Maeda, Edith (8/17/2018)

Anna Takada: This is an interview with Edie Maeda, as part of the Japanese-American Service Committee and Chicago Japanese American Historical Society Oral History Project. The interview is being conducted on August 17th, 2018 at 11:04 AM at the Japanese American Service Committee in Chicago. Edie Maeda is being interviewed by Anna Takada of the Japanese American Service Committee. So to start, can you state your full name?

Edith Maeda: Edith Michiko Maeda.

Anna Takada: And, where and when were you born?

Edith Maeda: I was born in El Centro, E-L, and then separate name C-E-N-T-R-O, California on 12/28/27.

Anna Takada: Can you tell me a little bit about El Centro, California? What that was like growing up?

Edith Maeda: Well, it's a very small town, I think it's probably about 10,000 people, but in California, not near the big city or anything. It was... And I would say it was about, a town with about 10-to-15,000 people, not, not many.

Anna Takada: And, how about your parents, what, what did they do for a living?

Edith Maeda: My parents, my mother did not-- she was at home caring for kids and so on. And my father was a shoe, owned a shoe repair shop, and he had, had always done that, even when he went to, when we moved to Chicago. Mhmm.

Anna Takada: And, can you tell me about where, where your parents were from originally?

Edith Maeda: Well, they were from Japan, I had visited, visited the little city, but I can't really remember what it was.

Myles Glasgow: Can I add...

Edith Maeda: It was Miyazaki, was the, not the city, but the... What would you call it?

Myles Glasgow: Region, prefecture.

Edith Maeda: Yeah.

Anna Takada: And do you know anything about when or why they came to the U.S.?

Edith Maeda: I never asked why they came, I just figured, you know we always just operated in the present, not in the past, so...

Anna Takada: So as far as growing up, were you speaking Japanese with your parents then?

Edith Maeda: I was on the younger side, I had two older sisters who had gone to Japanese school, in other words, they learned the language. So, I did not know it, I couldn't write it or speak it as well as they did, but I could understand you know, phrases and stuff, but, my broth--

Anna Takada: So, so you did not go to Japanese school?

Edith Maeda: No, no. During the war and after the war, I, I guess they just 00:04:00didn't have it. You know, and the Japanese were put into camps, either in somewhere, I don't know where they were in California, but we were put into a camp in Arizona. So it was really in the desert.

Anna Takada: Before getting into, into wartime, I'd love to hear a little bit more about kind of what it was like for you growing up in El Centro. So you said you-- you mentioned you had, had some siblings.

Edith Maeda: Oh, yeah. I had older sisters, four, and two of the older ones I hardly knew, because they were in college all the time when my brother and I were growing up. And I had one older brother, but I never knew him very well, 00:05:00'cause he was killed while he was in college at, in San Diego, which is in California. So he died before the war, but I hardly knew him, because he was always away. And, I had my younger brother and I grew up together.

Anna Takada: So as a kid, I, I imagine you were probably going to school?

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. What was that, what was school like for you in El Centro, a small town?

Edith Maeda: Well, we were in a small town of only 10,000 people, so you would grow up with kids you went to school with from kindergarten on up. So, my best 00:06:00friend was the superintendent's daughter, she was my best friend, and so we sort of grew up together. But we were a Japanese family that lived in the little town, but there were many other Japanese that lived outside and they were usually farmers, or... I had an uncle who had asparagus, he introduced asparagus I think to, to the valley, so he was sort of a gentleman farmer and had four or five girls, all girls, no boys. (laughs) I know he always wanted someone, but a boy particularly, because he was a rancher, so...

Anna Takada: Do you remember his name?

Edith Maeda: Sonoda.

Anna Takada: And, so it sounds like there were other Japanese American families.

Edith Maeda: Yes, but most of the Japanese lived as farmers out in the country, but we lived in the city, so I never met any of them except my cousins, who, who we were always close with them. There were four girls, but they were all always in college, so I didn't know them until afterwards, and after we got into camp my father sort of took care of them, because their father had died, and so--

Myles Glasgow: He had been arrested and sent...

Edith Maeda: What?

Myles Glasgow: Wasn't he arrested and put into a camp in Texas?

