The Manzanar Uprising and the Loyalty Questionnaire

When some people first learn of the Japanese incarceration camps that held Japanese Americans during World War II, they may envision the residents uniting to support one another and getting through life as one bonded family in the camps. This was true to an extent, but not entirely. Yes, the camps had baseball leagues and other diversions through which many residents could find some common ground. But like any situation where a great many people are involved, the more than 125,000 individuals who were forcibly removed to the camps had their share of conflicts and divides. One such division was at the heart of the Manzanar Revolt, one of the most tragic events of the incarceration camps, which left many Japanese Americans with a deep distrust of their own country that lasted for decades.

Even before the events at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, there were divisions among Japanese Americans. Many were members of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), an organization formed in 1929 to represent and secure rights primarily for Nisei, the American-born children of Japanese immigrants. However, many Nisei and Issei (people who had emigrated from Japan) felt that the JACL was too friendly with the US government and worried it might be keeping US agencies informed of their activities during a period of tension between the United States and Japan.

After the United States was thrust into the war by the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, the JACL cooperated with the federal government in relocating Japanese Americans to incarceration camps. And though this act was intended to show that Japanese Americans were good citizens and wanted to do their part to help their country in the war effort, it did not sit well with many Nisei or Issei. Members of both groups felt that the JACL should have done more to support their people at the outset of the forced removal. After the groups were placed in the incarceration camps, the tension between the pro- and anti-JACL factions heightened.

Fred Tayama, the son of Japanese immigrants, was born in Hawaii before becoming a prominent businessman in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles. He was the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the JACL and later, after relocating to Manzanar, served as the camp’s JACL representative. Tayama was also the chairman of the Manzanar Works Corps and a member of the Manzanar Community Council. Community councils were established to help self-govern the camps, but it is questionable how much help they were to the residents. Council members were Nisei who had been approved by the government’s War Relocation Authority (WRA) and many, including Tayama, were considered to be on too friendly of terms with the agency.

Many of the camp residents suspected that Tayama and other council members may even have been working with the FBI as informants (which, in Tayama’s case, was likely true).1 Tayama’s name was already sour among camp residents for his pro-JACL stance and WRA connections when, in November 1942, he attended a national JACL meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, as Manzanar’s representative. One of the business topics discussed during that meeting was a recommendation to restore military draft eligibility for Nisei. To many Nisei, this resolution essentially predetermined that they would be selected for the armed forces from behind barbed wire. Once news of the resolution reached Manzanar, Tayama and other JACL leaders became targets of the frustrated residents.

On the evening of December 5, Tayama was attacked in his barracks by a group of six masked men. He was saved when a woman walking by witnessed the assault and screamed, which scattered the attackers. The harm done to Tayama was not life-threatening but was severe enough that he was taken to the camp hospital. He was unable to positively identify his assailants, but he did accuse one of them of as being Harry Ueno, a leader in the Mess Hall Workers Union at the camp. Ueno and his union previously had been at odds with Tayama and his Manzanar Work Corps over the organization of kitchens in the camp, though their disagreements certainly ran deeper than how the facilities were run.

After being questioned by camp authorities, Ueno was taken to the Inyo County jail six miles away in the town of Independence. Ueno had previously accused WRA assistant project director Ned Campbell of stealing supplies from the camp and selling them for personal profit.2 Many at Manzanar believed that Ueno’s arrest was in retaliation for those accusations.

Many incarcerees were not satisfied with the arrangement; they were still furious with Tayama and other JACL supporters. The irate detainees became especially stirred up after speeches by anti-JACL leaders, most notably Joe Kurihara.3 A Japanese American veteran of World War I, Kurihara was understandably bitter over the way he had been treated by his country after serving it and was passionately opposed to the JACL’s collaboration with the WRA. He repeatedly called for death to the inu (a Japanese word meaning “dog” that is also commonly used to describe informers). Rather than disbanding for the evening, a group of 50 to 75 incarcerees approached the hospital where Tayama was being treated, presumably with the intent to kill him and make an example of him. Nurses held off the mob while Tayama was hidden away by hospital staff.

