Two Decembers: 1934 and 1948

ABOVE: Eighty-three years ago, the Santa Ana Register reported on the gathering to dedicate the Wintersburg Japanese Church held on December 9, the second mission building and one of three buildings at Historic Wintersburg associated with the Wintersburg Japanese Mission. Already noted as one of the oldest Japanese missions in California, the congregation was marking its 30-year anniversary of the founding as they dedicated the Spanish Revival style church at the corner of present-day Warner Avenue and Nichols Lane. (Santa Ana Register, December 10, 1934)

   In December 1934, the communities of Wintersburg Village and Huntington Beach gathered to dedicate the newest house of worship for the Wintersburg Japanese Mission.  Formally recognized as a Church with the Presbyterian Church USA in 1930, the Wintersburg Japanese Mission was marking its 30th anniversary in 1934.

   The first Mission building also had opened in December, in 1909, followed shortly by the Manse (parsonage).  Reverend Joseph K. Inazawa and his wife, Kate Alice Goodman, were there for the 1910 dedication and services, as was Charles Furuta, the Furuta farm; and Reverend Terasawa and Dr. Ernest Adolphus Sturge, who had helped found the Wintersburg Japanese Mission in 1904. 

LEFT: The program for the Wintersburg Japanese Church dedication featured remarks by Church elders, including Charles Furuta and Kyutaro Ishii.  Charles and Yukiko's daughter, Kazuko (Kay), spoke on behalf of the Sunday school program, while her cousin, Sumi Akiyama played a violin solo.  The Treasurer's Report was delivered by Shuji Kanno, father of California's first Japanese American major, the first mayor of Fountain Valley, James Kanno. Note the program states "motion pictures to be taken". (Wintersburg Japanese Church dedication program, December 9, 1934. Courtesy of Furuta family.) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    The 1934 Wintersburg Japanese Church building is home to significant events that are part of the reason the Historic Wintersburg property is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Treasure. 
  
   It was home to the first Japanese American Citizen League meeting in Orange County. The Church and Mission buildings were shuttered during World War II incarceration, prompting the Presbyterian Church USA to formally apologize in 2014 for "abandonment" of the congregation.  The 1934 Church building is one of six historic structures that are part of the Furuta farm and Wintersburg Japanese Mission complex at National Treasure Historic Wintersburg. All six structures have been deemed restorable by the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

RIGHT: The first meeting of the Japanese American Citizens League in Orange County, California, is held in the Wintersburg Japanese Church, one year after the church building was dedicated. (Santa Ana Register, January 28, 1935)

   Fourteen years after the dedication of the Church building in 1934--and after Orange County's Japanese American community had returned from World War II incarceration--the Church held a program of national significance.  The body of Orange County hero, Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda with the "Go For Broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team, was returned home from Europe.  He had been killed in action in Italy in 1944, and--in an event that received national media coverage in 1945--Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda's family was presented with his Distinguished Service Cross by General Joe Stillwell and an Army captain who would one day be President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

   On August 27, 1944, Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda, a graduate of Huntington Beach High School, voluntarily led two men on a night patrol across the Arno river and through the heavily-mined and booby-trapped north bank. Hearing movements to his right he ordered his men to cover him while he crawled forward and discovered that a strong enemy force had surrounded them. 

    Realizing that he was trapped, he ordered his men to withdraw while he engaged two enemy automatic weapons. At the sacrifice of his life, he enabled his comrades to escape with valuable information which materially aided the successful crossing of the Arno river.
Finally, in 1948, Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda was returned home to be laid to rest. 

LEFT: The services for Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda noted in the Santa Ana Register.  His grave site at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster, California, is home to the annual Memorial Day program with the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670. (Santa Ana Register, December 10, 1948)

   The funeral services were held in the Wintersburg Japanese Church in 1948 with a military honor guard. The funeral procession made its way down Beach Boulevard to the Westminster Memorial Park for the burial, where Marines from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station fired a 21-gun salute.

ABOVE: The funeral procession for Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda, a member of the "Go For Broke" 442nd Regimental Combat Team, makes its way north on Beach Boulevard from the services at the Wintersburg Japanese Church to the Westminster Memorial Park on December 9, 1948. Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda was remembered by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.  (Courtesy of Dennis Masuda) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    In 1988, at the official signing of the Civil Liberties Act, Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda and his family were remembered by President Ronald Reagan.  

   Watch President Reagan speak in 1988 about visiting the Masuda family decades earlier in 1945:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcaQRhcBXKY  (Video courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)

   Members of the Masuda family and Clarence Nishizu, a congregant of the Wintersburg Japanese Mission, were at the signing with President Reagan, who had visited the Masuda family when he was a young Army captain at their Talbert farmhouse with General Joe Stillwell in 1945. Captain Ronald Reagan and General Joe Stillwell were there to award posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross for Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda.

