James K. Tanaka
James K. Tanaka was born in Portland, Oregon in 1934. Excluded from Area #26 during World War II, he was evacuated to the Portland, Oregon Assembly Center on May 5, 1942. He was moved to the Minidoka Relocation Center on September 6, 1942, then relocated to the FSA Twin Falls, Idaho farm labor camp in the Spring of 1943, and back to the center after the Fall harvest was over. This was repeated for the next 2 years and he stayed in Twin Falls until October of 1949. After the war, he lived in Ontario, Oregon for a year, and returned to Portland for a year. He then moved to Los Angeles and was glad to get away from farm work. There, he attended John H. Francis High School, his 12th school overall. After graduating from college, he taught at El Monte High School for 39 years. He married Lilian Yokooji and had two sons, and he now has five grandchildren.
Updated December 2020
Stories from This Author
What were WRA Forms #2 through #19?
Dec. 3, 2020 • James K. Tanaka
I started volunteering at the Japanese American National Museum in 2000. I immediately took advantage of one of their services—access to the National Archives WWII War Relocation Authority (WRA) records through the Museum's Hirasaki National Research Center. The WRA was a U.S. government agency formed to handle the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry under Executive Order 9102, from March 18, 1942 until June 26, 1946. First, I looked at the WWII Individual WRA form #26. The form was an …
