Cycle of Life

The natural cycles of courtship, marriage, births, and deaths continued inside the camps.

Paul Ishimoto hand-carved this wooden pin to woo May Asaki in the Jerome camp in Arkansas. The two were married in the camp in April 1944.
Jim Kurisu and Eunice Yokota met on a blind date in Chicago, Illinois, while both were taking work-leave from Jerome. This photo was taken on their wedding day, April 20, 1944, at the camp.
Marlene Shigekawa was born and spent her first year of life in the Poston camp in Arizona.
 
Courtesy of Marlene Shigekawa
Ellen Hashiguchi was born to Noboru and Kusuye (Irene) Hashiguchi at the Topaz camp on September 2, 1943.
The outdoor funeral for 61-year-old Shinsuke Sugimoto, a Japanese resident alien who had spent 39 years in the United States. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he was deemed an enemy alien and sent to a Department of Justice camp in Santa Fe. He was later transferred to the Amache camp, where he died in 1945.