"Jusaburo Fuji" and "Mr. Setsuda" are said to be the first Japanese pioneers who arrived in Bellevue.
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Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa were both Japanese citizens married in Japan. Hailing from Niigata Prefecture their first son was born there and remained in Japan all his life even though his parents would travel through Seattle to settle on the Eastside. Shichiro first made his way to the United States and arrived alone in 1906 while Shin remained in Japan with their child until they could afford for her to follow her husband later. They would live separate for at least two years as the events of their lives kept them from being reunited.
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Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa were both Japanese citizens married in Japan. Hailing from Niigata Prefecture their first son was born there and remained in Japan all his life even though his parents would travel through Seattle to settle on the Eastside. Shichiro first made his way to the United States and arrived alone in 1906 while Shin remained in Japan with their child until they could afford for her to follow her husband later. They would live separate for at least two years as the events of their lives kept them from being reunited.
The Matsuzawa family are a part of the first (Issei) and second (Nisei) generation of Japanese-Americans who helped to clear the land on the Eastside and farmed there until World War II led to the mass incarceration of people of Japanese descent, including the Matsuzawas.
Schichiro & Shin Matsuzawa / ~1908
Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa reunited in Seattle in 1908 while their first son once again remained in Japan. Settling near where Shin already worked in Yarrow Point their second son, Joe, was born in 1913.
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A Clyde Hill strawberry and produce farm operated by a Japanese family in about 1916.
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Farmers of Japanese descent came to work for Edward Tremper and leased land where they grew strawberries and vegetables.
Japanese farming strawberries and vegetables, Yarrow Point, 1920s
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The Suguro farm was located in the Midlakes area of Bellevue, Washington. Front (left to right): Sumie and Toshi Suguro. Back: Mae Suguro, Eva Aramaki, and Mitsue Suguro. (c. 1933)
WORLD WAR II BEGINS - 1939
President Truman reviews the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked American forces at Pearl Harbor. The opportunity to push the Japanese farmers off their lands finally came. A number of Nikkei civic leaders, including Tom Matsuoka, were arrested by the FBI within the first day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Confusion and fear reigned throughout the community.
From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent would be interred in isolated camps. In 1942, 90% of the agricultural workforce in the Bellevue area were of Japanese ancestry.
A crew of Japanese strawberry pickers at the Numoto farm near Bellevue, Washington, around 1922
Born January 9th, 1910 at Yarrow Point. Cano Numoto lived in Bellevue all his life except while the family was interned at Tulane Lake, CA and Minidoka, Idaho Relocation Centers. The Numoto family owned and farmed land west of 92nd Avenue NE; one of only a few who returned to Bellevue after World War II.
Miyo Kawase married Cano Numoto in 1947 and joined him on his farm in Bellevue; they raised sons Phil and Bruce and daughter Jennie.
October 31st 2003 Cano Numoto passed away.
His wife Miyo (nee Kawase) passed October 10th, 2014
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Patrick Kazuo Hagiwara was born and raised in Ketchikan Alaska, the second child of bakery owners, Frank and Shima Hagiwara. When he graduated Ketchikan High School in 1936, he joined the 297th battalion of the Alaska National Guard.
During those years, Pat was military personnel and informal intermediary between incarcerated Japanese immigrants before internments began, and then their families in being relocated to inland concentration camps. Pat was an early advocate for culturally respectful treatment and mitigated considerable fear within the Ketchikan and Southeast Alaska Japanese community. This part of Pat’s story is an oral history documented at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
During World War II, Pat was a much-decorated veteran. He served as a staff sergeant with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Campaigns included Napples-Foggia, Southern France (Gliders), Champaign, Gothic Line, Bruyers/Buffontaine, and Lost Battalion.
In 1968, the Hagiwara family moved to Bellevue with their youngest children, Juli and Rob, who grew up in the Robinswood area.
Patrick Kazuo Hagiwara
BORN MARCH 7, 1919 – DIED JUNE 24, 2010
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November 1926, Tom Takeo Matsuoka and Kazue Hirotaka get married in front of family members.
Tom (Takeo) Matsuoka and his sons, Ty and Tats, outside of the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association shed, a farmer run organization which Tom helped create in the 1930s. In 1927, Takeo was also a crucial organizer of the Seinenkai (Youth Club) for the young men who were growing up in Bellevue so that they would have a place to gather. He was also among the group that built the Kokaido (Club House), completed in 1930 where men came together as a community for recreation and to celebrate their cultural heritage
From left to right:
Guy Matsuoka, Betty Sakaguchi, Mitsi (Shiraishi) Kawaguchi, Mrs. Kazue Matsuoka, Yuri Yamaguchi 4th of July in 1932; from Bellevue on their way to a Seattle baseball game at Columbia Playfield.