A little before 7:00 PM that evening, a separate group of approximately 500 protesters arrived at the camp police station and demanded Ueno’s release.4 Military police captain Martyn L. Hall attempted to calm the crowd, but they only grew angrier and began hurling stones in the direction of military police guarding the building. At around 9:30 PM, Hall finally decided more force was needed and ordered MPs to shoot tear gas toward the inmates. A report said the protesters fled from the gas in all directions, and that the MPs began firing as they perceived a horde rushing toward them. There was also a report that members of the crowd found a nearby parked vehicle and sent it rolling toward the police station, and that MPs then fired on the oncoming vehicle.

As the throng broke apart, 17-year-old James Ito lay dead in the street, a victim of the gunfire. Another protester, 21-year-old Jim Kanagawa, was taken to the camp hospital, where he died from his injuries five days later. Nine other protesters were treated for bullet wounds (one account stated that an MP officer was also hit by a ricochet).5 The two MPs who fired the fatal shots were identified as Privates Ramon Cherubini and Tobe Moore. A review panel cleared the two of any wrongdoing after being convinced they felt threatened by the approaching crowd.6

 

Headline in the Minidoka Irrigator, the newspaper for the Minidoka incarceration camp located in Hunt, Idaho, brings news of the Manzanar uprising. (Library of Congress)

 

THE VICTIMS

Katsuji “Jim” Kanagawa was Nisei, originally from Tacoma, Washington. His father, Shigekatsu, was born in Fukuoka, Japan, and arrived in 1906 at age 29 looking for work, eventually settling in Tacoma and working in a lumber mill. In 1920, his wife, Kiku Numata, joined him in the United States.

Katsuji was born on May 22, 1921. Camp records list his name as Jim, but that name does not appear on other official records, suggesting he may have adopted the American moniker to use informally. He had moved from Tacoma and was living in the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles when he was relocated to Manzanar. He was one of the earliest entrants to Manzanar and likely helped prepare the camp for the thousands of others who would join him.7

While Kanagawa was of college age and lived among a Japanese community, 17-year-old James Ito had attended school in Pasadena and arrived at Manzanar with his father, Kishiro, his mother, Toyo, and three of his siblings. The Ito family previously lived in a multicultural area of Pasadena, where Japanese families like the Itos might live next door to Black or Mexican families. The children of these neighborhoods would get together regularly and play pickup games of any sport.

That was the case with Ito’s older brother, George. Growing up, George considered himself a top player in a neighborhood group called the Pepper Street Gang, named after the street on which many of the kids resided.8 One of the other members of the group also considered himself to be a pretty fair athlete. That neighbor, Jackie Robinson, would go on to star in track and field and football at UCLA before joining the military. George Ito enlisted in the US Army in February 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor; thus, he did not join his family at Manzanar. Unfortunately for the Itos, having a family member in the United States Armed Forces did not preclude them from being pulled from their home on Pepper Street and moved into barracks at Manzanar.

Reports said James was resting in his barracks at the start of the December 6 demonstration and heard the commotion outside.9 He went to see what was going on and was shot dead. Both Ito and Kanagawa were reported to have reputations for “loyal Americanism,” though it is possible that either could have sided with those who were anti-JACL.10

After being forced to go through a negotiation process with the US government to set a location and conditions, families of the two victims held a funeral on December 21, 1942, in a wooded area one and a half miles outside camp lines.11 Although Ito and Kanagawa were the only fatalities of the revolt, there were adiviopproximately 150 men, women, and children who died while imprisoned at Manzanar. Most of the dead were cremated, and their remains were left with the families who were either also at the camp or living elsewhere. James Ito’s remains are now at Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Kanagawa’s remains were likely sent to his family.

