In 1942, the Nishiyori family was removed from their home on Vashon Island, Washington and sent to Pinedale Assembly Center in Central California by the War Relocation Authority as part of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans authorized by Executive Order 9066. At the time of their forced relocation, the Nishoyori family consisted of Yukichi, Fuyo, and their children Kenneth, Meiko and Monty. The family spent the incarceration at Tule Lake Relocation Center in Northern California. After leaving Tule Lake, the family returned to Vashon Island.
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 collection contains the March 31, 1944 quarterly census for Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Wyoming. This census includes the names of over 9000 individuals who were incarcerated at Heart Mountain at the time, as well as birth dates, citizenship status, barrack number, and the family number assigned by the War Relocation Administration.
The collection also contains menus and administrative documents from Tule Lake Relocation Center, where Kenneth's grandfather Yukichi was a senior steward. The menus list what was served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Memos and other documentation include recipes, policies, and training documents for mess hall staff. This includes documents on the duties of the kitchen and wait staff, notifications on changes in mess hall procedures, and a training outline for wait staff.
This collection is arranged in a single series.
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.
The Kenneth Nishiyori Collection is in the public domain. No restrictions apply.
[Item description]
Kenneth Nishiyori Collection, 1942-1944 (SC 014.4)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The Kenneth Nishiyori Collection was donated to Washington State University by Kenneth W. Nishiyori in 2011 and 2013 (MS 2011-41 and MS 2013-29.1).
This collection orginally was processed by Steven Bingo in 2012 as the Heart Mountain Quarterly Census, March 1944. The collection was reprocessed in by Steven Bingo in 2014 and renamed the Kenneth Nishiyori Collection as result of a second accession to the collection containing mess hall documents from Tule Lake.
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
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.