Kiyoshi Uyekawa Tule Lake Camp Collection

Kiyoshi Uyekawa (1921 March 30-2008 March 5) was born on March 30, 1921 in Livingston, Montana. His parents, Kiyono (nee Yokota) and Kiyoto Uyekawa, immigrated from Kabe, Hiroshima, Japan to the United States where his father worked as a railroad foreman. Not liking the railroad gang environment, Kiyono moved back to Hiroshima with her two sons and two daughters. When Kiyoshi completed high school in Japan, he was sent back to the United States by his mother in 1938 to work with his father in Seattle, Washington because she felt she could not support his dream of attending university to become a novelist in Japan. He briefly moved to Los Angeles to live with his aunt and uncle at their hotel and attended Belmont High School to learn English, but he eventually moved back to Montana and then back to Seattle once again for railroad-related work.

After the war broke out, he was sent to the Pinedale Assembly Center and later incarcerated in Tule Lake where he would meet his future wife, Mitsuye Ogo. At Tule Lake, he was engaged in writing and was an active member of the Tule Lake haiku circle, Tsurireki Ginsha. He was one of the editors of their bulletins and created haiku poems under the pseudonym, 植川轉 Uyekawa Utata. His haiku poems were often selected and published in the Minidoka haiku circle’s monthly bulletins as well.

During incarceration, he and his wife determined to renounce their U.S. citizenship and go to Japan while his father, Kiyoto, chose to be transferred to the Minidoka camp in Idaho and left for Oregon when he was released. Kiyoshi was apparently a member of one of the Pro-Japan groups formed in the Tule Lake camp, 報國靑年團 Hokoku Seinendan (or Hokoku Seinen Dan), which consisted of mostly Kibei Nisei men. However, because of Mitsuye's pregnancy, the family decided to stay in the camp until their baby was delivered safely. In the meantime, the atomic bombing by the U.S. military destroyed their family and home in Hiroshima, and they no longer had a place to go in Japan. Ultimately, they left Tule Lake for Clearfield in Utah in March 1946 where Mitsuye's sister, Takeko, had settled. Later, they returned to Gardena, California from Utah, and Kiyoshi started a gardening business and continued to read books during his spare time. He passed away on March 5, 2008. It appears that his father, Kiyoto, returned from Oregon to Gardena to stay with Kiyoshi's family briefly and then returned to Japan. He passed away in 1970.

Mitsuye Uyekawa (nee Ogo) (1921 December 6-2008 April 25) was born on December 6, 1921 in Los Angeles, California. When Mitsuye was 6 months old, her mother, Kiyo, returned to Toyoku, Okayama, Japan, bringing all her siblings because of Kiyo's ill health. After recuperation, her mother and siblings left for the United States but she remained in Japan and was raised by her aunt and uncle. After she completed high school, she decided to return to the United States in 1939 to reunite with her widowed father, Mohei (1881-1972), and brother, Hideo (1917-1990), in Compton, California. When the war broke out, the Ogos fled to Clovis and Mitsuye's sister, Takeko, and her husband left for Utah respectively to avoid the military zones by Executive Order 9066. However, six months later, the Ogos received the notice in Clovis, California and was incarcerated at the Poston incarceration camp in Parker, Arizona. During incarceration, Mohei chose to go to the Tule Lake Segregation Center in Newell, California and the whole family was transferred in October 1943. It was there where Mitsuye met Kiyoshi Uyekawa through her father and they were married on December 16, 1944. They had their first child, David Tadasu in the camp, and left for Utah with her brother, Hideo, and father, Mohei, and reunited with her sister, Takeko. Later, Kiyoshi, Mitsuye, and David returned to Gardena and other four children they named Gary Takashi, Naomi Margaret, Richard Sanao, and Eddie Wataru were born. They settled in Gardena, California where she maintained a busy and active life until she passed away on April 25, 2008.

Segregation of “disloyal” incarcerees in the Tule Lake Segregation Center escalated Japanese nationalism and let to form pro-Japan groups at Tule Lake. At the same time, the Renunciation Act of 1944 signed by the President Roosevelt encouraged the Nisei to renounce their U.S. citizenship. The pro-Japan groups were commonly referred to the “報國奉仕團 Hokoku Hoshidan (or Hokoku Hoshi Dan) which consisted of three groups: (1) 即時帰國奉仕團 Sokuji Kikoku Hoshidan (Hoshi Dan), translated as “Organization to Return Immediately to the Homeland Japan to Serve” consisted of the Issei leaders; (2) 祖國研究靑年團 Sokoku Kenkyu Seinendan (or Seinen Dan), or "Young Men's Association for the Study of the Motherland," and later renamed to 報國靑年團 Hokoku Seinendan (or Seinen Dan), or “Young Men’s Association to Serve the Nation” led by the Kibei Nisei men; and (3) 報國女子靑年團 Hokoku Joshi Seinendan (Seinen Dan), or “Young Women’s Association to Serve the Nation,” a women’s group. As a result, 5,700 Nisei renounced their U.S. citizenship and about 8,000, including Issei repatriates, returned to Japan.

小池恭 Koike Kyo (1878 February 11-1947 March 31) was born in Japan in 1878, immigrated to the United States, and settled in Seattle, Washington. He was a highly respected photographer nationally and internationally as well as a physician and poet under the pseudonym, 小池晩人 Koike Banjin, in the Japanese American community. He founded the Seattle haiku circle, "Rainier Ginsha," in 1934, which has still continued now, and served as an editor for their monthly bulletins. During the war, the Rainier Ginsha disbanded because of the mass removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast but he established the Minidoka haiku circle, "Minidoka Ginsha," during his incarceration in the Minidoka camp in Idaho. Haiku circles, "Ginsha," were formed in several incarceration camps during the war, and the members in different camps interacted with each other. After being released from the camp, Dr. Koike returned to Seattle and resumed the Rainier Ginsha and continued mentoring the Tule Lake haiku circle members. He passed away in 1947.