We are actively working to preserve the physical artifacts as well as the stories and memories of life in one of America's concentration camps located at Poston, Arizona. It was named "Poston" or the "Colorado River Relocation Center", located on the Colorado River Indian Reservation during World War II. The Poston Community Alliance, Inc is a 501(c)(3)non-profit group.
One Hazard Less: Poston Camp II’s 9-Hole Sand Golf Course By Troy Ishikawa
Photo: Roy Ishikawa with “Sherry” surveying the ball line to hole. Poston Camp II, Photo July 1945.
Unlike the big fish stories that many a fisherman has exaggerated about the size of the fish they caught, my dad unabashedly admitted that he was a “hack golfer.” I believed his frankness in a joking way.
According to my dad, Roy Ishikawa (Poston block 211-13-G), he used to play golf on Poston Camp II’s 9-hole sand golf course. Can you believe a leisure sport like golf in a concentration camp? Poston, Arizona was one of the locations of World War II American concentration camps. Poston or the official name, Colorado River Relocation Center consisted of camps I, II, and III and at its peak collectively held over 17,000 prisoners. Poston along with America’s nine other concentration camps, spread out in six states became “home” to 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry. My family spent more than 2 ½-years behind barbed wire fences.
Over the years, after the concentration camp my dad derived great pleasure “chasing the little white ball” as he used to say and would wake up early on weekends to play golf throughout California’s Central Coast, at such courses as Pasatiempo, Laguna Seca, and the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Looking back, Dad claimed he never participated in any camp golf tournaments because he wasn’t skillfully adept. I inquired, “What was your handicap?” He couldn’t remember, but he said that it was “high.” Fortunately, he improved and was an amateur tournament golfer during the 1950s and ‘60s. He even won some big-sized trophies along the way.
Poston Camp II’s 9-hole sand golf course was located near Block 220. The longest hole measured around 335-yards and the shortest hole possibly measured around 80. This hole was closest to the “lake” most likely a seasonal lake, and knowing the desert, there was probably not much rain year-round. I asked, “How did you get the golf balls?” Dad said, “Golf balls were difficult to get. We used to buy balls from someone who lived on Block 220.”
The few photos we have of Poston Camp II include my dad and mom playing golf. In fact, he attempted to teach golf to his wife, Edna who used to hit a low-ball flight, but admitted he wasn’t such a good instructor. “She wanted to learn, but I didn’t know how to teach.” Apparently, my dad had brought to camp a set of golf clubs and a bag. Could he have mistaken the camp to mean “summer camp?” He remembered that he used to carry four clubs: one driver, one putter, a 4-iron and he couldn’t recall the last.
Photo: Edna Ishikawa at Poston Camp II Fairway, Photo developed July 1945.
Another question I asked was “Who was your golfing partner?” That was easy to remember, George Ninomiya (Poston block 211-13-F), a Nisei (second generation) from Monterey. He worked in one of the camp canteens. Speaking about jobs, my dad had a couple of jobs in camp, one was as a policeman and the other was a foreman for the irrigation canal. He worked at the agriculture department and used to borrow the John Deere tractor after work to repair sections of the golf course.
Photo: Roy Ishikawa – Poston Camp II 9-hole Sand Golf Course, Photo developed July 1945.
I still wondered, “Who designed the golf course?” My dad did not know, though he believed the course was built about six-months after entering camp, so that would have been around January 1943. But my line of questions did remind him of an episode that he did not forget. An Issei (first generation) from Salinas named Endo-san, who liked to practice singing, had a lot of interest in golf, but probably did not understand the rules and regulations, not to mention the principles of how to play the game. As most of you can relate, Japanese people can be fairly pragmatic. One day, Endo-san cut down a “hazard” tree that blocked the entrance to the shortest hole. I bet there were some “angry” golfers left in the wake! From a golfer’s point of view this was dreadful, however from a Japanese pragmatist, this is classic: cutting down the tree made it easier for him to reach the putting green. He probably asked, “Who designed this course anyway?”
Instead of degrees for its WWII-impacted JA students, the Los Angeles-based private university awarded honorary alumni status.
By Pacific Citizen Staff
Published April 16, 2010
The JACL national board has passed a resolution urging the University of Southern California to award honorary degrees to its former Nisei students who during World War II were forced to discontinue their education because of the internment.
