November/December 1996 We Almost Wept The Sad Journey of Yamato Ichihashi: From Stanford To The Internment Camps ‘ W E A LMOST WEPT’ PROFESSOR YAMATO ICHIHASHI WAS A RESPECTED SCHOLAR

COMMUNITY, BUT THAT WASN’T ENOUGH TO SPARE HIM THE HUMILIATION OF

BY GORDON H. CHANG HEN FRIENDS CAME TO check on Professor Yam- AND MEMBER OF THE STANFORD ato Ichihashi and his wife, Kei, on the evening of INTERNMENT Dec. 7, 1941, they found his campus home on Sal- vatierra Street quiet and dark. There seemed to be no one home at the Victo- rian home where the couple had lived for 20 years. Or per- haps another explanation could be offered, perhaps they Wpreferred the consolation of darkness on a day that had caused them such personal pain. ■ The next day, Professor Ichihashi – a Stanford alumnus and teacher for 30 years – peered into his classroom and asked apprehensively, “Shall I come in?” The students welcomed him into the room. Though sympathetic to the people of his homeland, Ichi- hashi condemned the Japanese military for starting the con- flict and began monthly purchases of hundred-dollar U.S. war bonds through the university. And despite the compas- sion of his students, Ichihashi, feeling betrayed and disgraced by his homeland, was too distraught to continue teaching. He visited Edgar Eugene Robinson, the chair of the History Department, and talked about what he should do. After the meeting, Robinson wrote in his diary that Ichi- hashi had been “the gentleman” he always had been and that his longtime friend had seen “the death of all his hopes and his life.” Ichihashi next went to see Stanford President Ray Ly- man Wilbur and submitted his resignation. But the support- ive and insistent Wilbur convinced Ichihashi to take a leave of absence instead. As it turned out, by the spring of 1942 the federal gov- ernment required Yamato and Kei Ichihashi and more than a dozen other Japanese Ameri- cans on campus – along with 120,000 other persons of Japanese ancestry throughout the Western states – to move into “relocation centers.” The Ichihashis did not return to Stanford until April 1945. The experience devastated the couple professionally and personally. Ichihashi never resumed his teaching or schol- arly writing. He would become estranged from his only child, Woodrow, under the pressures of internment and they would ABOVE: ICHIHASHI’S not see each other again until 1963, just months before the FIRST BLUE-BOOK DIARY, father’s death. SANTA ANITA I.D. TAG; The materials left from Ichihashi’s experiences during LEFT: EARLY ARRIVALS the war – his diaries, AT AMACHE, 1942

November/December 1996 STANFORD TODAY 51 letters and research essays – leave a record that is far the anti-Japanese sentiment in more than a poignant personal tale, though. His docu- the country. But he decided to ments provide the richest and most complete firsthand give Stanford a try and began account of the internment of Japanese Americans during teaching in 1913. World War II. One of the important influ- ences on Ichihashi’s decision to AMATO ICHIHASHI WAS BORN INTO A stay was Payson Treat, Stan- former samurai family in 1878 in ford’s first Ph.D. in history. , , and arrived in the Treat was one of the first American specialists in Asian stud- United States in 1894 to attend public ies. He and Ichihashi developed a close friendship and school in . He continued helped make Stanford a principal center of teaching and re- his study at Stanford, where he distin- search in Asian studies. guished himself, earning bachelor’s and In the 1920s and 1930s, Ichihashi regularly wrote and master’s degrees in economics and an invitation to join spoke on Japanese history and diplomacy. In 1928 he pub- YPhi Beta Kappa. He later earned his doctorate in politi- lished The Washington Conference and After, a history of the cal economy from Harvard. 1922 naval armaments conference. Ichihashi had attended Ichihashi had planned to pursue an academic career in the meeting as the personal aide to the chief Japanese dele- Japan. But his mentor, David Starr Jordan, and others at gate. David Starr Jordan presented a copy of Ichihashi’s book Stanford encouraged him to return and teach subjects re- to the Emperor during one of his frequent trips to Japan. lated to Japanese studies. Jordan was keenly interested in Ichihashi developed a distinguished career at Stanford. developing ties between He held the university’s first endowed chair and served as Stanford and Asia and he be- acting chair of the History Department. Yet he never relin- lieved Ichihashi could help quished interest in the experience of his fellow Japanese in develop the relationship. Jor- America. In 1932 , the Press published dan had high regard for the Ichihashi’s study, The Japanese in the United States, which young academic: He once became a classic work combining demographic, historical wrote a Japanese industrial- and sociological approaches. At the outbreak of war, Ichi- ist that Ichihashi was “one of hashi was one of the most eminent and highly respected the best students with whom Japanese in the United States. He was destined, however, I have ever come in contact.” to take on a less enviable honor: He became perhaps the Ichihashi assumed a post most famous person interned in the camps. at Stanford reluctantly, how- Even before he left Stanford in 1942, Ichihashi had ever. He was not trained as planned to write a book on relocation. He sensed the his- an Asianist and, equally im- toric significance of what was about to happen and knew he portant, was sensitive about was uniquely qualified to document that experience. He was