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Kazuko Masunaga was born Marie Kazuko Sakata in Seattle WA on July 3rd, 1932. She was born the youngest of five siblings. From 1934 to 1942, at the old cabin near Phantom Lake in east Bellevue with parents and two older sisters, Mary and Fumiye, Yeizo Masunaga raised peas on the surrounding peat soil. "We used to work in the fields before we went to school at Phantom Lake Grade School, and after school we'd work again until dark."
Bellevue Grade School - Fifth Grade 1940 - 1941, just before World War II and Matsuoka incarceration at Pinedale Assembly Center near Fresno, California. Takeo (Tom) Matsuoka's son, Ty, is among the students in the second row from the top.
In 1942, Takeo went to the Chinook area and voluntarily worked in the beet fields in order to leave incarceration. Takeo and his wife chose to stay in Montana, returning once in 1946 and leaving again for the East. His son Ty did move back much later, in 1985.
Likewise, in 1943, Yoshio (John) requested a transfer and was moved to Hunt, Idaho where he was required to get permission to work on a sugar beet farm. In 1944, Yoshio moved with his wife and daughter to Michigan for a work opportunity. They eventually returned to Washington towards the end of the 1940s for the birth of their second daughter.
Until 1966, after returning from incarceration camps, the Matsuoka family became the new tenants in the Thode / Matsuoka / Masunaga cabin at Phantom Lake. John (Yoshio ) and his wife, Teru, raised their three daughters and son in the home while farming the surrounding land until 1966, when he went to work for the U.S. Postal Service. Matsuoka grew red potatoes, celery, strawberries and Romaine lettuce.
Schichiro & Shin Matsuzawa / ~1908
Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa reunited in Seattle in 1908 while their first son once again remained in Japan. Settling near where Shin already worked in Yarrow Point their second son, Joe, was born in 1913.
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A Clyde Hill strawberry and produce farm operated by a Japanese family in about 1916.
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Farmers of Japanese descent came to work for Edward Tremper and leased land where they grew strawberries and vegetables.
Japanese farming strawberries and vegetables, Yarrow Point, 1920s
Many early farmers were Japanese, but anti-alien legislation in the 1920s prohibited most of them from leasing land; many moved away even before WWII internment began.
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March 8, 1921, Washington Governor Louis F. Hart (1862-1929) signs the Washington Alien Land Law is enacted, essentially forbidding Japanese from owning land. Many immigrants cleared stumps, brush and trees in exchange for use/rental of land.
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Mitsuko “Mitzie” Hashiguchi (nee Takeshita) was born in 1921, the daughter of Japanese immigrants. She grew up on a strawberry and vegetable farm in the Midlakes area of Bellevue
In 1939 Mitzie married a Seattle man, Mutsuo Hashiguchi. When all local Japanese Americans were interned in 1942, Mitzie, her husband and son were relocated to Pinedale, California, then Tule Lake and Minidoka, Idaho. After their return to a devastated farm in Bellevue, they rebuilt the farm while Mutsuo also worked a second job at Boeing. Mitzie began work as a food server for the Bellevue School District in 1955, eventually attaining 26 years of service
March 8, 1921, Washington Governor Louis F. Hart (1862-1929) signs the Washington Alien Land Law is enacted, essentially forbidding Japanese from owning land. Many immigrants cleared stumps, brush and trees in exchange for use/rental of land.
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Mitsuko “Mitzie” Hashiguchi (nee Takeshita) was born in 1921, the daughter of Japanese immigrants. She grew up on a strawberry and vegetable farm in the Midlakes area of Bellevue
In 1939 Mitzie married a Seattle man, Mutsuo Hashiguchi. When all local Japanese Americans were interned in 1942, Mitzie, her husband and son were relocated to Pinedale, California, then Tule Lake and Minidoka, Idaho. After their return to a devastated farm in Bellevue, they rebuilt the farm while Mutsuo also worked a second job at Boeing. Mitzie began work as a food server for the Bellevue School District in 1955, eventually attaining 26 years of service
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The Suguro farm was located in the Midlakes area of Bellevue, Washington. Front (left to right): Sumie and Toshi Suguro. Back: Mae Suguro, Eva Aramaki, and Mitsue Suguro. (c. 1933)
WORLD WAR II BEGINS - 1939
President Truman reviews the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked American forces at Pearl Harbor. The opportunity to push the Japanese farmers off their lands finally came. A number of Nikkei civic leaders, including Tom Matsuoka, were arrested by the FBI within the first day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Confusion and fear reigned throughout the community.
