Article

Eiichi H.E. Kamiya

EIICHI “H.E.” KAMIYA
Family # 11-017
Camp: Rohwer, AR
Address: 38-11-A

My father was born in Hawaii and went to Japan at age five when his father died, but returned to the US at the age of 19. My mother was born in CA, went to Japan for education at age five, and returned to the US at age 15. My father was the principal of a Japanese language school in Long Beach, CA. I was born in 1936 and had two sisters.

When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, my parents were afraid of the impacts on our family. Soon thereafter, the FBI searched our house and took my father to prison for several weeks.

In March 1942, we were given a few weeks notification of evacuation. Since we could only take what we could carry, most of our family possessions and valuables were put in storage. Many of our valuables would be missing after the war. Our suitcases included baby clothes, baby bottles, diapers, etc. for my six month old sister.

On April 5, we were sent to an assembly center at the Santa Anita horse racing track in Arcadia, CA; the next day was my sixth birthday. But my sisters were in the hospital with pneumonia so they joined us a few days later. We lived in horse stalls and slept on straw mattresses. We stayed at Santa Anita for three months awaiting completion of our camp.

We took a train to a camp in Jerome, AR. After three months we went to a camp in Rohwer, AR. Rohwer had about 9,000 people living in a mile square. This area was hot and rainy with all kinds of bugs and snakes. Our family lived in one room of a barrack.

We had schools and studied the traditional lessons. I remember being an Indian chief an in a Thanksgiving program. I made new friends.

We had no toy store so we made them ourselves with a few scraps and lots of imagination. We would play soldier, and cowboys and Indians. We would hunt with slingshots. When guards no longer patrolled the barbed wire fences, we would crawl out and go to the bayou to fish.

A week before the end of the war, we returned to Los Angeles. My father found a job at a coat factory and rented a house in East LA. My mother worked as a house keeper and took in ironing. My parents would talk of our camp experiences without sadness or bitterness. They encouraged us to excel as students and citizens. My father went to school at night and built a successful business, and was able to send us all to college. My sisters became teachers. I got my BS and MS in Engineering from UCLA and worked in the aerospace industry until my retirement. I am married and we have two children who have completed college and are married.

Wind and Dust
This wind and dust I have to bear
How hard it blows I do not care.
But when the wind begins to blow –
My morale is pretty low.
I know that I can see it through
Because others have to bear it too.
So I will bear it with the rest
And hope the outcome is the best.
– George Nishimura, age 16 (Manzanar, 1943)


Read this to learn more about the demographics of each of the ten facilities administered by the War Relocation Authority.

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Manzanar National Historic Site

Last updated: April 17, 2022