On February 19, 2015, the Smithsonian Institution honors Japanese-Americans imprisoned during World War II, including the Hirahara family from Yakima.

July 15, 2024

On February 19, 2015, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History will display a small selection of artifacts in an exhibit marking the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which forced the relocation of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to internment camps. In the late spring of 1942, three generations of the Hirahara family—farmers and hotel owners who had emigrated from Japan beginning in 1907—were sent from Yakima to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. George Hirahara (1905–2000) and his teenage son Frank (1926–2006) became interested in photography, ordering equipment and film from mail-order catalogs and building their own darkroom. Over the next three years, the couple took more than 2,700 photographs documenting daily life at the camp—family outings, school activities, sports games, newborns, even funerals. A softball used by George at camp and Frank’s Heart Mountain High School ID card were donated to the Smithsonian and featured in the new exhibit. The family’s extensive photography collection, stored in a closet and attic for nearly 50 years, was donated in 2010 to the library at Washington State University, Frank’s alma mater, where it is available as a digital archive.

Smithsonian hosts Day of Remembrance

On February 19, 2015, after six months of planning, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History opened an exhibit of everyday objects used in internment camps to illuminate the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II. The exhibit was part of the annual Day of Remembrance, which in 2015 marked the 73rd anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066, which forced the relocation of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast to guarded camps. Three generations of the Hirahara family were sent from Yakima to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, about 12 miles west of Cody, Wyoming, in the late spring of 1942, along with about 1,100 others.

The Day of Remembrance exhibit included a softball that belonged to George Hirahara and was donated by his granddaughter, Patti Hirahara, the last living descendant of the family. The ball is signed with George’s initials (GH), the number of the barracks where his family lived (15-9-A), and the letters HM, which stand for Heart Mountain. Hirahara also donated the 1943 Heart Mountain High School enrollment card that granted Frank access to school activities at the camp school. The card bore Frank’s signature and that of his homeroom teacher. Both artifacts have been added to the Smithsonian’s collection.

At the opening of the exhibition, Hirahara said how happy she was that

“The Smithsonian is adding new camp artifacts to its collection, and it is an honor to be able to donate my grandfather’s softball from Heart Mountain to the Smithsonian… George Hirahara came to this country from Japan at the age of five and always felt at home in America. When given the chance, he became an American citizen in 1954 and never would have believed that his softball would now be on display” (Citizens of the Pacific).

In addition to the Hirahara objects on display, items from other camps and from individuals were also on display, including woodworking tools; a worn suitcase used by one of the internees to travel to a camp in Minidoka, Idaho; a baseball uniform worn by teenager Tetsuo Furukawa at the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona; and a handmade wooden cat-shaped ashtray carved by another inmate, the father of television and stage actor Sab Shimono (b. 1937).

Award-winning documentary

That same evening, the Smithsonian hosted a free public screening of the Emmy Award-winning documentary The Legacy of Heart Mountain, which was inspired by the many photographs George and Frank Hirahara took starting in 1943, when the ban on owning cameras in the camps was lifted. George often ordered equipment and film through mail-order catalogs and built his own underground darkroom in his barracks out of scrap materials. He was even able to purchase a photo enlarger.

George and Frank’s photographs documented the daily lives of Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain. There are images of women ice skating, holding children, arranging flowers, and playing mandolin. There are men on bicycles, inspecting the boiler room, and playing football. The normality of the images – high school marching bands and babies on blankets – is juxtaposed with those that depict the not-so-normal conditions, such as trains bringing in more prisoners and the camp barracks, photographed in all weathers, sun, snow, and hail.

These and other photographs inspired the documentary:

“Using prisoner stories from the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, (film producer) David Ono examines what happened through one of the largest private photo collections owned by George and Frank Hirahara, who kept a secret darkroom beneath their barracks. During their years of imprisonment, they took thousands of photos of camp life. Each photo is a window into the daily struggles of American citizens imprisoned in their own country, yet desperately trying to lead a normal life” (Day of Remembrance 2015).

