Masakazu Aoto

Masakazu Aoto was born on February 29 1888 to Iwajiro and Sei Aoto in the town of Kamiichi in Okayama Prefecture. He immigrated to Seattle, Washington and then to Watsonville, California with his wife, Hana (nee Inouye), in February 1916. They had been married on November 20, 1915. On the ship’s log, he listed himself as a teacher. Hana was born in Nariwa Town, Okayama on March 9, 1894. They planned to live with Masakazu’s younger brother, Shigemichi, a farmer in Watsonville.

Masakazu reported in his 1917 WWI draft registration that he was a schoolteacher for the Japanese Association in Watsonville and that he had served 6 weeks in the Japanese military. By the time of the 1920 Federal Census Masakazu had changed his occupation to farmer in the town of Robertsville, Santa Clara County, California. In 1922 his son George, was born in Los Angeles County.

In 1930 the Census reported the family as farming in the Sepulveda Estates, west of Western Avenue near the top of San Pedro Hill. In 1934, 12 year old George led his cousins, Chizuko (11 years) and Junko (10 years) on a trip to Japan to visit their father, Shigemichi in Tokyo. Undoubtedly they also visited their grandparents in Okayama. They returned to California in 1936.

In 1940 the Census found Masakazu and Hana farming in the same location as they had been in 1930. However, George was living with Shigemichi near White’s Point. George was attending San Pedro High School at the time and the location might have been more convenient for his commute.

Masakazu, Hana and George were sent to Jerome, Arkansas in October 1942 after living in the stables at the Santa Anita Race Track which was being used as an assembly center while the camps were being completed. Shigemichi’s family stayed with Masakazu’s family since Shigemichi had been arrested and separated from his family for several months.

George enlisted in the US Army in January 1945. After returning to California, Masakazu and Hana lived in the western part of Long Beach and later in San Pedro where Masakazu died in October 1948.

George married Nobuko Kida in 1954 and lived with Shigemichi in Pasadena for a short while. George and Nobuko continued to live in Pasadena and had a daughter and a son. Hana passed away in 1956. George died in 2012.

Masakazu (#9) and Hana (#98) are in the 40 Families photo. George would have been 1 ½ years old but no one has identified him in the photo.