Henry S. Yamaga, a retired businessman from Norwalk, California, testified before the CWRIC about how false rumors, racial prejudice, and wartime hysteria destroyed the successful grocery business he and his family had built over a decade.

• Building a Business: Before the war, his family’s grocery served 67% of Norwalk’s population. They were respected members of the Chamber of Commerce and widely regarded as good citizens.

• Rumors & Accusations: Competitors and informants spread lies that Yamaga was hiding enough weapons for 500 soldiers. FBI agents and sheriffs repeatedly searched his home and store—without warrants—finding nothing.

• Radio Static Misread as Espionage: Local police accused him of sending coded messages to Japanese submarines off the coast, based only on static they picked up while driving past his home. Yamaga personally rode in patrol cars with police until the real source was discovered: a white neighbor’s electric shaver.

• Family in Fear: His father, a legal U.S. resident but not a citizen, packed a suitcase every night in case he was taken away. He even bathed and dressed in a clean shirt nightly, saying he wanted to be “proper” if they came to cut his neck.

• Exclusion & Loss: On March 29, 1942—the final day for voluntary departure—his family fled to Colorado. They were forced to sell their thriving business at a devastating loss. After four years away, they returned to Norwalk to start over from scratch.

• On Injustice: Yamaga testified that Executive Order 9066 wiped out ten years of hard work and prosperity: “The Exclusion Order wiped out ten years of my life, in which time I built up a good business and good life.”