On December 7, 1941, when Japan raided US Naval Base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The surprise attack nearly destroyed the Pacific fleet and thrust America into World War II. But it also intensified the anti-Japanese feelings of the American public. (www.GoforBroke.org)
Frank Tanimoto was born in 1886 and legally immigrated to the United States about 1906. Laws were passed to deny legal marriage between Japanese and other races. Miquela Coz was the daughter of Spanish-Mexican family that had roots in Arizona long before its statehood. Nonetheless, they formed a family and had six children.
Two of the six children Joseph and Ernest Coz served during World War II. The 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Regimental Combat Team, consisting of nearly all Nisei men, would become the most decorated unit in US history for its size and length of service, with more than 18,000 individual awards shared among them. Together with those who served in the Pacific Theater and China-Burma-India Theater in the Military Intelligence Service, these Nisei were credited with saving countless lives at the cost of many of their own. (www.GoforBroke.org)
Oral tradition regarding the breakup of Miquela and Frank is not clear. The 1940 Census shows the family living together in San Diego, California. The family oral tradition is that Frank, fearful of his family being sent to internment camps, asked his wife to use her surname of Coz for their children. Historical records available from Ancestry.com such as census records, telephone directories and internment records, show all the children using the Tanimoto surname as children and some as working adults. It is clear, then during the outbreak of the war, a change in surnames happened, along with Frank Tanimoto being sent to Santa Anita Racetrack for processing and ultimately being interred in Poston, Arizona.
Japanese immigrants were considered as inassimilable and the U.S. Supreme court case, Ozawa v. U.S. (1922), ruled that Japanese were “ineligible to citizenship.”
Many forget, that while we were also at war with Germany and Italy, none of these immigrant groups faced loyalty tests or internment.
Immigration laws in our country presented many sad and difficult obstacles for returning soldiers who married or wish to marry Japanese women. Japanese American soldiers could not bring Japanese wives to the US, as Asians were banned from immigrating into the country. The immigration laws and anti-miscegenation laws in thirty states banned marriages between any race and a Japanese person. Caucasian soldiers, even after bans were lifted for most War Brides, had to figure out to avoid being jailed for violating anti-miscegenation laws. Loving v Virginia was not decided until June 12, 1967.
Frank Tanimoto was released from internment in 1945 and according to release documents was headed to Chicago, Illinois. He ultimately returned to San Diego, California, dying in 1966.
This story is part of the great wonderful and exciting adventures of studying genealogy for the past thirty plus years. My father-in-law Robert Coz Robles is Joseph and Ernest first cousin. Twenty years ago, my husband and I knocked on doors in Yuma, Arizona, looking for members of the Coz Family. We reunified the family, dusted off photos, shared history and reignited our ties.
This Memorial Day we are adding Joseph and Ernest Coz to our very own Grand Terrace Veterans Freedom Wall.