UC Riverside

The study is titled, "Fujimoto Diaries 1941-1946: Japanese American Community in Riverside, California, and Toranosuke Fujimoto's National Loylalties to Japan and the United States during the Wartime Internment." It explores the life of a first generation Japanese immigrant and his family who resided in Riverside, California, during the Pacific War and World War II. It is based on the extensive diaries of Toranosuke Fujimoto written in Japanese and found in Special Collection, Rivera Library, University of California, Riverside. I propose to translate the diaries from 1935 to 1946, and write a substantial analysis of the diaries through a comprehensive introduction of the documents.

The diaries of Toranosuke Fujimoto demonstrate how his identity changed over time in relation to social conditions of Imperial Japan and the United States between the Pacific War and World War II. Fujimoto was a student of western civilization, Christian humanity and the American life style as a whole, who wished to become more developed person. While he quickly accommodated the new life in the United States, he never forgot serving for the country, Japan. He maintained strong adherence to the Japanese government and the emperor and strongly believed in Japanese military advancement in East Asia with a hope of Japanese takeover of the Asia during World War II. However, by the end of the war Fujimoto discarded his faith in both countries. Instead, he became distrustful to militarism based on his faith in Christianity. The transition of his identity reveals the complexity of one immigrant's life in the middle of international turmoil and influences of the Japanese American Internment.