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A Family Separated: How the Munemitsu Family Survived Japanese American Incarceration

This article details the Munemitsu families experience with Japanese removal including being unjustly accused, forcibly removed from their home, and detained in incarceration camps.

Yellowed paper luggage tag with faded text that reads “Colorado River Relocation Center, Poston, Arizona. Contents Inspected and Approved.” Shigeshi Yamano’s signature is written below the text.
Luggage tag signed by Shigeshi Yamano, indicating that the luggage has been inspected and approved.

Courtesy of Janice Munemitsu and Chapman University, Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives.

On December 7, 1941, Tad Munemitsu heard the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii by Imperial Japan via radio broadcast. He sat in shock with fellow workers at the farm, wondering what would happen to him and his family. As a response to the Pearl Harbor bombing, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. This executive order demanded that all persons deemed a threat to national security living on the West Coast of the United States leave their homes for “relocation centers” further in-land. In the name of national security, the US government quickly enforced this law against all West Coast Japanese American residents, including Japanese American citizens born in the United States.  

The Munemitsu family were among the 125,000 Japanese American residents and citizens residing on the West Coast who were forcibly displaced and sent to War Relocation Authority camps further in-land. The Munemitsus’ incarceration story offers a look at a family separated as they found ways to survive their involuntary relocation and unjust arrest.

Japanese Americans disembark from a long row of buses that stretches off into the distance. The buses are parked in a desolate landscape between rows of low barrack buildings and an electrical pole.
Arrival of Japanese Americans who were forcibly relocated from west coast defense areas to Poston War Relocation Authority Center in Arizona, June, 4, 1942.

Collection of the National Archives and Records Administration (NAID: 536282)

Seima Munemitsu: Prisoner of War

The family patriarch, Seima Munemitsu, was arrested by the FBI and taken to a high-security Department of Justice (DOJ) incarceration camp in Santa Fe, NM, reserved for “dangerous enemy aliens.” Later, Seima was taken to a Prisoner of War (POW) camp in Lordsburg, NM, for even higher security risks.  

Seima was accused of being a spy for Imperial Japan due to his involvement in Kochi-ken Club, a social prefecture club, and his status as a board member of the Japanese language school for young children. Due to its distrust of Japanese Americans, the state had viewed Seima’s connections to long-time friends from his homeland and preservation of Japanese culture and language for his family as “spy activity.” To be released from these high security incarceration camps, one had to renounce their Japanese citizenship, a choice that Seima did not make.  

Seima was a legal resident of the United States but was not a citizen. If he was to give up his Japanese citizenship, then he would not have citizenship to any nation. Furthermore, this question of loyalty and citizenship weighed heavily on many Japanese American incarcerees, who were subjected to the loyalty questionnaire. This loyalty questionnaire assumed loyalty to Imperial Japan and asked women to fight on the battlefront. It also asked Issei men to give up citizenship to Japan without offering American citizenship. There was never evidence that Seima Munemitsu was a spy for Imperial Japan.

Black and white photo of a Japanese American woman and her two twin daughters. The woman wears a dark western-style dress. The girls wear Japanese kimonos and hold up their American baby dolls.
Masako and twins Kazuko and Akiko Munemitsu show off the girls’ American baby dolls.

Courtesy of Janice Munemitsu and Chapman University, Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives.

Life as Japanese American Incarcerees in Poston, Arizona

While Seima was held in New Mexico, the rest of the Munemitsu family was sent to Poston Relocation Center (Colorado River Indian Reservation, CRIT) in Arizona. The family matriarch, Masako Munemitsu, and her two sons, Tad, and Saylo were taken on May 17, 1942, three days after Seima’s arrest. The two twin girls, Akiko and Kazuko, were left behind in a local hospital until they recovered from chicken pox. They were later escorted by a nurse to Poston and reunited with their mother and older brothers. The Munemitsu family was assigned as Family #24132, and Akiko and Kazuko were designated as #20344A and #20344B, since they arrived separately.

They were assigned to live in Poston Camp 1, Block 44, Barrack 6B, a twenty-foot-by-twenty-five-foot area for their living quarters with army cots and a sheet that they had to stuff with straw as a mattress, a stark difference from their 40-acre farm. Each person was only able to bring one suitcase, leaving the rest of their household belongings to be sold or left with a trusted non-Japanese neighbor or friend. Many Japanese American families lost their homes, all their property, and belongings. Those who were able to sell their property, were given pennies on the dollar by people taking advantage of the forced relocation. Left to live in cramped, dusty quarters, the Munemitsu family were among the 17,814 total Japanese American incarcerees detained at Poston throughout the war.

Despite the hardship and difficulties, the Munemitsu family, along with other Japanese American incarcerees, tried to make the most out of the harsh conditions. Within the barbed wire camps, the Japanese American incarcerees attempted to create community and provide adequate services with shantytown resources, unsure when the war would end. Within Poston, the incarcerees built service buildings like elementary and high schools, a post office, a hospital, and churches. They organized children’s activities and cultural clubs, created a general store co-operative, and even irrigated the Arizona desert to cultivate agricultural land and gardens. It is within the barbed wire that Masako worked in the camp kitchen to feed the residents’ daily meals while the twins attended the elementary school at Poston 1 for their third and fourth grade years.

Pale green card with text printed in darker green like a dollar bill. The card describes the terms of indefinite leave and is signed by R.R. Best. Photo of Japanese American young man enclosed at right.
Citizen's Indefinite Leave card issued by the War Relocation Authority that allowed to Jimmy Yoshihara to leave Tule Lake concentration camp indefinitely for work or school, Aug. 23, 1943.

Courtesy of Art Ave, Densho Encyclopedia, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

“Indefinite Leave” as Tests of Loyalty and Labor for the War Effort

While many cultivated the land and tried to build a community at Poston, many young Nisei adults sought opportunities elsewhere. Tad and Saylo, the oldest of the Munemitsu children, requested “indefinite leave clearance,” an opportunity where Japanese Americans could apply to leave the incarceration camp for a period of time in order to work or attend school, as long as they did not return to the West Coast.

However, this clearance could only be acquired by signing a loyalty questionnaire which was administered by the War Relocation Authority. By saying “yes” to both questions, Japanese American incarcerees were given a chance to make money or go to school if they could find schools that would accept Japanese Americans in the Midwest or Eastern US.

During October of 1943, Tad was granted indefinite leave from Poston to work at United Produce to harvest crops in Denver, Colorado. He later worked at American Brake Shoe & Casting to work at the furnaces that produced castings for the military and industrial use, and with road construction crews in Welby, Colorado.

Saylo was also granted indefinite leave, aiming to attend university and become a doctor. He first worked making camouflage netting for the war effort, and then applied to schools across the United States. However, universities rejected him because he was Japanese American. Eventually, he learned of Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota, which was accepting Japanese American students. During his indefinite leave, Saylo worked campus jobs and remained at school for the rest of World War II, and later attended the University of Iowa Medical School.

This article was researched and written by Marjorie Justine Antonio, NCPE Intern and ACE CRDIP Intern, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

Part of a series of articles titled Questions of Land, Labor, and Loyalty: Japanese Incarceration and the Munemitsu Family.

Previous: Movement and Migration of the Munemitsu Family

Next: The Road Back Home: End of Japanese Incarceration and Living with the Mendez Family 

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Last updated: September 13, 2023