Source:
"Honoring the Family Business: Building the American Dream.
Gala Dinner & Silent Auction, March 29, 2003.
Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California."
Published by the Japanese American National Museum

FIGURE 16: Caravan of trucks loaded with baggage and private cars ready to leave a Control Station in Los Angeles, April 28, 1942 for Manzanar Reception Center. Departure from the various areas was at first by private automobile, with trucks for baggage. Later only by train or bus. Large moving vans were available to handle household or other goods the evacuees desired to have stored under supervision of the Federal Reserve Bank. - from DeWitt Final Report, Pictorial Summary

-- From interview of Fujima Kansuma

"First-generation farmers did not lose their property during World War II"

One of the Central Valley’s smallest Japanese communities in California owns its existence to a Japanese entrepreneur named Kyutaro Abiko who used his San Francisco based newspaper and connections as a labor contractor to foster a pipeline of immigrants to Merced County.

Cressey stands out because, unlike others, its first-generation farmers did not lose their property during World War II.

Their land was protected by a trust, with honest caretakers communicating regularly with the owners of the land while they were behind barbed wire incarcerated in Colorado. Cressey still boasts farms operated by Japanese Americans a century after they were established.

.....

That winter, the Andows had a new home under construction on their 160-acre farm between Cressey and Winton.  It was nearly finished when Executive Order 9066 was issued in February, 1942.  By April, they had moved in their furniture.

Tay Andow arranged for his new home’s construction manager to become caretaker for the house.  He also joined the many owners of farms in the three Yamato colonies who formed an organization to operate the land under a power of attorney arrangement. So-called Momberg Trust farms were supervised by a three-person board headed by local attorney Hugh Griswald with operational decisions made by Gus Momberg in collaboration with the Japanese owners through letters and periodic visits to Amache, Colorado.  The majority of the farms were leased out, with about 1 in 5 directly under Momberg’s management.

Two weeks after getting the furniture in place, the Andows were ordered to report for processing and then initial internment on the grounds of the Merced County Fair.

Within days, this once bustling neighborhood became desolate.

"It was during the war. Lots of labor was needed to help with the war industry. So many African Americans from the south were recruited to come here and because there was no one living here, a lot of the landlords decided that they wanted to make money and rented a lot of the houses and homes and apartments to African Americans who needed jobs and came here for jobs," Matsuda said.

Members of the Black community temporarily took over the Japanese-American school, protecting the artifacts and preserving the culture.

"Because the belongings were safe-guarded, those families could come back and really start this school almost immediately and restart this sense of community," said Emily Murase of the San Francisco Japantown Task Force.
--from Community seeks funding to save San Francisco Japantown's Kinmon Gakuen, an important piece of city's history

Nikkei Property

Portland Branch Evacuee Property Files, 3/18/1942 - 6/30/1946

Miscellaneous Information: T

Records of the War Relocation Authority, 1941 - 1989

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