during world war ii, kurihara was interned at the manzanar war relocation center. in december 1942, kurihara was part of a five-member committee which organized protests over the arrest of harry ueno, an internee accused of the beating of fred tayama. the protestors became unruly, and two soldiers fired on the crowd without orders; two men died, and ten others were injured. kurihara spent about a month in jail, and was further transferred to citizen isolation camps at moab, utah and leupp, arizona before finally arriving at the tule lake segregation center.