Biography:
Kiyoshi “Kay” Ishikawa was born on June 12, 1911, in Santa Clara County, California. Kiyoshi was the second child born to Kome and Asakichi, who worked as berry farmers in Mountain View, Calif. Ishikawa graduated from Mountain View High School in 1930 and married Mariko. After working with his family, Ishikawa eventually had his own truck farm, growing berries and vegetables, in Mountain View. Mariko and Kiyoshi Ishikawa had a daughter, Joyce Kiyoko, in 1939.
The family arrived at Santa Anita Assembly Center on May 27, 1942 and at Heart Mountain on September 10, 1942. They lived in apartment 24-17-A. Ishikawa left camp for seasonal work in Washington and Idaho before failing to appear for his pre-induction physical in 1944. He answered Yes to Question 27 and Yes to Question 28 on the 1943 loyalty questionnaire. He was arrested on May 13, 1944, and tried and convicted in June 1944 in the trial of 63 draft resisters. He was sentenced to three years in the federal prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Ishikawa was pardoned by President Harry Truman on December 24, 1947. After the war, the Ishikawa family eventually returned to Mountain View, California, where they had another daughter, Phyllis, and a son, Richard. Kiyoshi Ishikawa died on July 13, 1995 in Mountain View, California. Mariko Ishikawa died on March 16, 2002.