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Ishikawa, George

Biography:


George Ishikawa was born on July 25, 1915, in Sunnyvale, California, the third of seven children born to parents Asakichi and Kome. Ishikawa grew up in a family of farmers and graduated from Mountain View High School in 1931 at the age of 16. His father, Asakichi, died in 1937. Around 1939, Ishikawa married Ishino “Barbara” Ishimaru, whom he had met in grade school in Mountain View. The two lived in San Mateo, where Ishikawa was a member of the Japanese American Citizens League from 1940-1942, and were expecting their first child when they were sent to Santa Anita Assembly Center in May of 1942. On October 21, Barbara Ishikawa was sent to Los Angeles County Hospital, where their son Shigeru Glenn Ishikawa was born on October 29, 1942. On the same day, Ishikawa and the rest of the family arrived at Heart Mountain. In December, Barbara Ishikawa had yet to join her family in Wyoming, instead being kept at a rest house, called the Marengo House, run by the Los Angeles County Hospital. She arrived at Heart Mountain on January 18, 1943.

On the 1943 loyalty questionnaire, Ishikawa answered No to Question 27 and Yes to Question 28. Ishikawa was arrested on March 27, 1944 for violating the Selective Service Act. His wife, young son, mother, and several of his and his wife’s siblings would remain incarcerated at Heart Mountain and Topaz. He was tried and convicted in June 1944 and sentenced to three years in federal prison. Ishikawa was pardoned December 24, 1947, by President Harry Truman. After the war, the Ishikawa family eventually returned to the San Mateo area, where they had another child, their son Jiro. He worked as a gardener until he was 92. George Ishikawa died on October 18, 2014, preceded in death by his wife by just over five months.