Edith Maeda: Yeah, that Mr. Sonoda was, for a while, but, and then he died I 00:08:00think in, in the camp or... I mean he was taken on Pearl Harbor Day, 'cause he was sort of a gentleman farmer that had a lot of contacts with people and land and stuff.

Anna Takada: And so, right, because the, the FBI, they were taking a lot of... Especially Issei men.

Edith Maeda: Oh, yeah. They took people like him, I don't know why, but maybe because you know he, he was influential in the agricultural area.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. Well connected, and--

Myles Glasgow: His daughter, one of his daughters, Mary, had worked with the royal family in Japan.

Edith Maeda: He had only four daughters, he had four daughters, he wanted a son 00:09:00to carry on, but had four daughters and sent them all to college, so...

Anna Takada: And so do you know, you said that your father was kind of taking care of your cousins, was that...

Edith Maeda: Well, sort of, because the father of my cousins was taken early on Pearl Harbor Day or prior to, whatever, but he was sort of influential in the agricultural area, so he was taken and I think, I think he may have died in, while he was in camp. I don't remember ever seeing him after that. I think he died.

Anna Takada: And, be-before the war started, had you ever... Well, first of all, 00:10:00were you involved in any other activities outside of school as a kid?

Edith Maeda: Oh well, our family always did a lot of volunteer work, so I did... Maybe that was more in Chicago though, when we moved.

Anna Takada: Did you go to any, were you religious at all? Were you raised religious?

Edith Maeda: Oh, the Japanese always had a church I think in every community they moved to, so we belonged to a, a Christian church.

Anna Takada: In El Centro?

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm, mhmm.

Anna Takada: And so would that mean going to Sunday school?

Edith Maeda: Going to Sunday school, and knowing a lot of families, and our 00:11:00cousins who were there, the father was, had introduced asparagus in the community, but he was a gentleman farmer, but he had four girls, so no one to carry on. But he sent them all to college, and they were older. I had two older sisters, I had four older sisters actually, but two were always away in college, so I didn't know them as well as the two that were closer. And then I had an older brother who was killed at college. While he was... He wanted a motorcycle, and unfortunately he got killed that way. A, a woman who was learning to drive, that was sad. And then I had a little brother, my brother and I were the younger 00:12:00ones, mhmm.

Anna Takada: And before the war, had you experienced any type of discrimination as a, as a child for being Japanese?

Edith Maeda: No, we lived in a small town and my best friend and a neighbor was the superintendent's daughter. He was superintendent of the school, so I, we were very close. We sort of grew up together, so...

Anna Takada: Does that mean...

Edith Maeda: The, the Japanese were usually-- they were farmers mostly, so I never knew the children. We had cousins who were four older girls, and they were always in college it seemed. And he, their father had introduced asparagus to 00:13:00the valley, so he was always very busy, so I didn't--

Anna Takada: Do you remember the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed? Maybe where you were, how you found out?

Edith Maeda: Well, I remember there was a lot of discussion in the family and all that, you know, and the fact that we were put into camps because of, after that, mhmm.

Anna Takada: And so, how old were you about at that time when the war broke out?

Edith Maeda: Well, let's see, when did the war break out? I was in, I did, let's see, I went to high school and so I was still in lower school. I don't, I went to junior high in Chicago, so I went to...

Anna Takada: So you must have been a teenager when the war broke out, if you 00:14:00were born in '27.

Edith Maeda: 12/28/27. I'm trying to think.

Anna Takada: You would have been about 15 I think?

Edith Maeda: Mhmm, was I in, I was in high school then, I would have been in high school, 'cause I went to high school about 12. Uh-huh.

Anna Takada: And so, so when, do you remember kind of what, what that time was like when the war broke out? I know you said your family went to camp, but how about...

Edith Maeda: Only because when the war broke out, Japanese, being Japanese, you know you, you really felt it, and especially because we were put into a, a camp in the Arizona desert. And my father volunteered and my eldest sister 00:15:00volunteered, she was in college. I had two sisters who had been in college. So anyway, we went in and it was the complete desert. We were the first family in, the first... In fact, the only family in, because all the other volunteers came from Los Angeles and they were, they went there because they needed people to help set up the school system and so on, and so all those people volunteered.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. So that's, that's something that I think a lot of people don't know about that, that when...

Edith Maeda: The camp? Encampment?

