Dear Editor,
Each year three classmates of the Manzanar internment camp first-grade class of 1944-1945 attend the Manzanar Reunion held at California Hotel in Las Vegas. In the attached photo, George Iwamoto is standing third from the right, Gary Hata is seated second from the right and I, Ko Nishimura, am seated third from the right.
We have kept our friendship up for all these years. We always wonder what happened to our classmates each time we get together as we look at our class picture.
We do not remember their names but we vividly remember their images and the experiences we shared in Manzanar. We always talk about wanting to see them again. We were hoping that The Rafu Shimpo could assist us in locating and getting them in contact with us so that perhaps we could get together a luncheon some place in Southern California and perhaps all attend the next Manzanar Reunion together.
We would appreciate your help in contacting our old classmates who came together because of Executive Order 9066 and through fate shared part of our life during those difficult and trying times. We always hoped that as the years passed, that in the twilight of their lives, our classmates’ life experience and story are filled with happiness and success, which they richly deserve.
I can be reached at konishimura@aol.com and Gary Hata at Gary.joan4@yahoo.com.
Ko Nishimura