Biography:
George Masao Yoshida was born on June 12, 1912, in Sunnyvale, California, the oldest of five children of Yasajiro and Tsuneno, who were immigrants from Japan. Yoshida’s father was a carpenter. Before the forced removal, Yoshida was an auto mechanic in the San Jose area. He and his family were first sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center on May 27, 1942, and then to Heart Mountain on September 7, 1942. While in Santa Anita, Yoshida was among 35 men arrested for gambling. As one of the two operators of the gambling operation, Yoshida received a sentence of a $250 fine and 120 days in the Los Angeles County Jail. While in Heart Mountain, Yoshida lived in apartment 30-8-B. He received a leave clearance to work in 1943 on a farm in Melville, Montana. Yoshida married Mari Koshiyama while he was incarcerated in Heart Mountain on February 3, 1943, and their son Raymond was born on November 7, 1943. He answered No to Question 27 and Yes to Question 28 on the 1943 loyalty questionnaire. Yoshida was arrested on April 7, 1944 and was tried and convicted of violating the Selective Service Act in June 1944. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison, but was released in July 1945. While Yoshida was in prison, his wife was sent to the Wyoming State Mental Hospital in Evanston on December 20, 1944. Yoshida was pardoned by President Harry Truman on December 24, 1947. After the war, Yoshida and his family moved to San Jose, where he and his brother, Herbert, ran an auto garage. George Masao Yoshida died on August 14, 1994, in Los Altos, California.