The documentary also documented the contributions of the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, two separate Japanese-American units known for their bravery in World War II. On the other hand, the film told the story of young Japanese-American men who resisted the draft in protest against American policies.

Following the screening, the Smithsonian hosted a panel discussion with scholars and community leaders, including former Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta, who also appeared in the film, film producer David Ono, and journalist and author Paul Takemoto. The event concluded with a live spoken word performance by 2014 National Poetry Slam winner G. Yamazawa, who received a standing ovation when he recited a verse about his Japanese grandmother.

After the war

After World War II, the Hirahara family returned to Yakima to resume their lives. George enjoyed restoring and displaying old farm equipment and began traveling the country with his wife, Koto, in their RV. After graduating from Washington State University in 1948, Frank worked for six years as a design and project engineer with the Bonneville Power Administration in Portland, Oregon. In 1955, he moved to Southern California to work as an engineer on various space programs until his retirement in 1988.

In 1992, when George and Koto were preparing to move to California to be closer to Frank, granddaughter Patti flew to Yakima to help her grandparents pack. She found a box of 850 Heart Mountain photo negatives in the attic. In 2010, after her father Frank died, she found another 1,200 negatives hidden in a box in his closet. In an interview, Hirahara admitted that she knew of the existence of the photos but was surprised by the size of the collection. The extensive collection filled 32 boxes.

In 2010, Patti Hirahara donated the more than 2,700 images to the library at Washington State University, her father’s alma mater, to ensure that the camp’s history is not lost for future generations.

“The photographs tell the story of people in an unpleasant situation, imprisoned by their government in a barren landscape, but willing to make a good life for themselves for the time being,” says Hirahara. “They beautified their barracks, explored their surroundings and developed a social life. Frank’s images include photos from the high school yearbook, shots of basketball games and school dances” (Sudermann).

WSU has since received at least two National Park Service grants totaling over $125,000 to digitize, preserve, and make the George and Frank C. Hirahara Collection available to the public online. Patti Hirahara also donated photographs to the Yakima Valley Museum, the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, the Anaheim Public Library Heritage Center, and the Oregon Historical Society, several of which have opened exhibitions based on the photographs. In 2017, the Smithsonian presented a more extensive follow-up exhibition titled “Righting a Wrong – Japanese Americans and World War II.”

Sources:

“Day of Remembrance 2015,” National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution website, accessed June 27, 2024 (https://americanhistory.si.edu/day-remembrance-2015); “Smithsonian seeks objects documenting World War II-era Japanese-American history for future exhibition,” February 5, 2015, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution website, accessed June 27, 2024 (https://americanhistory.si.edu/press/releases/smithsonian-seeks-objects-document-wwii-era-japanese-american-history-future); Hannelore Sudermann, “A Hidden History,” Washington State University Alumni MagazineSpring 2012 (https://magazine.wsu.edu/2012/01/30/a-hidden-history/); “Grant expands online access to Japanese internment materials,” April 3, 2012, WSU News Archive website, accessed June 25, 2024 (https://archive.news.wsu.edu/news/2012/04/03/grant-expands-online-access-to-japanese-internment-material/); “Day of Remembrance at the Smithsonian,” February 13, 2015, The Rafu Shimpo Website accessed on June 26, 2024 (https://rafu.com/2015/02/day-of-remembrance-at-the-smithsonian/); Tiffany Ujiiye, “A Day of Infamy and a Day of Remembrance,” March 5, 2015, Citizens of the Pacific Website accessed June 27, 2024 (http://www.pacificcitizen.org/a-day-of-infamy-and-a-day-of-remembrance/); Tomas D’Anella, “Land of Sorrow and Joy: Celebrating Yakima Valley’s Japanese Immigrants,” August 29, 2023, KNDU-TV (TriCities) Website accessed June 27, 2024 (https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/land-of-joy-and-sorrow-celebrating-yakima-valleys-japanese-immigrants/article_3071fbe0-46f5-11ee-ba88-eb97efd38002.html).