California farmer recounts reunion with 'lost' aunt, believed dead following WWII Japanese-American internment

believed that Aunt Shizuko Sugimoto had died, after being placed as ward of the state of California during the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

"They had like a week to pack up all their belongings and get ready to go to this relocation camp, and they didn’t even know what it was. They were forced to board trains. It was an unknown destination. And here’s the other thing, they had no idea if they would come back, and I think that was part of the decision," Masumoto said.

In 1946, after the closure of the camp, the family’s internment ended, and the Sugimotos returned to California and did what they could to reconstruct a new life. As for his aunt, he said, there was no known effort to locate her. Aunt Shizuko had had a stroke, and the facility in which she resided sought to find her next of kin due to the health emergency. The discovery of her existence, Masumoto said, shook him and questioned his understanding of his own family.

The family’s first reunion with the rediscovered aunt was one that they believed would be brief. She was 90 years old and in a coma from the stroke. They expected she would not survive. As quickly as she had reappeared in their lives, they felt she would soon be gone again. In the end, the family got about three more years with Aunt Shizuko before her death in 2013. They visited her and spent time with her. It was unlikely that she recognized them as family members, Masumoto said, though he also noted that his other aunt felt otherwise and was convinced there was recognition when she spoke Japanese to her sister.

His journey also allowed him to put into context where his family was in history when consequential decisions were made.

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