Biography:
George Susumu Uyeda was born on February 25, 1919, in San Jose, California, the son of Shichizo and Juka, who were both immigrants from Japan and rented truck farms in the San Jose area. He was the fifth of six children, and three of his sisters died young. Uyeda’s older brother Tetsuo was 14 years his senior and was a surrogate parent after his parents moved back to Japan in 1929. Shichizo died in 1935, while Juka died of a heart attack in 1937. Uyeda spent three years in Japan between 1935 and 1938. He returned to work for his brother and then for a series of farms as a truck or tractor driver from 1938 to 1942. Before the forced removal, Uyeda worked in Tulare County in the Central Valley of California. He was sent first to the Pomona Assembly Center on August 1, 1942, and then to Heart Mountain on August 24, 1942. Uyeda lived with his brother’s family in apartment 23-23-F. He received leave clearances to work on an orchard in Ogden, Utah in 1943 and 1944. Uyeda was arrested on May 13, 1944, and was tried and convicted in the trial of 63 draft resisters in June 1944. He was sentenced to three years in the federal prison at McNeil Island, Washington, and was released in July 1946. Uyeda was pardoned by President Harry Truman on December 24, 1947. After prison, Uyeda lived in Palo Alto, California, with his wife and two daughters. He worked as a gardener. George Susumu Uyeda died on July 7, 1993, in Palo Alto.