Hirose family at the beach

Library has digital image only, courtesy of Mutsuo Hirose.

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 at Seattle and bound for San Pedro. His wife, Tomiko (nee 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 of whom were 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 within the next several months, first to Tuna Canyon Detention Camp in Tujunga, California, then to Fort Lincoln in Bismarck, North Dakota, the Santa Anita Assembly Center in Arcadia California, the 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, California where they remained until the end of the war. Atsushi renounced his U.S. citizenship while at Tule Lake. With Mutsuo’s help he was able to reclaim his citizenship a few years later. Tomiko Sadahei became a naturalized citizen in 1954 and died Feb. 9, 1980 in Los Angeles County. Sadahei and Tomiko appear as numbers 43 and 94 in the 40 Families Photo.