Friday, April 25, 2014

April 1942

The south side with enclosed sun porch of the Furuta bungalow at Historic Wintersburg.  In February 1942, the F.B.I. came for Charles Mitsuji Furuta while he was working on the goldfish farm.  They investigated his closet and office in the sun porch, then took him to the Tuna Canyon Detention Station in Los Angeles County.  (Photo, April 18, 2014)

   In late April 1942, Yukiko Furuta and her children had officially been warned they would have to evacuate California by mid May.  They had been given notice around April 14 to 16, and had begun to pack.

    Charles Mitusji Furuta had already been taken to the Tuna Canyon Detention Station (Tajunga, Los Angeles County). Yukiko was faced with how to pack and store four decades of life in America. Those being evacuated had been told they could bring only one suitcase.


   The Furutas would store belongings at the home of brother-in-law Henry Kiyomi Akiyama, at the Pacific Goldfish Farm located then at Goldenwest and Bolsa streets in nearby Westminster. Akiyama's Caucasian employees would watch over the property and manage the farm during his absence.  Another family would watch over the Furuta Gold Fish Farm in Wintersburg Village.

Right: The Pacific Goldfish Farm, at Goldenwest Street and Bolsa Avenue, located where the Westminster Mall is today, circa 1940s.  The farm contained 40 acres of goldfish farms.  It is estimated there were 100,000 to 200,000 fish by the time World War II started. (Photo courtesy of the Akiyama family and California State University Fullerton, Center for Oral and Public History, PJA Akiyama 1751) © All rights reserved.

   Yukiko described the time before evacuation in her 1982 interview with Professor Emeritus Arthur Hansen for the Honorable Stephen K. Tamura Orange County Japanese American Oral History Project. The interview was conducted with the help of an interpreter, Yasko Gamo.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Yukiko Furuta:
    The F.B.I. came to the church (the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church) to take Reverend (Sohei Kowta), but then (Kowta) said that all the husbands had been taken and the wives were having trouble. If he would be taken, no one would take care of them. So the F.B.I. agent called the office and talked to the people at the office. Then they decided not to take him. So he could stay in the Japanese community.


Left: Reverend Sohei Kowta* and his wife, Riyo, lived in the manse with their three children--Tadashi, Hiroko and Makoto--at the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church from 1938 until the time of evacuation in 1942.  He is credited in a U.S. government report with helping unify the religious groups at the Colorado River Relocation Center at Poston, Arizona.  Reverend Kowta also helped organize the Evergreen Hostel in Los Angeles for displaced Japanese Americans returning to Southern California in 1945. (Photo courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church) © All rights reserved.

    They just stayed home with fear. They could not go out more than five miles from their homes. So they stayed home quietly.

    In the evening they pulled the blind and shade and turned out the light and went to bed early. Her son (Raymond Furuta, a graduate of Huntington Beach High School) was engaged then (to Martha), so he told her that they were going to marry quickly because otherwise they might not be able to get married.

Arthur Hansen:
    When her husband left, did somebody come to the door to pick him up?

Yukiko Furuta:
    Yes. Three big men.

Arthur Hansen:
    Tell me about that. Did you know they were coming or not, then?

Yukiko Furuta:
    They just came and knocked on the door, and when she opened the door there were three big men. They asked whether Mr. Furuta was there? Since he was working at the fish farm outside, she called him.


Right: A portion of a mural that once graced the Huntington Beach Art Center parking area, memorialized the Furuta family history.  At the center, Raymond and Martha Furuta surrounded by goldfish. To their right, an image from a 1923 photograph of Charles and Yukiko Furuta with their children, the 1934 Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church behind them.  In the upper right corner, flanked by the lily flowers sold by the Furutas, the barracks of the Colorado River Relocation Center at Poston, Arizona. (Photo courtesy of the Furuta family) © All rights reserved.

Arthur Hansen:

    It was during the day?

