Biography:
Takeshi (Tak) Hori was born on October 2, 1912, in San Francisco, and was the oldest of Shuichi and Asa Hori’s seven children. Before evacuation, the family worked on a 21-acre berry and vegetable farm in Mountain View, California, owned by J.G. O’Brien. After finishing high school in 1931, Hori first worked as a checker at a packing plant in Centerville, California, and then took over the family farm after his father began to have health problems. The Hori family arrived at the Santa Anita Assembly Center on May 26, 1942, and at Heart Mountain on September 10, 1942. They lived in apartment 24-12-C. On September 7, 1943, Hori married Itsuyo Kaku, which was reported in the Heart Mountain Sentinel. Hori answered Undecided on Question 27 and Yes on Question 28 of the 1943 loyalty questionnaire. While Hori’s younger brother, George, enlisted in the Army, Hori decided not to appear for his pre-induction physical and was arrested on March 25, 1944. He was convicted on June 26, 1944, with the 62 other draft resisters and sentenced to the federal prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In an interview about his son, Shuichi Hori described him and his friends as a “quiet, peaceful, thinking type.” After his time in prison, Hori eventually returned to Mountain View. He died on August 21, 1988, in Mountain View, California.