Over 100 USC Japanese American students were affected by with WWII internment, university officials have said. In 2008, the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association honored their former Nisei students during an April 25 scholarships and awards gala.
The university also awarded honorary alumni status to WWII-impacted Nisei students.
But the JACL national board resolution, passed unanimously at the April 9-10 meeting in San Francisco, Calif., calls the honorary alumni status “inadequate reparations.”
“The passage of this resolution is important to all Nisei students who attended USC and was forced to leave the institution due to Executive Order 9066,” said Kerry Kaneichi, JACL Pacific Southwest district governor.
Nisei students suffered extraordinarily because USC was the only West Coast university that refused to release their transcripts, which resulted in a disruption in their higher education studies, he added.
Many California universities and community colleges have either already awarded Nisei honorary degrees or have announced plans to host such ceremonies after the passage of Assembly Bill 37, which called on California State University, University of California and community colleges to award these degrees.
The JACL national board resolution calls on USC to “act with a particular priority on issuing honorary degrees to former Nisei students.”
“We believe that USC’s refusal to issue honorary diplomas is unjustified and hope that with the added backing of National JACL, these students will finally receive their honorary diplomas,” said Kaneichi.
Photo: Mrs. Kiyoko Nakagawa, 101 years of age, attended Poston III reunion with her daughters and son.
At the Poston III reunion held at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas earlier this week, the Poston Restoration Project had on display, enlarged blue prints of the living areas on camp I, II and III.
With the *labor-intensive* work of Bob Iwamasa (block 220-14-G) using the 1944 census and plotting the individual names in the barracks, attendees were seen snapping photos of their family listings on the draft copies of the block maps! Attendees added missing information to the camp I, II, and II directory being created by Dianne Kiyomoto, archivist for the Poston Restoration Project.
Many thanks to Thomas Kurihara (block 308-14-A) for donating copies of his mother's vintage photos, in addition to his more recent photos of the Colorado River near Poston III. Thomas brought in one photo with four unidentified kids and before he left, all the kids in the photo were identified! Thomas was able to record his oral history with us.
"On the Road Back to Poston"
There were 31 survivors of the "On the Road Back to Poston" educational bus trip. We viewed the documentary film, "Passing Poston" and the silent film on the early days of Poston, featuring the Del Webb construction company. One viewer thought the film may have been an ad promoting the new construction company (Del Webb). The film was discovered among the property of W. Wade Head, former Project Director of Poston, a few years ago. The film was not labeled and had to be spliced together.
Dr. Michael Tsosie, Director of the Colorado River Indian Tribe Museum, was our tour guide, and he joined our bus at the site of the Parker railroad station, next to the current Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center in Parker, AZ. We started our tour following the same tracks used by the internees/prisoners to Poston in the spring/summer of 1942, starting with the Parker, AZ railroad station.
Mr. Ted Kobata (block 229), head of the Poston Monument & Kiosk construction, was on our tour bus and provided a brief summary of the laborious task of erecting the monument and later constructing the kiosk. Everything was hauled from Sacramento down to Poston in the hot summer.
The tour group entered the Poston Restoration Project site and was able to view the internee/prisoner-made adobe bricks used in the construction of the school buildings at Poston.
I met Barbara Burgess (pictured above), granddaughter of Miss Fredricka (Bardon) Green, former Poston III CORE teacher. Barbara is researching material for a future book about her grandmother's time at Poston, and needs information about daily life and attending school in Poston. If you can help, contact her at: missbagpipes@sbcglobal.net
We continued on the journey down the road to the camp II site, and was able to walk inside the camp II school auditorium, which has an in-door basketball court. The building is in use today by the adjacent school, which was in session.
We continued farther down the road to travel a short distance along the northern border of camp III. We found living evidence of the presence of Japanese Americans.You will have to ask someone who was on the trip if you want to know what we saw.
If you have traveled out to see the Poston Monument in the past, you most likely did not learn of the Japanese-American legacy which lives on in the valley today.
Don't worry, there are only a few of us who do know, thanks to Dr. Michael Tsosie. Next time you see one of us who were on the memorable trip, be sure to ask!
