Let me begin my story from the Assembly Center, the former Pacific International Exposition Building on Marine Drive. This was the place we entered in May of 1942. We were housed in a barn where the animals had been placed for the exhibition show. Our compartment had plywood flooring covering the entry way. The only furniture was the six cots for our family of six. Our clothes were in two suitcases we were allowed for the entire family. . . . Our endurance throughout the hot summer days, with the penetration of animal odors and our anxiety over our future, finally came to a close in September. We were all hurded into trains for our next home, [Minidoka] Hunt, Idaho.
Mae Ninomiya, Kenton resident since 1933
On December 8, 1941, a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt immediately announced that all nationals and subjects of nations at war with the U.S. were enemy aliens. Unlike European immigrants, racially discriminatory legislation barred Japanese from becoming U.S. citizens. When war broke out, Japanese nationals comprised 37.3% of the Japanese American population in the U.S.
In February 1942 President Roosevelt, reacting to wartime hysteria, issued Executive Order 9066 requiring all Japanese Americans, including those born in the U.S., who were living on the west coast to relocate to inland areas.
At the time of our evacuation, I was very bitter. The only country we knew evicted us from our homes and our businesses. When the controversy of evacuation began to emerge I was of the opinion that my alien folks and minor brothers would be interned. But, never did I think I would be involved since I had reached adulthood. But, my dad said ‘Shikata Ga Nai’ (There is nothing we can do, so make the best of it.) That was his philosophy. Mae Okazaki Ninomiya, Kenton resident since 1933, Kenton History
Before transfer to inland internment camps, the army established temporary “assembly” centers to gather and house Japanese families. With their civil rights removed and few possessions, families such as the Okazakis were held from May through September, 1942, at the Portland Assembly Center on north Marine Drive. Assembly Center prisoners experienced much discomfort, including close quarters, theft, hunger, cold, and illness. “Today we did not have any bread for lunch or dinner either. I did not have enough to eat,” wrote Saku Tomita on May 9, 1942.
For three years the U.S. government held people of Japanese descent as prisoners in the internment camps. In August, 1945, the Okazaki family returned Kenton where they faced animosity and resentment from some former neighbors. Many initially refused to visit their store, but over time, and with the return of two Okazaki sons who served in the armed forces, the family resumed their former place in the community. In 1980, Hidekichi Okazaki received the prestigious Order of Emperor’s Award from the Japanese government for working toward better relations between Japan and the United States.
