Interred but not Deterred

by Mathew Greenlee

George Tanaka. (Ancestry)

Two children walking in the Minidoka incarceration camp in Idaho, c. 1943. George Tanaka lived in Minidoka prior to serving in the U.S. Army. (Wing Luke Asian Museum, the Hatate Collection)

World War II propaganda poster created by the United States Information Service, 1941-1945. Japanese immigrants faced a long history of racism in the United States, even prior to the Second World War. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government mass-produced propaganda posters depicting the Japanese population as subhuman. The decision in 1942 to incarcerate individuals of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast was influenced by stereotypes of people of Japanese ancestry—including American-born U.S. citizens—as foreign “others,” members of an enemy population that could not be trusted. (National Archives and Records Administration)

George K. Tanaka

February 27, 1921 - August 3, 1975

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George Tanaka grew up in Seattle, Washington, a part of the Japanese American community that lived primarily on the West Coast. Marrying Olive Takei at the age of 21, his love bloomed while around him wartime hysteria grew.[1] Anti-Japanese sentiment and propaganda became commonplace. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, in February of 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which led to the evacuation of persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast to incarceration facilities.[2] With little time to prepare, George and Olive were first forced to an assembly center and then transferred to the Minidoka War Relocation Center in southern Idaho where they would remain incarcerated for two years.[3]  Japanese Americans remember prison camp life as challenging—conditions were mediocre at best, including poor sanitation, harsh weather, and constant reminders of barbed wire and guard towers.[4]

In spite of his experience in the incarceration camp, and the fact that his loyalties to the United States had so clearly been questioned, in 1944 Tanaka enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Snelling in Minnesota.[5] He served in the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), eventually working with the Defense Language Institute, teaching Japanese to soldiers headed for the Pacific.[6] The Defense Language Institute contributed directly to the Military Intelligence Language School, which would equip over 6,000 Navy officers with interrogation and communication capacity in Japanese.[7] George served in the Headquarters Company.[8] Approximately 33,000 Japanese Americans served in the U.S. military during and immediately after the Second World War; about 6,000 were a part of the MIS, like Tanaka.[9]

After the war, George had two children with Olive, whom he would later divorce on August 17, 1950. On August 21, four days later, George married Valeria Henrietta Benson. The couple moved to Denver three years later where they had three children together, and George worked as a proprietor. George passed away at the age of 54.[10]

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Footnotes ↓

[1] “Oregon, Marriage Indexes, 1906-2009,” entry for George K. Tanaka, database, accessed July 26, 2018, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.

[2] Executive Order 9066, February 19, 1942, accessed October 2, 2019, https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=74&page=transcript.

[3] “U.S., Final Accountability Rosters of Evacuees at Relocation Centers, 1942-1946,” entry for George K. Tanaka, database, accessed July 26, 2018, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.

[4] Roger Daniels, Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II (Hill and Wang, 1993).

[5] “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” entry for George K. Tanaka, database, accessed July 26, 2018, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.

[6] Dianne Kiyomoto, “WWII Military Records” in “I Dream of Genealogy: Tracing the Images of Time For Your Family,” last Updated October 1, 2006, accessed July 26 2018; Cameron Binkley, The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center: A Pictorial History (Monterey, California: Command History Office, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, 2011).

[7] Densho Encyclopedia, “Military Intelligence Service Language School,” Densho, accessed on July 26, 2018, http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Military_Intelligence_Service_Language_School/.

[8] Seiki Oshiro, Paul Tani, and Grant Ichikawa, “Military Intelligence Service Language School Registry 1941-46,” Entry #5647, http://www.javadc.org/MISLS%20Registry%2002-02-03.pdf.

[9] Densho Encyclopedia, “Japanese Americans in military during World War II,” Densho, accessed on October 2, 2019, http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Japanese_Americans_in_military_during_World_War_II/#cite_note-ftnt_ref10-10.

[10] “U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” entry for George K. Tanaka, database, accessed July 26, 2018, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.

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