Yamato Ichihashi was one of the first academics of Asian ancestry in the United States. Ichihashi wrote a comprehensive account of his experiences as an internee at the Tule Lake War Relocation Center

Tule Lake War Relocation Center

Tule Lake Segregation Center National Monument was an internment camp in the northern California town of Newell near Tule Lake. It was used in the Japanese American internment during World War II. It was the largest and most controversial of the camps, and did not close until after the war, in...

 where he was imprisoned in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 along with other relocated Japanese Americans.

Ichihashi was born in Nagoya, of the Aichi prefecture

Prefecture

A prefecture is an administrative jurisdiction or subdivision in any of various countries and within some international church structures, and in antiquity a Roman district governed by an appointed prefect.-Antiquity:...

 of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in 1878. He was the son of Ichihashi Hiromasha, a former samurai, and Maizuno Ai. He came to the United States in 1894 at the age of 16. He completed public school in San Francisco, graduated from Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 with a bachelors and a masters degree in economics

Master of Economics

A Master's Degree in Economics is a postgraduate academic program, offering training in economic theory, econometrics and / or applied economics. The degree may be offered as a terminal degree or as additional preparation for doctoral study, and is sometimes offered as a professional degree...

, and earned his Ph.D. at Harvard. In 1913, he began teaching about Japanese history and government, international relations, and the Japanese American experience at Stanford. This continued until World War II began. Ichihashi was upset that Japan started the war and purchased US war bonds in support of the Americans. Despite this, he and his wife, Kei, were uprooted and imprisoned as part of the mass relocation of Japanese Americans

Japanese American internment

Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...

 during World War II. Ichihashi and many other of the relocated were at first housed in California's Santa Anita

Santa Anita

Santa Anita may refer to:*Metro Santa Anita, a station on the Mexico City Metro*Rancho Santa Anita, a 13,319-acre land grant given to Hugo Reid*Santa Anita, Baja California Sur, a village in Baja California del Sur, Mexico...

racetrack, where 5 to 6 people were housed in horse stables before being relocated to more permanent camps.

In 1932, Ichihashi wrote a classic account of the early history of Japanese in the United States.

Ichihashi's papers are housed in the special collections of Stanford University's Green Library.