Biography:
Thomas Katsuyoshi Kawahara was born on January 15, 1926, in San Jose, California. Tom was the third of five children born to his issei parents, Kata and Katsusaburo. He began high school at Peter Burnett Junior High School in September 1940 and withdrew, without graduating, on March 27, 1942. The family was sent first to the Santa Anita Assembly Center, before arriving at Heart Mountain on September 17, 1942. Kawahara was arrested on August 9, 1944. He was tried and convicted as part of the July 1945 trial of 22 draft resisters. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison and pardoned on December 24, 1947, by President Harry Truman. The rest of his family remained at Heart Mountain until September 14, 1945, when they returned to the San Jose area, where they ran a farm. Thomas Katsuyoshi Kawahara died on June 27, 2017, in San Jose.