Interviews

1. Downtown in Portland, Oregon

2. Discharged from the U.S. Army after Pearl Harbor

3. Starting business in Portland after the war

George Azumano

(b. 1918) Founder Azumano Travel

Discharged from the U.S. Army after Pearl Harbor

I was in the service of the United States Army on December 7 that was the station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. And the …but in February, actually on February 14, 1942, I was discharged. I was transferred to the reserve court because I was Japanese. And I had a letter to that effect from the commanding officer, saying that army let Japanese back in together. He would be glad to take me back in. I was very disappointed to be released. Very much so. Some of the Niseis were transferred to inland posts if you remember, but others were released. I was the one among those that were released.

I*: When you released, then where did you go?

Came home.

I: Came home.

Yes.

I: And what was it like when you got home?

My father had just been taken by FBI that day. The very morning that I came home, he was taken by FBI. One of the…what do you call it…enemy alien. Enemy alien status. Taken to the…eventually taken to Missoula, Montana.

I: Was your mother frightened?

Oh, yes. Oh yes. She was pretty much upset. And we had the store still open, even though I wasn’t doing much business. Store was open. I came home to that situation and eventually we sold the store.

* “I” indicates an interviewer (Akemi Kikumura Yano).

discrimination interpersonal relations United States Army World War II

Date: December 5, 2005

Location: Oregon, US

Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano, Sojin Kim

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

Interviewee Bio

Ichiro George Azumano was born in Portland, Oregon in 1918 to Issei parents. He was the first-born son in his family and had one sister. His parents gave him his American name, George, years later. George was involved in the Japanese American sports leagues, including baseball and basketball. He attended Japanese school in the late 1920s and early 1930s. George studied business at the University of Oregon.

George was in the U.S. Army stationed at Angel Island in San Francisco when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. Soon after, however, he was discharged because of his Japanese heritage. When he returned to Portland, he and his family were soon evacuated to the concentration camp in Minidoka, Idaho. George temporarily left the campgrounds for various jobs working in the sugar beets fields near camp and an automobile battery manufacturing company in Dayton, Ohio. He was finally released from camp in October 1944 and worked for the U.S. Army Ordinances Department in Utah.

In 1946, George moved back to Portland with his family and found a job working for an insurance company in Japantown. He eventually opened his own insurance business in 1949 that later became Azumano Travel, a travel agency that primarily served Japanese Americans. Today, Azumano Travel is one of the most successful and well-respected businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest. (October 26, 2006)