Still Standing Guard is the second publication of the oral history project focused on the incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II and the impact of rebuilding lives in our community.  The oral history project gathered 25 personal histories in 2003 –including Tetsuro Fujii, Steve Fujioka, Frank Fujita, Asa Hanamoto, Grant and Stuart Kageta, Sanai Kageta, George and Lillian Kitagawa, James Makimoto, Aki and Tom Matsuda, Victor Montes, Alfred Nitta, Leslie Nowak. Paul Nystrom, Toki and Kunio Okusu, Helen Otow, Kenneth Ozawa, Harold Takahashi, Mack Tsujimoto, Eugene Uratsu, and Marvin Uratsu. Additional interviews from 2023 include Ed Horton, Karen Kiyo Lowhurst, Nobuya Nimura, and JoAnn and Gordon Takemoto.

Over 1,800 Issei and Nisei from Placer County were interned at Tule Lake along with 18,000 others from the Pacific states. The personal stories are a powerful examination of the impact of incarceration on families and communities, the uncertainty, division, and sacrifice during wartime, the resiliency to move on, and the threat to the rights of citizens under the Constitution of the United States.

These personal histories with photographs and details of the Japanese influence on local history will be published in 2024 as a limited-edition of 1,000 books.

Limited Edition

Reserve your copy now.   $80

Sponsored by Sierra College and Sierra College Press

To reserve your copy of Still Standing Guard by credit card

directly to the Sierra College Foundation use the QR code 

and your mobile phone’s camera to reach the website for the

Standing Guard book order. 

Other donations to the project can be made using the same QR code.

You can also reserve your Still Standing Guard book with an $80 check written to Sierra College Foundation -Standing Guard Project, account 220101. Mail the check to  Sierra College, 5100 Sierra College Blvd. Rocklin, CA 95677. Include this form with your contact information on the back.

Link to form 

Thank you for your support!

First publication also available upon request.