Yukiko Furuta:
    Yes. So the F.B.I. men said they had come for Mr. Furuta.

    For a while after Pearl Harbor, they were told they couldn't own guns or cameras or even flashlights. So they had to take them to the (Huntington Beach) city hall. So they already didn't have those things.


Left: The Huntington Beach city hall, as it appeared circa 1940s, was located near the present-day Main Street Library and Triangle Park off Main Street.  The civilian defense program established by Huntington Beach city officials during the war instituted a coastal watch, for which some of the volunteers scouted the coastline from the rooftop of the city hall and next door Memorial Hall. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

   ...the F.B.I. agents came into the house and examined Mr. Furuta's desk and closet. They couldn't find anything in there. 

Arthur Hansen:
...Which room was that? (the room which is now the sun porch in the rear of the interviewee's house)

Yukiko Furuta:
    Since he had already packed his suitcase, he went then with the F.B.I. men.

Arthur Hansen: 

   That same day he went?

Yukiko Furuta: 

   The agents waited while Mr. Furuta changed his clothing. And then they examined his baggage.

Arthur Hansen:

  What kind of instructions did (Charles Furuta) give the family?

Left: Images of the senior class from Raymond Furuta's 1932 Huntington Beach High School yearbook, the Cauldron, his photo at center left on the right-side page. (Photo, October 2013) © All rights reserved.

Yukiko Furuta:
    They might have talked to the children. But the children said, later on, that the F.B.I. men had made a joke to them. But they didn't give any particular instruction to her.

    (Charles) said to (Yukiko) that in the long run their property might be confiscated because they were all enemy aliens; so the most important thing was that everybody was alive and well. And he didn't have much time to talk any further.

    So later on they corresponded with each other. And one of the things she mentioned was written in one of his letters--that the family should evacuate with other Japanese.


   (Charles) forgot to take something with him when he left, so (Yukiko) told her daughter (Toshiko) to find out where he was. So (Toshiko) asked them to find out if he was in the Huntington Beach jail...she took something he had forgotten to the Huntington Beach jail. 

   And after staying there for one day...he was taken to Tujunga (the Tuna Canyon Detention Station), and she visited him at Tujunga two times. (Yukiko) had to go to Santa Ana and get permission to visit him...she could only talk for ten minutes to her husband through the fence.


The Tuna Canyon Detention Station, circa 1933, was a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp used as a temporary detention facility.  Along with Charles Furuta, Gunjiro Tashima--owner of the Tashima Market across the street from the Mission in Wintersburg, and later, to Beach and Garden Grove Boulevard--was taken to Tuna Canyon.  Masayuki and Takayuki attended Huntington Beach High School. (Photo courtesy of the Densho Encyclopedia) 

Seventy-two years later, with Etsuko Furuta
   In a 2013 oral history interview conducted by Professor Emeritus Arthur Hansen on behalf of Historic Wintersburg with Etsuko Furuta Fukushima---Charles and Yukiko's daughter, now 93 and living in northern California---Tuna Canyon and the fence that separated their family is a vivid memory.  

Etsuko Furuta Fukushima:
I remember the fence, the wire fence. And I don't remember we were able to talk to him through the fence...I don't think we were able to get inside.

Arthur Hansen:
How do you feel about the whole thing of seeing your father on the other side of the fence?

Etsuko Furuta Fukushima:
I thought, "For heaven's sake, he couldn't be a spy," but then the F.B.I. were wrong.

----------------------------------------------------
   
   By May 1942, the entire Japanese community, the Issei and American-born Nisei, were forcibly evacuated from Orange County and confined at what would be called detention or relocation centers in other states.  

   Everyone associated with the California pioneer property known today as Historic Wintersburg--the Furuta family of the Furuta Gold Fish Farm and the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission's clergy and entire congregation--were removed from California.  

