My mother first learned to play the koto as a nine-year-old child incarcerated with her family in Topaz Camp in Utah during WWII.
I was surprised when I learned this, as I hadn’t known that there was Japanese music in the camps. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) certainly did not encourage it:
“The WRA does not intend to promote ideals and cultures of nations with which we are at war…So long as patriotic music is not played, Japanese music may be played in the center but it will not be sponsored by the government…”
(Manzanar Free Press, Sept. 19, 1942)
I was able to find only one photo to prove there was an active group of musicians playing Japanese music in Topaz.
In May 2023 Kent Nakamoto contacted me about a koto and shamisen that had belonged to his mother, Tama Nakata Nakamoto. Tama and her family had also been in Topaz; Tama was 20 years old at the time. She had taken koto and shamisen lessons in Topaz from the same teacher as my mother—a woman named Haruko Suwada, who had taught both instruments before the War in San Francisco. Unlike my mother, Tama had studied with Suwada-sensei before the War.
Kent sent me some photos, and one was the same photo I had found–of a performance of Japanese music in Topaz that included his mother playing shamisen.
Tama met her husband at Topaz and they later married. After the War, determined to assimilate as quickly as possible, her husband advised her never to play the Japanese instruments again, nor to speak in Japanese. This was fairly common in Japanese American families who had been incarcerated for three-and-a-half years: to put aside their cultural practices in order to be accepted. Tama took up the piano instead—and her koto and shamisen sat untouched for almost 80 years.
The shamisen heads were mostly damaged, but shamisen maker extraordinaire, Kyle Abbott, helped put new skin on them.
When Kent donated the instruments, Tama’s performance koto was remarkably well preserved, stored in a canvas koto cover that looked like it had been custom made–maybe in camp. Even the strings were not cut. It sounded a bit “thunky,” but I was able to play on the old silk strings.
We are planning to perform on these instruments in the classical style in which they would have been played in the WWII American concentration camps, as well some modern pieces which were also played in camp. The “Desert Winds and Strings” concert will be held on Saturday, November 4th, 2023 from 2-4 pm at J-Sei, 1285 66th St., Emeryville, CA, (510)654-4000. Please join us! For more information, click here.
Many thanks to Kent Nakamoto for the information about his mother and these instruments, as they will eventually be donated to the Topaz Museum in Delta, UT.
About the contributor: Shirley Muramoto is a koto musician, teacher, band leader and filmmaker. She grew up in Oakland, CA after the War. She received her instructor’s license (1976) and master’s degree (2000) from the Chikushi School in Fukuoka, Japan. She was the Creative Director of the 2014 documentary, “Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performing Arts in the WWII Internment Camps.” In 2012 Shirley was honored by the Hokka Nichibei Kai Japanese American Cultural Association of America by being inducted into the Bunka Hall of Fame for her life-long dedication to teaching and performing on the Japanese koto.
Copyright 2023, Shirley Muramoto.