David and I visited Heart Mountain in 1981 on a camping trip where we found the barracks and laundry still standing, and a US historical marker indicating that people were “loosely confined” there during the war, that the camp was “equipped with modern waterworks and sewer system and a modern hospital and dental clinic,” and that “first rate schooling was provided….” This isn’t the way many remember it. David’s family lived in drafty barracks surrounded by tall barbed-wire fences patrolled by armed military police. Originally part of the Apsáalooke (Crow) tribe homelands, the Heart Mountain Relocation Center was one of 10 camps that incarcerated 120,000 Japanese Americans in the west.
Mochida, ran a nursery with five greenhouses, raising snapdragons and sweet peas.ĭavid was the youngest child when he and his family were forced to leave their strawberry farm and home in San Jose, California and were sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, named for the mountain in the distance shaped like a heart. “The US government used identification tags “to aid in keeping the family unit intact during all phases of evacuation.” The father, Mr. Mochida, ran a nursery with five greenhouses, raising snapdragons and sweet peas.This photo shows the Mochida family in Hayward, California, waiting for a bus that will “evacuate” them to an “assembly center” and, eventually, a “relocation center. This photo shows the Mochida family in Hayward, California, waiting for a bus that will “evacuate” them to an “assembly center” and, eventually, a “relocation center. In 1980, the US government established the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), which concluded that Executive Order 9066 “was not justified by military necessity” but was driven by “race prejudice, war hysteria, and failure of political leadership.” Over half of those interned were children. In fact, there were no charges ever brought against Japanese Americans for espionage or sabotage against the United States. With his parents and two older sisters until he was eight.Īfter Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that incarcerated people of Japanese descent in internment camps in the western US in an effort to “curb potential Japanese espionage.” Those who were identified as at least 1/16 th Japanese were given 6 days to dispose of their property and possessions. Was interned at Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, where he lived Hiroshi was four years old when his family Had just been introduced to someone who was also Japanese American. michaelhisamoto.Were you in camp?” I was standing next to my friend, Hiroshi (David) Yamamoto, who Michael is a graduate of The Orange County School of the Arts and Boston University.
#CAMP WEELOCK COLOR WAR FREE#
Michael believes in educating the next generation of artists, teaching and having taught at multiple institutions, and happily offers career consultation free of charge to young artists of color. In addition to his acting work, Michael was a Playwriting Resident at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival, and has directed or assisted on numerous productions across Boston, and briefly led a children’s theatre troupe in Southern California, where he was also recognized for his work as a youth in the theatre by the California State Assembly and Senate. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, HowlRound, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, CompanyOne, SpeakEasy Stage, Plays in Place, Rhombus Writers Collective, Lesley, MIT, Harvard, Fresh Ink Theatre Company, Boston University, and more. A strong proponent of new work, Michael has developed and workshopped over 50 new plays for companies like The Huntington Theatre Company, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, the John F. Upcoming productions: King of Shadows (Flat Earth Theatre), Pacific Overtures (Lyric Stage). Recent acting credits include Stage Kiss, Fast Company, Hold These Truths, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (Lyric Stage), Charlotte’s Web (Wheelock Family Theatre), Yellow Face (The Office of War Information), The Ordinary Epic (Crose to Home Productions), and The Important Thing About Earthquakes (Watertown Children’s Theatre). Michael Hisamoto is a Boston-based actor, playwright, educator, and director.