Ordered chronologically and moderately copy-edited

by Arther A. Hansen

When preparing his memoir between 1981 and 1994 for future publication [Arthur A. Hansen, ed., The Memoir of Militant Japanese American Journalist Jimmie Omura (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018), James Matsumoto Omura compiled a compendium of items that he labelled as "Research Notes." These notes were not ordered chronologically, but rather were assembled randomly. Accordingly, they are now rendered below in chronological order to facilitate longitudinal consumption and enhanced comprehension by users. The notes encompass the period extending from June 25, 1942, through October [?], 1947.

 

They commence from the time in which Omura and his wife Caryl [neé Fumi Okuma] resettled from San Francisco, California, to Denver, Colorado, and the notes terminate during the first two post-World War II years, when the Omuras became first separated and then divorced and when an economically and emotionally James Omura was estranged from the Denver Japanese American community.

 

The bulk of the notes treat the resettlement experience of James and Caryl Omura, his work as the director of the free Evacuee Placement Bureau (1942-1943), as a freelance journalist contributing articles to the English-language sections of Denver's two vernacular newspapers, the Colorado Times and the Rocky Nippon/Rocky Shimpo (1942-1944), and most especially as the English-section editor of the Rocky Shimpo (1944). In connection with the last of these positions, the most significant of the notes focus on his embattled editorial support for the organized Nisei draft resistance movement mobilized by the Fair Play Committee (FPC) at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in northwest Wyoming, and the opposition to that support mounted by the United States Department of War, the War Relocation Authority (particularly the WRA administration at Heart Mountain), the Heart Mountain inmate newspaper, the Heart Mountain Sentinel, and the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), and its newspaper, the Pacific Citizen.

 

Very important are the notes that relate to the US government-forced removal of Omura from his Rocky Shimpo editorship in April 1944, and his subsequent indictment, arrest, jailing, and federal trial, along with the FPC leadership, for unlawful conspiracy to counsel, aid, and abet violations of the military draft. In addition, notes bearing on Omura's interactions, mainly correspondence, with government officials and the JACL leadership are noteworthy, as are those with his supporters, his wife, and arguably the most illuminating (in revealing Omura's character, political and social perspective, and passions and antipathies) with his brother, Kazushi "Casey" Matsumoto. Concluding the dated entries within Omura's compilation of notes there are appended a few that lack a date.

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