Japanese Americans were restricted from where they could live even after the war. It was quite common for real estate agents to show Japanese American homes in minority designated areas.

“It was just known of the places you were allowed to go, and the places that you weren’t allowed, this was normal for the Japanese…”.

~Tamaru "Tom" Fujimoto

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Tamaru "Tom" Fujimoto with wife and first son, circa 1945

Photo contributed by: Tamaru “Tom” Fujimoto

Names of people: Tamaru “Tom” Fujimoto, Nobi Fujimoto and Richard Fujimoto

Date: circa 1945

Place: South Central, CA, U.S.A.

Photograph by: Sachi Yamamoto

Photo size: 3.5” x 5” inches / 8.9 x 12.7 cm

Description: Pictured here is Tamaru “Tom” Fujimoto (1921-present), his wife, Nobi Fujimoto and their first son, Richard Fujimoto. Tamaru Fujimoto was born in Santa Paula, California. Tamaru Fujimoto married Nobi Fujimoto (1924-present) and had three sons, Richard Fujimoto (1944-present), Gary Fujimoto (1948-present) and Stephen Fujimoto (1949-present), and two daughters, Eileen Fujimoto (1960-present) and Julie Fujimoto (1965-present). Right after they were released from camp they had nothing so they had to move in with Nobi’s eldest sister, Sachi Yamamoto in South Central. Getting back on their feet was terribly hard after the camps with a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment. Tamaru Fujimoto avoided white people and neighborhoods when finding a home for his family, and finally found their current home in San Fernando Valley in a designated minority area. Tamaru remembers, “It was just known of the places you were allowed to go, and the places that you weren’t allowed, this was normal for the Japanese…you would never go to an expensive restaurant, it was just known”.

© California State University, Northridge 2008

For more information about this project, please contact:

Edith Chen, Professor Asian American Studies Dept.

18111 Nordhoff St., JR 340

Northridge, CA 91330-8251
edith.chen@csun.edu
818-677-4966

Nancy Takayama

San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center

nt.high.mtn@juno.com