From DiscoverNikkei.org
Eiichi Edward Sakauye
Farmer (1912-2005)
Eiichi "Edward" Sakauye was a farmer who spent his entire life in his home town of San Jose, California -- other than the years that he was incarcerated in the Heart Mountain Relocation Center during World War II, where he had the distinction of being one of very few internees permitted to take photographs or film the camp experience. Sakauye returned to San Jose after the war to find that neighbors had preserved the family's holdings, and he resumed farming, while expanding his activities in community development and civic activism.
- Beth Wyman, "Highlights of the Life of Eiichi 'Ed' Sakauye"
- Brief biography of Sakauye, compiled to honor him with the 2005 Austen Warburton award, given to California pioneers of Santa Clara County.
- Paul Bernal, Beth Wyman and Jim Zetterquist, "Preservation Hero: A Tribute to Eiichi 'Ed' Sakauye". Continuity 17, no. 3 (Fall 2006):18-19.
- Posthumous profile of Sakauye, his family history and community support for Japanese Americans in the Santa Clara Valley.
- James Reid, "Meet Your Neighbor: The Real Survivor". The Wave Magazine 5, no. 1 (Jan. 12-25, 2005):18.
- "Sakauye has seen the many faces of Silicon Valley's evolution. His father was a pear-growing pioneer and owned nearly 200 acres. Together with other Japanese-American families, the Sakauyes produced 50 percent of the Valley's fruit and vegetable crop."
- Transcript of an oral history recorded as part of the REgenerations Oral History Project.
- "Eiichi Sakauye recounts his prewar childhood in San Jose, his experiences as a young adult in Heart Mountain internment camp, and his resettlement in San Jose after the war. He discusses his different jobs at the Santa Anita Assembly Center and at camp. He was the first internee at Heart Mountain to bring in a camera. During the resettlement years, he addresses his efforts to reestablish his farm and to help other resettlers. The first interview was conducted on July 25, 1997 and the second on October 4, 1997 in San Jose, California by Dr. Joe Yasutake."
- "July 2007 - Moving Images: Film from inside an Incarceration Camp (Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project)
- "Sakauye's 8-millimeter home movie footage from 1943-44, described in a voice-over interview recorded by documentary maker Wendy Hanamura, gives us a remarkable glimpse into the living conditions, work routine, and recreational activities at Heart Mountain."
- Includes video footage of Sakauye from a second interview by Wendy Hanamura.
- Heart Mountain: A Photo Essay - Reflection On the Heart Mountain Relocation Center. Asian American Curriculum Project, 2000. (176 pages, paperback)
- Sakauye collected many of his photographic and 8-mm movie images of Heart Mountain in this book. From the Preface: "In creating this book I hope the photographs and insights will enrich our understanding of what life was like in a Relocation Center, the resilience of its people and their struggle to govern themselves."
- Exhibition: "1942: Luggage from Home to Camp" (San Jose, Japanese American Museum of San Jose, July 1, 2003-June 30, 2004)
- Artist Flo Oy Wong created a mixed-media installation to explore the stories of six World War II internees, of which Sakauye was one.
- Review: Annie Nakao, "After six decades, the luggage that Japanese Americans carried with them to internment camps at the start of World War II has become a reminder of those days of infamy". San Francisco Chronicle (August 16, 2003).