Japanese Internment: Voices from the Past

FRESNO, Calif. – You wouldn’t know by the exterior of Saburo and Marion Masada’s home all the memories that it holds. The outside of the house appears green and silent. But a look inside tells the story of a past that the family continues to remember.

Memories are laid out on poster board, some from their childhood. For Saburo Masada, his childhood memories were from living on the family farm as a 12-year-old.

“Well, this army truck came into the front yard of our farm and we all piled in and we were taken to the fairgrounds,” Saburo Masada says.

The fairgrounds Masada referred to was the Fresno Fairgrounds. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans and immigrants were taken to temporary camps such as the fairgrounds and would later be sent to other camps.

Marion Masada also remembers what her mother told her when Marion was a 9-year-old living in Salinas, Calif.

“I remember my mother when we went into the camp there,” Marion says. “She told us we’re not going to be known by our name anymore. We’re going to be known by our number. So you’ve got to memorize your number.”

When they were detained, Japanese Americans and citizens were assigned numbers. The numbers from Saburo’s family was 29534; Marion’s was 13141.

The paths that Saburo and Marion took were different. From the Fresno Fairgrounds, Saburo was later sent to Jerome, Arkansas. Marion was moved to Arkansas from Salinas.

After Saburo and Marion were released, they came back to California. They were married and later retired from serving communities through the Presbyterian Church.

Seventy-five years after the Japanese internment, Saburo and Marion are sharing their experiences with others including students at Clovis High School.

History teacher Katie Wayne says students learn much more from hearing stories in person than from history books.

“The most important part of this whole presentation was the fact that they are a primary source,” Wayne says. “They are the lives, the experiences of what actually happened.”

Saburo says by sharing their experience with others, the rest of the community will do the same.

“It’s hard for me as a second-generation American of Japanese ancestry to speak up. So I’m trying hard to do that. And so I’d like to see our children and the younger generation to do that,” he says.