During World War II, a Japanese American life was worth a dollar.
May 24, 1944: Shōichi James Okamoto was shot and killed by a sentry at Tule Lake, allegedly for not showing his pass.
Shōichi James Okamoto was 30 years old when he was killed at Tule Lake Segregation Center, one of the most heavily militarized of the ten incarceration camps used to imprison Japanese Americans during World War II.
He wasn’t escaping. He wasn’t armed. He was working.
Okamoto was a civilian truck driver employed by the U.S. government inside the camp.
That day, he was driving a construction truck between the camp and a worksite outside the camp. On his way back at the center gate, a sentry demanded that he step out of the truck and show his pass.
Courtesy of Jan Okamoto
Shōichi James Okamoto, a 30-year-old who was shot and killed by a Tule Lake camp guard for allegedly failing to show his pass.
Courtesy of Japanese American National Museum
Shoichi James Okamoto’s fatal encounter began over a pass reportedly pinned to his jacket, but not visible to a short-tempered sentry standing below the truck door.
Courtesy of U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Another angle of the security gate at Tule Lake, but with a medic truck
Courtesy of Guy and Marguerite Cook Nisei Collection
A May 25, 1944 Newell Star report on Shoichi James Okamoto’s death from a gunshot wound inflicted by a sentry at Tule Lake.
The Incident
The pass was reportedly on Okamoto’s jacket, but the sentry could not see it clearly from the truck window.
After insulting remarks and escalating commands, Okamoto showed the pass in a way the already irritated sentry apparently took as disrespectful.
A heated argument followed.
Then the sentry opened fire from point-blank range.
Shōichi James Okamoto died the next day.
Death and an Investigation
His mother, older brother, two younger brothers, and two sisters were at his bedside when he was pronounced dead. Another brother and two sisters were incarcerated at Heart Mountain and Gila River at the time.
There was an investigation. There was a court-martial. There was a ruling.
The soldier was fined $1.
It was the cost of the bullet fired during an “unauthorized use of government property.” In the end, Okamoto’s life wasn’t even worth a penny, at least to the government.
The bullet had to be replaced. Okamoto’s life did not.
Courtesy of Densho
The Newell Star reported that 9,000 people attended Shōichi James Okamoto’s outdoor funeral at Tule Lake, standing bareheaded for hours in the cold and rain.
Photo by Kathi Goe
Private Goe, the sentry fined $1 for shooting Shōichi James Okamoto at point-blank range at Tule Lake.
Courtesy of U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
A funeral for James Hatsuaki Wakasa, who was shot by a military police officer at Topaz while walking his dog. That incident was covered up, too.
Courtesy of Nagatomi Family Collection
Funeral for James Ito and Jim Kanagawa, the two young men killed by military police during the Manzanar Riot, held inside the camp on December 21, 1942.
The Injustice of Wartime Hysteria
The shooting was unauthorized. But the killing was barely punished.
Okamoto’s death was not an isolated injustice. It reflected the toxic mix of wartime hysteria, racism, and unchecked military power that defined the incarceration experience, especially at Tule Lake, where thousands were labeled “disloyal” for protesting their treatment or answering “No” on a loyalty questionnaire.
Even then, a one-dollar penalty was an enormous insult added to injury.
What a Japanese American life was worth in 1944.
How much is it worth now?