Hara family papers, 1942-1991

Iwao Hara and Mae (Kanazawa) Hara were natives of Seattle, Washington. Mae's family owned the Jackson Fish & Oyster Company, and Iwao's family operated a small merchantile business. Both Iwao and Mae graduated from Garfield High School. Iwao graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Accounting and established a small bookkeeping and accounting business before the war.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mae's grandfather Kanazawa was among the Japanese picked up by the FBI and detained at the Department of Justice camp in Missoula, Montana. Iwao and Mae were interned along with other Japanese-Americans from the Seattle region, first at Camp Harmony in Puyallup, WA, and later transported to the Minidoka relocation camp in Jerome, ID. Iwao established a Consumer's Cooperative in the camp, and Mae was appointed the Director of Music for the camp, and developed a camp music program. The Haras left Minidoka in the spring of 1943 with assistance from the American Friends Society, and eventually settled in Madison, Wisconsin. Iwao died in 1975, and Mae in 2005.