Seisaku Aoyagi's Memoirs of Lordsburg Prison Camp
date: label: date made
content: mid 20th century
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: This is a three-page account of Seisaku Aoyagi's relocation to a prison camp from Hawai'i, handwritten by Seisaku Aoyagi.
label: Description
content: Seisaku Aoyagi was born on June 4, 1888 in Sumiyoshi, Yamanashi, Japan. Seisaku Aoyagi immigrated to Hilo, Hawai’i from Yokosuka, Kanagawa-ken, Japan in 1907 and originally worked as a plantation contract laborer. In 1921, Seisaku Aoyagi married Kin Aoki, and together they founded the business Hawaii Junk and sold military surplus from World War I as well as buying scrap metal.
label: Description
content: Seisaku Aoyagi registered with the Selective Service Proclamation on April 25, 1942, and was given a Registration Certificate (D.S.S. Form 2). The physical description for Seisaku Aoyagi said he was “oriental”, was 5’2” and 132 lbs, with black hair, a light brown complexion, and had a scar on the back of his head. Seisaku Aoyagi also registered as an Alien under the Alien Registration Act of 1940.
label: Description
content: Kin Aoki Aoyagi was born on June 29, 1892 in Japan. Her occupation was a housewife.
label: Description
content: Kin and Seisaku had two children, a daughter named Midori Aoyagi and a son, Seiji Aoyagi. Seiji Aoyagi passed away on October 13, 2015.
label: Description
content: Seisaku Aoyagi was sent to the Lordsburg Internment Camp in New Mexico. It opened on June 15, 1942, and closed in 1944. Lordsburg held the largest number of Issei prisoners with a peak population of Issei at 1,500. Seisaku and Kin Aoyagi were both Issei. Lordsburg was an enemy alien camp managed by the Department of Justice, and its first prisoners consisted of a group of Japanese men deemed dangerous by the FBI.
label: Description
content: The infamous killings of Toshio and Hirota Isomura happened at Lordsburg on July 27, 1942. These two elderly prisoners were shot and killed by a guard, Private First Class Clarence Burleson, who claimed they had been running towards the fence to escape. The guard was found not guilty by an army court-martial board even after prisoners testified that Kobata and Isomura were both physically disabled (Kobata had tuberculosis and Isomura had a bad back). This led to a protest of prisoners, and it turned out that Colonel Lundy had violated the Geneva Convention by forcing prisoners to build military facilities in harsh conditions without pay. Colonel Lundy was retired and Lordsburg was closed after this, with everyone in the camp relocating to the Santa Fe Detention Camp in New Mexico.
label: Description
content: On October 22, 1945, The Commanding General ended the prohibition of all that were removed from Hawai’i under the provisions of Executive Order 9066 and Executive Order 9489 and stated that they were allowed to return.
label: Description
content: Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor, and enabled the Secretary of War to create military exclusion zones were persons who were a threat to national security could be excluded from. Most affected by Executive Order 9066 were Japanese Americans; they were forcibly removed from their homes on the west coast and sent to prison camps for the duration of the war.
label: Description
content: Executive Order 9489 authorized and directed the Secretary of War to designate a Military Commander for the Territory of Hawai’i and to prescribe this territory as a military area and thus turn it into a military exclusion zone that those considered a threat to national security could be excluded from. It was signed on October 18, 1944 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
label: Description
content: Seisaku Aoyagi was one of the men selected for removal from Hawai’i; he was put on the sixth transfer boat from Honolulu on September 16, 1942. The ship had 28 men onboard. It listed his address as Hilo, Hawai’i. This list that stated what boat he was on was a list that stated who had been transferred from Hawai’i to the mainland.
label: Description
content: There is an Aoyagi Family Scholarship at the University of Hawai’i, Hilo Campus that provides scholarship support to Hawai’i Island students attending the University of Hawai’i at Hilo majoring in Business or Economics.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: World
topic: label: related event
content: Japanese American Internment
label: related event
content: World War II
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Japanese American
label: See more items in
content: Executive Order 9066
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Seiji Aoyagi
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2015.0252.44
label: catalog number
content: 2015.0252.44
label: accession number
content: 2015.0252
objectType: label: Object Name
content: journal
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 in x 8 3/8 in; 27.94 cm x 21.2725 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall; part:: 5 in x 7 7/8 in; 12.7 cm x 20.0025 cm