This page is a virtual shoebox of really old family photos. They've been collected by photographing Frances' photo albums as we can get around to it, so coverage is spotty, reflections are rife, and there are big gaps that we hope to gradually fill in. It will include both Kuraoka and Ishida family photos. Photos are in roughly chronological order. Pre-war Kuraoka family photos are scarce perhaps because they just didn't take many or we just don't have them. Pre-war Ishida family photos are very scarce because most of them were lost, along with other belongings, in a "suspicious" fire while in storage during the WWII-era internment of Americans of Japanese descent.
1927?: Sakuichi Kuraoka holding John's Dad Masaharu.
The photo is undated, but John's Dad looks to be about two-ish? Sakuichi was born March 8, 1876, and died in a car accident in Los Angeles on
March 3, 1932, when John's dad was just 6-1/2 years old.
1933: Mitsuno Kuraoka with Masaharu.
We found a copy with dates on the back, so this can be considered confirmed. That's Mitsuno Kuraoka (nee Matsumoto) with John's Dad Masaharu, who is
eight years old. For the time, Mitsuno was an unusually tall Japanese woman.
1935?: Matsumotos and Kuraoka, perhaps in Shiwa.
The photo is undated but we're hopeful about nailing down the year because it was probably taken after Sakuichi's death and shortly after Mitsuno sent her
children to Japan to be raised by family there. This was a very common thing, and those American children sent to Japan to be educated were called
"kibei," a somewhat derogatory term meaning someone of two cultures. Unlike a term like "bi-cultural," which implies belonging to two cultures, "kibei"
implies belonging truly to none. It's different from "hapa," which means mixed race and also used to be considered derogatory. Those are Mitsuno's
parents, the Matsumotos, on the left, and Sakuichi's brothers on the right. In front are John's Dad and his sisters, Kaoru and Emiko. You can see where Mitsuno
got her height; her father Ryusuke (far left) towers over everyone. Notable connection: We visited Shiwa
in 2013-14 and met Tadaaki, the son of one of the Kuraoka brothers in this photo.
1937?: Mitsuno and children: Emiko, Kaoru, and Masaharu.
This photo was placed here because the kids look a touch older than they look in the one taken in Japan. This may have been when they returned to the USA. AS
John's Mom's notes say, that's Mitsuno seated, Emiko on the left, Kaoru on the right, and John's dad Masaharu seated on the right.
1943?: Kuraoka/Anan at Heart Mountain Internment Camp, Wyoming.
The thinking is that this photo was taken when John's Dad, Mas (standing, looking dapper as all get out in a double-breasted suit and fedora) either
graduated high school or left for college. That's Mitsuno and Emiko standing on the left, and Tamiya Anan seated on the barracks steps. Emiko married Kay
Tomie in camp; that's their baby, Sachiko so they've all been in camp a while; Kay may have taken the photo. Another connection: when we went to
Mammoth for a family reunion, we stopped at Manzanar and found the records for Emiko and Kay,
with Sachi handwritten in! The ranger could not find a record of Kaoru, who, since she wasn't with the family unit, may have already been married to John Nishimoto.
Oddly, the ranger could also find no record of Tamiya or Mitsuno Anan! Tamiya Anan met Mitsuno, we think, in the mid- to late-1930s when she was working at/running
a boarding house in Los Angeles; he was a merchant marine who stayed at the boarding house when his ship was in. After they married, they ran a small shop in
Los Angeles.
1945?: Frances Ishida, Poston Internment Camp, Arizona.
John's Mom Frances graduated from Poston high school, in internment camp. Although it shares a photo album page with her college graduation photo, she
looks a lot younger and the robe is white instead of black, so we're thinking high school for this one.
June 1950: Frances Ishida with her parents, UCLA graduation.
Junzo ("Frank") Ishida made sure all his kids got a college education; Frances graduated UCLA in 1950.
February 4, 1951: Introducing... Masaharu and Frances Kuraoka!
And so it all begins. Really!
1952-3: John's Dad served in the Korean War.
Masaharu was drafted as a linguistics specialist attached to military intelligence. They used a convoluted system because the U.S. Army either didn't have any
direct Korean-English translators or they wanted an extra level of security (?). So, Mas' partner, Chon-Sik Lee (later an author and highly respected
analyst/specialist in Korean politics) would ask questions in Korean, translate the answers to Japanese, and Mas would translate from Japanese to English.
Follow-up questions followed the same queue in reverse: Mas would translate a query from English to Japanese, Chon-Sik would translate from Japanese to
Korean, and the answer would flow back to English via Korean and Japanese. Hilariously, Chon-Sik Lee (famous author) credits Mas with helping him
learn English. Anyways, there was obviously time for hijinks.
1952-3: Masaharu relaxing, and a Christmas tree.
