Group Media & Photos
Soichi Obata, longtime staff member of the Nippu Jiji newspaper (later the Hawaii Times). JCCH/Soichi Obata Archival 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.
Painting exhibition. Santa Fe Internment Camp, July 1944. 1st Row: Setsuzo Toyota (4th from L), Aisuke Shigekuni (3rd from R). 2nd Row (L-R): Yuichi Nakaichi (2nd); Rev. Nisshu Kobayashi (3rd); Yoshio Koike (4th); Rev. Kogan Yoshizumi (5th); Julian P. Langston, Santa Fe camp administrator (6th); Lloyd Jensen, Officer-In-Charge (7th); Masao Ikeno, art instructor (8th); Koshi Tatsuhara (10th/4th fr R). 3rd Row: Rev. Hakuai Oda (3rd); Soichi Obata (4th); Rev. Josen Deme (5th); Rev. Ryuten Kashiwa (10th/2nd fr R). 4th Row: Osuke Shigemoto (4th), Yasutaro Soga (8th), Masayuki Chikuma (10th), Katsuichi Miho (12th), Koichi Iida (14th/4th fr R), Yoshinobu Kato (15th/3rd fr R). JCCH/Rev. Hakuai Oda 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.
Golf Club, Santa Fe Internment Camp. Row 1 (L-R): Soichi Obata (1st), Minoru Murakami (7th, with sign), Rev. Shinri Sarashina (8th). Row 2: Tsuruichi Sarae (1st), Rev. Yutetsu Matsui (6th). Row 3: Yuichi Nakamura (1st fr R). Row 4: Hidekichi Nakamoto (4th), Kazuto Taketa (9th). Row 5: Shigeki Mizumoto (1st, with tie), Mamoru Suga (4th), Kinzo Sayegusa (5th). JCCH/Mamoru Ichiba Suga Collection.
Sumo Tournament. Santa Fe Internment Camp, August 1944. Standing: Genpachi Tsushima (2nd from L), Kazuto Taketa (11th from L), Rev. Goki Tatsuguchi (14th from L), Rev. Suijo Kabashima (15th from L), Koichi Iida (4th from R), Soichi Obata (3rd from R), Daizo Sumida (2nd from R). JCCH/Joan Oya Collection.
Internees with visiting Japanese American soldiers. Santa Fe Internment Camp. Front Row (L-R): Rev. Yutetsu Matsui (1st), Kingo Hayashi, son-in-law of Kosuke Hirose (3rd), Kosuke Hirose (4th). 2nd Row: Soichi Obata (2nd). JCCH/Meiji Hirose Collection.
Oshibai. Santa Fe Internment Camp, ca. 1944-1945. Row 1 (L-R): Tsuneichi Yamamoto (7th), Masayuki Chikuma (8th/1st fr R). Row 2: Katsuichi Kawamoto (1st), Yuichi Nakaichi (2nd), Genpachi Tsushima (5th). Row 3: Hamada (3rd frm R), Zenkichi Morita (2nd fr R), Soichi Obata (1st fr R). JCCH/Joan Oya 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, Taira 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.
Honolulu businessmen, ca. 1950. Front Row (L-R): Matsujiro Otani (1st), Taichi Sato (2nd), Sadato Morifuji (3rd), Katsuichi Kawamoto (5th), Nekketsu Takei (6th), Soichi Obata (8th). Row 2: Seiichi Shimamoto (5th). Row 3: Manzuchi Hashimoto (6th), Ozuke Shigemoto (7th). Back Row: Katsuichi Wakimoto (6th), Motohiro Tanimura (7th), Yuichi Nakaichi (10th). JCCH/Charles and Claire Richardson.
Internment Locations
Arrested: December 1941
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
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 - October 1945
Returned to Hawaii: November 1945
Arrived in Honolulu with 450 other internees aboard the military troopship the Yarmouth.
Soichi Obata left his native Yamaguchi Prefecture for Honolulu at the age of eighteen. He joined the staff of the Japanese-language Nippu Jiji newspaper (later the Hawaii Times), where he worked for the next 50 years. His step-son, Robert Kenji Tanaka, served in military intelligence during World War II.