Let Them Never Forget : Japanese American Collected Memories of WWII Internment for Museum Exhibit

When Shiro Nomura left the dusty, hot Owens Valley back in 1945, he had hoped he never would return. But the 75-year-old Japanese American and former Manzanar internee did go back.

Again and again.

“He wanted people to know what happened there and to let them never forget,” said Nomura’s wife, Mary.

It was during a trip up Highway 395, on the eastern side of the Sierras in the mid-60s, that the couple walked into the Inyo County museum. They struck up a conversation with then-director Henry Raub, who suggested that Nomura write about life in the relocation camp and loan Raub souvenirs for an exhibit. The museum, located in Independence, is only six miles north of the site of the Manzanar War Relocation Center, where more than 10,000 people of Japanese ancestry were abruptly ordered to live during World War II. Manzanar is now a nationally recognized historic site.

It was the beginning of a long relationship. Nomura, whose nickname is Shi (pronounced Shy), made frequent pilgrimages with donations from Japanese American families from Southern California to the museum until his health forced him to stop.

“Shi started this collection as a volunteer effort more than 25 years ago,” said Bill Michael, director of the Eastern California Museum of Inyo County. “He didn’t get paid. He did this all by himself.”

Today, the museum’s exhibit provides visitors with a snapshot of life at Manzanar, a place and time many Americans would not wish to remember.

Not only did Nomura write a series of articles on internment from a Japanese-American’s perspective, but he also started a remarkable collection of photos, diaries and mementos--nearly everything he could get his hands on--from fellow Manzanar internees.

Five years ago, failing health forced him to turn over his responsibility to Masuo Okui, 62, of Woodland Hills. Nomura, who has never won formal recognition for the exhibit, suffers from dementia and depression, which has robbed him of his memory and most of his speech, said his wife.

“He can speak but only to say just three words, ‘No,’ ‘Go,’ and ‘Here,’ ” she said.

Okui said only about one-fourth of the material they have collected is being shown in the exhibit. Some will probably be shared with Manzanar, depending on the U.S. National Park Service, Okui said. This year the Park Service will take over maintenance of the Manzanar site. Several proposals to enhance the site are pending.

“This was Shi’s dream,” Okui said. “He wanted something near Manzanar where people could actually read about what went on. More than a plaque. But about five years ago, he started getting forgetful. He used to write down people’s names in a little book so if asked, he could remember who they were. But then he started to fade fast.”

It was in healthier years that Nomura began a correspondence to the Inyo museum about his camp life that was published in the museum’s newsletter. When history professor Jerry Stanley got hold of Nomura’s articles, Stanley--who was busy on his first book, “Children of the Dust Bowl,” about migrant laborers--put them aside for a future project.

Stanley’s new book, released last month, “I am an American,” (Crown Publishers Inc., New York, $15) tells of the saga of Japanese Americans during World War II, with Nomura as the book’s main focus.

“His story is remarkable,” said Stanley, who teaches history at Cal State Bakersfield. “He was a 17-year-old Nisei, who didn’t speak or write Japanese. Thoroughly Americanized, and he’s a big sports jock at Banning High, playing football, captain of the track team, baseball player and he was getting ready to marry his young love. But he gets shipped to Manzanar and she goes to Camp Granada in Colorado. It’s like ‘Gone With The Wind.’ A war breaks up their romance.”

It was more than 50 years ago when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, allowing the military evacuation of 120,313 people of “Japanese ancestry” from the West Coast to 10 camps across seven states.

At the time, Nomura was a standout athlete who helped on his father’s farm growing carrots and radishes in Carson.

Before the war, Nomura didn’t know Mary. In fact, he was in love with Emiko (Amy) Hattori. How Nomura and his future wife met, Stanley said, is a magical part of the book.

Nomura, a handsome young man, had taken Amy Hattori to a Nisei week festival at Yamato Hall in Los Angeles, shortly before the war began.

“He heard Mary sing there at the festival and he fell in love with her voice,” Stanley said. “But he didn’t meet her. A few years later, he’s walking through Manzanar and hears her voice again. She’s singing. Mary was known as the songbird of Manzanar. Well, his plans get shifted, he marries Mary, and Amy goes on to marry an engineer.”

Mary, who had been in talent contests and shows singing Bing Crosby tunes and other songs, apparently was more surprised by the turn of events than Nomura was.

“When he first heard me sing, he told me that he turned to Amy and told her, ‘I’m going to marry that girl,’ ” said Mary Nomura, now 69. “Can you imagine!”

She said they met at Manzanar in November, 1944, and were married eight months later.

After the war, she worked as a housekeeper in Pasadena. Nomura became a gardener. But the couple eventually started Shi’s Fish Mart in 1959 at the intersection of Brookhurst Street and Garden Grove Boulevard, which was one of the first, large Asian grocery stores in Orange County. The couple sold the store and retired in 1981.

Sadly, Nomura’s health since has declined. He suffers Alzheimer’s symptoms, his wife said.

“I remember when Professor Stanley came to visit. He had never met Shi and I had to tell him, it’s too late. He can’t talk anymore,” she said.

According to Michael, more than 27,000 people visited the Inyo museum last year.