Miriam “Kiyo” Koyama (小山きよ)

Kiyo Koyama was the third and youngest child of the Koyama family. Widely considered the apple of her father’s eye, the affection was deeply mutual and Kiyo writes her father with a frequency surpassed only by her mother. Of the three children Kiyo was the only child to use her Japanese name (Kiyo) over her American name (Miriam). At Minidoka she once tried to insist that people call her only Miriam, but it never stuck, and after the war she was known more commonly as Kiyo, so I honor that here.

And of the three children, Kiyo seemed to be the most emotionally affected by the absence of her father.  Just 8 years old (going on 9) at the time of internment, Kiyo fills her letters to her father with Bible verses, pictures, and cute poetry about wanting long hair.  Her upbeat cheeriness in the letters is shadowed by her mother’s admission of extraordinary sorrow on the part of all her children, but especially from Kiyo.

Kiyo was obviously the most social person in the family and she found it easy to make friends both at the Assembly Center and at Minidoka.  Even today the expansiveness of her social circle still bears a lasting legacy; apart from her parents, Kiyo’s name remains the most well-known of the Koyama family in Portland. After the war Kiyo helped her father re-establish his dental practice in Old Town and must have interacted with many of his patients. She lived in Portland and the SW Washington area with her husband for the rest of her life.

(Above: Kiyo, still a high school student post-World War II.)

(Above: Kiyo as a young child.)