Japanese-American Internment Camp Survivor
Their own government made them sell their property and herded them into internment camps. They had no due process of law, even though they were loyal citizens. When they were released at the war’s end, their neighbors didn’t want them back. And it happened on American soil to about 120,000 Japanese-Americans. Ken Nomiyama of Newport was born in 1942 in the most brutal of the camps when his American-born parents were imprisoned in Tule Lake, California. He was only 2 years old when his family was transferred to another camp in 1944, and 3 on their release at the war’s end in 1945. Nomiyama, now 75, says his parents never talked about their internment while he was growing up. He retired in Newport after 35 years as a Wall Street banker and volunteers on the finance committee of the Newport School Department.