Group Media & Photos
Riuichi Ipponsugi. JCCH/Riuichi Ipponsugi Archival Collection.
Riuichi Ipponsugi and wife, Shigeyo, seated. JCCH/Riuichi Ipponsugi Archival Collection.
Japanese Benevolent Society, council members. November 1936. Riuichi Ipponsugi (2nd from L, on bridge), Taichi Sato (7th from L, standing in dark suit, dark hair), Iga Mori (8th from L, dark suit, white hair, glasses), Yasutaro Soga (3rd from R, standing), Daizo Sumida (4th from R, standing), Katsuichi Wakimoto (behind Sumida with white shirt). JCCH/ Harriet Matsunaga Collection.
Santa Fe Internment Camp, July 1943. Bottom Row (L-R): Ninryo Nago (5th), Rev. Kodo Fujitani (8th). 2nd Row: Matsujiro Otani (1st), Tsuruichi Sarae (3rd), Katsuichi Kawamoto (6th), Ryuten Kashiwa (10th). 3rd Row: Riuichi Ipponsugi (1st), Yasutaro Soga (3rd). 4th Row: Kazuyuki Kawano (3rd), Rev. Tenran Mori (5th). Top Row: Hirouemon Yamamoto (2nd). JCCH/Takuzo Kawamoto 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.
Medical group, Santa Fe Internment Camp, 1945. Riuichi Ipponsugi is #16 in legend on back of photo. JCCH/Usaburo Katamoto Archival Collection.
Identification on back of photo of medical group at Santa Fe Internment Camp, 1945. JCCH/Usaburo Katamoto Archival Collection.
Signatures on back of photo of medical group at Santa Fe Internment Camp, 1945. JCCH/Usaburo Katamoto Archival Collection.
Santa Fe Internment Camp. Row 1 (L-R): Shinjiro Matayoshi (2nd), Rev. Zenkai Tatsuguchi (5th), Rev. Zenko Saigusa (6th). Row 2: Kazuyuki Kawano (2nd), Takeo Seike (3rd), Rev. Kakichi Okamoto (4th), Mankichi Miura (5th), Matsujiro Otani (7th), Rev. Kenjyo Ohara (8th), Rev. Daishin Ikejiri (9th). Row 3: Rev. Doro Kanda (2nd, with tie), Hirouemon Yamamoto (4th), Tsuruichi Sarae (6th), Rev. Tenran Mori (7th), Sukenoshin Nakano (1st fr R). Row 4: Riuichi Ipponsugi (2nd). JCCH/ Riuichi Ipponsugi Archival Collection.
Santa Fe Internment Camp. L-R: Matsujiro Otani (1st), Riuichi Ipponsugi (3rd), Yasutaro Soga (4th). JCCH/Riuichi Ipponsugi Archival Collection.
Riuichi Ipponsugi, seated on left bench, arms crossed. Santa Fe Internment Camp. JCCH/Riuichi Ipponsugi Archival Collection.
Internment Locations
Arrested: May 1942
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
This internee was among 39 men (mostly Issei) who were sent on the fourth transfer ship for internment in U.S. Army and Justice Department camps on the Mainland. These men 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.
Also sent on the same ship were six Issei women internees: Kiku Horibe, Miyuki Kawasaki, Yoshie Miyao, Yuki Miyao, Haru Tanaka, and Tsuta Yamane. The women were kept apart from the men and had a different internment sequence from them.
Angel Island Detention Facility, California
June 1942 - July 1942
Lordsburg Internment Camp, New Mexico
July 1942 - June 1943
Santa Fe Internment Camp, New Mexico
June 1943 - October 1945
Returned to Hawaii: November 1945
Arrived in Honolulu with 450 other internees aboard the military troopship the Yarmouth.
The son of farmers from Hiroshima, Riuichi Ipponsugi arrived in Hawaii in 1908 at age 17. He initially worked as a Japanese language teacher in rural Laie, Oahu, while studying English. Within a few years, he moved to Honolulu, where to found a job as a laboratory technician in a dental office.
In 1919, Ipponsugi ventured to the Mainland to attend dental school, graduating in 1923 from St. Louis University in Missouri. He returned to the islands and opened an office on the corner of Beretania Avenue and River Street in downtown Honolulu, where he practiced until his arrest by the FBI in 1942.
During his incarceration, Ipponsugi served as a dentist in the Lordsburg and Santa Fe camp hospitals, treating his fellow internees. He returned to his Honolulu practice after the war, retiring in 1957. In 1982, Riuichi Ipponsugi died in Honolulu at the age of 91.