TOP CENTER: WOODROW ICHIHASHI, 1921;

ABOVE: THE LAST AMACHE INTERNEES LEAVE

FOR HOME, OCTOBER, 1945; RIGHT: ICHIHASHI

(SECOND FROM RIGHT, TOP ROW) WITH OTHER

STUDENTS AND DAVID STARR JORDAN, C. 1905 TOP LEFT: TULE LAKE RELOCATION CENTER; ABOVE: LUNCHTIME FOR WORKERS ON THE FARM AT

TULE LAKE; BELOW LEFT: AN EVENING CLASS IN ADULT EDUCATION AT AMACHE, DECEMBER, 1942

a trained social scientist who under- published any of his research in the last 20 years of his life. stood both Japanese and American Colleagues remember him as bitter and increasingly reclu- cultures and was fluent in Japanese sive after his return to Stanford. It was a sorry postscript to and English. a distinguished, pioneering early career. He painstakingly documented Although Ichihashi was not an easily likable subject – his internment experience from he was arrogant, domineering and contemptuous of those the day he left Stanford until his beneath him in social position – much in his life experi- return three years later. (He began ence resonated with my own. We shared parallel schol- his record using Stanford exami- arly interests and I found the challenges of his life – facing nation “blue books.”) He also racial prejudice, his experience as one of the first people used his private daily diary and of Asian ancestry in American academia – particularly extensive typewritten correspon- moving. dence with Stanford colleagues – When I first encountered the Ichihashi manuscript Payson Treat, Edgar Robinson collection in the Special Collections department at Stan- and Ray Lyman Wilbur, to name ford’s Green Library, I was immediately intrigued but put a few – as further research mater- it low on my list of priorities because of the demands of ial. These documents form an ac- other research. But, slowly, I began to learn more about count that is unequaled in precision and depth. Ichihashi’s life and uncovered other documentary mater- But, in the end, Ichihashi did not complete his own ac- ial in the papers of his Stanford colleagues. And most im- count. The strain of relocation had taken its toll and he let portant, when Woodrow Ichihashi generously shared 20 his precious research materials languish, never mustering years of his father’s diaries with me, it brought about a the will and energy to finish the project. In fact, he never change of heart. I saw that completing a biography and

November/December 1996 STANFORD TODAY 53 A PERSONAL JOURNEY BIOGRAPHER GORDON CHANG FEELS A KINSHIP WITH HIS SUBJECT By Diane Manuel

