James Hirata

Interviewer’s note: This interview was very short. It was an unscheduled meeting as I was originally meeting James’ mother (who was 103 years old) to photograph her portrait. James began telling the story about their evacuation and incarceration, and he agreed to let me record it.

James was seventeen years old and living in San Francisco when his family was ordered to pack up and move to the Tanforan (CA) Assembly Center, and eventually the Topaz (Utah) Relocation Center. I was amazed when James told me that he had very fond memories of both Tanforan and Topaz (listen below). He said there was very little for a teenage boy to do in San Francisco in the 1940's, but he loved the open space, fields and desert of Topaz, as well as the mud at Tanforan.

After the war he moved to Palo Alto with a friend that he had met at the Tule Lake incarceration camp. When I recorded this interview with James, he was 85 years old and still operating his own landscaping business.

What do you remember having to do to get prepared to leave your home?

For ourselves, furniture and things like that was concerned, we didn't have anything like that. Or mostly, all second-hand or junk. An ice box, the type that you put the ice on top. That was about it. So we really didn't have very much. When the war started this time, they had the - what do you the call these – second-hand dealers. They came with a wagon with the horse. And so running with the horse wagon in terms of, at that time. And they used to buy things. I remember one thing in San Francisco just around the corner from us, there used to be one person that used to own an electric car. That's the only car, electric car, I remember. 

What do you remember most about the assembly center and camp? 

So we lived in a horse stable. They built a new house in the infield, those were the new, but the one we slept in was in the horse stable. They added a front part and they white-washed it and some of those stalls had the open to the next stall and you see teeth mark right there. And so the top part was open because it was just a regular stable before. 

To me, going to camp is a lot of fun. I had no responsibilities. I didn't lose anything really. And I made new friends in camp. To me it was a lot of fun. I didn't have to worry. I'm 17 you know. I think that my parents’ generation, they lost a lot. They had a lot of problems moving and packing things like that. But to me, I had nothing to do with it. To me it's just a blast: made new friends, and [inaudible]. I really enjoyed it.

Interview and portraits by Andy Frazer. JAMsj thanks Andy for allowing the museum to archive and share these oral histories and photos.