 

The notorious questions 27 and 28 from the 1943 Loyalty Questionnaire.

 

THE LOYALTY QUESTIONNAIRE

News of the revolt made it into newspapers, but the information that came out was limited. Some newspapers declared that the revolt was conducted by “Axis sympathizers.”12 The revolt unfortunately occurred on almost exactly the one-year anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombings, so it was only too convenient for media outlets to claim that the revolt began as celebrations in remembrance of the raids. The Los Angeles Times claimed that the pro-American Tayama had been beaten during the revolt after attempting to subdue the rioters.13 It also reported that people could be heard yelling “Pearl Harbor, Banzai, Banzai!” before the revolt.14 This could be a case where the news media was fabricating anti-Japanese propaganda, though the National Park Service’s well-documented account of the revolt states some Japanese protesters indeed had been yelling “Banzai,” a battle cry used by members of the Japanese armed forces.

Even before the revolt, the WRA was aware of unrest at other camps and decided there was a need to separate “pro-American” incarcerees from those labeled as anti-American or “pro-Axis.” The revolt was the catalyst for them to take action.

In February 1943, the WRA and the War Department administered a questionnaire to prisoners. There were two versions: the US Army gave form DSS-304A to draft-age Nisei men; everyone else received WRA form WRA-126. But in either case, the questionnaire was better known as the Loyalty Questionnaire. The forms included questions that could be used to determine if incarcerees were loyal enough that they could be relocated outside of camps or, better yet, inducted into the military to serve the US. Incarcerees who were considered to be “troublemakers,” who were thought to be more loyal to their Japanese homeland, would be sent to separate camps.

Although each version of the questionnaire was slightly different, they asked for the same background information, including voting status and parents’ place of birth. The questions also requested information on ties to Japan, including family still in Japan, property and assets still owned there, and even if they spoke Japanese. The answers were then graded on their perceived “Americanism.”

There were two questions on the questionnaire that were especially of interest to agencies. The questions fell last, at numbers 27 and 28, and they were the two most controversial items of the survey. Question 27 asked, “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?” That was followed by Question 28: “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?”15

Even for the Japanese Americans at Manzanar who considered themselves loyal to the US and didn’t wish to answer negatively on either of the last two questions, the survey caused much consternation and frustration. As one might expect, Question 27 raised concerns that to answer “yes” to being willing to serve the country was tantamount to volunteering for duty in the war. And a simple yes or no question didn’t give the taker a way to explain that they may have children at home or other responsibilities that they could not abandon for possible military service.

Question 28 regarding the taker’s allegiance also was seen as a no-win situation. Answering “no” could, of course, put them under increased scrutiny and potentially result in them being relocated. But to answer “yes” would imply that at one point they had sworn allegiance to the Japanese emperor, and by that reasoning, they could be considered citizens of another country and be at risk of losing their property due to the Alien Land Laws. Many of the Nisei, who were born in the United States, could not even have named the emperor of Japan before the war started, let alone sworn allegiance to him. Besides the issues of possibly being sent to war or losing everything they owned, the American-born camp members felt insulted by being questioned about their loyalty to their homeland, where they were born, grew up, and raised their families.

Incarcerees who “failed” the survey by answering “no” to the last two questions or by scoring poorly on the entire survey would be considered disloyal. They were subsequently segregated to the Tule Lake Segregation Center in northern California, near the Oregon border.

