Nanka Nikkei Voices

Starting a New Life

Marie Masumoto

My mother, Kinuko Saito, was holding me in her arms as we left Japan. I was six months old when we embarked on a military ship headed for Los Angeles via Seattle. Without knowing any English, my mother left her family and friends to start a new life in the …

Digging Into the Past: A volunteer's experience at Manzanar

Marie Masumoto

On my birthday, May 6, 2007, I got an e-mail from my friend Park Ranger Carrie Andresen-Strawn at the Manzanar National Historic Site Interpretive Center. She wanted to know if I would like to volunteer on an excavation of two gardens at Blocks 9 and 10. These two blocks housed …