From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent would be interred in isolated camps. In 1942, 90% of the agricultural workforce in the Bellevue area were of Japanese ancestry.
All of these farmers and their families were forcibly interned in Japanese internment camps established during World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066.
Overall 110,000 Japanese-Americans were taken to concentration camps across western States.
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Overall 110,000 Japanese-Americans were taken to concentration camps across western States.
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Kinpachi Furukawa and Tokuo Numoto were two first-generation immigrants who had purchased land in Bellevue before law prevented ownership. When Cano Numoto was born about 1910, his father was 38 and his mother, Yoshia, was 32.
A crew of Japanese strawberry pickers at the Numoto farm near Bellevue, Washington, around 1922
Born January 9th, 1910 at Yarrow Point. Cano Numoto lived in Bellevue all his life except while the family was interned at Tulane Lake, CA and Minidoka, Idaho Relocation Centers. The Numoto family owned and farmed land west of 92nd Avenue NE; one of only a few who returned to Bellevue after World War II.
Miyo Kawase married Cano Numoto in 1947 and joined him on his farm in Bellevue; they raised sons Phil and Bruce and daughter Jennie.
October 31st 2003 Cano Numoto passed away.
His wife Miyo (nee Kawase) passed October 10th, 2014
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Patrick Kazuo Hagiwara was born and raised in Ketchikan Alaska, the second child of bakery owners, Frank and Shima Hagiwara. When he graduated Ketchikan High School in 1936, he joined the 297th battalion of the Alaska National Guard.
During those years, Pat was military personnel and informal intermediary between incarcerated Japanese immigrants before internments began, and then their families in being relocated to inland concentration camps. Pat was an early advocate for culturally respectful treatment and mitigated considerable fear within the Ketchikan and Southeast Alaska Japanese community. This part of Pat’s story is an oral history documented at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
During World War II, Pat was a much-decorated veteran. He served as a staff sergeant with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Campaigns included Napples-Foggia, Southern France (Gliders), Champaign, Gothic Line, Bruyers/Buffontaine, and Lost Battalion.
In 1968, the Hagiwara family moved to Bellevue with their youngest children, Juli and Rob, who grew up in the Robinswood area.
Patrick Kazuo Hagiwara
BORN MARCH 7, 1919 – DIED JUNE 24, 2010
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Leaving Kumamoto-ken, a province on one of Japan’s most southern islands, Mr. (Guy) and Mrs. Matsuoka brought their two sons, Takeo (Tom) and Yoshio (John) to Washington state in 1919 after briefly living in Hawaii.
Tom (Takeo) Matsuoka and his sons, Ty and Tats, outside of the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association shed, a farmer run organization which Tom helped create in the 1930s. In 1927, Takeo was also a crucial organizer of the Seinenkai (Youth Club) for the young men who were growing up in Bellevue so that they would have a place to gather. He was also among the group that built the Kokaido (Club House), completed in 1930 where men came together as a community for recreation and to celebrate their cultural heritage
From left to right:
Guy Matsuoka, Betty Sakaguchi, Mitsi (Shiraishi) Kawaguchi, Mrs. Kazue Matsuoka, Yuri Yamaguchi 4th of July in 1932; from Bellevue on their way to a Seattle baseball game at Columbia Playfield.
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Kazuko Masunaga was born Marie Kazuko Sakata in Seattle WA on July 3rd, 1932. She was born the youngest of five siblings. From 1934 to 1942, at the old cabin near Phantom Lake in east Bellevue with parents and two older sisters, Mary and Fumiye, Yeizo Masunaga raised peas on the surrounding peat soil. "We used to work in the fields before we went to school at Phantom Lake Grade School, and after school we'd work again until dark."
Bellevue Grade School - Fifth Grade 1940 - 1941, just before World War II and Matsuoka incarceration at Pinedale Assembly Center near Fresno, California. Takeo (Tom) Matsuoka's son, Ty, is among the students in the second row from the top.
In 1942, Takeo went to the Chinook area and voluntarily worked in the beet fields in order to leave incarceration. Takeo and his wife chose to stay in Montana, returning once in 1946 and leaving again for the East. His son Ty did move back much later, in 1985.
Likewise, in 1943, Yoshio (John) requested a transfer and was moved to Hunt, Idaho where he was required to get permission to work on a sugar beet farm. In 1944, Yoshio moved with his wife and daughter to Michigan for a work opportunity. They eventually returned to Washington towards the end of the 1940s for the birth of their second daughter.