Masaharu may be on leave from the Army, or it's just before or after his stint in the service. Frances' note says that Mas made a set of lamps. As a bonus,
here's a bit of what may be one of their first Christmas trees together.
March 1958: Anan, Kuraoka, Tomie.
Tamiya Anan (far left) was apparently an interesting fellow, highly self-educated and literate. At any rate, he impressed the heck out of Junzo Ishida, a
self-made nursery entrepreneur and fellow autodidact, which had to be no easy feat. He was evidently quite close to John's Dad. Tamiya and Mitsuno Anan ran
a shop in Los Angeles for some time, but returned to Japan to manage the family estate in Shiwa (near Hiroshima) in March 1958. These photos were taken in
front of the Tomie's house in Los Angeles. That's Tamiya Anan on the left, Masaharu, and Emiko, who married Kay Tomie on the far right. That's their kids,
and also John's older sisters Elaine and Patty (the youngest, front and center). John wasn't born yet.
August 1964: Shiwa, Japan.
After John was born, the family took a trip to Japan, to the old family home in Shiwa, near Hiroshima. Tamiya Anan was close to his step-son Masaharu, and
was thrilled that there was a Kuraoka male heir (John). Here's the family home, then Mitsuno holding John (who turned two years old on this trip), and
Tamiya cooking chicken for dinner. John's sister Elaine remembers how there was a chicken in the yard, and suddenly ... there wasn't. John still has the
toy train he's holding.
1965: Sun Valley and horses.
We grew up with horses. That's Elaine on Cocoa, Patty on Mini, and John on Cherokee. Cherokee was soon sold, and the hope was that Cocoa and Mini, quarter
horses, would do the usual things and make a quarter colt for John. But Mini was an especially neurotic mare, who spooked at garbage cans and swaying weeds,
and the magic never happened. In the second photo, John's sister Elaine is holding our dog Patches. In that photo with his Dad, John looks a bit concerned
about how high he is off the ground!
1966: Formal portrait session.
Here's the Kuraoka family '66! Groovy, man!
Summer 1968: One of two big trips across the U.S. in a camper.
Camping was another part of our lives. Here's our 1966 Chevrolet 3/4-ton Camper Special (factory radio, automatic, two-tone paint, and air con!) and
8' Tropicana camper. We'd do weekend fishing trips and beach trips, and also these amazing six-week-long road trips.
April 24, 1973: Kuraokas & Nishimotos.
In 1972, Tamiya Anan died and Masaharu brought his Mom, Mitsuno, back to the U.S. to live with us due to health issues. She spent several months with us
and each of her children (Emiko and Kaoru) before she declined further and she went into an assisted living facility. But that's a bit in the future still;
at this time, she's living with us in Sun Valley, and we're visiting the Nishimotos. Left to right, that's Mas, Frances, Mitsuno, Kaoru, and John Nishimoto.
June 23, 1976: Rae Lakes Loop.
Mas and John were both very active in Boy Scouts. Here is John's Dad at a pass in the Sierras during one of Troop 345's annual week-long 50-milers. He's
sporting a high-tech JanSport D5, at the time an innovative and unusual backpack with a flex frame. This is John's favorite photo of his Dad.
August 26, 1976: Obsidian Dome near Mammoth.
Mas and Frances continued to go camping and fishing. Here they are enjoying a solo trip while John was away, either on a 50-miler or summer camp.
September 10, 1978: One left in the nest.
Masaharu, Frances, and John. Elaine and Patty had moved out by this time.
September 1978: A visit from Toshikazu Matsumoto.
Toshikazu Matsumoto is one of Masaharu's cousins on his mother's (Mitsuno's) side. Toshikazu was extraordinarily helpful to John's Dad in managing his
step-dad's affairs when he died in 1972. The photo on top shows all the top tier clan members: (right to left) Kaoru, married to John Nishimoto (behind her),
Emiko (married to Kay Tomie, far right), Masaharu, Frances (seated on floor), Toshikazu Matumoto, Satoru Fujita (don't know relationship), and Kay Tomie.
The "here" in Frances' note refers to California; the photo shows the Tomie's house. Masaharu died just a few months later, in December, 1978.
August 1983: John on camp staff.
John worked camp staff at Boy Scout Camp Whitsett in the Sierras. He was a Ranger for two summers, and Scoutcraft Director for three summers. Great times. He's
totally pretending to be Clem Burke of Blondie.
July 1990: John's office.
John (dig that mullet!) had moved to San Diego and gone freelance by this time, and ran a high-tech operation compared to most freelance ad copywriters.
Note the fax machine and computer, a Commodore SX-64 connected to an Epson FX-85 letter-quality dot-matrix printer. Oooo. It doesn't look like the modem
cartridge is in (it had phone connections), so he's probably writing using a cartridge-based program called PaperClip. Around this time, he also got a
Zenith SuperSport 286 laptop, which gradually replaced the Commodore except for games and desktop publishing.
