George and Mitzi Naohara Papers

George Nobuo Naohara (1919 August 17–2014 June 30) was Kibei Nisei, who was born in the United States, educated in Japan, and returned to Los Angeles, California prior to World War II. He left Japan, following in his uncle’s footsteps but struck out on his own. He met the Masukawa family in Los Angeles and learned that Mrs. Koyuta Masukawa was a relative of his acquaintance and originally immigrated from Hiroshima, Japan, from which he also had come. He became a close friend to the family and married Mitzi Masukawa (1923 March 16-2021 January 11), one of the family’s daughters, later.

He was one of the earlier group of incarcerees who were sent to the Manzanar incarceration camp in California during the war, and met other Kibei Nisei men in the camp. He and his Kibei Nisei friends were granted the permit to leave for work and worked in labor farms in Idaho and Utah. During his labor contract, he met one of the Masukawa family members who had been incarcerated in the Jerome incarceration camp in Arkansas, and decided to “reinduction” to the Jerome camp, instead returning to the Manzanar camp. He requested for reinduction, claiming that he became unable to work due to disability. He was incarcerated in the Jerome camp as he wished but applied for repatriation/expatriation to Japan, and was transferred to the Tule Lake Segregation Center in California. After the war ended, he did not return to Japan but settled in Chicago, Illinois. During the Allied Occupation of Japan, he learned that no one but military personnel were allowed to contact his/her family members in Japan. Since his mother was ill and had remained in Japan, he decided to join the U.S. Army, hoping to see her, and attended the language training school in California. He was stationed in Japan after the training, served for the Korean War as a MIS interpreter, and was discharged due to his illness at the end. Later, he operated a barbershop with his wife in Gardena, California, and also was devoted to Buddhist Church activities for his whole life.

Tomosuke Masukawa was an Issei immigrant and arrived at Tacoma, Washington in 1898. He was a railroad worker for the Santa Fe Railroad, a coalminer in Montana, and a farm labor in Fresno, California. Later, he moved to Los Angeles and farmed in Southern California. Koyuta Masukawa was a picture bride and sent to him in 1909, and their eight children were born in California. The Masukawa family resided in Long Beach, California prior to the war and left for Reedley, California, fleeing from the exclusion. However, the family received the order and was imprisoned in the Poston camp in Arizona, later. During her incarceration, Mitzi (Masukawa) Naohara was a preschool teacher and joined activities of a young Nisei women's club, "Sigma Debs,” which mainly consisted of female basketball players at Reedley High School.