Information Request: John and Esther Essene

With many thanks to Hideko Takahashi of the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington for bringing this to our attention, we would like to request information from any friends or relatives of John and Esther Essene. The Japanese section of the Minidoka Interlude as well as the April 24, 1943 issue of the Minidoka Irrigator include the marriage announcement for John and Esther. Esther Essene, nee Kohara, was incarcerated at Minidoka and was originally from Portland. John Essene, a white WRA administrator, served as Superintendent of Community Enterprises at Minidoka having earlier founded the Student Cooperative Housing at UCLA. Through basic research, we know that John enlisted in the army from Minidoka three days after their wedding, and he and Esther lived in Indianapolis while he served and later settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

It is a very unique story that a white WRA administrator and a Japanese American incarceree met at camp, married, and left together. We would love to hear more about their lives, their relationship, and to capture any photographs that might exist in order to share this story more broadly. Please send any information to mia@minidoka.org, or call (208) 863-0076. 

Image of John and Esther courtesy ancestry.com user swalth.