By Stuart Walthall
Many who visit the Locke Boarding House Museum are at least familiar with the Kuramoto name. An eye-catching placard, created by California State Parks, is prominently displayed in the upstairs west room of the museum containing the Kuramoto family portrait along with the following brief history of the family:
“In 1921 Sukeichi and Nobu Kuramoto moved to Locke to operate the boarding house. The Kuramotos rented the second-floor rooms to seasonal farm laborers and used the ground floor as their family residence. In 1942, the Kuramoto family was forced to relocate to an internment camp. After WWII, the family did not return to Locke”.
The only information about the Kuramoto family presented to the public, and mentioned by museum docents, was contained on that placard.
Here was my typical (previous) introductory docent-spiel when welcoming visitors to the museum: “The Locke Boarding House Museum is operated by the Locke Foundation (LF) whose mission is to educate the public about the history, culture, and legacy of Locke – the largest, most complete example of a rural agricultural Chinese American community in the United States. However, the Locke Boarding House was NOT Chinese. It was Japanese. In fact, the road that enters Locke was a border that separated the Chinese community from the Japanese-run Boarding House. Technically, we are standing “out-of-town”. Even the Chinese kids avoided this side of the road”. Then I would recite the perfunctory history of the
Kuramoto family contained on the State Parks placard.
Visitors would often ask: “What happened to the Kuramoto family?”. “Where did they go after their internment?” “What did they do?” The answers to those questions (and more) remained a mystery for years. That is, until May of 2022 when I picked up the ringing Boarding House Museum telephone.
“Hello, my name is Shirley Kuramoto”.
CONNECTING
Coincidentally, at the time of Shirley’s phone call, the Locke Foundation Artifact and Archival Program team was gathered at the museum cataloging and preserving precious artifacts from the Foundation’s vast collection. Team members couldn’t help but notice the quizzical expression on my face as I held the phone to my ear.
“My husband was Sam Kuramoto. His family operated the Boarding House. I wanted to let you know Sam passed away”. (Sam S. Kuramoto – April 29, 1928, to March 22, 2022).
The Locke Foundation was aware of Sam Kuramoto, the young boy in the State Parks placard photograph. He was living in the Bay Area. However, the LF had no recorded history of Sam or his family.
I introduced myself to Shirley and offered my condolences at her husband’s passing. I informed her the LF was very interested in the Kuramoto family’s story and would like to interview her at her convenience. And as our conversation progressed, I couldn’t help but
notice the youthful upbeat quality of Shirley’s voice and her lucidity. I had done the mental math. Shirley could be no spring chicken. As it turned out at the time of our conversation Shirley was 92 years old!
Shirley and I had many pleasant and informative conversations following that initial phone call. She was more than happy to answer my many questions and provide numerous documents, photos, and related materials. Shirley not only opened the door to the Kuramoto
family history but also her own family’s heritage – the Nakasoras.
Let’s start with her husband Sam and his family’s saga. And regarding that often-asked question: “Where did the Kuramoto family go after their internment?” – The short answer: Minnesota! But before discussing that chapter of the family’s story, let’s take a deeper dive into the Kuramoto narrative – before their internment and before their life in Locke.
THE KURAMOTOS
Sukeichi Kuramoto left Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan in 1889 for Seattle, Washington at the ripe age of 16 years. He found living quarters with a Caucasian family of his same Christian faith. When it was time for Sukeichi to seek a wife, his family in Japan sent him Nobu Kukara’s picture. She was the daughter of one of the families in the neighborhood. He in turn sent his picture to his family to present to Nobu. She agreed to marry Sukeichi and left Japan for San Francisco’s Angel Island (immigration station) around 1910 to meet her future husband for the first time. Thus, began the journey of the Kuramoto family in America. Sukeichi Kuramoto and his new bride Nobu were Issei, first generation native-born Japanese immigrants.
They settled in as farmers at the Bailey Ranch in Walnut Grove, California. Sukeichi soon became the foreman of the ranch’s vegetable farm and pear orchard. Around 1921, the Kuramotos moved from Walnut Grove to nearby Locke, California. The Locke Rooming
House (now the Locke Boarding House Museum) became their home and occupation until the
onset of WWII. There, they raised five children, three girls and two boys, living within a community whose population and culture was overwhelmingly Chinese.
