Fusataro Nakaya was born in Japan in 1886. After immigrating to the United States, he attended medical school at the University of Illinois in 1916. Nakaya went on to practice medicine in Boyle Heights in Los Angeles County. In Los Angeles, Fusataro also met his wife, Edith Morton. Due to the anti-miscegenation laws in place at the time, the couple married in Tijuana. As a result of the marriage, Nakaya-Morton was stripped of her U.S. citizenship. Prior to World War II, Fusataro was Vice President of the Los Angeles Japanese Association. In 1942, Nakaya was incarcerated at Heart Mountain Relocation Center by the authority granted to the Western Defense Command by Executive Order 9066. Nakaya relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where he passed away in 1952. Fusataro Nakaya was survived by his children, Marilyn, Robert, Paul, Gladys, and Frances Nakaya-Morton.
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 Fusataro Nakaya Photographs contains one USB flash drive containing 6 photographs of Fusataro Nakaya. 2 photographs feature Nakaya in scrubs outside the hospital at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, 1 photograph is a group portrait of the Heart Mountain Catholic congregation, 2 photographs are portraits in an unidentified location, and 1 photograph features Nakaya and 1 unidentified man on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with the Washington Monument in the background. The collection consists only of digital reproductions of the photographs scanned at 200 dpi.
This collection is open and available for research use.
The donor has stated his wish that the images be released to the public domain. The originals of the digital images in this collection are in the possession of the family of Fusataro Nakaya, and researchers would need to contact them for access.
[Item description]
Fusataro Nakaya Photographs, circa 1944 (SC 014.11)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The Fusataro Nakaya Photographs was donated by Charles R. Davis in 2016 (MS 2016.28).
This collection was processed by Steven Bingo.
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
Mari Tsuruyama Okumura Collection, 1936-2014
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.