Hirose family at Vanderlip residence

Library has digital image only, courtesy of Mutsuo Hirose.

Sadahei Hirose was born in Kamimanriki Town, Higashi Yamanashi County, Yamanashi Prefecture, Tokyo City, Japan on Nov. 28, 1879.He entered the U. S. in 1903 via Seattle and bound for San Pedro. His wife, Tomiko Hamaya of Esa-mura, Hokkaido, was born April 15, 1898. She immigrated in 1922 aboard the Shinyo Maru into San Francisco accompanied by Sadahei. Sadahei and Tomiko had six children all born in San Pedro. Sadahei was a truck farmer in the Portuguese Bend area in 1920. By 1930 he was farming Ranch 28 on a lease from Frank Vanderlip. He continued to farm on Ranch 28 until 1942. Sometime during the 1930s Hirose bought a house around 9th St. in San Pedro and moved it to their farm. Sadahei was one of 15 men arrested by the FBI for allegedly possessing contraband in their sweep of 100 Japanese homes on the Peninsula on Feb. 2, 1942. Initially jailed at the Immigration Station in San Pedro, Sadahei was transferred several times and was held at Tuna Canyon Detention Camp in Tujunga, California, Fort Lincoln in Bismarck, North Dakota, Santa Anita Assembly Center in Arcadia California, Granada War Relocation Project in Amache, Colorado, and finally Tule Lake Relocation Center in Newell, California. The Hirose family remained on the farm while other Japanese families were moving from Palos Verdes to central California to avoid internment. The Hirose family was taken to the Santa Anita Assembly Center where Sadahei joined them in July and later sent to the Granada War Relocation Project. The family was shipped to Ellis Island for embarkation. From Ellis Island the Hirose family was shipped to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arizona. In September 1943, they were sent to Tule Lake, CA where they remained until the end of the war.