The eldest child was daughter Matsue, born in Walnut Grove, followed by sister Kikue, born in Sacramento, California. Eldest son Eimi was born in Japan. Sister Haruko and youngest child Setsuo (Sam) were born in Sacramento.
Sukeichi and Nobu, along with their two eldest daughters, took a trip to Japan in 1918. It was on this trip that brother Eimi was born. Many years after WWII, Eimi Kuramoto resided in Richfield, Minnesota. He later lived in Kensington, California, near Berkeley.
Haruko attended the Walnut Grove Oriental School, located one mile upriver from Locke, through the eighth grade. The entire student body was comprised of Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos. Caucasian students had their own school in Walnut Grove where they were bussed daily. Students attending the Oriental School had to make the trek on foot. Later, the Oriental School was deemed a “firetrap” and was replaced by a new school in 1937. It remained segregated until 1942 when all Japanese Americans in California were interned, leaving Chinese and Filipino students in the Oriental School. Financial considerations were apparently the deciding factor in desegregating schools in 1943.
Haruko and her brothers Eimi and Sam also attended Japanese language school to learn to speak and write their patent’s mother tongue. Located in Walnut Grove. Gakuen Hall was a Japanese language school built in 1927 by Japanese immigrants to offer an alternative to state-operated schools. The school was part of the Japanese American community’s attempt
to maintain their language and culture in America. The school offered one-hour classes after grammar school. It was at the Japanese language school where the Kuramoto family befriended Dr. Terami, an instructor who later moved to Minnesota to teach mathematics at Macalester College in St. Paul.
Walnut Grove and Locke are farming communities. They were the heart of the asparagus growing district and Bartlett pears were the principal product of the region. Mother Nobu and eldest daughter Matsue augmented the family income by working during harvest season at the nearby Locke Southern Pacific Packing Shed (now known as the Boathouse Marina). The Kuramoto family also attended the Walnut Grove Japanese United Methodist Church, founded in 1915 by Isseis. Other future Minnesotans, including Dr. Terami and his wife, attended the church.
INTERNMENT
Quote from Setsuo (Sam) Kuramoto: “My mother Nobu, my brother Eimi, my sister Haruko and I were eating our Sunday pancake breakfast together on December 7, 1941, when we were jolted by the radio announcement ‘The Japs invaded and bombed the Pearl Harbor, U.S.
Naval Shipyard in Honolulu’. We were stunned by the news and the first thing my mother said was ‘I think we are going to be in trouble’”.
“Stay inside the house and don’t go to school!” Fear in my mother’s voice made me obey her without hesitation. I soon learned the segregated Oriental School had a large sign posted in front of the building that read: JAPS NOT ALLOWED ON SCHOOL PROPERTY”.
Nobu and Sam began burning letters and documents in the downstairs furnace. Sam found an old gun and threw it in the river.
“I was 13 years old, and my carefree days while growing up and living in my mother’s boarding house in the small town of Locke would change dramatically overnight. We abandoned our boarding house with everything in it, as we prepared ourselves to bring one suitcase in each hand, to be incarcerated in camp.” The Kuramoto family were given 48 hours to pack up and leave for an unknown destination.
Family patriarch Sukeichi had died in June of 1936 before the outbreak of the war. The remaining Kuramoto family members were detained in a temporary evacuation camp called Turlock Assembly Center in Turlock, California. It was located on the fairgrounds where evacuees lived for over a month in small barracks of black tar paper. In July 1942, the Kuramoto family and other Japanese deportees were transported aboard trains with covered windows to the Gila River Relocation Camp in Arizona. The camp was located on the Gila River Indian Reservation about 50 miles southeast of Phoenix, near the town of Rivers. The average summer temperature was 104 degrees and had been known to reach 125 degrees. By December 1942, Gila River had a peak population of 13,348 and was Arizona’s fourth largest city.
Meals were prepared by Japanese cooks and served in the mess hall. Daughter Haruko worked as a waitress in Mess Hall No. 9 earning $16 a month. Government issued army cots and blankets were provided in the rudimentary sleeping quarters. Communal bathrooms with showers and laundry rooms were shared. No sporting activities outdoors were allowed. Women embroidered, knitted, crocheted, and conversed with each other to pass the time. Nobu and Haruko taught others how to make chrysanthemum flowers with paper. The Kuramotos were members of the Canal Christian Church in relocation camp.