RIGHT: The annual Memorial Day program at the grave site of Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda in Westminster Memorial Park with the Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670. (Photo, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    Today, the 1934 Wintersburg Japanese Church building remains standing and is one of six historic buildings that are part of National Treasure Historic Wintersburg, listed as one of America's Most Endangered Historic Places in 2014 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and listed as one of Orange County's Most Endangered in 2017 by Preserve Orange County.  The grave site of Staff-Sgt. Kazuo Masuda is home to the annual Memorial Day services held by Kazuo Masuda Memorial VFW Post 3670. The 21-gun salute remains part of the annual Memorial Day program, at which all military veterans are honored for their valor and service. 

ABOVE: The Wintersburg Japanese Church on dedication day, December 9, 1934. The congregation fund raised and built their second church building during the Great Depression, a major effort in the rural farming community of Wintersburg Village. (Photograph courtesy of Wintersburg Church) © 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. 

Memorial Day 2015: Kazuo Masuda remembered

 

ABOVE: The "Go For Broke" 442nd, the highest decorated military unit in history. Kazuo Masuda can be seen in the center of the front row, fourth from left.  He was a Huntington Beach High School graduate, born in Orange County, California, and the Masuda family were congregants of the Wintersburg Mission.  (Photo courtesy of www.the442nd.org) 

~Updated June 8, 2015~

  Kazuo Masuda and the Nisei who served in the U.S. military were remembered at a Memorial Day ceremony at Westminster Memorial Park.  The Masuda family story is important nationally, as this is the family specifically mentioned by President Ronald Reagan when he signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.  

   Kazuo Masuda will be one of three Nisei soldiers whose story will be featured in the upcoming Congressional Gold Medal Digital Exhibition by the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of American History.   

   Congregants of the Wintersburg Mission and farmers in Talbert (Fountain Valley), the Masuda family story can be found at http://historicwintersburg.blogspot.com/2012/06/masudas-national-civil-liberties-icons.html

   The following is a transcript of the speech presented by Dennis Masuda, Huntington Beach, California, a descendant of Kazuo Masuda and member of the Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force:

"Hate, discrimination, prejudice.  On this day, we should be talking about honor, sacrifice and heroes.  So let us talk about both.

Uncle Kaz, a man I never met but I know well.  Here is his story, the story of the Masudas, and the strong-willed Masuda women.

Kazuo Masuda, staff sergeant, #39168362.

Born November 30, 1918, about a mile from here in Westminster, California, he was one of 11 children born to Gensuke and Tamae Masuda.

A graduate of Fountain Valley Elementary School  in 1932 (Note: Fountain Valley was still known as Talbert at that time) and Huntington Beach Union High School in 1936.  Football, track, swimming and basketball.  He was only 5’4”!

ABOVE: Orange County-born Staff Sergeant Kazuo Masuda, a member of the "Go For Broke" 442nd, killed in action in Italy during World War II.
(Photograph, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © All rights reserved.

RIGHT: The honor guard prepares for the Memorial Day recognition of Kazuo Masuda, organized by the Kazuo Masuda VFW Post 3670. (Photograph, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © All rights reserved.

When I was about five, I remember my Dad and Uncle Mas looking through a picture album. I saw pictures of the family when everyone was much younger.  Then there was a picture of Uncle Kaz. Who was that I asked?  It was explained to me he was my uncle and that he died in the war.  At five years old, you really don’t have a concept about death or war.

LEFT: Dennis Masuda (left) with David Ono, anchorman with KABC-7 in Los Angeles, who also spoke at the Memorial Day event.
(Photograph, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © All rights reserved.
 

I also noticed pictures of the family at places I didn’t recognize.  It was explained to me that it was at a camp in Arkansas.  I remember thinking my family went camping at a tar paper garage in Arkansas?  It wasn’t until years later that I found out what camp actually meant.  (Editor's note: This reference is for the Jerome Relocation Center in southeastern Arkansas.  The Masudas later were sent to the Gila River camp in Arizona.)

On October 17, 1941, Uncle Kaz was drafted into the military. Because of his dark skin, his buddies gave him the nickname, 'Arab,' which wouldn’t be a great nickname if serving today.

While training at Fort Ord, the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.  Then the discrimination began even in the military.  He was passed over for the signal corps because he was of Japanese descent.

RIGHT: The honor guard stands ready, preparing for the Memorial Day recognition at the grave site of Kazuo Masuda.  Many of the Wintersburg Village's Japanese pioneer families are nearby, due to last century's segregation at the cemetery. (Photograph, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © All rights reserved.

Right after Pearl Harbor, my grandfather as well as thousands of other Issei were rounded up and detained for months before being returned to their families.

February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was signed and the internment process began.

LEFT: David Ono (left), KABC-7 anchorman, stands with Masuo Masuda, the brother of Kazuo Masuda.  Masuo Masuda--also a Huntington Beach High School graduate--served in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) as a translator during World War II. (Photograph, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © All rights reserved.

For Japanese Americans, they were about to fight two wars: one against the Axis Powers in Europe, and the other, hate, discrimination and prejudice at home.

Many young Japanese American men volunteered for military duty.  If you look at the Japanese situation, they had to volunteer to fight because if they didn’t, there would have been a lot of fingers pointing and people saying they didn’t care about America.

