Sadahei Hirose family with Nobori Sawa, Rancho Palos Verdes, California

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, 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 Hirose had six children, all of whom were born in San Pedro: Atsushi Jack, Mizuye, Ruriko, Mutsuo, Ikuo, and Mutsumi. Hirose 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 near 9th St. in San Pedro and moved it to their farm. Sadahei Hirose 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, Hirose was transferred first to the Tuna Canyon Detention Camp in Tujunga, California, then to Fort Lincoln in Bismarck, North Dakota, followed by the Santa Anita Assembly Center in Arcadia California and the Granada War Relocation Project in Amache, Colorado. He was finally transferred to the 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 sent 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. Atsushi Hirose renounced his U.S. citizenship while he was at Tule Lake. With his brother Mutsuo's help, he was able to reclaim his citizenship a few years later. Sadahei Hirose died July 22, 1945 at Tule Lake. His wife Tomiko became a naturalized citizen in 1954 and died Feb. 9, 1980 in Los Angeles County. Sadahei and Tomiko Hirose are identified as 43 and 94 in the 40 Families Photo.