Anna Takada: Not, not only the camps, but the fact that the first move of the government was to offer people to volunteer to evacuate, so to leave their homes and to go into camps.

Edith Maeda: Not to volunteer, you were ordered to. You were ordered out of California.

Anna Takada: Right, but the, the first, the first order that went out...

Edith Maeda: Oh, yeah.

Anna Takada: Because you said you were the first family.

Edith Maeda: People, when they were developing these camps out in the desert, they asked for volunteers. So busloads of young people, educated, educators and people like that volunteered and came from California, but my father volunteered and my s-- I had an older, oldest sister who was in college, volunteered to be a teacher and so on. So volunteers went in and my brother and I were kids, and we 00:17:00were the only kids around, so when they were training the educated Japanese to be teachers and so on, they bused us to a Indian school and we were the subjects, my brother and I became the subjects, because there were no other kids. We were the only kids in the whole volunteer area. The other groups, the families had not come in. They came in much later. Uh-huh.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. So can you tell me about, well, first of all, do you, do you remember what you were thinking or feeling at the time that your family kind of left your home in El Centro?

Edith Maeda: Well, it, it was, yeah the feeling was, when you're smaller, 00:18:00leaving your neighbors and your friends, and particularly your, the neighbors who you grew up with. So that was probably had more impact on me and my brother. My older sisters, some had finished college, Marvel, Betsy, yeah, so it was... In fact, when we got to camp, because my family volunteered, and we were the only kids, on a couple of blocks that were all volunteers, they were mostly people who could be teachers or set up the kiosk or whatever it was like I said. So just me and my brother were the only kids in, until they finally... And we went to an Indian school until they opened schools in the camp.

Anna Takada: And do you know what, at what time it was that your family left? I know, so the, what time it would have been that your family went to camp, was it still 19--

Edith Maeda: Well we were the first family in camp, it was the desert and so on.

Anna Takada: Do you remember what time of year it was, or...

Edith Maeda: But what, what time of the... Well, it was in the desert, so all I remember was dust, dust.

Anna Takada: For sure.

Edith Maeda: And the barracks were a family in each unit, so there were four bar-- compartments, and so our family at that time, I had two sisters who were really, my two older sisters were married, so I had two sisters older than I, 00:20:00myself and my little brother. My older brother had been in college before the war, he was killed just before we went into camp. He was in college and he was killed in an accident, automobile accident.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. Your, your cousins, were they in the same camp as you?

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm. And my father sort of took care of them, because their father, who, through his eldest daughter, owned a lot of land and so on, and he introduced asparagus to the valley. He was, he was not a farmer who farmed, he, he sort of introduced asparagus to the valley, and he had four girls.

Anna Takada: And so they, they came to join you and your family.

Edith Maeda: They, we... They were, we were always together, we were in the same block. And he had been taken by the government because of his position.

Anna Takada: Was his wife or, or the girls' mother, were they, was she also with you all in camp?

Edith Maeda: Yes, my father took care of her and the four girls, and then our family.

Anna Takada: And so if you remember, did they leave early with you all? Like, what, what were you also alone?

Edith Maeda: Oh, yeah. So they, you had to have positions or someone, something if you were of that age, so they are... I think, I remember the eldest, oldest sister, there were four girls, became an instructor in a college in Chicago. So 00:22:00you had to, the older ones like my father and so on, had to have jobs, you couldn't leave without one early, I mean you couldn't leave early, and you couldn't go back to California, you had to come east.

Anna Takada: Do you know how long you were in camp with your family? About how long?

Edith Maeda: As long as, you couldn't leave until you had a job, and I think it was within the year, first year. We, my brother and I were kids and they didn't have any schools or anything yet, because we were in a volunteer block, and they were all women and men who had volunteered to go in early, who became school 00:23:00teachers and kiosk openers and so on. So my brother and I were always, we were bused to a Indian school.

Anna Takada: Do you remember maybe your first impressions of going into that camp as a 15 year old?

Edith Maeda: It was dusty, it was a desert, and the barracks were a family in each section, the sec-- the barrack was divided into four. So my father and mother and my brother, little brother and I, and then I had two sisters just a little bit older than I, we were all in one unit, which was about this size, 00:24:00because a barrack was divided into four. So a family in each.

Anna Takada: Do you remember having conversations with your family about the situation or about what was happening?