Until 1966, after returning from incarceration camps, the Matsuoka family became the new tenants in the Thode / Matsuoka / Masunaga cabin at Phantom Lake. John (Yoshio ) and his wife, Teru, raised their three daughters and son in the home while farming the surrounding land until 1966, when he went to work for the U.S. Postal Service. Matsuoka grew red potatoes, celery, strawberries and Romaine lettuce.
Matsuoka / Masunaga cabin is donated to the city Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm in 1989.
Matsuoka / Masunaga Phantom Lake Cabin. This photo shows the Masunaga Family along with this historical cabin. From left to right: Yeizo Masunaga, Yeizo's wife, and Mrs. Taki Masunaga.
By 1997, Yoshio (John) Matsuoka was the last Japanese-American Farmer left in Bellevue, still working his farm and growing food.
John Yoshio Matsuoka, born June 18, 1915, passed away December 19, 2012
Photo ~1998: http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2007/06/interview-with-immigrant-i.html Takeo Tom Matsuoka died March 9, 2001, in Vancouver. He was 97. His wife, Kazue, died in 1986.
Mr. Matsuoka was born Aug. 1, 1903, in Hawaii. Matsuoka was a "kibei" -- American-born (in 1903) and thus a citizen like most Nisei, but one who returned to Japan at an early age and was educated there, then came back to the United States (in 1919) and remained as a citizen.
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Matsuoka / Masunaga Phantom Lake Cabin. This photo shows the Masunaga Family along with this historical cabin. From left to right: Yeizo Masunaga, Yeizo's wife, and Mrs. Taki Masunaga.
By 1997, Yoshio (John) Matsuoka was the last Japanese-American Farmer left in Bellevue, still working his farm and growing food.
John Yoshio Matsuoka, born June 18, 1915, passed away December 19, 2012
Photo ~1998: http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2007/06/interview-with-immigrant-i.html Takeo Tom Matsuoka died March 9, 2001, in Vancouver. He was 97. His wife, Kazue, died in 1986.
Mr. Matsuoka was born Aug. 1, 1903, in Hawaii. Matsuoka was a "kibei" -- American-born (in 1903) and thus a citizen like most Nisei, but one who returned to Japan at an early age and was educated there, then came back to the United States (in 1919) and remained as a citizen.
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After the war, Yeizo moved around the country, eventually returning to settle in Seattle in the early 1950s and married Marie Kazuko Sakata in 1962 (above). Yeizo Masunaga was 15 during World War II when he and his family were forced to leave the Phantom Lake cabin they leased for $500 a year and were sent to Camp Tulelake and Minidoka for internment after Pinedale Assembly Center. http://www.nvcfmemorialwall.org/profile/view/3017
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Marie Kazuko Masunaga, b. JULY 3, 1932 – d. MAY 6, 2016
Preceded in death by siblings, Clara Chieko Stewart, Josephine Nobuko Arao, and James Hideo Sakata.
Survived by her sister, Agnes Yuriko Sakata (92) her husband, Yeizo Masunaga (89),
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May 21, 1998: See Interview with Japanese-Americans born and raised in Bellevue in early 1900-1922
http://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-densho-1000/ddr-densho-1000-23-transcript-a0c507f300.htm
Densho Visual History Collection: Tokio Hirotaka (age 88 "born in Vue Crest" - Toshio Ito "age 76 "born 1922 October 23rd in Highland area of Bellevue, that time it was known as Peterson Hill. Now Glendale Golf Course. and lower end Kelsey Creek " - Joe Matsuzawa (age 85) Interview
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After the war, Yeizo moved around the country, eventually returning to settle in Seattle in the early 1950s and married Marie Kazuko Sakata in 1962 (above). Yeizo Masunaga was 15 during World War II when he and his family were forced to leave the Phantom Lake cabin they leased for $500 a year and were sent to Camp Tulelake and Minidoka for internment after Pinedale Assembly Center. http://www.nvcfmemorialwall.org/profile/view/3017
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Marie Kazuko Masunaga, b. JULY 3, 1932 – d. MAY 6, 2016
Preceded in death by siblings, Clara Chieko Stewart, Josephine Nobuko Arao, and James Hideo Sakata.
Survived by her sister, Agnes Yuriko Sakata (92) her husband, Yeizo Masunaga (89),
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May 21, 1998: See Interview with Japanese-Americans born and raised in Bellevue in early 1900-1922
http://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-densho-1000/ddr-densho-1000-23-transcript-a0c507f300.htm
Densho Visual History Collection: Tokio Hirotaka (age 88 "born in Vue Crest" - Toshio Ito "age 76 "born 1922 October 23rd in Highland area of Bellevue, that time it was known as Peterson Hill. Now Glendale Golf Course. and lower end Kelsey Creek " - Joe Matsuzawa (age 85) Interview
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