S HE READ THE SINGLE-SPACED, was pleasant in many ways, but not so conge- Soviet alliance. His dissertation, published by four-page letters that Yamato nial in other ways. I was the only person of Chi- Stanford University Press, drew on three Ichihashi typed from the Tule nese ancestry in a class of 200 and I did pretty months of research at the University of Bei- Lake Relocation Center to his well but it was still an odd situation.” jing and was titled Friends and Enemies: The colleagues back on the Farm, Chang went East for college and majored United States, China, and the Soviet Union, AGordon Chang began to identify with the per- in history and East Asian studies at Princeton, 1948-1972. sonal and professional dilemmas the Japan- where he was one of five Asian Americans in a class of 800 men. After becoming active in the ese professor had faced. Today Chang is developing a course on the anti-war movement, he came to Stanford in “He was primarily, intellectually interested future of the United States in the Pacific and in- 1970 to study the early history of the commu- in economics, but he was pushed to teach East vestigating the international dimensions of the nist movement in China with Lyman Van Slyke Asian studies because of race,” Chang says. Asian American experience, including percep- – and to push for more Asian American history One of only two faculty members ap- tions of Chinese Americans during the Korean and culture in the curriculum. He picked up a pointed to teach Asian American studies War. As Asian American studies programs con- master’s degree, taught briefly at Berkeley, courses at Stanford (along with David Palumbo- tinue to expand nationwide – 26 colleges and and then spent 10 years teaching American Liu, associate professor of comparative litera- universities now offer programs and another studies and Chinese history at Laney Commu- ture), Chang is an associate professor of history seven institutions are developing them – nity College, where he was chair of the Asian whose areas of expertise include American Chang has become a key player on the Stan- Studies department. diplomacy, the Cold War, modern China and in- ford campus. He was a member of the plan- “Laney was located in downtown Oak- ternational security. Enrollment in his “Introduc- ning committee that drew up recommend- land and there was a great mix of students – tion to Asian American History” course, which ations for the new program in Comparative Vietnam vets, recent Asian immigrants, young includes discussion of the exclusionary laws that Studies in Race and Ethnicity. He also was ap- prohibited Asians from entering the United pointed to the faculty search committee of the States and Leland Stanford’s practice of em- political science department that hired the first ploying Chinese workers as cheap labor, has tenured faculty member to teach in the pro- doubled every year since 1991 and attracted gram, scheduled to begin in winter quarter. 110 students last year. He also teaches courses At Stanford, 21 percent of the total stu- in historiography and the Vietnam War. dent population is now Asian American, but Chang says it’s more than numbers that is A lanky young professor with an easy laugh, feeding the revived interest. Chang is a fourth-generation Chinese Ameri- “It’s driven by student interest and de- can who can trace his California roots on his mand, but also by the changing nature of the mother’s side back to the 1880s. He once con- American population and America’s relation- sidered writing a social biography of his aunt, ship to Asia.” the first Chinese American school teacher to be hired in San Francisco, and he could com- pose equally moving profiles of other mem- As he continues to pursue his own research bers of his distinguished family. His mother interests in diplomatic history and issues sur- was a multilingual graduate of the University rounding nuclear stability, and also teaches of California, Berkeley, who met his father, Asian American courses half time, Chang – artist Shu-Chi Chang, during the latter’s 1940 high school graduates and retired folks,” he like Ichihashi before him – often finds himself visit to the United States as a goodwill ambas- says with obvious fondness. torn in several directions. sador for Chiang Kai-shek. They were married By the time Chang returned to Stanford “One of the reasons why his life was in- in 1947 and Gordon was born the following to complete his doctorate, however, he had triguing to me was because here was some- year in Hong Kong, where his father had been decided to change his field of study from Chi- body who could similarly span a variety of invited to exhibit his famed watercolors of nese history to American history. fields of discipline and study, and [yet] he flowers and birds. After living in Nanking for “To do a continuum of Chinese history found himself required, pushed, asked and se- several months, the family returned to the U.S. would have required extensive study in China, lected to write about Japanese Americans,” and settled in Piedmont, California. Chang Hong Kong or Taiwan, and by the early 1980s I Chang says. “I was interested in his life as an grew up there, graduating as valedictorian had decided I wanted to stay in the U.S. and academic, and also his personal experience – and student body president of his high school. help to understand this country better.” how he dealt with problems of race. “Life in Piedmont was a very mixed expe- "He understood the historical significance rience,” he recalls, speaking slowly and choos- Under the guidance of Barton Bernstein, pro- of his impending experience and decided to ing his words carefully whenever he talks about fessor of history, Chang examined the history write about relocation as one of the tensions of issues touching on