Bob & Kathy Nakamura: Interned in Arkansas
Before the Camp
Kathy Nakamura was barely a year old when her family heard the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Bob Nakamura was still yet to be conceived. However, shortly following Pearl Harbor, the Nakamura family, like many other families of Japanese ancestry, were forced to relocate and live in internment camps after Executive Order 9066 was passed by President Franklin Roosevelt. The order allowed for the deportation of Japanese Americans in areas that were to be considered military zones. Over 120,000 Japanese men, women, and their children were evicted by the government.
Rowher Japanese American Relocation Center
Between 1942 and 1945, up to 8,000 Japanese Americans were sent to the Rowher Japanese American Relocation center, including the Nakamura family. The camp itself was surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards covering 500 acres. The weather was hot and humid and the landscape was a swampland. Because of the swampy water, mosquitoes created problems for the people forced to live there. Although the living conditions were bad, the camp life wasn’t as bad. Fortunately for the Nakamura family, they were lucky enough to be put in Rowher relocation camp, which was less brutal than other counterparts such as Manzanar.
Life at the Camp
The Nakamura’s lived a fairly peaceful life, and made the most of their stay, unsure whether it would be a permanent or temporary. Both Bob and Kathy Nakamura were fairly young while staying at the camp. Kathy Nakamura was only about a few years old when her brother was born inside the internment camp. For children, it’s harder to explain what their situation was at the camp, but to them, their life at the camp became their norm. At one point, Kathy Nakamura was able to recall spending her Christmas in the camps, having all the families gather together in a great hall. She remembers being
visited by Santa Clause inside the internment camp. As kids, they didn’t understand or really even knew what was the cause of their living situation. Ironically, they grew up sheltered to the discrimination of others because of the walls that they were put in by American discrimination that got them there in the first place.
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Life After Camp
After being released from the internment camps in Arkansas, the Nakamura’s moved back to California in Los Angeles, looking for a new start. Kathy Nakamura remembers seeing many Japanese families living in the train station while she was departing from Arkansas. They lived in a trailer camp for one year because they didn’t have a lot of money before making it to Los Angeles. After living in Los Angeles for a while, they moved once more to Hawthorne.
Reconnecting with Society At Hawthorne, the Nakamura’s settled down and that’s where Kathy Nakamura and her brother spent the rest of their childhood growing up. Now, most of the Nakamura family currently live in Hawthorne. Back then, while their family was trying to put itself back into the world, Kathy and Bob Nakamura’s parents were always reluctant to speak of camp life. That is why, as children, they weren’t told many stories following the camp. Bob Nakamura felt that “since they were kind of
incarcerated, they really didn’t want to speak too much about it, so they were kind of keeping it quiet, in that respect.” Of course, their parents reacted differently to the relocation than Kathy and BobNakamura had since they were very young. Having been raised in isolation for the early part of her childhood, Kathy Nakamura didn’t really feel discrimination against her ethnicity until her 20’s. As she was looking for an apartment to stay in, she was asking around for vacancies. One of the apartments claimed they were full, but one of her friends were able to go in and get an apartment. Having been denied that service, Kathy Nakamura recalled that as one of the few times she has experienced discrimination.
Recalling their Experience
Although they were both very young, Kathy and Bob Nakamura didn’t really hold any negativity about their experience. They did share some of the artifacts that they kept that belonged to their parents while they were at the internment camp. Their father made a dresser cabinet/ portable closet during their time at the camps that they have held onto all these years as a reminder. Some of the tools used to make the cabinet were handmade as well. Bob says how “this was because he just had the time to do it and he had to keep himself occupied.” Despite having gone through such a life-altering experience, the Nakamura family were able to make the most of what they had gone through and moved on from there so that they could go about living a normal life.