Chapter 23, ‘Legacy’ At the time of her death Mizuko had twenty-six grandchildren and twenty (the number grew to a total of forty in the ensuing years) great...

From 1956 to 1976, Mizuko continued living with Yoshiko and Sam on their San Ysidro farm with her four grandchildren, Harumi, Ann, Jane, and Robert. In 1958...

Mizuko’s return to the Henry household turned out to be brief. Hatsu Nakadegawa, Henry’s mother-in-law, suddenly appeared on the Nomura’s doorstep after a s...

In February 1946, during a respite between the Idaho winter storms, Sam Hasegawa the 442nd WWII veteran and his sixteen year-old brother-in-law Yoshito (Jimm...

Ayako applied to ten different nursing schools throughout the U.S. Unfortunately, because she was working long hours at the hospital and also helping out h...

Mizuko, with her job experience in tofu and natto production, was hired in January 1945 to work in the camp soy products factory. Shoyu, or soy sauce, their...

On Mar 27, 1944 Jiro left Manzanar for Rupert, Idaho on yet another work furlough. While in Idaho he received notice that he had been drafted into the U.S. ...

By 1943, Henry Nomura’s love of movies and photography finally found expression within the confines of Manzanar. The opportunity arose when Toyo Miyatake, a ...

On Jan 1, 1943, the first New Year’s Day to be celebrated in Manzanar Concentration Camp, residents flocked to the camp mess halls for two special Japanese ...

Mizuko’s next door neighbors in unit 15-6-2 also posed a problem. While the majority of inmates were employed in one of the 70+ work units at Manzanar, some...

True to his word, Kaworu found a way to leave Manzanar. In mid-June, 1942 he and his older brother Jiro signed up for work ‘furloughs’ in Idaho thinning suga...

In the early morning before sunrise, on Tuesday, May 2, 1942, Mizuko woke with a start. Disoriented in the dim half-light, it took her a moment to recall tha...

In April, Ayako was asked to leave North Hollywood High School. Of the scores of Japanese Americans that were present at the school when she arrived before ...

Mercifully, a few days later, a notice came to the Nomura household stating that high school students from certain Laurel Canyon addresses should attend Nort...

Spring 1941 Mizuko stood at the kitchen sink rinsing the last of the dinner dishes. The warm glow from the kitchen window rapidly diminished into the outsid...

One day during the summer of 1935, a letter arrived from Onorimura, Japan. Nine year-old Ayako, sitting on the entry steps to the house, watched a mail truc...

By 1934, the Great Depression had obliterated any dreams that Mizuko and her family had had about the Cash and Carry enterprise. She and her youngest four c...

In the spring of 1930, Mizuko’s oldest stepdaughter Chiyoko, her husband Junji Kaneko, and their two daughters came south from Montana to Los Angeles. Chiyo...

Despite his lack of reaction to the mismanaged visit by Nagai-san, Kazuichi’s behavior in general became more volatile. Even with their improved financial c...

Leaving the Terminal Island cannery after a year of working at the cannery proved a more difficult transition for Mizuko than Kazuichi had portrayed. For he...