442nd infantry. There is also a fascinating article about Lawson's military career in the Gilroy Dispatch newspaper.

Portrait: Joe Yasutaki

Joe Yasutaki was the third person who sat for a portrait for my Kioku project. I had met Joe one year earlier at one of the events sponsored by the Japanese-American Museum in San Jose. As vice-president of the museum, Joe saw me at many other events until I got to the point where I actually started taking formal portraits for this project.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Joe Yasutake was nine years old when Executive Order 9066 forced his family to leave their home in Seattle, WA. While they and hundreds of other Japanese-Americans were boarding the train for the assembly center in Puyallup, WA, a news photographer took a photograph of the crowds waiting to be moved out. Joe and his sister instinctively smiled for the photographer. Their photograph appeared in the Seattle newspaper with a caption pointing out how happy they appeared to be because they were being treated so well.

Joe was eventually interned in the Minidoka War Relocation Camp in Idaho, and the Crystal City camp in Texas. He is currently vice-president of the Japanese-American Museum in San Jose.

Portrait: Aturo Shibiyama

I recently photographed Arturo Shibayama. Art's story is unique because he didn't spend time in an internment camp; he didn't serve in the 442nd, and he wasn't in the Military Intelligence Service (all of the original criteria that I had originally set for the Kioku project). Art's story was a surprise to me when I was given the opportunity to photograph him. It's a story that most people in the United States didn't know existed.

Art was born in Peru to parents of Japanese descent. When he was 11 years old, he and his family were forcibly taken from their home in the city of Lima, loaded onto a U.S. Army transport ship and brought under armed guard to the U.S. for the purpose of hostage exchange. Art's family was held in the D.o.J. prison camp in Crystal City, TX. for over two years.

It turns out that the United States government had a secret agreement with the Peruvian government. The U.S. was supporting Peru's war against Ecuador in order to prevent the Nazis from threatening the Panama Canal from Ecuador's airfields. In exchange, Peru allowed the U.S. to kidnap their citizens of Japanese descent in order to use them for prisoner exchange with Japan. It sounds like something out of conspiracy theory. But it really happened. And it resulted in the forcible relocation of 2200 Latin Americans of Japanese descent.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)
  

And the story gets even more shocking. Even after being drafted into the U.S. Army during the Korean War, Art was unable to get American citizenship because he had not entered the U.S. legally.

Today, Art works with the Campaign for Justice to lobby the American government for proper acknowledgement and apology for illegally kidnapping and detaining 2200 Latin American nationals of Japanese descent in U.S. prison camps during WWII. 

You can read more about the plight of the Japanese-Latin Americans and the Campaign for Justice on the Tracked in America website.

Portrait: Roy Matsuzaki

Roy Matsuzaki was the first person who agreed to sit for a formal portrait for this project. I met Roy in 2008 at a breakfast event that brought together some Japanese-American internees and European Holocaust survivors. When I talked to Roy before the event he told me that his family had been forced to leave California, and were sent to each of the two internment camps in Arkansas: the Rohwer and Jerome War Relocation Centers. This was the first that I had ever heard of any internment camps east of Colorado.

During the later 1950's and the early 1960's, Roy was the manager of the San Jose Zebras baseball team.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)

Although I had been practicing my white-seamless-open-shade photography setup for over twelve months prior to our meeting, I was a bit nervous when I arrived to photograph Roy at the Issei Memorial Building in San Jose. But Roy was his usual friendly self and he was very patient while I set up my backdrop and prepared to shoot.

Today, Roy works with the Japanese-American Museum of San Jose where he shares his internment experiences with school children.

(Photo by Andy Frazer)