   Most were confined at the Colorado River Relocation Center at Poston, Arizona, and some at Gila River Relocation Center, also in Arizona.  Some families were separated, the men being taken to military or immigration detention centers in other states.  Charles Furuta would be separated from his family for a year, most of the time spent at the military detention center in Lordsburg, New Mexico.

   For the next three years, the families of Historic Wintersburg would endure what would later be acknowledged through Congressional investigations as one of the largest civil liberties tragedies in American history.  

   Forty-six years after Executive Order 9066, President Ronald Reagan would sign the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 providing reparations to Japanese Americans.  During the signing ceremony, President Reagan would specifically talk about a Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission family, the Masuda family.  At the signing with President Reagan in Washington, D.C., another Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission congregant who had lobbied for the Act, Clarence Nishizu.
 ------------------------------------------------------

Read about the Reverend Sohei Kowta and his family, http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2013/02/reverend-sohei-kowta-sunday-before.html

Read about the Tashima family, http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-tashimas-of-wintersburg.html

Read about the Masuda family, http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/06/masudas-national-civil-liberties-icons.html   

© All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Book discussion: The history behind the fence

The 1912 bungalow of Charles and Yukiko Furuta, behind the green fence at Historic Wintersburg, a rare pre-California Alien Land Law of 1913 property.  There are six historical structures on the property, spanning the founding of the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission in 1904 to the post-World War II return of Japanese Americans to Huntington Beach.

   Join author Mary Adams Urashima at the Huntington Beach Central Library, 2 p.m., Saturday, April 19, Rooms C & D, for a visual presentation and discussion of the pioneer history detailed in Historic Wintersburg in Huntington Beach.

   The book discussion will include seldom seen photographs of California's Japanese pioneers and trace the history that helped shape Huntington Beach and Orange County.

Left: The Furuta bungalow in 2011, still stands at Historic Wintersburg, home to the Furuta Gold Fish Farm and the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission. © All rights reserved.

   Copies of the book will be available for sale after the discussion, which will include time for audience questions.  Books also are available at the Huntington Beach Barnes & Noble and online through the publisher, History Press, at https://historypress.net/catalogue/bookstore/books/Historic-Wintersburg-in-Huntington-Beach/9781626193116

   Find out why Historic Wintersburg is nominated for America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places and why the effort to save it has been chronicled in PreservationNation, Huffington Post, Rafu Shimpo, KCET public television's LA Letters, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times (recent media coverage at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2014/03/historic-wintersburg-in-news.html).

A gathering on the steps of the Huntington Inn, circa 1912, believed to be about fundraising to rebuild the pier.  Charles Mitsuji Furuta is in front row, second from left. Huntington Beach's first mayor, Ed Manning, is second row, far right in light-color suit.  Another Huntington Beach mayor, Orange County supervisor, and pioneer realtor, Thomas Talbert, is in the second row (on step), fourth from left with hat in hand.  (Photo: Courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church.) © All rights reserved.

   From the first July 4th celebrations in Huntington Beach, the Japanese community's presence was evident.  The "Japanese Association of Wintersburg" donated and presented the fireworks show in 1905 at a "baseball field" (likely Triangle Park off Main Street).  

   By 1907, the Talbert-Leatherman building became Huntington Beach's first Japanese market, the "Rock Bottom" market, run by Yasumatsu Miyawaki (today, this building is the Longboard Restaurant and Pub at 217 Main Street).  Miyawaki was a signator on the founding document for the Wintersburg Japanese Mission in 1904.

The Aoki kendo and judo hall at the Masami Sasaki chili pepper warehouses on Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach, circa 1930, where today's Newland Center is located.  The award winning judo teams from Huntington Beach were part of a judo demonstration at the Xth Olympiad in Los Angeles in 1932. (Photo snip, courtesy of California State University Fullerton Center for Oral and Public History, PJA 260) © All rights reserved.

   The Huntington Beach pier celebration in 1914 included the Japanese community of Wintersburg Village and the surrounding area.  Special events of the day on June 20, 1914, included Japanese fencing and sword dancing, following the surfing demonstration by George FreethThis year marks the 100-year anniversary of the re-dedication of the pier and the 110th-year anniversary of the founding of the Wintersburg Japanese Mission.  

