Yosh Kuromiya
Yosh Kuromiya was born in Sierra Madre, California, in 1923. He was attending Pasadena Junior College when WWII broke out with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He and his family were incarcerated at the Pomona Assembly Center in Los Angeles County, California and later shipped to Heart Mountain, Wyoming concentration camp. He passed away on July 2018 at age 95. (Photo courtesy of Irene Kuromiya)
Updated July 2018
Stories from This Author
Yosh Kuromiya: Random Thoughts On Being Nisei During World War II
June 28, 2011 • Yosh Kuromiya
Note: Born in Sierra Madre, California in April 1923, Yosh Kuromiya and his family moved to Monrovia, where he attended grammar school, junior high and high school. He was attending Pasadena Junior College as an art major when his family was forced out of their homes and imprisoned, like other Americans of Japanese ancestry, during World War II. His family was first sent to the assembly center at the Pomona Fairgrounds, before they were imprisoned at the Heart Mountain concentration …
Principled Protest
May 29, 2008 • Yosh Kuromiya
February 19, 1942—a day that should live in infamy. It was the day that United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order #9066 allowing military authorities to EXCLUDE anyone from anywhere without trial or hearings. It led to the removal of all Japanese Americans, citizens and aliens alike, from the West Coast and into concentration camps in the interior of our country. We lost our businesses, our possessions, our homes, our friends and neighbors. However, it was not the …
Reflections of a Gardener's Son
July 4, 2007 • Yosh Kuromiya
My Dad was working as a gardener when I was born. Then, when I was in first grade, he dropped his gardening work to establish a fruit-stand business, which was just starting to do well when Pearl Harbor was attacked. We lost everything when they sent us to Heart Mountain. After the war he went back into gardening because it was cheaper to buy a lawn mower and pick up a few jobs than to invest in another business. I …
