Gary T. Ono

Gary T. Ono, es un inmigrante sansei de San Francisco, California que actualmente reside en el área de Little Tokyo de Los Ángeles. Es fotógrafo voluntario para su vecino Museo Nacional Americano Japonés. En el 2001, recibió una subvención del Programa de Educación Pública de Libertades Civiles de California para producir un documental en video, Calling Tokyo: Japanese American Radio Broadcasters of World War II (Llamando a Tokyo: emisoras radiales japoneses-americanas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial). Esta historia cuenta sobre lo que su padre hizo durante la guerra fue lo que despertó su interés en su historia japonés-estadounidense y familiar, que llena copiosamente sus momentos de senectud.

Última actualización en marzo de 2013

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Camp Pets: Doggone It! - Part 1

  • Por Gary T. Ono
  • 21 Ago 2012

One of my earliest childhood memories comes from being in what can rightfully be called a “concentration camp.” (Webster’s New World Fourth College Edition Dictionary: “A prison camp in which political dissidents, members of minority ethnic groups, etc. are confined.” Even President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other top political leaders referred to them as concentration camps.

In such a camp, nearing the age of 5, I remember panicking and jumping into a ditch to “escape” a dog near the barrack we lived in. Along with that haunting wisp of a memory, my pre-school teacher, Mae Fujikawa wrote in my ...

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Ono Family during World War II

Letters from Camp - Part 3

  • Por Gary T. Ono
  • 1 Jun 2011

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In all, the documents and letters, even telegrams, showed that there were many pleas for hearings to be held so that he could make a case for his parole and release. All of his and the family’s pleas were turned down. The main reason given was that there was never any new evidence introduced to make them change their original judgment. While the family’s efforts were well-meaning, I also could not see any new reasons for their appeals until the family faced a tragic loss.

It was when Jichan’s oldest son Hiroshi, while working ...

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Ono Family during World War II

Letters from Camp - Part 2

  • Por Gary T. Ono
  • 25 May 2011

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In 2003, in response to a request I’d submitted to the National Archives in Washington, DC for documentation relating to my grandfather’s arrest and imprisonment by the FBI, INS and the DOJ during WWII, I received well-over 190-copy pages of records from his personal file, which included a filled-out 28-page “U.S. Department of Justice, Alien Enemy Questionnaire.” I learned that he was in: Fort Missoula, Montana; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Camp Livingston, Louisiana; Lordsburg, New Mexico and ended-up at the Santa Fe, New Mexico Detention Center.

Much to my surprise and delight, among these documents ...

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Ono Family during World War II

Letters from Camp - Part 1

  • Por Gary T. Ono
  • 18 May 2011

These were not letters from a summer camp like the funny one from a young homesick camper as written by songwriter, Allan Sherman, in his 1964 Grammy Award winning song which began, “Hello Muddah – Hello Faddah – Here I am – in Camp Granada…” No!…Although the letters from the camp of which I speak were from Granada, they were actually from the Granada War Relocation Authority Center, a prison camp!

The WRA camp’s name was changed from Granada to Amache to avoid confusion with the post office in the nearby town of Granada, Colorado. Amache, the name of a Cheyenne ...

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DOR 2010

  • Por Gary T. Ono
  • 1 Feb 2011

In anticipation of upcoming Day of Remembrance (DOR) events in 2010, I looked over the DOR Calendar Listing published in the Feb. 5-18, 2010 Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) newspaper, Pacific Citizen. I was impressed by the nationwide spread and variety of events organized by Japanese American communities in Washington, DC; Cambridge, MA; Philadelphia, PA; Chicago, IL; and many West Coast cities to keep alive the history of the forced evacuation, relocation and imprisonment of America’s Japanese population during World War II. This miscarriage of justice was sanctioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his Executive Order 9066, signed ...

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