Soldier Served While His Family was in a Japanese Internment Camp

 

Chikara “Chick” Masuda was born on Nov 24, 1918 in Palo Alto, CA, and died on July 8, 1993. Chikara was a Nisei (an American citizen of Japanese descent).Chick graduated from Washington Union High School in Fremont, CA in the top ten of his class.  He volunteered for the US Army in October 1941 (before Pearl Harbor), and in 1944 he was stationed at Fort Sill, OK.  In 1942, he purchased a Bell watch, engraved with his name (“Chikara Masuda”) and his Army Service Number (“ASN 39012973”).  

 

Despite his voluntary enlistment in the

US Army, Chikara's entire Japanese family

was forced to sell their California home

and were interned at the Topaz Relocation

Center (Delta, Utah) for the duration

of WW2.

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Chikara married Takaye Yamasaki in 1949;

at his mother-in-law’s request, he changed his

name to Yamasaki (since Taka had no brothers

to carry on the family name). They raised five

children – Karen, David, Janet, Warren, and

Eric.  In 1966, the family moved to

San Jose, CA.

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Chikara died in 1993, and was buried at Oak Hill

Cemetery in San Jose.

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I was able to contact Chikara's family in August 2019, and on Nov 12, 2019 I returned his watch to his daughter, Karen Chang. 

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