NIE and Densho: The WWII Odyssey of King County's Japanese Americans

6 APRIL 12, 2015 | Sponsored Newspapers In Education Content In early 1943, the War Relocation Authority , the federal agency created to oversee the concentration camps, required all inmates to complete a questionnaire that had the dual purpose of identifying young men who would be eligible for military service and others whose profiles qualified them as safe to leave the camp to “ resettle ” in communities away from the West Coast. As a result, thousands of Japanese Americans left the concentration camps in 1943–44. The most popular destination for Japanese American resettlement prior to the end of the war was Chicago , where there were many jobs and less discrimination against Japanese Americans. Denver , New York and Cleveland also became popular destinations. In addition, thousands of college-aged inmates were able to attend schools outside the restricted West Coast, with the help of organizations that brokered scholarships and housing for them. On March 23, 1943, the U.S. Army formed the 442nd Regimental Combat Team , to be made up entirely of Japanese American soldiers. Hundreds volunteered from behind the barbed wire of the concentration camps, with Minidoka having the highest number of volunteers despite being one of the smaller camps. Thousands more were drafted from behind barbed wire starting in 1944. The 442nd would go on to become a much honored and highly publicized unit. A loyalty questionnaire was used to identify “disloyal” individuals who were segregated at the Tule Lake camp . Those already at Tule Lake who were categorized as “loyal” were given the opportunity to go to other camps. However, basing a person’s loyalty on two yes/no questions failed to capture the complexity of the reasoning many used. Those who answered “no” did so for reasons ranging from a desire to protest their unjust removal and incarceration, to wanting to keep family members together, to a fear of being kicked out of camp and into what many saw as a hostile outside world. Destination data based on information taken from the Minidoka Final Accountability Roster Top 10 destinations for Seattleites leaving Minidoka before 1945 1. Chicago, Illinois 314 2. U.S. Army 200 3. Spokane, Washington 177 4. Tule Lake, California 154 5. Salt Lake City, Utah 129 6. Twin Falls, Idaho 73 7. Boise, Idaho 69 8. Ogden, Utah 65 9. Denver, Colorado 60 10. Cleveland, Ohio 56 Akiko left Minidoka to attend college in Wichita, Kansas. She married Junelow “Junks” Kurose in 1948, and after a stint in Chicago, the couple moved back to Seattle. Shosuke left Minidoka in December 1944 and was able to a land a position at Standard and Poor’s in New York, where he worked for 20 years. As a company representative to the Newspaper Guild, he played a key role in a 1952 guild resolution that urged newspapers to stop using the word “Jap” to refer to Japanese Americans. Akiko Kato Kurose Shosuke Sasaki Minidoka concentration camp, Idaho, 1944. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration. LEAVING CAMP