In 1936 Tatsuya Tsuruyama arrived in Los Angeles, California. He returned to Japan in 1940 to marry Miyo Karubi. Later that year, the couple moved to San Jose, California, where their first son, Shigenobu, was born on July 3, 1941. On May 29, 1942, the Tsuruyamas were sent to Santa Anita, California as part of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. On September 1, 1942, they were sent to Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, where they spent the initial part of their incarceration before being sent to Tule Lake in 1944. On October 22, their first daughter, Ruri was born. On May 17, 1944, the Tsuruyamas were transferred to Tule Lake Relocation Center in Northern California. On November 20, 1944, their second daughter, Mari was born. By August 15, 1945, the family left Tule Lake and travelled to Santa Fe, New Mexico before moving to Portland, Oregon. By January 13, 1946, the family moved again to Uraga, Japan.
Executive Order 9066:
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the incarceration from 1942 to 1946 of approximately 120,000 adults and children of Japanese ancestry, many of whom were United States citizens. They were expelled from their homes and placed in incarceration camps without due process and in violation of their civil rights. These camps were euphemistically referred to as “relocation centers” or “internment camps”. After decades of advocacy by the Japanese American community, in 1988 the United States issued a formal apology and began redress to survivors of Japanese incarceration during World War II.
The Mari Tsuruyama Okumura Collection consists of several photographs taken between 1936 and 1946. Many of the photographs prior to 1940 depict Tatsuya as an official in a Buddhist Church in Los Angeles, California. The photographs from 1940-1942 are of the family in San Jose, California and Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. The photographs from 1944-1945 are from both Heart Mountain and Tule Lake Relocation Center. The collection also includes a relief carving of Heart Mountain and some secondary documents about the Tsuruyama family.
This collection is arranged at the folder level in chronological order.
Some items in this collection have been digitized and are available online as part of the
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item description]
Mari Tsuruyama Okumura Collection, 1936-2014 (SC 014.6)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The Mari Tsuruyama Okumura Collection was donated to Washington State University by Mari Okumura in 2014.
Steven Bingo processed the collection in 2014.
In 2021, in response to evolving societal understanding regarding the language used to describe the impact of Executive Order 9066, this finding aid was revised to more accurately provide context to the mass incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
George and Frank C. Hirahara Photograph Collection of Heart Mountain, Wyoming, 1932-2016
Tom T. Hide Collection, 1925-2012
Okubara Family Collection, circa 1943-2008
Takeda Family Collection, 1938-circa 2012
Kenneth Nishiyori Collection, 1942-1944
George and Doris McIntyre Papers, 1944-1945
Patti Hirahara Collection, 1955-2020
Terry Ishihara Collection, 1989-2012
Mike Mackey Collection, 1940-2002
Heart Mountain High School
Fusataro Nakaya Photographs, circa 1944
Nabata Family Collection of Heart Mountain Photographs, circa 1942-1945
Frank Chin Oral History Collection, 1974-1986
Inez Puckett McEwen Collection on Japanese-American Incarceration, 1942-1943
Japanese American Redress Collection, 1976-2000
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.