Even after being labeled “disloyal” by the US government and segregated to Tule Lake, incarcerees continued to celebrate the American pastime. Like the other Japanese incarceration camps, Tule Lake had a thriving baseball scene. Manzanar alone had featured 12 leagues, with nearly 100 men’s teams and another 14 teams for women’s softball.16 Those who had been transferred from Manzanar to Tule Lake would continue playing the game on their own “Manzanar” team in that camp’s baseball league. The team had several players listed among league batting and pitching leaders, and it even included its own fan club.17

Besides categorizing the anti-Americans who needed to be segregated, the questionnaire also allowed the military to determine the feasibility of creating a proposed all-Nisei combat team. Newspaper reports insisted that the move to allow Nisei citizens back into the US Armed Forces and vital work production “was greeted enthusiastically” at Manzanar.18 This was hardly the case. In hindsight, it should not come as a surprise that incarcerees disagreed that going to a war zone would be a better choice than being held in a prison. Nonetheless, the WRA was surprised by the low response; less than six percent of eligible Nisei in the camps volunteered.19

The plan was not a complete failure, however. In early 1943, Japanese Americans were allowed to volunteer for service again. And although the US military did not get the response it had hoped for from the questionnaire, it was still able to create the Nisei 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team. The team, made up of mostly Nisei from Hawaii and from the incarceration camps, became one of the most decorated units in US military history.20

For the most part, though, not only did Nisei incarcerees protest the questionnaire and overwhelmingly not volunteer to join the armed forces, but many of those surveyed did the exact opposite. Some Nisei requested expatriation to Japan where several fought to get their US citizenship reinstated, while many Issei asked for repatriation to their home country. On July 1, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Denaturalization Act of 1944, which allowed Japanese Americans to renounce their US citizenship. Following the war, many of those who had done so applied to have decisions reversed, but more than 1,300 former United States citizens did return to Japan.21

But even many of those who “passed” the questionnaire still came home to find that their property and possessions had been taken in their absence. They too were victims of hate and prejudice. And two young men at Manzanar, James Ito and Katsuji Kanagawa, lost everything.

AFTERMATH

Decades after the Manzanar Revolt, historians surmised that multiple circumstances contributed to the event, but the top factors were the pre-existing friction between generational and interest groups within the camps and the failure of camp administrators to address the problems brought forth by their detainees.22 The US government’s solution for unrest at the camps, the Loyalty Questionnaire, only brought anger, sadness, hurt feelings, and distrust. The incarceration camp baseball leagues continued after the revolt in December 1942, providing a much-needed distraction for the Japanese Americans who were incarcerated, but the diversion could only work for so long.

On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan brought an end to what had been “a long struggle for justice”23 when he signed into law the Civil Liberties Act. The bill was established to pay reparations to Japanese American families who had been forcibly relocated to incarceration camps during World War II.

More importantly, the bill included a formal apology for the acts of the government during the period and for how they affected those who were imprisoned. The bill was passed after years of diligent efforts by former detainees and their supporters. Among the witnesses who passionately spoke for redress and reparations was Harry Ueno, the central figure who sparked the Manzanar uprising. Another witness was Martha Ito Okamoto, who spoke about the death of her brother, James Ito.24 Testimonials such as the ones given by Ueno and Okamoto helped bring about action that finally provided a measure of closure for the thousands who once unwillingly endured life in incarceration camps, such as the one in Manzanar.

CHRIS BETSCH has been a SABR member since 2019. He and his family reside in New Albany, Indiana, and he is a member of the Pee Wee Reese SABR Chapter (Louisville, Kentucky). Chris has written several SABR Bios and Games Projects, as well as articles for the newsletters of the Minor Leagues and Deadball Era committees. He has contributed to SABR publications including The1939 Baltimore Elite Giants and When Minor League Baseball Almost Went Bust.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The online Densho Encyclopedia of the Japanese American World War II exclusion and incarceration experience (encyclopedia.densho.org) was heavily relied on for research on the Manzanar Revolt and those who were involved, as well as for the resulting Loyalty Questionnaire.

The National Park Service Historic Resource Study page on Manzanar at Manzanar NHS: Historic Resource Study/Special History Study (Chapter 11) has a comprehensive account of the uprising.

Sarah Bone of the Manzanar National Historic Site graciously provided biographical information for James Ito and Katsuji Kanagawa.

