The issuing of Executive Order 9066 has had a personal effect 

upon my family. My dad is a Japanese American, and his

parents lived during the time of war relocation. My grandparents,

Dr. Tetsuo Sugiyama and his wife, Mary, were both American

citizens that were treated like prisoners to their own country

because of their Japanese heritage. In 1980, Mary Sugiyama told

her story to The Grand Rapids Press. 



Mary Watanabe knew that on December 7, 1941, after the

bombings at Pearl Harbor, that war was on the horizon. She, like

many other Japanese Americans, never thought the war would

affect her, as it was a battle solely between the United States

and Japan. However, Miss Watanabe became an enemy to her

own country, as war hysteria began to break out, and even

hospital personnel become suspected of disloyalty. The

Japanese were placed uner a strict curfew of 8:00p.m. and

were restricted to travel within a five-mile radius of their home. 



Miss Watanabe stated that the Japanese were compliant with the

orders placed upon them, yet many Japanese were being

murdered and others the "police just took away," yet there were

not many Japanese in prison. She said, "The Japanese weren't

lawless. We were brought up never to bring shame to the family

name." Yet, in April of 1942, Miss Watanabe and her family were

ordered out of her home and ordered to relocate to Turlock Fairgrounds. The military told her family that they could only take the belongings that they could carry, and to think of it as a short trip. For Miss Watanabe, that "short trip" lasted for more than two years. Upon arriving at the fairgrounds, her bags were searched, she was given the number 7437 as an identifier, and for the next three months, she lived in stables or other broken down buildings, sleeping on a hay mattress alongside 3,000 other internees. 



The Watanabe family were treated like prisoners to their own country. Yet, they did nothing to protest. "We were brought up to obey--to do what our parents told us--and when the government said 'Go,' we just obeyed." After three months, she was separated from her family, as the government ordered her to move inland to a camp in Arizona. Upon arriving at the camp, she noted that is the relocation center was unfinished and a lack of resources--no food and no water readily available. The "homes" were not complete. The barracks were covered in tarpaper and the wood floors were unfinished. They shared communal bathrooms that consisted of twelve holes with no partitions, and the sewage ran on the floor of the bathrooms in troughs. Showers consisted of eight in a big room, with only cold running water. 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Even after living in Massachusetts for a couple of years, Dr. and Mrs. Sugiyama were still fearful of the prejudices against them because of they were of Japanese descent. They settled into an interracial community in Grand Rapids with other German and Italian internees. They "Americanized" their children and brought them up without any knowledge of their Japanese heritage. Paul Sugiyama, my father, and his siblings, were not taught any Japanese customs nor were they allowed to learn or speak the Japanese language. 

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Dr. and Mrs. Sugiyama lost everything when they both relocated to

Arizona. Both of their families had owned a significant amount of land

in California, land that today would be a worth a considerable amount

of money. But greater than this financial loss was the loss of their

heritage. My father is unable to speak Japanese, and he knows very

little about his ancestral customs. In part, my grandparents are

responsible for this, but in a larger sense the United States is to

blame. The U.S. instilled fear into the Japanese people. They stripped

them of their rights, caused them to lose everything that they owned

and worked for, and left them to fend for themselves and their

families. Above all, the United States is blameworthy for the loss

of the cultural heritage of the Japanese-Americans. Mrs. Sugiyama

blames the imprisonment of the Japanese during World War II on

"war hysteria" and she noted, "Now you look back, and you think,

'They took away every right.'" 

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​The Grand Rapids Press: January 3, 1980

My grandfather, Dr. Tetsuo Sugiyama passed away on January 20, 1975. 

My grandmother, Mary Sugiyama, passed away, shortly after she told her story, on July 25, 1980.