Hiroji Hosaka Family Letters

Hiroji Hosaka (1890 January 7-1987 August 3) was an Issei immigrant who arrived at Honolulu, Hawaii in 1907 as a plantation laborer. He was born in Fukuoka, Japan on January 7, 1890, and boarded Amerika Maru when he was 17. He resided in Hawaii until 1922, working as a plantation laborer, taxi driver, houseboy, and sales clerk. His wife, Takino Hosaka (1892 April 18-1943 August 6) was an American citizen who was born in Hawaii on April 18, 1892 and spent her childhood in Japan. Hiroji and Takino married in Hawaii in October 1914 and their first son was born on October 15, 1918. They moved to California in 1922 and their second son, Teruo, was born in Los Angeles in 1928. They started a hotel business, operating “Aloha Hotel” at 301 Clay St., Los Angeles, California in 1929. Their first son was sent to Japan when he was young possibly even before the family moved to Los Angeles and he lived in Fukuoka where Hiroji originally came from while their second son, Teruo, remained with the parents in the United States. Hiroji Hosaka was a devoted Christian and prominent member in the Japanese American community in Los Angeles since he was a master of kyudo (Japanese archery), which is one of the Japanese martial arts, and he also served as an auditor for Nihonjinkai and Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, as a secretary for Fukuoka Kenjinkai, and as an official for Daiichi Rafu Gakuen, that is, a Japanese language school in Los Angeles respectively. Japanese organizations were associated with the Consulate-General of Japan and supported the Japanese government and military. Because of his association with Japanese organizations and language school as well as his expertise in Japanese martial arts, he became one of the FBI targets as an influential and dangerous enemy alien.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Hosaka was apprehended by FBI on February 21, 1942 and imprisoned in the County jail of Los Angeles. He was transferred to the Tuna Canyon Detention Center on February 28, 1942, and further transferred to the Santa Fe Internment Camp on June 7, 1942. During his confinement, he was interrogated several times and determined to be a dangerous enemy alien although the interrogators received petition letters from American citizens who tried to prove his innocence. Eventually, he was “paroled” from the custody of the FBI and Justice Department but determined to be incarcerated in the Santa Anita Assembly Center and joined his family on June 6, 1942, who had been imprisoned since the mass removal from the West Coast. He and his family were transferred to the Heart Mountain camp on September 4, 1942.

Mr. Hosaka's hotel business was closed when his remaining family was forced to leave from the military zones by Executive Order 9066. His wife and young child had to deal with the hotel, their properties, and all processes for the mass removal without him. One of their friends agreed to purchase the hotel and verbally promised to sell it back to the family later at the same price that he paid, but the negotiation failed. The family handed it to other friends, but apparently their hotel business was never resumed after the war.

While the Hosakas were incarcerated in the Heart Mountain camp, Tatsuno passed away in the camp hospital on August 6, 1943. Hiroji served as a Block 25 councilman, was assigned to a job at a men’s dorm in the U.S. Navy language school, University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado on June 7, 1945, and another job in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Later he left the Heart Mountain camp for the Seabrook Farms in Bridgeton, New Jersey in September 1945, and continued to stay there. He apparently returned to California in the late 1940s and passed away on August 3, 1987. His son, Teruo, left the Heart Mountain camp for Pasadena when the war ended. He was a Nisei U.S. Army veteran and passed away at age 91 on June 23, 2019.