Chiye Tomihiro

Tomihiro was born on December 20, 1924, in Portland, Oregon.[1] Her father was involved in real estate.[2] He held a law degree from the University of Oregon Law School, but could not practice because he did not have citizenship.[2] Despite this, he advised other people in the Japanese community about their legal problems.[2] He was a prominent businessman and held a stake in a building in Portland.[3]

After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, compelling the forced evacuation and incarceration of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast in concentration camps.[4] The night, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Tomihiro's father while she, her siblings, and her mother were at a church event.[2] They came home to find their apartment ransacked and learned he was being held at Multnomah County Jail.[2] Her father was later incarcerated in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In September 1942, Tomihiro was incarcerated at Minidoka.[1][3] She recalls feeling a sense of blind trust and patriotism, which quickly shifted to feelings of betrayal upon her incarceration.[2]

Following her incarceration, Tomihiro resettled in Denver, Colorado before moving to Chicago, Illinois.[5]

During their incarceration, her father's friend took care of the hotel, but eventually sold the building for "practically nothing".[2] When her family resettled in Chicago, this left him with very few opportunities for work upon his release.[2] He was never able to find stable employment.[2] Her mother found work as a seamstress, but they were living in a "dank and dark and roach and rodent infested" apartment.[3] In the ten years following her college graduation, Tomihiro gave most of her paychecks to her mother to provide some financial stability.[3]

Tomihiro attended Denver University before transferring to the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[6] She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in math with a minor in business.[6]

Tomihiro was a lifelong member of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and served as the Chicago chapter president from 1977 to 1978.[1] She was also the JACL Chicago's chairperson of the redress committee, where she played a major role in organizing their organizing efforts to get reparations.[5] Tomihiro led volunteer recruitment to get people to testify about their experiences to the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians.[6] JACL Chicago ended up gathering around eighty people who were willing to testify.[6] Tomihiro also testified to the commission.[7] Her organizing efforts and testimony played a major role in the passing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which granted reparations to the incarcerated Japanese Americans.[6]

She was also a supporter of the American Friends Service Committee.[1]

She died on October 21, 2012.[1]