Funeral of the Late Shigeki Yokota [caption title in Japanese, translated to English]

Fresno: Kamiyama, 1954. Very good.. Panoramic photograph, 10 x 38 inches. Minor wear and occasional soft creasing. A substantial panoramic photograph depicting the somber scene of the funeral of Fresno resident Shigeki Yokota on September 8, 1954. A couple of hundred mourners pose for the camera at the corner of 9th and P streets in Fresno, with several wreaths of flowers flanking each side of Yokota's casket. Shigeki Yokota (1902-1954) was a Japanese-American doctor who moved his family to Fresno following the World War II internment period. Evidenced by the signature etched into the negative in the bottom left of the image, the photograph was produced by noted and prolific Fresno photographer Urasaburo "Frank" Kamiyama. Frank Kamiyama (1886-1974) was an important Japanese-American chronicler of his own community in Fresno and the surrounding area beginning in the early 20th century. He was arrested on March 27, 1942 as one of eight "named Japanese alien enemies" and interned at Angel Island in California and in Santa Fe, New Mexico during World War II. His family, including his wife, Mitan, and their four daughters, were interned separately at Rohwer in Arkansas (the easternmost of the Japanese internment camps). After the war, Kamiyama continued to photograph the lives of Japanese Americans in California until his death.