Koha Takeishi in flight over Wintersburg Village farmland in 1913, in the plane bought for him by local farmers.  A graduate of the Curtiss Flying School, the university student worked the celery fields in Wintersburg during summer breaks.  His story is detailed in the book, Historic Wintersburg in Huntington Beach. (Photo courtesy of the Furuta family) © All rights reserved.

   The early 1900s included pioneer aviation feats, agricultural innovations, archaeological finds in the peatlands, the growth of the Wintersburg Japanese Mission, and the development of Wintersburg Village's three goldfish farms, a unique enterprise in Orange County.  

   Local families considered part of Huntington Beach history---such as the Gothards, Nichols, Winters, Coles, Moores--lived in Wintersburg Village.  The Newland family (of the Newland House Museum at Adams Avenue and Beach Boulevard) contributed to the development of the 1906 Wintersburg M.E. Church, today known as the Warner Avenue Baptist Church, and were part of a church organization that donated to the Wintersburg Japanese Mission.  


   Early Huntington Beach businesses, such as the Savings Bank of Huntington Beach at Main Street and Walnut Avenue, and the Halsell Drug Company, (Eddie Darling's pharmacy) on Main Street, donated to the building fund for the Wintersburg Japanese Mission.

Left: A 1911 letter to Reverend Joseph K. Inazawa with a five-dollar donation from Huntington Beach pharmacist Eddie "E.H." Darling to help retire the construction debt for the 1910 Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission.  (Photo: Courtesy of Wintersburg Presbyterian Church.) © All rights reserved.

   Almost sixty years ago in 1957, Wintersburg Village was annexed into Huntington Beach, solidifying the community relationship that began in the late 1800s.

   Lost from local city records in the years since World War II, the history of Japanese Americans in Huntington Beach and Orange County is a lesson in the pioneer spirit and perseverance necessary for the settlement of America.  Learn more about Historic Wintersburg by joining the discussion at the Library!

BOOK SIGNING: 2 P.M., SATURDAY, APRIL 19, HUNTINGTON BEACH CENTRAL LIBRARY, located at 7111 Talbert Avenue at Huntington Beach Central Park.  There is ample free public parking.

AUTHOR FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Adams-Urashima/122844011260256
 

Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force DONATE TO PRESERVATION: http://www.huntingtonbeachca.gov/i_want_to/give/donation-wintersburg.cfm
 

Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Historic-Wintersburg-Preservation-Task-Force/433990979985360

© All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.

Monday, April 7, 2014

More support for Historic Wintersburg!

Beach bathing at Huntington Beach, circa 1915.  A small village upon its incorporation in 1909, it grew to include Wintersburg Village, Smeltzer and Oceanview.  While we are most famous for our beach, our history includes the first Californians, the ranchos, the mid 1800s pioneers, and the 1900s arrival of the first Japanese in Orange County.  (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives) 

*UPDATED April 12 2014*

   More letters of support are coming from organizations and individuals, asking the National Trust for Historic Preservation to include Historic Wintersburg on America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2014.
 
Left: An image of the Rancho La Bolsa Chica, circa 1850s.  A portion of this was later sold and became part of the Stearns Ranchos.  By 1908 a five-acre parcel in Wintersburg Village was purchased by Reverend Hisakichi Terasawa and Charles Mitsuji Furuta.  This intact 1908 parcel is Historic Wintersburg.  (Image, Library of Congress)

  Thank you to all who recognize this unique history as being part of the story of America and part of the story of Japanese American settlement of the American West.  Add your voice to those who want to save and preserve Historic Wintersburg!