The following are some events which Sam Kuramoto found challenging during his internment: “Living and sleeping in one room with my whole family; Hunting for scraps of wood to make furniture while trying to avoid being bitten by rattle snakes and scorpions; Taking a shower for the first time; Eating lots of livers and tongues; Dealing with many sandstorms, cold winters and hot summers; Learning to live inside a barbed-wire camp, patrolled by military guards”.
Sam and his camp schoolmates pledged allegiance to the flag every morning. They played basketball and baseball. They listened to Glen Miller and Tommy Dorsey music while sitting in dugout holes under the barracks where it was cooler. Sometimes they would crawl under the barbed wire to look at the surrounding desert. Sam: “The desert was a certain death sentence. No one could have survived outside the camp”.
By 1945, all remaining Japanese Americans who had been incarcerated at Gila River Relocation Camp were released. Many Japanese Americans suffered harshly after leaving the internment camps. But after years of captivity, it was time to rebuild new lives as (truly)
American citizens.
NEW BEGINNINGS
Sam: “At the end of the war, after we were released from the Gila River camp, my mother Nobu, sisters Setsuo and Haruko, and I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. My mother was compensated a small amount for the boarding house she owned in Locke. She never did go back to live in Locke. We never found out whatever happened to everything we abandoned in the house”.
The Kuramoto family left for Minnesota and took up residence at 1605 Third Avenue, Minneapolis by December of 1944. They gave up their West Coast home, family and friends and started anew in Minnesota. Here they felt there was an atmosphere of friendliness and would encounter less discrimination and prejudice.
Setsuo graduated from North High School in Minneapolis. Haruko possessed sufficient dress making and tailoring skills in 1945 to get a job at Winget-Kickernick’s in downtown Minneapolis. Mother Nobu also worked at Kickernick’s which was a manufacturer of rayon-nylon undergarments.
Sam attended high school in 1945 for his senior year. Sam: “I was very apprehensive in attending an all-white school for the first time in my life. But all the students were
very welcoming to me. I never had any problems from other students”.
Sam enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 18 in 1947 and served for six years. His training included Japanese language studies at the Military Intelligence Service Language School at Presidio of Monterey. He was then assigned to live in Tokyo for further intense Japanese language studies for six months.
Sam: “I did not mingle among the civilians in Tokyo. I felt they had a defeatist attitude and I had a feeling we were not welcome. In the summer of 1948, I reported to the 7th Infantry Division in Camp Crawford at Sapporo, Hokkaido. I was assigned as an interrogator to the G2 Intelligence Section at Division Headquarters. We interrogated Japanese prisoners-of-war who returned from Siberia in a Russian Army camp. We were interested in finding out if there were any Communist infiltrators among them”.
“We lived comfortably. We took furo baths (steep sided wooden bathtub filled with very hot water). “We had a Japanese cook and driver. We had no curfews. We dressed in civilian clothes to eat out since the military police could not distinguish us niseis (1st generation American-born Japanese) from the native Japanese. At an orphanage at a Catholic convent, I met children who begged for gum and lifesavers. Meeting these orphaned children led me to be thankful to have a home where I could someday return safely to loved ones”.
“When the Korean War began in 1950, I trained at the base of Mt. Fuji and was shipped out of Korea for combat duty as a rifleman. After serving in Korea, I returned to Osaka, where I worked at the US Army 382nd General Hospital before I was shipped back to the U.S”.
Sam Kuramoto was discharged from the Army as Sergeant in 1958. He moved to California and worked at FMC Corporation for 35 years as an electrical designer in the engineering of Bradley Army tanks.
In 1959 he married Shirley. They lived primarily in San Jose, California and were married 63 years before Sam’s passing. They had two children, Stuart and Susan, both still living in the greater Bay Area. Shirley will be the subject of Part Two – A Remarkable Family and a Mystery Solved. You’ll like Shirley.
EPILOGUE
And what of the final chapters for the rest of the Kuramoto family?
Mother Nobu passed away in Minnesota. Oldest child (daughter) Matsue and second-oldest child (daughter) Kikue both lived beyond the age of 100 years and died in a San Mateo, California care facility. Brother Eimi, ten years Sam’s senior, became a watchmaker and passed away in Berkeley. California. Youngest daughter Haruko lived in Minnesota and died of MS in 1980.
Article From The Locke Foundation Newsletter
