A Look Back in Time: Japanese Americans of Lewis County Boarded on Train to California Internment Camp in 1942

Compiled by Matthew Zylstra / matthew@chronline.com
Posted 6/3/22

Fifty-three Japanese Americans left the Chehalis Train Depot on Tuesday, June 2, 1942, on a train headed to Tule Lake, California, to be held in a “Japanese assembly center.” The 53 …

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A Look Back in Time: Japanese Americans of Lewis County Boarded on Train to California Internment Camp in 1942

Posted

Fifty-three Japanese Americans left the Chehalis Train Depot on Tuesday, June 2, 1942, on a train headed to Tule Lake, California, to be held in a “Japanese assembly center.” The 53 Americans were the entire ethnic-Japanese population of Lewis County, including both the American and foreign born population.

The Lewis County residents were joined by 47 Japanese Americans from Pacific County.

“The train then moved southward to pick up others in the Southwest Washington counties,” according to The Chronicle.

Those who boarded the train were only permitted to bring a small amount of baggage with them.

The Japanese Americans were to be held at Tule Lake until the end of the war as part of the internment program created by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066.

Many of the individuals being deported were longtime residents of Lewis County.

As cars arrived and Japanese Americans stepped out, many already on the train laughed and waved to greet the newer arrivals to the station. However, it was clear those boarding the train were not happy to be evacuated.

Shortly before the train left, one Japanese American told a friend, “I am very happy. I told my wife she must not cry. The U.S., it will take good care of us. We will be back soon. I am very happy,” according to The Chronicle.

 

June 4, 1932:

• A Winlock woman received a letter from her brother in the Soviet Union detailing the hardships of life under communist rule. The letter said his “livestock had been confiscated and his crops taken from him, and that his family was compelled to live on rye flour, without milk, bread or potatoes. In fact, he said, he had to save for several months in order to purchase the stamp he put on the letter,” The Chronicle reported.

• Three men held up employee T.D. MacDonald at the Sunset service station at the intersection of Walnut Street and Tower Avenue in Centralia. The men “stole $21.40 and 10 gallons of gasoline and then forced MacDonald to get into their car … and finally put their victim out of the machine on Harrison Avenue,” The Chronicle reported.

• Maurice G. Caplan was held up in his Seattle jewelry store. The thief stole $25 and six diamonds priced at $950.

• Joseph Lander escaped from the state prison in Walla Walla after overpowering a guard and stealing his shotgun. Lander made an improvised rope from bed sheets and told the officer he overpowered that he “had been waiting for just such a night for some time,” according to The Chronicle.

• T.I. Dodge, president of the Southwest Washington Pioneers’ Association, was expected to speak at the chamber of commerce’s luncheon the upcoming Monday.

• R.M. Shaver, 73, and William J. Roundtree, 57, who The Chronicle described as “two pioneer residents of Lewis County,” passed away on June 4, 1932. Shaver’s body was expected to arrive in Chehalis on the coming Monday for a funeral while Roundtree’s was already in Chehalis.

• The jury term for June was set to begin on the upcoming Monday with 54 jurors summoned. A man named T.H. Ramsaur was set to go on trial on June 8 for first-degree murder charges.

 

June 4, 1942:



• Two Centralia residents sustained minor injuries after their cars ran into each other at the intersection of Pear and Rock streets. One of the drivers, Wendall Hartwell, received bruises while the other driver, Anna Gearin, suffered a head injury and $75 of damage to her vehicle.

• Thomas S. Hopgood, a 75-year-old resident of Centralia, died at a local hospital. Hopgood had lived in Washington since 1896.

• Jack Briske, a 19-year-old Chehalis resident, was injured in a car accident between Olympia and Tacoma after the car he was a passenger in ran into a stalled lumber truck. Briske was taken to a hospital in Olympia for a skull fracture. The driver of the lumber truck was James P. Newberry, 29, of Centralia.

• The Lewis County rationing administrator announced Centralia residents would be allowed to begin submitting applications for allotments of canning sugar. Conrad “asked that housewives make no immediate rush to secure their canning allotments,” according to The Chronicle.

• Lewis County labor unions voted to decline efforts to organize agricultural workers. Maude Meyers, the executive secretary of the local arm of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), said the AFL is “on record that it does not and will not organize farmers into trade unions,” according to The Chronicle.

• A program was to be held at Centralia High School on the upcoming Friday where Everett Fire Department captain J. A. Mattson would speak “and show moving pictures” related to bomb defense. The event was to be followed by demonstrations at Noble Field on the use of “explosives, gas and incendiary bombs and the precautionary measures needed in defense from them,” according to The Chronicle.

• A 10-month-old male Boston bulldog was listed for sale at $5.

 

June 4, 1952:

• The Lewis County commissioners voted for a plan to build a new highway segment extending southward from the Newaukum River to a previously existing Toledo-Winlock paved highway. No objections were raised at the meeting, which was attended by about 50 property owners.

• A second open house was set to be held on the upcoming Friday at Green Hill Academy, which was referred to as “the state training school.” The event was open to the public, who would be given tours and allowed to see the academy’s operations, including its dairy facility.

• Almost half an inch of rainfall hit the Twin Cities on the Tuesday of the week of June 4. The rain ended what had been, until then, the driest May since 1947.

• Dee Devlin was set to appear in Lewis County Superior Court for sentencing due to a charge of negligent homicide. The charge was the result of a April 1, 1951, accident in Lewis County that resulted in a fatality.

• The state government announced it would provide aid for the construction of an annex for the Lewis County Courthouse. The state agreed to pay $52,105 while an estimated remaining $185,000 was to be funded by the county and the U.S. Public Health Service.

• Chehalis resident David Bartlett, 51, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $200 fine after pleading guilty to owning a “still” and 97 gallons of moonshine. The judge in the case dismissed two other charges regarding the transportation and sale of alcohol.

Dale Cordrey, 24, of Olympia, who committed an armed robbery at a coffee shop in Centralia and stole almost $70, was stopped in Tenino less than 25 minutes after fleeing with a stolen vehicle. A doctor who was present in the coffee shop and the drivers of the stolen vehicle were able to chase the vehicle long enough to provide a description of the vehicle to the police. Cordrey did not draw his gun during the robbery but kept hold on the butt of the gun. As Cordrey fled, police and state patrol officers set up roadblocks around Centralia in an attempt to stop him but narrowly missed him.

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“A Look Back in Time” appears in each Saturday edition of The Chronicle. Content is provided through the Lewis County Historical Museum.