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 is a 501(c)(3)non-profit group.
Order Copies of:
•War Relocation Authority Evacuee Case Files
•World War II Alien Enemy Detention & Internment Case Files
•Compensation & Reparation Case Files for the Internment of Japanese Americans during World War II
Go to:
http://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans/order.html
The Japanese American National Heritage Coalition sent letters to Presidential candidates McCain & Obama, asking if elected, will they implement the grant program authorized by Public Law 109-441 in their FIRST presidential budget submitted to Congress.
Have you seen some of the propaganda films about the relocation of people of Japanese ancestry living in the western states? If you haven't, here's a chance to view one of those black & white films, courtesy of You Tube. You can view it on your computer. Turn up the volume on your speakers.
DOCUMENTS OF DILLON S. MYER Dillon S. Myer was the Director of the War Relocation Authority (WRA)
News Release: Work of the WRA, An Anniversary Statement by Dillon S. Myer, March 1943. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/16.pdf#zoom=100
Letter: Dillon S. Myer to the Secretary of War, March 11, 1943; atachment, Secretary of War to Dillon S. Myer, May 10,1943. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/2.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: Dillon S. Myer, Director, WRA, March of Time, June 24, 1943. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/8.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: Constitutional Principles Involved in the Relocation Program, statement by Dillon S. Myer before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, July 7, 1943. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/3.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: Evidences of Americanism Among Japanese-Americans, statement by Dillon S. Myer before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, July 7, 1943. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/9.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: Dillon S. Myer over the NBC network, July 15, 1943. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/10.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: The Truth About Relocation, by Dillon S. Myer to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Aug. 6, 1943. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/24.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: The Facts About the WRA, by Dillon S. Myer, to a meeting of the Los Angeles, CA. Town Hall, Jan. 21, 1944. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/27.pdf#zoom=100
Speech:Relocation Problems & Policies, by Dillon S. Myer to the Tues.Evening Club, Pasadena, CA., Mar. 14, 1944. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/5.pdf#zoom=100
Memorandum: Director [Dillon S. Myer] to the Secretary [of the Interior], [April 29, 1944]. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/36.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: Racism & Reason, by Dillon S. Myer to an interfaith meeting sponsored by the Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles & Fair Play, Los Angeles, CA, Oct 2, 1944. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/42.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: A Tenth of a Million People, by Dillon S. Myer to the Des Moines Adult Education Forum, Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 26,1944. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/43.pdf#zoom=100
Memorandum: A Message from the Director of the WRA [to evacuees resident in relocation centers], Not dated, c. Jan. 1945. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/57.pdf#zoom=100
Speech: Problems of Evacuee Resettlement in CA, by Dillon S. Myer, Eagle Rock, CA, June 19, 1945. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/12.pdf#zoom=100
Letter: Dillon S. Myer to S. Hideshima, July 14, 1945. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/51.pdf#zoom=100
Memorandum:Dillon S. Myer, A Message to American Soldiers of Japanese Ancestry, Aug. 1945. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/52.pdf#zoom=100
Memorandum: To Members of Congress from the 3 West Coast States, Not dated, c. 1946. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/17.pdf#zoom=100
Letter: J. A. Krug, Secretary of the Interior, to Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House of Rep., April 24, 1946; with attachment, draft of a bill to create an Evacuation Claims Commission. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/japanese_internment/documents/pdf/56.pdf#zoom=100
"Through Innocent Eyes: Life in Poston, Arizona Internment Camp 1942-1943." Cassette tape. Available at: http://www.janmstore.com/40496.html
"Passing Poston." Documentary film. Directed by award-winning journalists Joe Fox and James Nubile.
The Poston Restoration Project has a number of DVD copies available with a donation of $30 or more. If you are interested, send a message to: diannerd79 (at) yahoo (dot) com
REVIEWS OF THIS FILM
"An Internment Camp Within an Internment Camp" http://a.abcnews.com/US/story?id=4310157&page=1
"Road Back to Poston "Newsweek Video by John Groat.
3/5/08: Part 1. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1416570538/bclid1453535863/bctid1448204861
3/8/08: Part 2.http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1416570538/bclid1453535863/bctid1445126543
3/10/08 Part 3. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1416570538/bclid1453535863/bctid1449628260
3/12/08 Part 4. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1416570538/bclid1453535863/bctid1454954343
3/14/08 Part 5. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1416570538/bclid1453535863/bctid1456276873
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"Rabbit in the Moon" filmmakers suppressed internment-camp experiences
By Tom Keogh
Published in 2008
Emiko Omori
"The worst thing about the internment camps was what they did to people's spirits," says Chizuko Omori (Poston 22-10-C), a producer of the documentary "Rabbit in the Moon," directed by her sister, Emiko Omori (Poston 22-10-C). "Nobody knew how long they would be there, or where they were going. Families were torn apart."
