Yoshida, Kei

Kei Yoshida was born on October 25, 1924, in Los Angeles to Shigeo and Kusuki, who were immigrants from Japan. He had one brother and one sister, and the family lived in the J-Flats neighborhood of Los Angeles. The family was sent to the Pomona Assembly Center on May 10, 1942, and they arrived at Heart Mountain on August 19, 1942. They lived in apartment 2-10-E. Yoshida answered No to Question 27 and Yes to Question 28 on the 1943 loyalty questionnaire. He received a leave clearance on June 21, 1943, to work on the Northern Pacific Railway in Hatton, Washington. Yoshida was arrested on August 9, 1944 and charged with violating the Selective Service Act. He was in the second group of draft resisters tried and convicted in July 1945 and sentenced to two years in federal prison. Yoshida was pardoned by President Harry Truman on December 24, 1947. After prison, Yoshida, his wife Lucy, and son Steven lived with his parents in Los Angeles. He was a filing clerk for an insurance company. Kei Yoshida died on August 2, 2011, in Las Vegas.