Journey of Charles Mitsuji Furuta of Historic Wintersburg, 1942-1945 - Clio

Entries on This Tour

1. C.M. Furuta Gold Fish Farm at Historic Wintersburg

The C.M. Furuta Gold Fish Farm at Historic Wintersburg--the former Wintersburg Village--is a rare, pre-1913 Japanese pioneer-owned property listed as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2014 and designated as a National Treasure in 2015 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The currently endangered property is noted as eligible for the California Register of Historical Places and the National Register of Historic Places by the City of Huntington Beach.

2. Tuna Canyon Detention Station

The Tuna Canyon Detention Station was a prison camp that held Japanese American men from Southern California. The men were Japanese immigrants who had been classified as enemy aliens and detained by the FBI shortly after the attack by Japan at Pearl Harbor. The camp also held German and Italian internees and Japanese Peruvians. Prisoners were held in Tuna Canyon before being transferred to permanent prison camps in other parts of the country. The property—a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp that later became part of the Verdugo Hills golf course—is currently slated for residential development.

3. Camp Lordsburg Historical Marker (World War II detention and POW facility)

Camp Lordsburg was operated by the Department of Justice and United States Army during World War II and held Americans of Japanese, German and Italian ancestry who were classified as an enemy alien. Construction of the Lordsburg camp began in February 1942. By July 1942, over 600 Japanese American men were transferred to Lordsburg from the Fort Lincoln Internment Center in Bismarck, North Dakota. Eventually, 1,500 Japanese Americans were interned at the New Mexico camp, which closed in 1945.

4. Colorado River Relocation Center

The Colorado River Relocation Center, known as Poston, was a War Relocation Authority prison camp during World War II where Americans of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated. Poston was the largest of the ten concentration camps operated by the War Relocation Authority and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2012. At its peak, the complex house more than 17,000 people. The remaining structures of the Poston school complex are the only extant example of an elementary school complex built within a War Relocation Authority confinement site. The Poston Memorial Monument was built in 1992 on tribal land and with tribal support, and still stands.

5. Wintersburg Japanese Mission at Historic Wintersburg

The Wintersburg Japanese Mission complex is comprised of three buildings: the 1909-1910 Mission, the 1910 Manse (parsonage), and the 1934 Wintersburg Japanese Church. The Wintersburg Japanese Mission complex is on the Furuta farm at Historic Wintersburg, and was named one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2014 and designated a National Treasure historic place in 2015 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This is an endangered historic place and is not currently open to the public.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

Journey of Charles Mitsuji Furuta of Historic Wintersburg, 1942-1945

Created by Kyle Warmack on March 31st 2019, 6:50:20 pm.

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Description

Charles Mitsuji Furuta was among the thousands of Japanese Americans arrested and detained after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941. After the authorization of Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, he was interrogated by the FBI at his farm in Wintersburg Village and arrested. Charles Furuta had been a U.S. resident for 41 years, but, like all Issei, was not allowed to become a citizen. He had not committed any act against the United States. He was arrested due to being a prominent civic leader and president of the Japanese Association. He also was one of the rare first-generation Japanese land owners, having acquired his farm before California passed the Alien Land Law of 1913. The efforts he had made to become an American and contribute to his local community were what had placed him on the FBI list. This journey follows Charles Furuta in 1941 to 1945 from his farm in Wintersburg Village (present day Huntington Beach) to the locations where he was imprisoned, returning home to Wintersburg Village in 1945.

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