George Gen Murakami (1926-2013) was born on 1926 September 21 in Berkeley, California to immigrant parents, Kanekichi Mizuguchi Murakami and Kogiku Murakami. George Gen Murakami was the second youngest of four children. He was a member of Berkeley Boy Scout Troop 26 and played the bugle in the Berkeley Drum and Bugle Corps. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government signed Executive Order 9066 which forcibly removed the Murakami family from their home and their Sacramento Dry Goods Store in Berkeley. They were incarcerated at the Tanforan Race Track Assembly Center for several months before being moved to the Topaz War Relocation Center near Delta, Utah where the family resided on Block 27 for the duration of the war. While incarcerated at Tanforan and Topaz, George Murakami was a member of the re-grouped Berkeley Drum and Bugle Corps who welcomed guests and performed at events. He lettered in high school football and track and graduated from Topaz High School in 1944. His letter sweater is on display at the Topaz Museum. After graduation, he and other members of the Topaz Rams football team were recruited to work at the University of Michigan for several weeks. When Topaz closed at the end of World War II, and with nothing to return to in Berkeley, the family moved to the Imperial Hotel at 102 W. 100 South in Salt Lake City's Japantown where Kanekichi Murakami found employment as a cook. George Murakami served in the United States Army and attended LDS Business College. Kanekichi and Kogiku saved up enough money to start their own business, the Tuxedo Cafe, located on the street level of the Tuxedo Hotel at 46 S. State Street.
In 1950, George Murakami married Betty Kurokawa. Betty Katsumi Kurokawa was born on 1928 August 17 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Masako Yamakawa and Takaji Kurokawa. The Kurokawa family resided in Salt Lake City's Japantown from the early 1920s. Betty Kurokawa graduated from West High and the University of Utah. She participated in competitive bowling on the Pagoda Restaurant Bowling Team. At age 19 she won the first Ladies' Singles National Championship hosted by the Japanese American Citizen League (JACL). She studied nursing at the W. H. Grover Latter Day Saints Hospital School of Nursing and the University of Utah, receiving a graduate degree from the newly established University of Utah College of Nursing in 1950. Together, George and Betty had four children. George worked in the produce business, retiring as head produce buyer for Associated Food Stores and Betty retiring as a registered nurse at the LDS Hospital. The Kurokawa and Murakami families were members of Salt Lake City's Japanese Church of Christ. George Murakami died on 2013 May 25.
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Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Donated by George Murakami in 2000. Addendums by Lorraine Crouse and Betty Murakami in 2001, 2009, 2011, and 2013.
Processed by Special Collections staff.
Forms part of the Mitsugi M. Kasai Memorial Japanese American Archives.
The George Gen and Betty Kurokawa Murakami photograph collection consists of 1 archives box and 1 oversize box. The majority of the collection consists of digital-only items. The original images were loaned to the library and were scanned and then returned to the donor. Proof sheets with thumbnails of the images have been printed and placed the folder for research purposes. The image files can be requested, but the library no longer has the original images. Some, but not all, of the digital only items were made into high quality prints which are placed in the corresponding folders.