Hayao "Sam" and Toshiko Chuman Papers

Sam Hayao Chuman 中馬速男 (1913-2001) was born in Los Angeles, California on May 24, 1913 as a Nisei son to Suehiko and Sato Chuman who were Japanese immigrants from Kagoshima, Japan. When he was three months old, the Chumans decided to return to Kagoshima. While he was raised and completed school in Japan, Hayao had been determined to return to his native country, America. In 1931, he returned to the U.S. with his uncle and family, and stayed with them in Venice, California. He realized that an American education was the key to success and decided to attend high school at Venice High School and Oceanside High school, learning agricultural science. He was proud of America’s constitutional democracy and determined to give up his dual citizenship so he renounced his Japanese citizenship. In 1934, he became independent and moved to Bellflower, California and started his own nursery business.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was removed from the West Coast and incarcerated in the Santa Anita Assembly Center in April 1942. The exclusion order horrified him, causing him to sign up for repatriation. He was transferred to the Jerome incarceration camp and then to the Rohwer incarceration camp in order to board the M.S. Gripsholm which would depart from New York to Japan for the exchange of prisoners of war. Hayao was, however, not able to board the ship and was transferred to the Tule Lake Segregation Center. While incarcerated at the Tule Lake camp he participated in 祖國研究靑年團 Sokoku Kenkyu Seinendan (or Sokoku Seinen Dan), a group that was created to provide cultural and recreational activities. The group was later overtaken by a gang of violent right-wing extremists that transformed and renamed the group 報國靑年團 Hokoku Seinendan (or Hokoku Seinen Dan) for young men and 即時帰國奉仕團 Sokuji Kikoku Hoshidan (or Sokuji Kikoku Hoshi Dan) for men. Without his consent, Hayao was elected vice chair of the group but he was associated with the group in name only. He could not resign under threat of harm. Hayao applied for repatriation again to prevent transfer to other camps and face public hostility. He believed his deportation to Japan was inevitable because of his renunciation of American citizenship and classification as an enemy alien. He wanted to keep his family together and believed repatriation was the only way.

Toshiko Chuman (nee Nakamura) (1918-2000) was born on August 27, 1918 to Issei Japanese immigrants, Chohachiro and Tei Nakamura, in Los Angeles, California. When she was eight years old, she and her sisters were taken to Japan to be raised by their grandmother while her parents remained in the United States, operating a chop suey restaurant. After completing high school, she returned to the U.S. and helped her parents run their restaurant. During the war, she and her family were sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center and transferred to the Jerome camp where she married Hayao Chuman in August 1943. Since Hayo had requested repatriation, she followed him and was transferred to the Rohwer camp in September 1943 and the Tule Lake Segregation Center in October 1943. After Hayao was transferred to the Santa Fe Internment camp in January 1945, Toshiko and Junko, who was their first child born in the Tule Lake camp, were transferred to the Crystal City Enemy Alien Internment camp in March 1946 and then the Santa Fe Internment camp to join him in 1946 or 1947.

In June 1947, Hayao was hired by the Seabrook Farms Company in New Jersey and the family was released from the Crystal City internment camp under the supervision of their attorney, Wayne Collins. They relocated to a few locations, including Massachusetts and Illinois, and finally returning to California in 1953. They had eight children: Junko born in Tule Lake camp; Shunsuke born in Seabrook, New Jersey; Kay and Amy in Falmouth, Massachusetts; Mina and Iwane in Chicago, Illinois; and Canna and Gale in Gardena, California.After years of litigation, Hayao and Toshiko were able to regain their American citizenship. Toshiko’s renunciation was cancelled on November 6, 1958, and Hayao’s was cancelled on June 14, 1967.