 

SOURCES

In addition to sources cited in the Notes, the author used www.familysearch.org for additional biographical information, along with the following sources:

National Park Service page for the History of the Manzanar Cemetery, https://www.nps.gov/places/history-of-the-manzanar-cemetery.htm, accessed November 26, 2025.

Iwataki, Miya. “How NCRR Shaped the CWRIC Hearings,” East Wind ezine, https://eastwindezine.com/how-ncrr-shaped-the-cwirc-hearings/, accessed November 20, 2025.

 

NOTES

1 Harlan D. Unrau, The Evacuation and Relocation of Persons of Japanese Ancestry During World War II: A Historical Study of the Manzanar War Relocation Center, Volumes 1 and 2, “Chapter 11: Violence at Manzanar on December 6, 1942: An Examination of the Event, its Underlying Causes, and Historical Interpretation,” (US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1996), accessed June 1, 2025, https://www.npshistory.com/publications/manz/hrs/chap11.htm.

2 Arthur A. Hansen, “Harry Ueno,” Densho Encyclopedia, accessed November 20, 2024, https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Harry_Ueno/.

3 Eileen Tamura, “Joe Kurihara,” Densho Encyclopedia, accessed September 12, 2024, https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Joe_Kurihara/.

4 Brian Niiya, “Manzanar Riot/Uprising,” Densho Encyclopedia, accessed June 1, 2025, https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Manzanar_riot/uprising/.

5 Ellen Endo, “Unsolved Murder in Manzanar,” Rafu Shimpo, July 22, 2013, https://rafu.com/2013/07/unsolved-murder-in-manzanar/.

6 Niiya.

7 Sarah Bone, email correspondence with author, May 28, 2025.

8 Lynda Lin Grigsby, “‘Baseball Was Their Glue’: Jackie Robinson’s Deep Bond With LA’s Japanese Americans,” The Guardian, April 15, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/15/jackie-robinson-pasadena-los-angeles.

9 Endo.

10 Morton Grodzins, “The Manzanar Shooting,” January 10, 1943, UC Berkeley Library Digital Collections, cubanc6714_b210o10_0004.pdf.

11 Endo; Unrau.

12 “Non-Japs Taken From Manzanar,” Los Angeles Daily News, December 8, 1942: 3.

13 “Guns Halt Jap Manzanar Riot,” Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1942: 1.

14 “Guns Halt Jap Manzanar Riot.”

15 “The ‘Loyalty Questionnaire,’ 1943,” Densho Encyclopedia, accessed January 7, 2026, https://encyclopedia.densho.org/sources/en-denshopd-p72-00004-1/.

16 “Manzanar Baseball,” National Park Service, accessed November 15, 2025, https://www.nps.gov/places/manzanar-baseball.htm.

17 Baseball, Tule Lake Center, 1944, UC Davis Digital Collections, accessed January 7, 2026, 3, https://digital.ucdavis.edu/collection/ark:/87293/d3zp3w73h.

18 “Steps Taken to Put Japs into US Armed Forces,” Los Angeles Daily News, February 13, 1943: 3.

19 Cherstin Lyon, “Loyalty Questionnaire,” Densho Encyclopedia, accessed August 12, 2025, https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Loyalty%20questionnaire.

20 “The 442nd Regimental Combat Team,” George C. Marshall Foundation, April 26, 2024, https://www.marshallfoundation.org/articles-and-features/the-442nd-regimental-combat-team/.

21 Cherstin Lyon, “Denaturalization Act of 1944/Public Law 78-405,” Densho Encyclopedia, accessed November 20, 2025, https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Denaturalization_Act_of_1944/Public_Law_78-405/.

22 Niiya.

23 “Reagan To Sign AJA Reparations Today,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 10, 1988: A-5.

24 Miya Iwataki, “Reparations Then! Reparations Now! CWRIC 40 to HR 40,” Rafu Shimpo, August 21, 2021, https://rafu.com/2021/08/reparations-then-reparations-now-cwric-40-to-hr-40/.