BRIGHAM CITY, Utah—Eighty years later, Norio Uyematsu returned to the land of his youth here to thank a local farm owner who gave his family a home and life after their incarceration during World War II.
The 94-year-old Japanese-American waited a lifetime to return the favor.
Recently, his long-held wish came true in the form of a historical exhibition at a local museum.
“It’s really great to be back to Brigham City, my second home,” Uyematsu said at a ceremony held at the opening of the special exhibition at the Brigham City Museum of Art and History on Feb. 15.
The scenic rural city in Box Elder County in northern Utah was surrounded by the snow-capped Wasatch Range mountains.
On Feb. 19, 1942, two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the former Imperial Japanese forces, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced removal of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to “relocation centers” further inland.
It resulted in the incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans living in the Western United States at concentration camps in harsh conditions.
Uyematsu, a “Nisei” second-generation Japanese-American, who was 11 at the time, was taken with his family from California, where they lived, to the Heart Mountain incarceration camp in Wyoming.
Uyematsu’s parents were born in Etajima, an island in Hiroshima Prefecture.
They left Japan in 1927, arriving by ship in Mexico, from where they walked across the border to California.
They purchased a five-acre farm and worked the soil.
However, when they were interned, they were forced to sell the farm for only $500 (about 75,000 yen).
The land was estimated to be worth about $20,000 at the time.
Executive Order 9066 was lifted in December 1944.
However, the Uyematsu family, like many other Japanese-Americans, had nowhere to return to and had no choice but to remain in the camp.
Then, the family heard that Earl G. Anderson, a farm owner in Brigham City, was hiring former Japanese-American internees.
The Uyematsu family left Heart Mountain in November 1945.
Anderson accepted six Japanese-American families, including the Uyematsu family, and let them live on his farm.
The farm had about 1,000 acres, growing strawberries, melons and other crops.
Ladd Anderson, 78, a grandson of Earl G. Anderson, recalled that the strawberries grown by these Japanese-Americans were so popular that his father often showed them off to his customers.
The quality was such that there was no competition in the area, and they were “so perfect,” as if they “came out of a machine,” he said.
Outside the farm, however, there was a strong prejudice in the area at the time toward the former Japanese-American internees.
The Uyematsu family and others were called “Japs,” a derogatory term, by local white residents.
At such times, Anderson was outraged on behalf of the Japanese-Americans.
Gradually, the hatred and racism faded.
Ladd Anderson still remembers his father and Uyematsu’s father working closely together when he was a young boy.
Uyematsu’s father, who was not only a skilled farmer but also could lead others, was given the job of foreman and worked on the farm until he was 90.
Uyematsu grew up on the farm, and after graduating from high school in the city, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.
After being stationed at Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture, he served in the Korean War.
He then took a private job in California, but the Anderson family was always on his mind.
When his wife died a few years ago, Uyematsu was asked by his long-time acquaintance, “What do you want to do with the rest of your life?”
The answer was to give back to the Andersons and tell their story.
In 2022, Uyematsu and his acquaintance met with the staff of the Brigham City Museum of Art and History to explore holding a special exhibition to tell the history of the Anderson family and others.
The museum collected about 100 items, including photographs of former Japanese-American internees working on the farm and farm equipment.
On Feb. 15, a special exhibition, “Uncovering the Journey: Japanese American Pioneers in Box Elder County,” opened at the museum. It will run through June 21.
It was the first exhibition featuring Japanese-Americans in the museum’s 50-year history.
Alana Blumenthal, director of the museum, said the inclusion of “Japanese American pioneers” in the title of the exhibit is significant.
She said the word "pioneers" is commonly used in the area and usually refers to "white American settlers."
“So we just want to make sure that the audience walks away knowing that there are lots of kinds of pioneers in our community and in every community, including the remarkable untold stories of the early Japanese settlers here, the 'Issei' (first generation), who came and farmed here at the turn of the century,” Blumenthal said.