The Iwata Internment Experience: What Is A Personal Essential?
One family affected by the Executive Order 9066 was the Iwatas of Thermal, CA. As a former martial arts teacher, Shigezo Iwata was arrested by the FBI at 4:30 p.m., March 11, 1942. He was first taken to Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 14th, and then to Lordsburg, New Mexico, on the 20th. His wife Sonoko was left with their three children, Miki (age 1), Misao (age 2), and Masahiro (age 3) and no knowledge of her husband’s whereabouts. In May 1942, Sonoko herself and her three children were evacuated to Poston Relocation Center in Arizona. During their forced separation from March 1942 to July 1943, the Iwatas exchanged more than one hundred letters. This lesson includes some of the most extraordinary letters that Sonoko wrote to her husband Shigezo to keep him abreast of familial affairs.