Uncle Kaz said in a letter, “I and the rest of the combat team know what we are fighting for.  It is for us, our future in America.”

It was as the Japanese say, “for the sake of the children.” 

Uncle Kaz was a risk taker, according to his comrades.  On one occasion, he stopped an attack and forced the advancing troops to retreat with him just using a mortar on a midnight patrol on August 27, 1944.  Uncle Kaz encountered a German machine gun at a distance of six feet.  He opened fire with his Thompson sub machine gun while two of his comrades escaped.  This was Uncle Kaz’s last stand.

A few days later, on September 1, they found his body.  His buddies recalled Uncle Kaz always said, “Not a step back.  Never, you can’t win by going backward.”

RIGHT: The wreath placed by the Kazuo Masuda VFW Post 3670 at the grave site of Kazuo Masuda at Westminster Memorial Park. (Photograph, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © All rights reserved.

On September 11, 1944, the dreaded Western Union telegram arrived at the relocation camp in Arkansas.  “The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your son, Staff Sgt. Kazuo Masuda, was killed in action on 27^th August in Italy.”

But, the war didn’t end there for the Masudas.  Uncle Takashi was still in Italy.  Uncle Mas was in military intelligence ready for the invasion of Japan as an interpreter.   Victory in Europe came in 1945 and victory over Japan came in August.  But for the Japanese Americans, the war on hate, discrimination and prejudice was not yet won.

The next battle was fought by Aunt Mary.  She was bullied not to return to their home in Talbert.  But she held fast and returned September of 1945.  A victory for Aunt Mary and the Masuda women.

In December 1945, General Joseph Stillwell came to the farmhouse in what is now Fountain Valley and presented the Distinguished Service Cross to my Aunt Mary.  There was also a rally at the Santa Ana Bowl and a fortuitous meeting with a young captain named Ronald Reagan.  My grandmother refused to take the medal from General Stillwell, but did accept it from my Aunt Mary.  Another little victory for the Masuda women. 

LEFT: An avenue lined with American flags at Westminster Memorial Park. (Photograph, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © All rights reserved.

Uncle Kaz had one more battle to fight.  His body was returned stateside on November 9, 1948.  When the request for him to be buried at Westminster (memorial park), they said he would have to be buried in a dirt area in the far corner of the cemetery because it was a Caucasian cemetery.  Amid protests from various groups, the cemetery relented and he was buried here.  At that time, it was still away from the main cemetery.  If you look around, you’ll see many Japanese surnames here.  How ironic is it that now this spot is right near the middle.

When President Reagan was thinking about signing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 and the redress to compensate the Japanese Americans, it was my Aunt June who wrote a letter to President Reagan reminding him about his speech some 43 years earlier at the Santa Ana Bowl and about Uncle Kaz.

RIGHT: President Ronald Reagan signing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Present at the signing was a member of the Masuda family and Clarence Nishizu, another Wintersburg Mission congregant who had worked for the passage of the Act. (AP photo)

In that speech he said, 'Blood that has soaked into the sands is all one color. America stands unique in the world, the only country not founded on race, but in a way, an ideal.'  The President soon signed the bill after getting Aunt June’s letter.  Another victory for a Masuda woman.

LEFT: The military guard stands in respect, as the crowd gathers for the Memorial Day event. The guard provided a 21-gun salute during the ceremony for Kazuo Masuda, held in the cemetery that had segregated his burial in 1948, when his body was returned home. (Photograph, M. Urashima, May 25, 2015) © All rights reserved.

About every 20-30 years, hate, discrimination and prejudice has a new victim in America.  In the 1860s, it was the Chinese; the 1880s, it was the Irish; the 1900s saw the Italians as victims; the 1940s, it was the Japanese.  Mid ‘70s to ‘80s, it was the Vietnamese and after September 11, 2001, anyone from the Middle East or that believed in Islam felt the wrath.  After 9/11, the familiar calls to send them back or round them up and incarcerate them were heard again.

Hate, discrimination, prejudice.  If we don’t get rid of these, the next group that may be targeted could be yours.

Thank you for listening and for being such great Americans."

RIGHT: Dennis Masuda (right) with Gloria Alvarez, who also attended the Memorial Day event.  Both are members of the Historic Wintersburg Preservation Task Force and alumni of Huntington Beach High School--at Historic Wintersburg in January 2013. (Photograph, M. Urashima, January 21, 2013) © All rights reserved.

READ: Feature on the VFW Post 3670 Kazuo Masuda Memorial Day ceremony in Rafu Shimpo, http://www.rafu.com/2015/06/a-soldiers-story/  

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   Our appreciation to Dennis Masuda for sharing his remarks and for his ongoing insight and support for the Historic Wintersburg preservation effort.  The Masuda family story and their role in President Reagan's signing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 is part of the history represented by Historic Wintersburg, which if preserved, can be shared in a tangible way with future generations.

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. 

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.

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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.

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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.