Last updated: April 3, 2024
Person
Hannah Tomiko Holmes
Courtesy of Historical Society of Long Beach, Long Beach, California. Copyright Reserved.
Quick Facts
Significance:
Civil Rights Activist
Place of Birth:
Elk Grove, California
Date of Birth:
December 14, 1927
Place of Death:
Los Angeles, California
Date of Death:
August 9, 1996
“My name is Hannah Tomiko Holmes, formerly Takagi…I am now 53 years old, and I have been deaf since the age of two…”
In 1981, Hannah Tomiko Holmes, an educator and disability rights activist, testified to a congressional commission about her experience in Manzanar and Tule Lake Relocation Centers during World War II.
“I want the Commission to know how the educational needs of deaf, blind, and handicapped Japanese children were neglected by the War Relocation Authority during World War Two. I want the Commission to know how some of the children never recovered from the disruption of their education, how some were not even able to resume their education after war was over…”
At the age of 13, Holmes, along with 10 of her Japanese-American classmates, was taken from her home and education at the reputed California School for the Deaf. Across the west coast, Japanese-Americans with disabilities were suddenly excluded from accessibility services, care facilities, and their supportive communities.
Now imprisoned at Manzanar, Holmes was further isolated; unable to go to school, attend recreation classes, or even talk with other children. The WRA’s early attempt at a class for children with disabilities was poorly managed, and Holmes taught herself through reading. Programs in other centers were similarly unqualified.
Learning of a new school starting in Tule Lake, her family transferred to the northern California camp in early 1943. Holmes suggested the school be named after Helen Keller, and wrote to the acclaimed civil rights activist. The students were thrilled when Keller replied to their letter.
“As you can see from her letter, to Helen Keller it made no difference that I was Japanese, or that the United States was at war with Japan, or that I was deaf while others were not deaf; the human qualities which all people share greatly outweighs our differences. Helen Keller was our only friend, it sometimes seems. The experience of myself and other deaf children of Japanese ancestry during World War Two is an example of what happens when people forget the truth which Helen Keller states in her letter. I was Japanese and deaf, and I was denied an equal education and other rights because of my differences. The people in WRA forgot that we were all human beings as well.”
However, the Helen Keller School was ill-equipped to meet the diverse needs of its students.
“Children suffering from deafness, blindness, mental [disability], and physical paralysis were lumped into one class under the supervision of a teacher…who understood the needs of none of us. She did not even allow me to use sign language.”
The school soon closed as the tumult of the registration questionnaire and then segregation took over the center. The WRA began requiring education programs for children with disabilities, but resources remained scarce.
Holmes’ family relocated to Chicago that fall, but Holmes struggled for years to find a qualified school. She graduated from the Illinois School for the Deaf, a racially segregated institution where she was surprised to find herself placed with the white students.
Holmes returned to California in 1953, where she worked first in upholstery manufacturing and then as a teacher. Throughout her adult life, Holmes fought against racial and disability discrimination. She became an advocate for her students and fellow teachers, and joined civil rights organizations. In the Movement for Redress and Reparations, Holmes became a voice for the many incarcerated Japanese-Americans with disabilities.
Read an oral history interview with Hannah Holmes
Read Helen Keller's letter to Tule Lake students
Learn more about the history of wartime Japanese Americans with disabilities