Denshō

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Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project, located in Seattle WA, is Discover Nikkei Participating Organization since February 2004. Its mission is to preserve the personal testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II, before their memories are extinguished. These irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images, related interviews, and teacher resources, are provided on the Denshō website to explore principles of democracy and to promote tolerance and equal justice for all.

Updated November 2006

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A Tribute to Fred Shiosaki's Remarkable Legacy

Por Denshō
6 May 2021

Fred Shiosaki was a remarkable man who led a remarkable life. We are deeply saddened to learn that he recently passed away — but incredibly grateful for the legacy he left behind and his generosity in sharing his story with us and so many others. We offer this tribute in honor of Fred’s memory and in celebration of his life. Fred Akira Shiosaki was born on August 23, 1924, in the Spokane area community of Hillyard, Washington. The fourth of five children to Kisaburo and Tori Shiosaki, Fred grew up helping out at the family laundry business. He was 17 when the Japanese attack on P…

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Ten Things That Made Poston Concentration Camp Unique

Por Brian Niiya, Denshō
7 Feb 2020

The Colorado River “Relocation Center”—more commonly referred to as Poston—was located in the Arizona desert a few miles from the California border. The largest and most populous of the War Relocation Authority (WRA) administered concentration camps (with the exception of post-segregation Tule Lake) with a peak population of nearly 18,000, Poston was unique among WRA camps in a number of ways. First, it was built on the Colorado River Indian Reservation and jointly managed by the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA), a troubled arrangement that ended with the OIA withdrawin…

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Ten Little Known Stories About Topaz Concentration Camp - Part 2

Por Brian Niiya, Denshō
31 Oct 2019

Read Part 1 >> HOSTILE RECEPTION FOR OUTSIDE FARM WORKERS As at many camps, inmates were encouraged to go out on short term leave during the harvest season to do agricultural work in states like Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. Because so many workers were moving to the coast to take relatively well-paying war industry jobs, there were serious shortages of agricultural workers, leading to many farmers attempting to recruit incarcerated Japanese Americans. Thousands of Japanese Americans did do this, particularly in the falls of 1942 and 1943. So many left some of the camps in fact, that the…

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Ten Little Known Stories About Topaz Concentration Camp - Part 1

Por Brian Niiya, Denshō
30 Oct 2019

The “Central Utah Relocation Center”—more popularly known as Topaz—was located at a dusty site in the Sevier Desert and had one of the most urban and most homogeneous populations of the camps, with nearly its entire inmate population coming from the San Francisco Bay Area. Topaz is perhaps best known as the site of the fatal shooting of an inmate by an overzealous camp sentry in April 1943 and for its art school, which included a faculty roster of notable Issei and Nisei artists. It was also the site of significant protest against the “loyalty questionnaire&rdquo…

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Thieving Guards, Mass Food Poisoning, and Other Facts of Life in Fresno Assembly Center

Por Brian Niiya, Denshō
20 Sep 2019

The Fresno Assembly Center* (FAC) opened on May 6, 1942 and held a total of 5,344 Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the Fresno and Sacramento areas. One of fifteen dedicated short-term detention camps opened in the spring of 1942, the facility closed six months later when the population was transferred to a more permanent prison camp in Arkansas. Though surrounded by barbed wire fences and guarded by military police—all the while facing oppressive heat in a nearly shadeless camp and a nightly curfew and roll call—Fresno inmates did their best to make the best of things. We&…