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

This article discusses the Munemitsu family's release from Poston War Relocation Authority camp and their return to their farm in Westminster, California. It also explores the family's connection with the Mendez family who leased the property while the Munemitsus were incarcerated during World War II.

Black and white photo of a Japanese American family: a mother, her two adult sons, and young twin girls. They pose in front of a dark wooden building.
Masako, Saylo, and Tad reunited with Kazuko and Akiko in Poston, Arizona after the girls recovered from chicken pox and were brought separately to the camp.

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

Munemitsu Family Reunited and the End of Japanese Incarceration

After a few months at the Lordsburg higher-security-risk POW facility, Seima was returned to the Santa Fe Department of Justice (DOJ) prison. He was later paroled in November of 1943 to Welby, Colorado. Here, Seima was reunited with his son Tad, but still retained status as “a paroled POW.” Seima had to report to a parole officer weekly at the Denver Office of Immigration and Naturalization Service. Ultimately, on August 18, 1944, Seima was able to reunite with his wife, Masako, and his twin daughters, Akiko and Kazuko at Poston incarceration camp after 28 months of separation.

While the Munemitsu family was partially reunited, Japanese incarceration was not yet over. Outside of Poston, the legal cases of Korematsu v. United States and Ex parte Mitsuye Endo contributed to the end of Japanese incarceration. With the legal help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Fred Korematsu of Korematsu v. United States challenged the constitutionality of Japanese incarceration. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the mass incarceration of West Coast Japanese Americans was warranted out of “military necessity.” On the same day, the United States Supreme Court ruled that for Ex parte Mitsuye Endo that the government could not detain or incarcerate citizens who were loyal to the United States.

These two contradictory rulings effectively pressured the US government to end Japanese incarceration. Ex parte Mitsuye Endo was announced the day after President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave orders that Japanese Americans could leave the incarceration camps and return to their homes starting January 1, 1945. It took many families a full year to leave the camps and resettle elsewhere as many had no homes to return to.

With his savings from working in Colorado, Tad Munemitsu bought a car to pick up his family at Poston Incarceration Camp. Now reunited, Tad, Seima, Masako, Akiko, and Kazuko returned to the Munemitsu farm in Westminster, California, in September of 1945.  

Black and white photo. Seima and Tad Munemitsu hold crates of strawberries in front of a truckbed piled high with other crates. They are both wearing work clothes with long sleeves and pants. Seima wears a hat with a broad brim.
Tad and his father Seima continued to work side by side until Seima’s passing in 1978. Here they hold a spring harvest of strawberries at their Garden Grove, California farm in the early 1950s.

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

Post-Poston and Living with the Mendez Family

When the Munemitsu family returned to their Westminster farm, they did not immediately return to their old ranch farmhouse. Rather, the Munemitsu family lived in the dwellings meant for their farm hands. Prior to the family’s move back to the farm, Tad Munemitsu and Gonzalo Mendez signed a lease where both families were able to live and work on the farm together.

In that lease, the lessor (Tad Munemitsu) agreed that the buildings on the farm were available to be rented without charge. In addition, the lessee (Gonzalo Mendez) undertook the role of the employer for any workers around the farm. For almost a year, Seima and Tad Munemitsu were employed by Gonzalo from September 1945 to August 1946. While peculiar to most, the arrangement allowed the Munemitsu family to get back on their feet after their incarceration. Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez were also able to continue to pursue their school discrimination case in federal court, and later use the year’s farm profits to start up another business after the lease was up.

While on the farm, the Munemitsu and Mendez children also played together. In The Kindness of Color, Sylvia Mendez remembers her friendship with the Munemitsu twins, Aki and Kazi, and how they would talk for hours and run around the farm. Aki Munemitsu recollects how the Mendez boys, Gonzalo Jr. and Jerome, climbed and jumped from the barn lofts.

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

Next: Timeline: Japanese Americans during World War II

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Last updated: September 13, 2023