Early Guadalupe Cemetery Records

From: Early Guadalupe Cemetery records are unreliable and few

Shirley Contreras

Before World War II the ashes of many of the Japanese people were kept in the Buddhist Church. When the Japanese people returned from the internment camps and found that a law had been enacted prohibiting ashes to be so stored, the ashes of many of the deceased were moved to family burial plots, while others were placed into a common grave site. The grave site containing the ashes of about 30 people is covered with a cement slab showing the names of those interred within the site. However, at least two of those containers of ashes have been moved to family burial sites during the ensuing years.

A number of the headstones of the Japanese people show the dates of death as occurring during the World War II years, indicating that they died in one of the internment camps. 

Thanks to the help of Jack Morishima and Tets Furukawa, I learned that Kishie Minami, Kito Oishi and Ichiro Gilbert Miyake died in the Gila River Relocation camp, Mary Kinuyo Miyake died in the Poston Camp (block 13-11-D) , and Matagoro Sakamoto died in the Port Lincoln camp in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Source:

http://www.santamariatimes.com/lifestyles/columnist/shirley_contreras/article_cd643500-05b6-11e0-a5d2-001cc4c03286.html