{"id":1533,"date":"2025-05-24T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2025-10-27T15:12:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:12:37","slug":"shoichi-james-okamoto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/shoichi-james-okamoto\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoichi James Okamoto"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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An unarmed man was shot and killed. His life was worth $1.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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May 24, 1944: Shoichi James Okamoto was shot and killed by a sentry at Tule Lake, allegedly for not showing his pass.\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Shoichi 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.<\/p>

He wasn\u2019t escaping. He wasn\u2019t armed. He was just working.<\/p>

Okamoto was a civilian truck driver, employed by the U.S. government inside the camp. On that day, he reportedly failed to present his pass at a checkpoint near a gate. They got into an argument when the military sentry opened fire.<\/p>

Shoichi James Okamoto died the next day.<\/p>

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Shoichi James Okamoto, shot and killed by a Tule Lake camp guard for failing to show his pass, credit Jan Okamoto<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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A truck at a security checkpoint, Tule Lake War Relocation Center, credit Densho<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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A clipping from the Newell Star, newspaper published in Tule Lake, May 25, 1944, credit GUy and Marguerite Cook Nisei Collection<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Another angle of the security gate at Tule Lake, but with a medic truck<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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There was an investigation, a court-martial, and a ruling:<\/p>

The soldier was fined $1.<\/p>

It was the cost of the bullet that had to be replaced. So maybe Okamoto\u2019s life wasn\u2019t even worth a penny, at least to them.<\/p>

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Okamoto\u2019s death was not an isolated incident of injustice. It reflected the toxic mix of wartime hysteria, racism, and unchecked military power that defined the incarceration experience \u2014 especially at Tule Lake, where thousands were labeled \u201cdisloyal\u201d simply for protesting their treatment or answering \u201cNo\u201d on a loyalty questionnaire.<\/p>

But even then, a one-dollar penalty. What an insult to injury.<\/p>

That\u2019s what a Japanese American life was worth in 1944. How much is it now?<\/p>

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James Wakasa's funeral was forced to be held half a mile away from where he was shot, credit National Archives<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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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.\n<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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James Wakasa, an accomplished chef before WWII, wasn\u2019t trying to escape \u2014 just walking his dog. But he was shot by a guard who claimed he was \u201ctoo close\u201d to the fence.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Life Behind the Barbed Wire, or Lack Thereof<\/strong><\/em><\/p>

Shoichi James Okamoto wasn\u2019t the only Japanese American killed by a military guard during WWII. A year earlier, James Hatsuaki Wakasa<\/a> was shot in the back at Topaz for walking too close to the fence.<\/p>

Both were unarmed. Neither posed a threat.<\/p>

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Share this article<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unarmed man was shot and killed. His life was worth $1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[78,248,6,102,33,32,100,101,245,9],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aapi-heritage-month","tag-civil-rights-activism","tag-japanese-american-history","tag-military-injustice","tag-never-forget","tag-quiet-americans","tag-shoichi-james-okamoto","tag-tule-lake","tag-wartime-incarceration","tag-wwii-incarceration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2720,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/2720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quietamericans.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}