Tag: LEADS Fellow Blog

The Tule Lake exit phone book (FAR) data represents the majority of information available about the many Japanese American citizens who passed through the internment camp system. In most cases, this in conjunction with the limited data from the entry file, represents all of the information that is available. While there is not much here that allows us to paint a complete picture of their lives, we are at least able to conceive of some select moments in time, which I attempt to do in the case of Mrs. Kashi.

Above: FAR exit file

Above: Exit record for Mrs. Mitsuye Kashi

Mrs. Mitsuye Kashi was born on April 24, 1898 in the southern division of Honshu, Japan. Eighteen years later, she would arrive in the US, and later become an American citizen, marry Jutaro Kashi, and have a son, Tomio. Before internment, she and her family lived in Sacramento, California. But in 1942, the family was moved to a local assembly center located on Walerga Road, and soon after, assigned to the Sacramento internment camp. At some point, the family was transferred to the Tule Lake internment camp, where sadly, Mrs. Kashi would spend her last days. On June 4, 1943, less than a year after arriving at Tule Lake, Mrs. Kashi committed suicide. She was 45 years old. We have no record of why she committed suicide, but one can assume that life in the internment camp was unbearable for her.

In September, just three months later, Mrs. Kashi’s son was sent away to Central Utah Project, or the Topaz camp, which was a segregation center for dissidents. There are no records of what happened to Tomio afterwards. Her husband was released on June 28, 1944 and upon final departure from the camp, became a resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This past week has been spent delving into the datasets available to me in order to get a better sense of the lives of internees of the Japanese American interment camps, from entry to exit. What this means is that I’m looking at the entry data, exit data, and incident cards to glean a better understanding of life during this time. Some of the data that helps me in this endeavor are details about the first camp where a person entered the system, the assembly center they were taken to before getting to the camp, the date they first arrived at camp, other camps they may have been transferred to or from, the camp they last stayed at before exiting, their final departure date, the destination after their departure from the camp, birthdate, birthplace, and where they lived before internment (among many other details). The incident cards represent the recordkeeping system that includes details of various “offenses” that took place within the camps, and were typically only written up for people who violated rules in the camp, or in some cases, to keep records of deaths within the camp. Not every internee has incident cards, so there are silences and erasures within these archival records that might never be uncovered. But what one can do is gather up all of these details and possibly try to glean from them a narrative about the life of the internee imprisoned in these camps.

This is what I’m currently working on and I hope to share a little bit about select people in coming weeks. One of the most important things to consider is the sensitivity of these records as not all data can be publicly divulged at this point. NARA, the current steward of the records, has asked that we adhere to the restriction of 75 years when disclosing data. In other words, any records taking place after July 8, 1944 cannot be revealed. This is something I’ll have to keep in mind going forward in terms of how to best present the data in ways that both highlight and privilege the narratives and stories of the people unjustly imprisoned in these camps.