    Examples of other support letters and key points about the historic significance of Historic Wintersburg can be found in our March 30 post at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2014/03/historic-wintersburg-nominated-for.html

Letter from Mayor Pro Tem Joe Shaw


Letter from Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Association

Dear National Trust for Historic Places,

Please accept this letter on behalf of the Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Association (HBDRA) in support of Historic Wintersburg’s nomination to your list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.


The HBDRA believes in the creation and preservation of a sustainable downtown that reflects both the history and future of Huntington Beach
The HBDRA is operated solely by volunteers and is supported financially by HBDRA volunteers and other Huntington Beach residents. 

While we are a grassroots, community-based group of residents working on issues that primarily affect Historic Downtown Huntington Beach, we also support historic preservation throughout our entire City.  


Originally founded in 1994, the HBDRA was re-activated in 2009 in response to a potential redevelopment plan.  
We were able to successfully rally our residents over the course of two long years to support the preservation of the Main Street Library and Triangle Park.  Today, five years later, both the Library and Triangle Park are recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

Therefore, as a collective association of concerned residents, we thank you for your consideration to include Historic Wintersburg on your list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.


Sincerely,
Kim Kramer
President, Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Association
On behalf of the HBDRA Board of Directors


Right: Japanese parasols for sale at the July 4th celebration next to the Huntington Beach pier at the foot of Main Street in 1904, the year the Pacific Electric Railway was brought to town by Henry Huntington.  That same year, the Wintersburg Mission was founded with the support of Wintersburg Village, Smeltzer and Huntington Beach residents. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

Letter from Huntington Beach Neighbors

Dear National Trust for Historic Places,

On behalf of Huntington Beach Neighbors, as unanimously approved by our organization's officers, we are writing you to support the nomination of Huntington Beach, California's Historic Wintersburg for your list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Huntington Beach Neighbors has over 2,200 local residents as our members.  Our mission is to improve the quality of life in our City.

As one of Huntington Beach Neighbors' most important projects in recent years, our group was the sole sponsor of the nomination to, and the 2013 listing on, the National Register of Historic Places, of the Huntington Beach Public Library on Triangle Park.  Our listing is one of only four National Register properties in all of Huntington Beach, and the first property listed on the National Register in our City in nearly twenty years.  

As with Historic Wintersburg, which was approved (4-3) in November 2013 by the Huntington Beach City Council for a 2015 demolition, the Huntington Beach Public Library on Triangle Park had been the subject of a years-long campaign by our City government leaders for demolition and redevelopment.  

Now it is likely that this 1912 park, which dates back to the earliest period after our City's 1909 founding, and its architecturally significant, 1950-1951 extant library building, the oldest one in our City, have been saved.

Right: Loading carloads of sugar beets at the Southern Pacific Railroad siding for Smeltzer and Wintersburg Village, circa 1908.  This same year, Charles Mitsuji Furuta helped Reverend Hisakichi Terasawa purchase five acres in Wintersburg Village. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

These two examples are not unusual for Huntington Beach.  Since the completion of our City's last historic inventory in 1986, which is in the process of an update now, forty percent of the City's 1986 historic properties have been demolished, at least 134 properties lost forever from a group of 341 historic properties in 1986.  As we understand it, from 2002 through today, the City has only denied one demolition permit in that entire, most recent twelve-year history, virtually always ignoring our local historic preservation efforts.

With this background, we trust that you can see the crucial importance of your including Historic Wintersburg on your list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.  Without your help, Historic Wintersburg, so much emblematic of our Southern California and National histories, may well be lost for all time.  Thank you for your support.

Board of Directors
Huntington Beach Neighbors

Letter from Gloria Alvarez

Dear National Trust for Historic Places,

Please accept my  letter of support for Historic Wintersburg’s nomination to your list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.


My support is being presented to you as an individual and not as a representative of any of the professional boards I serve on.  While others have submitted their letters of support for Historic Wintersburg primarily from a professional perspective based on research, my support to save and preserve Historic Wintersburg is reflective of my personal experience with this site dating back to mid-Century 1950’s.

