Eighty-three years later, almost to the day when this 1931 Chevrolet Special Sedan’s role in history was defined by Executive Order 9066, a new chapter in this car’s story began. Three volunteers from local Vintage Chevrolet Club of America chapters in Orange County, California, gathered to roll the car out of Bill Marumoto’s garage in Westminster, where it was housed for over 40 years. Bill was the youngest child, four years old, when the family used the car to move inland to avoid incarceration in a War Relocation Authority camp. He built the garage in the 1980s, then moved the car from a field in Utah, where the family had relocated in 1942.
Now, with the help of volunteers Gary, Sal, and Wayne, the car was renovated as part of the Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community exhibit sponsored by the Japanese American National Museum, which opened on July 31, 2025. Former car club president Jim Karras was there as well, along with several members of the extended Marumoto family.
Back in 1942, the car belonged to Masaichiro Marumoto and his wife Asako, tenant farmers with four young children in Gardena, California. One of those children was on hand on February 20, 2025, as the car was rolled out of the garage. The sole passenger of that journey still alive today, Yukari Vicky Marumoto Mikesell, now 89, was thrilled to see the car that had carried her family to freedom out in sunlight once again.
Plans for the family’s journey began when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. It paved the way for the forced relocation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast of the US following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
Like Yukari’s family, about 5,000 other Japanese Americans “voluntarily evacuated” to an interior state. The remainder of the 120,000 Nikkei on the West Coast were held in incarceration camps during WWII. That car ride in the 1931 Chevy truly was a ride to freedom for the Marumoto family as they traveled from Gardena, California, to West Point, Utah.
With hardly a month’s notice, the family’s preparations for the trip were heartbreaking. They had packed clothes and farming equipment in a trailer that would be pulled behind the car. With two parents and four children, the car itself was already full. What they couldn’t fit in their limited space was sold for a fraction of its value. This included two farm workhorses that were like members of the family to the children.
Any books or papers written in Japanese were burned to avoid questions about the family’s loyalty. Only one storybook survived because Yukari’s older sister, Midori (11 at the time), hid it from her parents so she could continue reading bedtime stories to her younger siblings. Midori went on to become a school librarian in Nampa, Idaho, no doubt influenced by this experience.
Yukari’s father, Masaichiro Marumoto, led the caravan of three cars in his 1931 Chevrolet Special Sedan. His brother, Kenichi Marumoto, was next with his wife and two children. A cousin and his wife were in the third car. They each had the required proof for voluntary relocation: a letter from a “sponsor” in an inland state to show they had a job awaiting them and a place to stay at their destination. The three families met in the parking lot of their local Safeway grocery store to begin the journey.
The group drove steadily for the first day. It was 240 miles to the Nevada border from Gardena. They drove 50 miles on local roads to Rancho Cucamonga before reaching what is now I-15 at Barstow, California. What might be a pleasant day’s outing on today’s modern roads was a full day’s effort in 1942. Believing they now were out of danger, there was a collective sigh of relief once they crossed the California border into Nevada.
The caravan stopped at an open area adjacent to the road to sleep for the night. The women and children slept in the cars for added protection from the elements. The men slept on the ground under the stars. During the night, the group was startled awake. Yukari, who was just 6 years old at the time, woke to see her family’s “campsite” surrounded by American soldiers with their guns drawn and pointed at the families sleeping there. Her father had unknowingly stopped on government land, unable to read the signs written in English.
Yukari’s older brother, Hiroki (10 years old), had to translate for his father to explain they were moving inland as part of the voluntary evacuation. After reviewing Masaichiro’s sponsor letter, the officer signaled for his men to lower their weapons. Then the families’ possessions were searched. A radio and bb gun were confiscated from Yukari’s family and tagged with their family’s name. They got the items back from the government after the war.
Following the search, the officer gave Masaichiro a stern warning: “If we find you on government land again, we will arrest you!” Then the group was released to continue their travel. The families quickly repacked their cars and drove several miles before pulling to the side of the road for a hasty conference.
Following the shock of their encounter with the soldiers, the group was frightened for their safety. The choice of their first night’s campsite was an honest mistake, but how could they make sure they didn’t repeat it? With that uncertainty, they decided to split up so each family could get to Utah as quickly as possible.
Now, Yukari’s family was traveling last in their 1931 Chevrolet. Their family had the youngest children and needed to make more frequent stops than the other two families. They were also pulling a trailer behind the sedan, which slowed them down. Yukari’s father reluctantly surrendered the map to his cousin, who could travel the fastest.
But how would the next two cars know which way to turn at intersections? The decision was made for the first car to throw out a zabuton (a Japanese sitting cushion) at intersections to show which way to turn. Then the last car would retrieve the zabuton and bring it with them to Utah.
They also decided they needed to drive nonstop the rest of the way. Ten-year-old Hiroki, who grew up to be a mechanic at Hills Air Force Base in Davis County, Utah, said it was a miracle the car kept going all of that day and through the night over the mountains into Utah. They had another 500 miles to drive to reach their destination in West Point, Utah.
As the Chevy sedan carried the family towards the Utah border, they reached the roughest part of the road. They had to traverse the Virgin Mountains, crossing the northwest corner of Arizona into Utah. Masaichiro had been driving for hours and was exhausted. The children were feeling cramped from the tight quarters of their second day of driving with no end in sight. The family was taking as few stops as possible now, after the confrontation with the U.S. soldiers the previous night. As the road rose to higher elevation, the temperature dropped steadily.
A small gas station suddenly appeared as the car came around a bend. Since there were not a lot of choices on the mountain roads, Masaichiro pulled over, hoping the owner would sell him gasoline. In small towns they had driven through, there were plenty of signs to say the family wasn’t welcome there: “No Japs,” “Keep Going.” Masaichiro would drive through town before parking on the outskirts to place his family out of danger. Then he would walk alone back into town to try to buy needed supplies.
This stop in the mountains was different. As the gas station owner pumped gas, he saw the four young children with their noses pressed against the Chevy’s windows. He motioned for Masaichiro to follow him to a woodpile, then had the family man help him start a campfire. After that, the owner walked back to the car to invite Asako and her children to come warm themselves by the fire.
The warmth of that unexpected kindness lasted far beyond the family’s time by the campfire. It helped to sustain Masaichiro until they reached their sponsor’s house many hours of driving later. The memory of that kindness lasted 50 years until Asako, the young mother in the 1931 Chevrolet Special Sedan, shared the story with her granddaughter, Sandra. And that warmth of kindness is rekindled today through the generosity of the car club volunteers who are helping to restore this car.
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The Marumoto family car was on display during the opening week of Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community, an exhibition from the Japanese American National Museum on view through November 12, 2025, at the Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery at ArtCenter College of Design’s South Campus, 1111 South Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena, CA 91105. Learn more.
© 2025 Sandra Mikesell Buscher
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