A Tribute to A Hero – Norio Uyematsu, 93-year-old Japanese American Korean War veteran, meets Ed Tazoi, son of 442nd World War II veteran Jim Tazoi, at the Honeyville Buddhist Church in Honeyville, Utah. Tazoi is holding the Congressional Gold Medal that his father received. The Congressional Gold Medal is the nation’s highest civilian award and was bestowed collectively to the U.S. Army’s 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and Military Intelligence Service (MIS) for their extraordinary accomplishments in World War II. The Congressional Gold Medal and his father’s story will be on display at the “Uncovering the Journey: JapaneseAmerican Pioneers in Box Elder County” exhibition at the Brigham City Museum in Brigham City, Utah this February.
By PATTI HIRAHARA
BRIGHAM CITY, Utah — On Nov. 10, 2022, the wheels were put into motion for the Brigham City Museum in Brigham City, Utah to create a Japanese pioneer exhibit on the families that lived in Box Elder County before and after World War II.
The Box Elder News Journal, the local town paper, had just published a front-page news story about the Uyematsu family and how they lost their California farm and everything they owned, to be sent to a Japanese American incarceration camp during the war for three years at Heart Mountain, Wyo. The community’s response to the story of how they found their way to Brigham City was overwhelming.
Norio Uyematsu of Anaheim had just spoken to the Brigham City Kiwanis Club for Veterans Day of his service in the Korean War, “The Forgotten War,” and told his family’s unknown story, which became the inspiration for this exhibition.
Once the Uyematsu family had been told that the Heart Mountain camp was going to close and they had to find a new home, Brigham City became their salvation to begin a new life in Utah due to the generosity of Earl Garrett Anderson, an LDS member who was the past president of the Box Elder Wildlife Association and a member of the Brigham City Kiwanis and the Box Elder Chamber of Commerce. He was the assistant manager of the Brigham City Fruit Growers Association in 1916 and began the Anderson Produce Company, which farmed over 1,000 acres of farmland in Box Elder County.
Word had spread at the Heart Mountain camp that a man named Earl Anderson was offering Japanese families a place to live and work at his farm in Brigham City and the Fukuchi, Ikegami, Kanashiro, Sumida, and Uyematsu families took him up on his offer.
Once three of the families earned enough money, they moved back to California while the Sumida and Uyematsu families stayed for 79 years. Niroku Uyematsu, Norio’s father, worked for the Andersons for 40 years as their foreman in Brigham City and retired at the age of 90. Uyematsu was never given any orders and worked the farms like they were his own.
The desire to tell the Anderson story was the motivation for Norio Uyematsu, the oldest of the four Uyematsu children, who is now 93 years old. He wanted to have the generosity of Earl Anderson’s brave deed told and to finally have an exhibition about the Japanese families in Box Elder County at the Brigham City Museum, which also has created their own Japanese History Collection that will be kept for perpetuity.
Norio Uyematsu was determined to see one of his dreams come true since no one had made this happen all these years in the community that became his family’s home. His brother Harry still lives in Brigham City to this day.
The official name of the exhibition will be “Uncovering the Journey: Japanese American Pioneers in Box Elder County” and the exhibition is slated to open on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025 and close at the end of June.
In preparation for this exhibition, Brigham City Museum Director Alana Blumenthal and Curator of Collections Jennifer Hill traveled with Norio Uyematsu to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to witness Uyematsu’s donation of his post Korean War memorabilia to the museum’s military collection as well as being given a special briefing by the Smithsonian staff on what to consider in putting together an exhibit about Japanese American history.
In May, Blumenthal joined Uyematsu to be interviewed at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y. to discuss Uyematsu’s Brigham City story and the Brigham City Museum’s upcoming exhibit. The interviews will be shown on the FDR Library’s YouTube series next year. William A. Harris, director of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, will be going to Brigham City to speak at the JACL Utah Day of Remembrance program next February.
The museum’s upcoming exhibit also brought an invitation for Blumenthal to be invited as a guest panelist at the JAMP (Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages) Topaz panel on Sept. 9, 2024 covering Japanese Americans who “self-relocated” to Utah to escape Incarceration from Salt Lake City to Keetley to Brigham City and beyond. The panel shared their experiences by presenting unique challenges, distinct from those faced by those incarcerated in Topaz.
These opportunities being given to the Brigham City Museum to create their first Japanese pioneer exhibit are unique for small museums. Last month, they hired Alyssa Kammerman, an oral history specialist, to join the museum team as a project assistant who will work exclusively on the Japanese pioneer exhibit until completion.
Blumenthal said, “This has been an amazing journey of discovery for our museum, and we are so excited to share these stories with our community. We have met such passionate people who have been generous enough to share their family histories with us, and we hope to connect with more people and organizations through this project.”
The museum team has been researching the Japanese families in Box Elder County and the first person that was on their wish list was Private First Class Jim Yoshio Tazoi from Garland, Utah.
When the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was formed, Tazoi was already a member of the Utah National Guard in 1941. He received his orders to join them. During the rescue of the “Lost Battalion” in the Vosges Mountains in France, Tazoi alerted his fellow soldiers to a machine gunner, and then charged the position. Even after being shot in the shoulder by a sniper, he continued to attack German positions and was stopped only when he was hit by a concussion grenade.
For these brave actions, Tazoi was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in May 1945. In addition, he was awarded a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Crest of Valor from the Italian government, one of only four awarded to men in the 442nd. He died in 2007 at the age of 87.
The museum was able to contact Tazoi’s son Ed and met with him at the Honeyville Buddhist Church on Oct. 3, 2024. His father’s story is just one of the amazing stories that will be told in the Brigham City Museum’s upcoming exhibit.
Each family’s history provides a unique perspective of their life in the Box Elder County region, so the as more families contribute, that will enhance this exhibit’s narrative. Many descendants of those that lived in Utah have moved to California and other areas of the country.
So now the work begins to gather memorabilia, photos, and artifacts of Japanese family histories to tell this story that has never been told.
If families or descendants would like to participate in this upcoming exhibit, please contact Alyssa Kammerman at [email protected] or call her on Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays at the Brigham City Museum, (435) 226-1439. The deadline for acquiring information is Dec. 15, 2024.