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The riot in Manzanar

With all the unanswered questions going on and all these rumors, I guess there was a feeling that they were going to go down and protest and find out what the whole truth was at the administration. But this happened after dark...or, late in the afternoon, twilight-like.

And since there was so many of us down there, that’s when they brought the military police in. And when they came, they didn’t just come there. They set up machine guns and had I don’t know how many men. I couldn’t count them. But they were on the other side of the fence, and we were inside the fence. If it was just that way, I think, peacefully we could have gotten some answers and we could have all gone home.

But nobody from the administration came out, and we were just looking at each other. But the thing that was bad was, it was the dust storm. It was windy. And it wasn’t like summer time. It was already in the winter time, it was December. And when that dust storm kicked up, we all moved. We turned around and ran away.

But now, that caused commotion on the military side of it. So they thought that meant we were rushing them. That’s why those that got shot, got shot in the back. They were running away. That’s about as much as what happened then.

They threw tear gas, yeah, they threw tear gas. But that also caused more commotion, too. Not saying that, no, they shouldn’t have done that. What they shouldn’t have done was have the fire. We had no weapons, we had nothing. 


imprisonment incarceration military police police World War II World War II camps

Date: February 6, 2015

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Jimmy Ko Fukuhara was born on September 21, 1921 in Los Angeles, California to Japanese immigrants, Ume and Ichisuke Fukuhara. In 1927, his father moved the family to Santa Monica, California, and got started in the nursery business. After graduating from Santa Monica High School, Jimmy worked at the nursery, until 1942, when he and his family were sent to the Manzanar concentration camp.

Jimmy was able to leave camp early, and moved to Pennsylvania with his younger brother, George. Within sixty days, Jimmy was drafted into the army, and volunteered to serve in the Military Intelligence school. After going through basic training, Jimmy was sent to Tokyo, Japan. There he worked for the labor department in General MacArthur’s headquarters. Before leaving Japan, he visited Hiroshima in hopes of connecting with his parents’ relatives. After being discharged, Jimmy returned to Santa Monica and the family nursery business. Jimmy continued to work in the nursery with his four brothers, until he retired in 1986. (May 2016)

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Prom during the war

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George Ariyoshi
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Japan vs. the United States (Japanese)

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Company in Tokyo burned down (Japanese)

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James Hirabayashi
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Life in camp as teenager

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Robert Katayama
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Being ordered to keep a diary that was later confiscated, ostensibly by the FBI

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Helping soldiers

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Father as prisoner of war in hospital

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