"Rabbit in the Moon" (1999), which screens at Northwest Film Forum today and Sunday, is an evocative, haunting work about surviving the so-called "War Relocation Camps" that forcibly held more than 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals during World War II. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Franklin Roosevelt authorized the internment of people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast of the United States.
Detainees were taken to one of 10 internment camps spread over the U.S. The Omori siblings were sent with their parents from California to a center in Poston, Arizona block 22-10-C. There, Chizuko spent part of her adolescence, from ages 12 to 15, while Emiko was a toddler. Upon their release, Chizuko quickly put the experience behind her. "I repressed that stuff for years," she says. "It's still hard to remember it."
In time, Chizuko attended college in California. She married, had two children and moved to Seattle. Eventually she became involved in a decade long effort to advance legislation calling upon the U.S. government to apologize for internment policies. Ronald Reagan signed the bill in 1988. During those years, Chizuko, now 78, says she learned more about the record of detention. "I became educated on material buried in government files," she says, such as a "loyalty questionnaire," which tried to determine who was loyal or disloyal to the U.S. and which placed Japanese immigrants in a situation that could have left them stateless.
"It dawned on me that the loyalty question was a little-known episode of the history," Chizuko says. "I thought there must be some way to get this out there. I approached my sister, who is a filmmaker."
"When we found out about the loyalty question, it made us angry," says Emiko, 67. Calling from her home in San Francisco, Emiko says discussions with Chizuko returned them to the long-suppressed subject of the camps.
"Rabbit" won several awards, including a Sundance Film Festival prize for Emiko's cinematography. Much of the story's historical ground is covered in a uniquely personal way.
"I avoided using stock footage as much as I could," she says, though she did make ironic use of government-produced propaganda full of staged scenes of detainees happily engaged in the camps.
Nothing in that material suggests the many ways families were uprooted from homes and successful businesses. Or how tensions over whether detainees should surrender to or resist government policies divided relatives and neighbors.
Emiko, who attended film school at San Francisco State in the 1960s, interviewed numerous camp survivors and captured insightful commentary from Chizuko. But "Rabbit" has also been praised for the muted emotions of the filmmaker's stylized images, which lead to the strange, somber heart of the internment story without illustrating every detail.
Among other things, Emiko, who cites French director Chris Marker as an influence, visited some of the ruins of former camps and found many possessions hurriedly left behind by freed detainees. Her camera captures shards of dishes and scraps of clothing scattered like unburied bones. "It's important to visualize what's not easy to see," says Emiko. "The impressionistic, the emotional. It's a way of saying: Don't forget us."
* Wedding Guest Book, 1944 Diary, final leave card, Poston Red Cross Directory, letters from George (camp 1) to Clara (camp 3) before/after wedding - family of George K. and Clara H. Obayashi
* Block 308 Cooks photo- T. Kurihara (camp 3)
* Personal photos - G. Y. Kiyomoto (camp 3 visitor), L.(Nagata) Kiyomoto (camp 3), M.(Nakamura) Masada (camp 2), G.T. Ohama (camp 2)
Wanted to share with you the latest "Passing Poston" news:
SCREENINGS
New York in August
LOS ANGELES
Our engagement in LA was terrific.
A rave in the LA Times.
Box office records at the ImaginAsian Center.
An extended two and a half week run.
And wonderful press:
Orange County Register - http://artsblog.freedomblogging.com/2008/07/11/check-out-passing-poston/
Rafu Shimpo:
http://www.rafu.com/en/2008/0712/feature.html
Pacific American Citizen: http://www.pacificcitizen.org/content/2008/entertainment/july18-lin-passing-poston-1080.htm
PORTLAND,OREGON Hollywood Theatre
Know anyone in Portland?
We'll be playing there the weekends of Aug 8 and 15.
Show times will be posted soon. http://www.hollywoodtheatre.org/engaging/coming_soon.html
SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS
Over the last month - "Passing Poston" played to near capacity audiences at special screenings at The Japanese American National Museum-Los Angeles and The Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian.
FILM FESTIVAL
"Passing Poston" has been accepted at the Eugene International Film Festival - our 5th film festival that we have been accepted at to date.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008 Subject: Public Law 109-441--Report to Congress
Good afternoon!
I am very pleased to share with you the Report to Congress for Public Law 109-441: Preservation of Japanese American Confinement Sites that the Department of Interior submitted to Congress on May 21, 2008.
Please note that this is the report as requested by Congress and sent to the Appropriations Sub-Committee.
In the meantime, we plan to mail our third newsletter to the public, which will include a copy of the Report to Congress, towards the end of June. If you have any questions, please call me at 303-969-2885.
Thank you for all of your support and dedication towards this project!
(Click on the NPS Report to Congress link on the left.)