As a grandchild of Mexican immigrants, I grew up in the 1950’s just a few blocks from the community of Wintersburg.  
  • As a small child I saw it as a wonderful place, a beautifully manicured property that represented home, church and farming along with recreational amenities to be enjoyed on Sundays.   
  • Growing up I was fortunate enough to attend school with the Furuta family sons and benefit from their leadership in both grade school and through high school.  Therefore, as a young teenager, I admired and looked upon this compound surrounded by the most beautifully trimmed hedges as an exemplary example of immigrants who not only embraced the opportunities of America but gave back so much to help our City grow and prosper.  
  • What it has meant to me personally represents all that is honorable, what our nation represents . . .  to overcome, to achieve and to contribute.  
  • Historic Wintersburg represents the best of the American dream!!!  

Left: The July 4th parade in Huntington Beach, 1908, the year the Historic Wintersburg property was purchased by Reverend Terasawa and Charles Furuta.  By 1909, construction on the Mission had begun. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

Today, it is most unfortunate that in the past 10 years this property has been allowed to decay under the new property owner.  While this is a story of California’s Japanese immigrants on the West Coast, it is a classic American story that represents the story of all immigrants that have come to our country and instilled a sense of pride in their American born children to be a productive and contributing member of society.

To be considered for America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is an opportunity for us to restore these buildings and bring back to life what they represent for not only our immigrant children to be inspired by the American dream but for all future generations to enjoy!

Thank you for your consideration to include Historic Wintersburg on your list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Sincerely,

Gloria Alvarez

Current Chair, Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board
Member, Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force
Board member, Huntington Beach Downtown Residents Association

A gathering at the Grand Army of the Republic (civil war veterans) annual tent camp at Huntington Beach, circa 1910.  This same year, the Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Mission opened its doors.  The Wintersburg Mission is the fifth on the Japanese Mission Trail, the first established in San Francisco in the late 1800s, only 50 years after the last Spanish Mission was constructed. (Photo, City of Huntington Beach archives)

Letter from Richardson Gray

Dear Council Members,

I have owned my home in Downtown Huntington Beach for almost eight years, after retiring here in 2006. I am writing you to urge the Council to write a letter of support for the nomination of Historic Wintersburg for the National Trust for Historic Places' list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. I spent most of my twenty-five year career in commercial real estate working on the renovation and adaptive reuse of historic properties, first in North Carolina and later in Massachusetts.

Since the completion of our City's last historic inventory in 1986, which is in the process of an update now, forty percent of the City's 1986 historic properties have been demolished, at least 134 properties lost forever, from a group of 341 historic properties in 1986. As I understand it, from 2002 through today, the City has only vetoed one demolition permit in that entire, most recent, twelve-year period.

With this background, I trust that you will be able to see the crucial importance of the Council's support for including Historic Wintersburg on the National Trust for Historic Places' list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Without your support, Historic Wintersburg, so much emblematic of our Huntington Beach, Orange County, Southern California, and National histories, may well be lost for all time. Thank you for your support.

Richardson Gray


A portion of the mural that once graced the parking area for the Huntington Beach Art Center, with a representation of the Furuta family at Wintersburg Village.  Behind them, the 1934 Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church building, built during America's Great Depression.  The mural was lost to building repair. (Image courtesy of the Furuta family) © All rights reserved.

The children of Charles Mitsuji and Yukiko Yajima Furuta, circa 1923.  In 1923, the Wintersburg Mission had been established 19 years and the Mission's first building had been open 13 years.  The family farm had survived two Alien Land Laws, the upheaval of World War I, and the Spanish Flu.  In the decade after this photograph, they would face the Great Depression, the 1933 earthquake, and the fundraising for and construction of the 1934 Wintersburg Church building at the Furuta farm. (Photo courtesy of the Furuta family) © All rights reserved.

© All rights reserved.  No part of the Historic Wintersburg blog may be reproduced or duplicated without prior written permission from the author and publisher, M. Adams Urashima.