“He gave me the freedom to make career and personal choices that were denied to him. This is how he helped me move forward.”
— Donna Matsumoto Wakano, on her father
Ben Kazuo Matsumoto
Nisei
Ben Kazuo Matsumoto was born in Fresno, CA. He is the younger brother of Lily Yuriye Matsumoto.
Ben’s family ran a local produce store. When Ben was 11 years old, he and his family temporarily moved to Japan to help his older sister who was ill and single-handedly raising her three children after her husband was detained overseas as a prisoner of war.
Ben and his siblings returned to the United States when he was 16 years old while his parents stayed behind. Shortly after, Executive Order 9066 was issued, forcing Ben’s family to give up their produce business. Ben and his siblings were sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center before they were sent to Jerome. There, he met his future wife Edna, a fellow Fresno native.
After Jerome was closed in June 1944, Ben was released while Edna was sent to nearby Rohwer. With no family business to return to, Ben headed to Chicago. After one year, the couple reunited and married in Chicago. Five years later, they moved back to their home state of California. They settled in Pasadena, one of the few cities that welcomed Japanese American resettlement at the time.
After his family lost their produce business, Ben worked his way up from working in the produce section of a local supermarket to becoming a produce buyer for a supermarket chain. Edna and he were happily married for 67 years and had twin daughters. Ben rarely spoke about his incarceration before he passed away in 2014.
Ben’s information as it appears in the Final Accountability Roster for Jerome. Courtesy of Densho Encyclopedia.
Ben poses with his wife Edna Teruye Uyeno, whom he met while incarcerated at Jerome. Courtesy of the Matsumoto Family.
After the war, Ben and Edna ran a china repair shop in Chicago. “They would repair fine Dresden china,” his daughter Doreen says. “Things would break off like little fingers, and so Dad would have to make new appendages and put them on. […] It was tedious work.” Courtesy of the Matsumoto Family.
Doreen and Donna learned about their family history when they uncovered a portfolio containing Ben’s paintings, one of which included this watercolor depicting Jerome, dated 1942. Courtesy of the Matsumoto Family.
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Doreen K. Ono
Sansei
Doreen K. Ono is the daughter of Ben Kazuo Matsumoto. Before retirement, she worked as a speech therapist in Los Angeles.
Growing up, Doreen says her parents only shared fragments of their lives in camp. “Mom would say little things like the barracks were drafty and they’d have to plug the holes,” she says. “And when liver was being served in the mess hall, most people didn’t bother to go eat there. Just little tidbits like that.”
When Doreen was younger, she questioned the way her parents reacted to their incarceration. “In the 70s, we were a little more vocal about what displeased us,” she says. “So I was thinking, ‘Why? Why didn’t my parents get angry? Why didn’t they protest more?’ At my young age, I [was] thinking, ‘I wouldn’t have stood for this.’”
Over the years, Doreen says she has begun to understand her parents’ reaction. “Nobody has ever questioned my allegiance to this country,” she says. “But their allegiance was being questioned. How could they possibly protest? They wanted to prove that they were good Americans.”
“In the 70s, we were a little more vocal about what displeased us. So I was thinking, ‘Why? Why didn’t my parents get angry? Why didn’t they protest more?’ At my young age, I [was] thinking, ‘I wouldn’t have stood for this.’”
— Doreen K. Ono
Listen to this portrait.
Donna Matsumoto Wakano
Sansei
Donna Matsumoto Wakano is the daughter of Ben Kazuo Matsumoto. Before retirement, she worked as a special education teacher in Los Angeles County.
Donna learned about her family history in her early teens when she and her sister uncovered a portfolio containing her father’s paintings, one of which included a watercolor depicting barracks and a smokestack, dated 1942. She later learned that it was a painting of Jerome.
Even though Donna grew up in a rich Japanese American community, she says her parents took measures to shield them from discrimination. “Our parents didn’t give us Japanese middle names like the other Japanese American kids,” she says. “I think this was their way of protecting us, to keep us from being treated differently.”
Even though her father shared little about his incarceration, Donna says her family history has had a significant impact on her life. “He didn’t speak about the past because he believed in moving forward,” she says. “Because of his sacrifices, I was able to select a career path that interested me. He gave me the freedom to make career and personal choices that were denied to him. This is how he helped me move forward.”