nisei

Amazing that they were still smiling. :) -- Seen in your 1930s-40s in Color set. (?)

I am wondering/pondering the same thing. Why?

I love that they always kept their morale up even though they were being held in camps like prisoners. They managed to continue living as if they would outside of those camp walls.

Smiling politely at the camera, with a dignity all their own. What happened to the Japanese internees was really shameful.

If you see lots of internment photos and films, as I have, the incarcerees usually look happy. These were their family photos, not conscious documentation of the injustice they were living under. muI think the daily life they built in the camps, which was filled with a lot of pretty "normal" activities like employment and pastimes, didn't leave much time for sitting around and looking miserable over the hardships and fundamental betrayal dealt them by the U.S. government. Also, photography by incarcerees was officially banned in the camps though the restriction was eventually relaxed. This undoubtedly caused a lot of negative sights to be hidden from cameras. I've read that Dorothea Lange took a lot of photos that revealed the harsh realities of the internment camps, but I haven't found them online yet -- hopefully they'll be available soon.

Any chance the name might be "Nomura"? The 1928 "Census, Japanese Population in Oregon" lists Ruth T. Nomura living at 726 Rodney in Portland, single, occupation Student, born Oct. 15, 1907 in Portland. (Take the birthdate with a grain of salt because I've found a lot of wrong dates in this source). She's the daughter of Frank & Kiyo Nomura and there are other siblings at the same address. 1930 census lists her still single, living with her parents, but she's not in the database of internees as Nomura, nor could I find a Ruth born in Oregon in 1907+/- 1 year so she may have been married, deceased or moved away from the West coast by then? Check OSU yearbooks because Googling "Ruth T Nomura" turned up a hit in the Class of 1930 (but the yearbook website wanted me to register to see the photo)

I think this is her obituary - her maiden name is listed in her husband's obituary here - they moved east to avoid internment and ended up in Minnesota. Now you'll have to see if the yearbook photo looks anything like her!

Holy Smokes, vintagepix! You're right! We found her in the 1930 Beaver. Thanks for all of the information. You can bet that we'll be updating everything very shortly to reflect this huge find. I love this kind of thing! Thanks, Doug

I send out my thanks too! This is one of my favorite photos and to have this information about Ruth is really a great find for us -- and even better for our researcher. Tiah

Yay! Will you please link the yearbook photo at some point? That would be so cool! According to Ancestry.com databases there's a listing for her in Who's Who of American Women (Seventh edition, 1972-1973) Social Security Death Index lists her as Ruth Tokuko Nomura Tanbara, born 15 Oct 1907, d. 4 Jan 2008 It looks like she didn't have any children surviving but there are nieces & nephews? Minnesota Historical Society has a collection of her papers.

This image needs to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise...

Yes, please rotate the image! It's hard to read as it is now. (Japanese is written top to bottom, starting on the right side of the paper.)

Thanks for the comments! I've rotated the image, hopefully its easier to read now! Mary U.S. National Archives

Thank you!