race and discrimination. “It of United States policy toward the Sino- his life.” ST compiling Ichihashi’s writing offered a singular opportu- OCT. 31, 1943 Dear Payson: The barracks here are like nity to understand a pivotal moment in American history. those of all the centers, although as compared with those of Tule Lake, have a slightly better external appearance. N MAY 1942, THE ICHIHASHIS – YAMATO WAS 64, They are 120 x 20 feet, and are subdivided into six “apart- Kei was 50 – left Stanford for a strange and un- ments.” We occupy one of the middle rooms and have for certain future. The following excerpts are from one of our neighbors a young mother with three little chil- the first two entries in his “blue book” diaries: dren who cry and make noise aplenty for our benefit day MAY 27 [We] learned of the evacuation an- and night. nouncement Saturday morning (May 23, 1942) The ban on outside shopping has been removed since at 11:00 a.m. So K and I busied ourselves in last Monday. We are hoping to take a trip to our nearest packing our luggage and arranging the house which was town, Lamar, about 10 miles to the west, where, we are in- Ileft in the care of the University. Left the house at 11:00 formed, we can shop. The food served here is particularly a.m. Tuesday (May 26).We did not reach San Jose until 2. poor; it could not be otherwise, since [they] spend only 32 The cars composing this train were all old day cents per capita per day. Yet Kei and I have done fairly well coaches, dirty and smelly. The train was supposed to so far, and you must not worry about us. reach the destination at 6 or 7 a.m. the following morn- ing. But, alas, it did not reach the Santa Anita Assembly Entries from Ichihashi’s personal diary provide a fur- Center till 12:30. It was a most trying trip – hot, dirty, ther dimension to the record of his internment. The fol- very uncomfortable. . . We were assigned to the Mess Hall lowing excerpt is from 1943, when he was at Amache: in the Main Building. As we approached it, we heard a terrific noise (later found [out it was] the handling of DECEMBER 7 The second anniversary [of Pearl Har- metal plates designed like Stanford Union Blue Plates.) bor], but still everything remains uncertain. Nothing can Here thousands [eat] at 3 intervals. For our supper we got be envisaged even for the immediate future. . . . Received a cherries compote, a small quantity of baked spaghetti, a Christmas card from Kazu Takahashi [’40, MD ’49] with small boiled potato, rice and water. Thus far we saw the a note, telling among other things what Stanford “kids” shed and food, both of which made us feel very sad; it was are doing; most of them have relocated. an awful comedown. . .We slept soundly in this hideous sleeping place, if it is fit to so designate. In April 1945, almost three years to the day after they left, the Ichihashis returned to their campus home. Yamato MAY 28 The first evacuees reached here 2 months ago; wrote about his feelings to a friend he had made in camp: these were given. . .hard army bread and water [to eat]. But the individuals were allowed to prepare and eat foods MAY 30, 1945 Dear Kawashiri san: We took the 8:20 in their own sheds. The major portion of evacuees are train and reached the familiar Palo Alto Depot an hour housed in newly constructed barracks (woodsheds), but later; there we had a cup of coffee. A friend met us there thousands are housed in stables which retain smells of the and brought us home, our home, from which we had been animals. A stable which housed a horse now houses 5 to 6 absent for three long years; we almost wept. . . humans. These are not only unsanitary, but mentally and The inside of the house was not in a bad condition. . . morally depressive; they are bound to produce evil results. but the garden had gone wild with trees overgrown and with weeds covering the entire ground and no help is avail- Stanford connections abound in the Ichihashi story. He able. We could almost weep at these awful sights. Thus my frequently encountered alumni and former students in the wife and I have been laboring like devils since our return; camps. But Stanford is most visible in his correspondence yet we are far from being settled. with his colleagues back home. He wrote the following let- ter from Santa Anita to President Ray Lyman Wilbur: The shadow of internment never lifted from the Ichi- hashis’ lives. Even the chair in Japanese studies held by JULY 3, 1942 Dear Dr. Wilbur: Kei joins me in thank- Ichihashi slipped into obscurity and went vacant until ing you for the kind and sympathetic letters. . . [Schooling] 1992, when the University discovered the oversight. The is confined to children 16 years and under. Nothing is be- endowment income had been used for other purposes. ing done for youth beyond that age group. I need not tell Some 50 years after Ichihashi’s retirement – 30 years you about the danger of allowing youth to have nothing after his death – Stanford, honoring his memory and constructive to do and forced to loaf; youth are in the most contributions to the university, renamed the position the dangerous period of life. Numerous cases of pregnancy Yamato Ichihashi Chair in Japanese History and Civi- have been reported to me. . . lization. ST

Ichihashi’s most important correspondence was with GORDON CHANG is an associate professor of history. Payson Treat. He wrote the following letter after arriving at This article is adapted from his new book, Morning Glory, Amache in southeastern Colorado, where he was sent after Evening Shadow, which is being released this month by spending more than a year at Santa Anita and Tule Lake: Stanford University Press.

November/December 1996 STANFORD TODAY 55 Kei Ichihashi and her son, Woodrow, in the back yard of their campus home in the early 1920s.