Ishizaki, Sam Isamu

Sam Isamu Ishizaki was born on December 1, 1919, in Palo Alto, California, to parents Hisakichi and Tazu. He was the oldest of four children. Ishizaki attended one year of high school in San Jose, then helped with the family farm, which specialized in tomatoes, full-time. He arrived at the Pomona Assembly Center on June 5, 1942, and at Heart Mountain on August 12, 1942–on the very first train to arrive at the camp. He lived in apartment 1-10-F. At Pomona, Ishizaki worked as a truck driver, which he continued at Heart Mountain before starting work in the Post Office department. He left Heart Mountain in the late summer and early fall of 1942 to help with the sugar beet and bean harvest around Wyoming and Montana. In 1943, Ishizaki left to work as a laborer in Ohio. Ishizaki answered No to Question 27 and yes to Question 28 on the 1943 loyalty questionnaire. He was arrested on April 7, 1944, tried and convicted in June 1944 of violating the Selective Service Act and sentenced to three years in the federal prison at  McNeil Island, Washington. Ishizaki was released in July 1946 and pardoned by President Harry Truman on December 24, 1947. After the war, he eventually returned to northern California. Isamu Sam Ishizaki died on January 23, 2001 in San Jose.