Sue Kunitomi Embrey
Sue Kunitomi Embrey was a pivotal figure in the movement to raise awareness about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Born as Sueko Kunitomi to immigrant parents in Los Angeles, she experienced the injustices of internment firsthand when her family was forcibly relocated to Manzanar, a War Relocation Authority camp, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war, she became an ardent advocate for civil rights, focusing particularly on the legacy of internment and fighting against discrimination. Embrey played a crucial role in the founding of the Manzanar Committee, which sought to preserve the history of the internment site and promote education about this chapter in American history.
Her efforts led to congressional acknowledgment and a presidential apology for the injustices faced by Japanese Americans, as well as the establishment of Manzanar as a National Historic Site. Throughout her life, Embrey was involved in various social justice initiatives, including labor rights and anti-war movements, highlighting her commitment to equality. She also contributed to the discourse on internment through her writings, including “The Lost Years: 1942–1946.” Embrey's legacy continues through the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage and the Sue Kunitomi Embrey Legacy Award, which honors activism in the Japanese American community. She passed away in 2006, leaving behind a significant impact on the fight for justice and remembrance of internment.
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Sue Kunitomi Embrey
Driven by a powerful sense of justice, Sue Kunitomi Embrey raised awareness about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans through her work with the Manzanar Committee. Her advocacy culminated in congressional acknowledgment and a presidential apology for internment, as well as the transformation of the former Manzanar confinement camp into the Manzanar National Historic Site.
Birth name: Sueko Kunitomi
Areas of achievement: Activism, education
Early Life
Sue Kunitomi Embrey grew up with six siblings during the Great Depression in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles, California. Her issei (first-generation Japanese American) parents, Gonhichi and Komika Kunitomi, immigrated to the United States from Okayama, Japan, and brought with them traditional Japanese values that required adjustment in their American lives. However, two aspects of tradition remained unchanged: male dominance and shared responsibilities within the family. Her father’s dominance was potent when he told her that she could not attend college because she was female and Japanese. Her responsibilities increased dramatically with the sudden death of her father in December 1937, and she needed to work in her mother’s store seven days a week.
The December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor would be one of the defining experiences of Sue Kunitomi Embrey’s life—it resulted in the incarceration of her family at the Manzanar War Relocation Authority (WRA) Camp in Lone Pine, California. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced containment of 120,000 Japanese Americans. The Kunitomi family was forced to sell their store and relocate to the camp when Kunitomi was nineteen years old.
The ten WRA camps, including Manzanar, were enclosed in barbed wire and had watchtowers manned by armed military police. The euphemistically named “apartments” at the site had no insulation and were heated by oil burners and lit by a single lightbulb in the ceiling. There was little privacy in the apartments or the shared latrines, and meals served in mess halls resulted in the dismantling of family unity.
While living at the Manzanar camp, Kunitomi began work as a reporter and editor of the Manzanar Free Press internee newspaper. After nearly eighteen months at Manzanar, Kunitomi obtained leave clearance in October 1943. She moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and when her application for admission to the University of Wisconsin was denied because of her Japanese heritage, she moved to Chicago and worked for the Newberry Library, where her political awareness was nurtured by her diverse colleagues.
Life’s Work
After the war, Kunitomi’s mother returned to Los Angeles, and Kunitomi joined her there in 1948. Despite blatant housing and employment discrimination, she secured a house for her family and a job with the Los Angeles County Department of Education. In 1947, she joined a nisei (second-generation Japanese American) group supporting the liberal presidential candidate Henry Wallace. When Wallace was defeated, the group became the Nisei Progressives. Kunitomi met the activist Garland Embrey at a Nisei Progressive party in 1948 and married him in November 1950, despite opposition to interracial marriage and a consequent estrangement with her mother that ended only with the birth of her sons, Gary and Bruce.
Sue Kunitomi Embrey was also able to fulfill her dream of higher education; defying her father’s edict, she earned a BA in English from California State College in 1969 and a teaching credential and MA from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1972. She worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District for ten years and taught kindergarten, first grade, and special education in addition to teaching at colleges including USC and the University of California at Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. At this time, she was also active with the United Teachers Los Angeles union. Embrey was also involved in advocacy for the United Farm Workers, the anti-Vietnam War movement, affirmative action, and equality in housing and jobs.
In 1969, Embrey was invited to join activists on the first Manzanar Pilgrimage to raise awareness about Japanese internment. In a nationally televised interview during this event, Embrey described the terrible conditions of the camp and recounted the injustices her family suffered while there. The Manzanar Committee was formed in 1970 by Embrey and other former internees. Embrey endured hostility for over three decades in her role as chair of the committee and as the result of her campaign to raise awareness about the camps and anti-Japanese discrimination. Her fortitude ultimately resulted in Manzanar being designated a California State Landmark in 1972, a National Historic Landmark in 1985, and a National Historic Site in 1992. Embrey also helped form the organization E.O. 9066 Inc. and campaigned for the government to offer redress and reparations for internment. She remained involved with the Manzanar site through the 1990s.
Embrey died at a Los Angeles hospital on May 15, 2006, at the age of eighty-three.
Significance
Embrey is best remembered for her seminal work in preserving the Manzanar site, advocating for redress and reparations, and educating Americans about Japanese internment. The Manzanar Pilgrimage is an annual event that continues after her death, and the Manzanar Committee carries on her work advocating for Japanese Americans, offering the yearly Sue Kunitomi Embrey Legacy Award for activism.
Through her work in education and community activism, Embrey spoke out against discrimination and in support of social justice. Her publications include The Lost Years: 1942–1946 (1976), an overview of internment. Embrey’s determination transformed a dark chapter of American history into a positive lesson that a democratic society can acknowledge discrimination, apologize, and make amends. Despite hostility from her community, Embrey drew strength from her Japanese heritage and was able to refocus a community and reshape history.
Bibliography
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Personal Justice Denied: The Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. Seattle: U of Washington P, 1997. Print.
Howard, John. Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. Print.
Megumi Fleming, Grace. "Sue Kunitomi Embrey." Japanese American Museum of San Jose, 2024, www.jamsj.org/manabu/sue-kunitomi-embrey. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.
Muller, Eric L. Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II. Print. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2001. Print.