Phil Henkoff was a white male college photography professor working at the Los Angeles Community College in the 1940s.
On The Terror: Infamy, Phil Henkoff was portrayed by Geoff Gustafon.
History[]
Chester Nakayama was a student of Henkoff's but stopped taking classes following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II on December 7, 1941. In February the next year, following Executive Order 9066, Chester visited Henkoff at the college in his office in order to return an enlarger that he had borrowed. He also asked Henkoff for his opinion on a series of photos that he had taken in which the faces were oddly blurred. Henkoff told him that his old professor would say that the photos were a result of a slow shutter and a shaky hand, while his Jewish mother would say that he had been taking pictures of things that he shouldn't. Asked for his own opinion, he told Chester that photographs were a reflection of the photographer's state of mind, so it was no surprise that Chester's were coming out a bit disturbed.
Later, Chester sought his professor's aid in sheltering him and his pregnant girlfriend, Luz Ojeda, after learning that children with even a single drop of Japanese blood were being sent to internment camps. Henkoff sheltered them in his house and Chester told him that they needed someplace where he could get a job and Ojeda could get medical care. Henkoff offered to make some inquiries, but before he could help any further, the FBI visited the home, having been tipped off by a neighbor, an elderly woman from across the street. ("All the Demons Are Still in Hell")
He took care of Henry Nakayama's Packard during the time that Chester and his family were interned at the Colinas de Oro War Relocation Center. When Chester escaped and went on the run, he trusted the vehicle to Chester's possession. ("My Perfect World")