Group Media & Photos
United Japanese Society, April 1941. Row 1 (seated, L-R): Totaro Matsui (2nd), Osuke Shigemoto (4th), Kumaji Furuya (5th), Taichi Sato (7th), Koichi Iida (9th), Kyoichi Miyata (12th). Row 2: Yasutaka Fukushima (5th), Sawajiro Ozaki (9th), Sadasuke Terasaki (13th). Row 3: Isoto Dewa (3rd). Row 5: Ryuten Kashiwa (2nd from R). JCCH/ Harriet Masunaga Collection.
Hawaii Softball Team, Missoula Internment Camp, 1943. 1st Row (L-R): Tomoichi Hayashi, Ryuichi Kashima, Kazumi Matsumoto, Shujiro Takakuwa. 2nd Row: Masayuki Iwata, Kumaji Furuya, Goki Tatsuguchi, Yoshinobu Sasaki, Masahiro Himeno. 3rd Row: Soichi Obata, Akio Kimura, Isaku Orita, Tamaki Arita, Masato Kiyosaki, Suijo Kabashima. JCCH/Soichi Obata Archival Collection.
Softball players, Missoula Internment Camp, ca. 1943-1944. Front Row (L-R): Rev. Joei Oi (1st), Rev. Shushin Matsubayashi (3rd), Masayuki Chikuma (5th), Rev. Konin Matano (6th), Osuke Shigemoto (7th), Hideyuki Serizawa (10th), Ichitaro Charles Hasebe. Middle Row (L-R): Rev. Gikyo Kuchiba (1st), Totaro Matsui (2nd), Kinzo Sayegusa (4th), Kumaji Furuya (5th), Sawajiro Ozaki (6th). Back Row (L-R): Rev. Hakuai Oda (2nd), Daizo Sumida (6th), Rev. Josen Deme (10th), Rev. Gendo Okawa (11th), Taichi Sato (13th), Rev. Kaneki Honda (14th), Aisuke Shigekuni (15th), Setsuzo Toyota (16th). JCCH/Rev. Hakuai Oda Collection.
Two GIs visiting Santa Fe Internment Camp, January 1945. First Row (L-R): Osuke Shigemoto (2nd), Shigemoto's son (3rd), Totaro Matsui (5th). Second Row (L-R): Daizo Sumida (1st), Kumaji Furuya (2nd), Ryuichi Moribe (3rd), Kogan Yoshizumi (4th), Katsuichi Kawamoto (5th), Sawajiro Ozaki (6th), Koichi Iida (7th). Back Row (L-R): Yasutaro Soga (1st), Masayuki Chikuma (3rd), Riuichi Ipponsugi (4th), Kinzo Sayegusa (5th). JCCH/Riuichi Ipponsugi Archival Collection.
Santa Fe Internment Camp. Bottom Row (L-R): Katsuichi Kawamoto (1st), Ryuichi Moribe (2nd), Uyemon Inokuchi (3rd), Koichi Iida (4th), Shuntaro Ikezawa (5th), Hatsuichi Toishigawa (6th), Yasutaro Soga (7th), Daizo Sumida (8th), Ryoichi Tanaka (9th), Mannosuke Komu (10th). 2nd Row: Heiji Yamagata (1st), Gihei Tanada (2nd), Totaro Matsui (3rd), Kumaji Furuya (4th), Osuke Shigemoto (5th), Rev. Ninryo Nago (6th), Tokuji Onodera (7th), Minoru Murakami (8th), Kanji Tanaka (9th), Shigeo Shigenaga (10th), Shujiro Takakuwa (11th), Yukihide Kohatsu (12th), Mankichi Goto (13th). 3rd Row: Tetsuji Kurokawa (1st), Eita Sato (2nd), Hirouemon Yamamoto (3rd), Hyotaro Nakami (4th), Sadato Morifuji (5th), Ryuichi Murata (6th), Kakujiro Nishiki (7th), Sawajiro Ozaki (8th), Soichi Obata (9th), Masaichi Kobayashi (10th), Kango Hamada (11th), Takasuke Isomura (12th), Katsukichi Wakimoto (13th). Top Row: Yojiro Osaki (1st), Hego Fuchino (2nd), Teiichiro Maehara (3rd), Kinzo Sayegusa (4th), Yuichi Nakaichi (5th), Yoshihisa Tamura (6th), Tsuneichi Yamamoto (7th), Muneo Kimura (8th), Hideo Tanaka (9th), Toraichi Kurakake (10th), Tamasaku Watanabe (11th), Mankichi Miura (12th), Riuichi Ipponsugi (13th). JCCH/Riuichi Ipponsugi Archival Collection.
