
Biography:
Lloyd Ichiro Okama was born on November 13, 1924, in San Francisco, the oldest son of Fukuzo and Riei Okama, who were immigrants from Japan. The family, which eventually included three more sons and a daughter, settled in Sunnyvale, California, in Santa Clara County, where Fukuzo ran a farm. During the forced removal, they were sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center on May 27, 1942, and then arrived at Heart Mountain on September 13, 1942. They lived in apartment 25-24-E. Okawa answered Yes to both Questions 27 and 28 on the 1943 loyalty questionnaire. He applied for and received leave clearance to work for Holly Sugar in Meriden, Wyoming, in 1943. When Okawa received his draft notice, however, he declined to appear, which led to his arrest on March 29, 1944. Okawa was tried in the mass trial of 63 draft resisters in June 1944, convicted, and sentenced to three years in the federal prison at McNeil Island, Washington. He was released in July 1946 and moved to Salt Lake City, where his father had moved when the family left Heart Mountain in 1945. Okawa was pardoned by President Harry Truman on December 24, 1947. Okawa married Martha Nodzu on August 3, 1953, and they had two children, Karen and Alan. Lloyd Ichiro Okawa died of a heart attack on March 31, 2003, while visiting family members in Los Angeles.