Kara Miyagishima National Park Service, 12795 W. Alameda Parkway, Denver, CO 80225-0287 303-969-2885 (voicemail) 303-987-6675 (fax)
The WRA collected personal information on all who were evacuated and relocated to one of 10 relocation centers during World War II.
These records may help to provide some missing information for your family tree !
•Person's name
•Assembly Center placement
•Relocation Center assigned
•Previous address
•Birthplace of parents
•Occupation of father
•Education
•Foreign residence
•Military service
•Public assistance or pensions
•Physical defects
•Age, sex, and marital status
•Year and place of birth
•Alien registration number
•Attendance at a Japanese language school
•Highest grade completed
•Language proficiency
•Occupation(s)
•Religion
NOTE: When submitting a request for copies of the record, list the name(s) of the internee. some people used several variations of their name. Some internees are listed by their Japanese name, others used their English name. Most younger internees used both English and Japanese names.
If you were born in a relocation camp, you can request a copy of your files, by filling out the form at:
The Poston Restoration Project was at the Poston Camp 3 Reunion in San Diego.
We showed the DVD of the documentary film, "Passing Poston". Met many new people and was impressed by the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego's exhibit. Great job!
ARIZONA STATE PARK VISIT
The AZ State Park Service came out to see the project site, along with the company which assessed the asbestos & lead (paint) contamination, the abatement (clean-up) company, and members from the Tribes with their legal counsel. This group toured and evaluated the Poston buildings on the site. (Approximately 80% of the buildings were listed as "worth saving.") That's more than any other relocation camp. W-O-W!
Unusual school reunion set this weekend Internment camp alumni will meetBy Helen Gao STAFF WRITER SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
MISSION VALLEY – Ben Segawa was 11 years old when his family was forced from its Chula Vista home to an internment camp in the Arizona desert known as Poston III. The camp south of Parker closed 6 decades ago, but Segawa's recollections of the 3½ years he spent there remain vivid. Many Poston III internees are gathering for a reunion this weekend in San Diego. About 400 people are expected at the Doubletree Hotel in Mission Valley, where organizers also have mounted a free exhibit. The exhibit features medals awarded to Japanese-American servicemen during World War II, photographs of life in Poston III and artwork made by internees, among other artifacts. The reunion centers around alumni of Parker Valley Junior-Senior High School, which served the camp's children. The Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego organized the event. Segawa, an active member of the historical society who now lives in Bonita, entered Parker Valley as a 6th-grader & left as a 10th-grader. His family of 12 lived in two small barracks that sat on raised foundations. The structures were built with wood that did not hold up well in the desert heat, Segawa said. "The wind would blow under the barracks," he said. "The sand came up through the openings. Not only the sand, but insects. The area was crawling with scorpions. Every morning before we put clothes on, we had to shake them out to make sure there were no insects in them." While living conditions were harsh, many memories of the camp are positive.Internees forged lifelong friendships. Barbara Washler Curry of Lawrence, Kansas, who taught at Poston III fresh out of college, recalled her time there fondly. Now 85, Curry's hair is silver, and she uses a walker. Several of her former students came up to hug her as she reminisced yesterday. "I loved being there. I loved the people. I loved the students. I loved the parents," Curry said, noting that her students were well-behaved and "everybody had a wonderful sense of humor." The camp had Boy Scout & Girl Scout troops. Students organized dances & formed sports teams. Samuel Yamaguchi, then 21, was held at Poston III internment camp in Arizona during World War II. He joined the Army, was wounded in combat in Italy & earned a Purple Heart. Samuel Yamaguchi, 84, whose family was farming in Pacific Beach before the internment, found a sense of belonging at Poston III. Growing up in Pacific Beach, Yamaguchi had no Japanese friends. "I was better off with my own people because there was no prejudice with your own people," he said. Yamaguchi was supposed to graduate from La Jolla High School in 1942 but had to leave before graduation for the internment camp. He later volunteered to join the Army, was wounded in combat in Italy & earned a Purple Heart. "I wanted to prove that the Japanese were good Americans," Yamaguchi said. About 120,000 Japanese-Americans were interned shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. As many as 18,000 were sent to the three Poston camps. Segawa said the internment made him keenly aware of "the fact that people looked at me differently than other Americans." He said his dream is for the United States to become a color-blind society.
Over 800 people attended the free screenings of a new documentary film, called "Passing Poston."
Four former Poston Relocation Center internees were interviewed. Those in attendance included a number of local Parker school administrators and teachers, the town's mayor and local city government officials, county board of supervisors as well as several former Poston internees.
The film and the discussions followed, and was reported to increase the awareness of the history of Poston and its importance to the people living in the local area.
This is a blog site for updates on the Poston Restoration Project.
If you are like me, I want to know what's been happening at the future home of the Poston Restoration project site. I can't wait for the project to be available for everyone to visit!!!
