Oral History Interview with Chizu Iiyama and Ernest Satoshi Iiyama
[2000-04-28,2000-05-25]
Issei male, born in 1912 and brought to America when he was six months old. His father was a boiler maker and chief machinist for the Santa Fe Rail Road Company. Kenneth was educated in Bakersfield public schools through junior college. He hoped to be a pharmacist but as an Issei was unable to qualify for a license. He farmed with his brother, a Nisei, who purchased land in his own name. Two years after his marriage to a Nisei, he was arrested by the FBI on March 26, 1942 and sent to Santa Fe, New Mexico. When asked by an FBI agent why he wasn’t naturalized, Kenneth explained that Asian immigrants were ineligible for citizenship. The agent was unaware of this. Kenneth’s father and cousin were also arrested. His stepmother, sister, wife and two infant sons were evacuated to Poston, Arizona in May 1942. After interrogation by a lawyer in Santa Fe, Kenneth and his father were released to their families in Poston in July. After the war Kenneth took his family to Arkansas and worked as a sharecropper but returned to Bakersfield after a year to work as a gardener. His three sons became dentists.
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