"Broadcast Department" members, Santa Fe Internment Camp, ca. 1944-1945. Bottom row (L-R): Masayuki Chikuma (2nd), Shigeru Yano (3rd), Shigeki Mizumoto (4th), Yuichi Nakaichi (5th). Middle row: Minoru Murakami (2nd), Genpachi Tsushima (3rd), Kumaji Furuya (6th). Top row: Toramatsu Matsumoto (1st), Rev. Yutetsu Matsui (3rd), Totaro Matsui (4th), Rev. Kodo Fujitani (5th). JCCH/Pat Saiki Archival Collection.
Hawaii Internees in front of Liaison Office. Santa Fe Internment Camp, January 1945. Front Row (L-R): Kumaji Furuya, Shujiro Takakuwa, Mankichi Goto, Chosuke Kayahara, Suekichi Oka, Nisshu Kobayashi, Shuji Mikami, Sadasuke Hamamoto, Konin Matano, Isaku Orita, Makitaro Tamura, Minosuke Hanabusa, Giichi Sasaki, Ryosen Yonahara, Tomiji Kimura, Ninryo Nago, Shin Yoshida. 2nd Row: Katsuichi Tanaka, Yasuemon Miki, Ryoichi Tanaka, Hatsutaro Toyofuku, Toshio Iinuma, Masaichi Hirashima, Tamaichi Tanaka, Uemon Ida, Kinai Ikuma, Hanzo Shimoda, Yoshizo Ishikawa, William Toka Ida, Katsuichi Kawamoto, Daizo Sumida, Aisuke Shigekuni, Sadato Morifuji. 3rd Row: Takegoro Kusao, Setsuzo Toyota, Jinshichi Tokairin, Hidekichi Nakamoto, Gendo Okawa, Joei Oi, Yasutaro Soga, Zensuke Kurosawa, Tsunetaro Harada, Tamaki Arita, Hego Fuchino, Kogan Yoshizumi, Osuke Shigemoto, Hakuai Oda, Shinri Sarashina, Yoshinobu Sasaki, Unknown, Seiichi Fujii, Tokikichi Sugimoto, Shuntaro Ikezawa, Goki Tatsuguchi, Suekuma Takaki. Back Row: Unknown, Suijo Kabashima, Koichi Iida, Sawajiro Ozaki, Shoho Fujiie, Unknown, Shigeki Mizumoto, Soichi Obata, Muneo Kimura, Yukihide Kohatsu, Tomoichi Hayashi, Kakujiro Nishiki, Takeo Miyagi, Josen Deme, Gikyo Kuchiba, Eita Sato, Ryuichi Kashima, Hideyuki Serizawa, Kinzo Sayegusa. JCCH/Rev. Hakuai Oda Collection.
Kumaji Furuya being greeted by his family upon his return to Honolulu after four years in mainland internment camps, November 1945. L to R: Hanzo, Seizo, Albert Tomochi, Robert Keiichi, Kumaji Furuya carrying Florence Yoko, wife Jun. JCCH/ Gregg Furuya Collection
Internment Locations
Arrested: December 1941
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
December 1941 - February 1942
This internee was in the first group of 172 men (mostly Issei) who were sent aboard the U.S. Grant military transport ship for internment in U.S. Army and Justice Department camps on the Mainland. The internees were sent together from camp to camp, with some paroled to War Relocation Authority camps to reunite with family or transferred for repatriation to Japan. This internee was in a sub-group of First Transfer Group internees who were sent from Livingston to Missoula before being transferred to Santa Fe.
Angel Island Detention Facility, California
March 1942
Camp McCoy Internment Camp, Wisconsin
March 1942 - May 1942
Camp Forrest Internment Camp, Tennessee
May 1942 - June 1942
Camp Livingston Internment Camp, Louisiana
June 1942 - June 1943
Fort Missoula Internment Camp, Montana
June 1943 - April 1944
Santa Fe Internment Camp, New Mexico
April 1944
Returned to Hawaii: November 1945
Arrived in Honolulu with 450 other internees aboard the military troopship the Yarmouth.
Businessman, community leader, and poet, Kumaji Furuya's 1964 camp memoir, Haisho Tenten, was translated into English and published by JCCH in 2017 as An Internment Odyssey.
Son Hanzo, a member of the University of Hawaii ROTC, was guarding military installations around Honolulu at the time of his father's arrest; he later served with the U.S. Army's occupation forces in Japan.