Vanished: Lompoc's Japanese

Vanished: Lompoc’s Japanese: Only Two of 100 Families Returned During World War II, the U.S. government unconstitutionally forced people of Japanese ancestry to leave their homes and businesses on the West Coast and thousands ended up living in domestic concentration camps. Many, but certainly not all, of these Japanese American families returned after the war. Certain areas, however, saw few or none of the Nikkei coming back to restart their lives. Lompoc, California was a farming community where some Japanese-run businesses thrived, but only two families were known to return to Lompoc after the war. McReynolds, a well-published writer and author, has lived in Lompoc for decades and even produced a book on the history of the region. However, in his book about Lompoc, McReynolds made no mention of the Japanese and their forced removal. When his friend George Yoshitake asked McReynolds why there was no mention of this fact, he said it was because he did not know how to contact any of the displaced families. Yoshitake immediately provided contacts to McReynolds, but his research took over 16 months and, to some degree, did not solve the question of why so few Nikkei returned to Lompoc. McReynolds said that most of the adults from that era were gone and their children were uncertain of why they never went back. However, McReynolds uncovered several events that were disturbing and could explain why more Japanese never returned. Paper: 232 pp.