Biography:
Jun Johnson Shimane was born June 27, 1923, in San Jose, California, the sixth of 10 children of Shinzo and Shizue, who were immigrants from Japan who ran a farm. Shimane was working on a local farm at the time of the forced removal. The entire Shimane family arrived at the Santa Anita Assembly Center on May 30, 1942, and they arrived at Heart Mountain on September 13, 1942. They lived in apartment 23-11-BC. Shimane answered No to Question 27 and Yes to Question 28 of the 1943 loyalty questionnaire. He had a leave in February 1944 to go to Hardin, Montana, to investigate jobs on local farms. Shimane’s older brothers Chester, Fred, and George also resisted the draft and were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to federal prison. He was arrested on September 5, 1944, and was in the trial of 22 resisters in July 1945. Shimane was convicted and sentenced to two years in federal prison. He was pardoned by President Harry Truman on December 24, 1947. After prison, Shimane returned to San Jose, lived with his parents and four younger sisters and worked on a farm. He married his wife Yoko, had two sons and was a cement contractor in San Jose. Jun Johnson Shimane died on May 12, 2019, in San Jose.