In this sixth episode of Season Eleven, host Andrew Martin meets public historian and author Tamiko Nimura and hears about how she researched her Japanese-American family history, how she decided to publish her father’s memoir of his time incarcerated in World War Two as a child in the USA, and her thoughts on the future of archives.
Listen to the episode
S11EP06 – 'The Incarcerated' with Tamiko Nimura – The Family Histories Podcast
Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, and others…
The Life Story – Junichi Nimura
Tamiko has chosen to tell the life story of her Grandfather Junichi Nimura, who was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1885.
There’s little evidence uncovered so far of his early life, but in 1925 he emigrates to Mexico before arriving in the United States the following year. Tamiko discovers that Nimura may not have been his family name, and that it might have been Doi.
After his first wife is unhappy being in the US and returns to Japan, Junichi finds his second wife through a ‘picture brides’ service (a sort of Tinder via the mail). Fortunately, she does decide to stay in the US, and the couple had about 8 children, 6 of whom lived, and one of which was Tamiko’s father.
However, when the Second World War breaks out, Junichi and thousands of Japanese and Japanese-American families like his, find themselves incarcerated in US concentration camps.
During their time there at the Tule Lake camp in California, Junichi becomes separated from his family after being identified as rebellious. He is taken miles away to another camp.
Eventually, Junichi finally returns home, but life would not quite be the same again.
If you’d like to find out more about Junichi and his family’s time in the American concentration camp, then you can get a copy of Tamiko’s book from UW Press, Bookshop.org, Amazon, and all the usual great places.
The Brick Wall – Junichi Nimura
There’s a missing part of Junichi Nimura’s life that Tamiko is keen to find information on and this is from 19th November 1926 when, according to the record that Tamiko has uncovered, he was issued with a 15 day tourist certificate in Mexico. He is noted as being married, in his 40s, but is travelling alone at this time, and a destination of “Sabinal, Chi, Mex”. He does use a middle name in later life of ‘Fred’ but Tamiko has not seen any evidence of him using this during this period.
- What was he doing in Mexico?
- Are there any other records relating to this trip?
If you think that you can help Tamiko with a research clue or idea, then you can send her a message via her website or her Bluesky account. Alternatively, you can send us a message and we’ll pass it along to her.
In the meantime, Andrew and Sándor offer Tamiko their help, but it isn’t without warning…
Episode Credits
- Andrew Martin – Host and Producer
- Tamiko Nimura – Guest
- John Spike – Sándor Petőfi