Alumna honored at “Legacy of Heart Mountain” screening Was held in WWII Japanese internment camp

Toshiko “Toshi” Ito ’46 cradled her red, rough edged diploma from Chapman College, Chapman University’s former incarnation. She pulled out her creased college graduation photo, showing herself slightly smiling at the camera.

“I was so young — my hair was so black then,” Ito exclaims.

Her diploma and that small photo are two hard-won happy memories pulled from the turmoil and post-war prejudice of WWII. As a high school graduate, Ito and her family were uprooted by executive order 9066, which rounded up and placed nearly all American citizens of Japanese descent into camps scattered across the harsher topography of the United States.

Ito and her family were placed in Heart Mountain camp near Cody, Wyo. The camp and its residents were the topic of the documentary
The Legacy of Heart Mountain
, screened Thursday in Memorial Hall. The documentary, by ABC7’s David Ono and Jeff MacIntyre of Content Media Group, has won four Emmy awards.

Ono and McIntyre spent years working on the documentary, visiting Heart Mountain and its internees, collecting and recording their stories. The documentary, told prominently through the secret photo trove of internees Frank and George Hirahara, chronicles the struggles of the internees during as well as after the war.

Ono and McIntyre both said those stories, so often glossed over in the textbooks of America, need to be brought to light. Ito’s story is one of thousands, each with its own hardships.

Now 91, Ito was honored for her resilience and her lifetime of social work before the documentary screening. While Ito was the one being honored, she said she feels a debt of gratitude to Chapman for allowing her to finish her education.

“I’m so grateful … and it was such an honor for Chapman to accept me because we were so hated at that time,” Ito said.

At the time, citizens of Japanese descent were having a hard time picking up their lives postwar. Their nation had turned against them and many lost everything. Ito recalls her mother taking the bus to the Chinese neighborhoods in Los Angeles in order to buy groceries — the grocer in their own neighborhood refused to sell them food. Their new neighbors had signs on the lawn saying “Japs Keep Out.” Tacks were thrown on their driveway to flatten their car tires.

Returning to college, moreover finding a college were she could feel safe, was equally trying. As it happened, she heard of a college nearby that had a sociology program — and other Japanese American students. Then-Chapman College in Los Angeles was the right fit for Toshi.

“I felt so welcome, so accepted there … the students were so kind to me,” Ito said.

It was a far cry from her life behind barbed wire in Heart Mountain. There, she and up to 10,000 others experienced the harshness of a plains winter in tar-paper roofed shacks with no insulation. The camp, which consisted of 20 blocks of  467 barrack-style buildings. Each building contained small apartments, generally a single room with stove for heat, one light fixture, an army cot and two blankets for each person. A mess hall, open toilet rows, shower facilities and a laundry area was assigned to each block.

Enrolling at Chapman, Ito said, was coming to a chance at a future, a gift that she was given and eternally grateful for, not just for the opportunity to finish her education, but for the lasting friendships that helped her through those tough times.

After the screening, questions and closing comments were made, Toshi got up for her final closing remarks. She ended it by asking if anyone she went to college with was in the audience.

“I think my friend Toni might be here,” Ito said.

In the middle of Memorial Hall, a small hand shot up over a head of perfectly curled hair. Toni Siamis ’48 was in the audience.

“I’m here Toshi! I’m over here,” shouted Siamis.

The equally petite women rushed as fast as they could to embrace off stage.

As the hall emptied and the lights went up, the elderly friends stayed side by side, holding hands, trading barbs. Each is a little shorter than she was more than 70 years ago, but as they tilt their heads toward each other, they light up like the teens they once were.

 

At Top: Toshi Ito ’46 holds her Chapman College diploma and her graduation picture at a dinner held in honor of Ono and MacIntyre, as well as  celebrating her 91st birthday, prior to the screening of “The Legacy of Heart Mountain.”