Edith Maeda: Well, we were all there exposed to the same. I mean we had to, it was a desert, it was dust, we, we were always ordering things from the catalog, because the dust would come up, so we ordered linoleum and stuff, so everybody was sort of busy trying to make it as homey, homey as possible. You had to walk to a dining hall for breakfast, lunch and supper, so, and some of us liked to sleep later, so you know we, we just all cooperated. Because a family of my 00:25:00mother, father, my little brother, myself, and two sisters close to me, older, were all in one room that was maybe just a size bigger than this room. And so, and when you came, you had wooden bunks against every wall in the cabins that were built, they were just constructed, and the floorboards, they were in the desert so the floorboards, you still got a lot of dust. So my mother was ordering linoleum for the floorboards. And oh, they did put tar paper on the 00:26:00outside, so the dust didn't come in that way. But it was in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Anna Takada: And so you and your younger brother, you were going, you were being bused out to go to a school outside...

Edith Maeda: Well, because my family volunteered, there were no kids in the camp, in the volunteer section, they hadn't come, they hadn't been bused in yet from Los Angeles.

Anna Takada: So you were, there weren't even schools ready.

Edith Maeda: So we were bused, we went to a, we were sort of driven to a Indian school.

Anna Takada: And can you tell me about what that was like? You were must have, you were probably the only Japanese.

Edith Maeda: Oh, yeah. We were, but we were, it was just like any other school.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. How, how big was that school, if you remember?

Edith Maeda: It was a... ordinary sized school. Uh-huh.

Anna Takada: And so was it on a, a reservation?

Edith Maeda: No, they had to... We were in a camp, which was dust, a dust bowl, and they were one family in a unit, one unit, I mean, cabin or whatever you call it, had four rooms and one family in each room.

Anna Takada: Mhmm, And I, I was just curious to learn more about the school that you were going to.

Edith Maeda: The Indian school?

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. So--

Edith Maeda: Well, we didn't actually go with, to a Indian group, they used the 00:28:00Indian school for volunteers, we were in a volunteer block, so all of the volunteer teachers, Japanese-Americans and different people who could help settle the encampment. So my little brother and I were bused with these volunteers, who were trained teachers already, and we went to an Indian school. It was, we didn't have class with the Indian kids.

Anna Takada: I see, you were just using the building.

Edith Maeda: I don't know if the time was different or not, well we certainly went at summertime, but we never went with other kids.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. The, so I know there were two camps in Arizona, do you 00:29:00remember which camp?

Edith Maeda: There were three. I mean there were three, Poston One, Poston Two and Poston Three. There were three in this desert in Arizona, but there were many other camps in other areas I'm sure.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. So this was, do you remember which camp in Poston?

Edith Maeda: Oh, we were in camp one, because my father volunteered and I had two sisters who volunteered.

Anna Takada: And, how about your parents, do you know what they were doing in camp, if they were doing anything, work, or...

Edith Maeda: Well, I think my father volunteered, but I don't know what he did, but my sisters, my eldest sister was a, had her master's I think, so she was, helped set up the school system, and my--

Myles Glasgow: Marvel you mean?

Edith Maeda: Yeah, and Betsy, who was married, she and her husband helped set up the kiosks, because he was a businessman. And I had one sister who had been in nursing school, so they had to set up the place for illness. That was Grace. Alice, I think Alice worked with like the director of the, the three camps. And my brother and I were guinea pigs and we were sent off with the, the Japanese Americans who were teachers or educated to be a, to be a teacher, and we were 00:31:00bused off to a Indian school and we were the only kids, so we were taught by... We were just volunteering, because they needed, they were not trained teachers. uh-huh.

Anna Takada: Do you remember what that was like being the only kids in...

Edith Maeda: Well, I know we were the only kids, my brother and I were-- it was just, it was just full of mostly women volunteers. I don't know where the men volunteers were. There were some married couples, but there were mostly women. That was interesting, 'cause they came in busloads from Los Angeles.

Anna Takada: Did you have any, any reactions to that, to being the only kid? Was that, was that kind of strange to be, you know just you and your brother...

Edith Maeda: I guess it was more strange to be away from your home and your friends and so on. So you didn't, you know, we just knew we were there, we had no way to get out. Unless you, well, they didn't want people out yet, but by the end of the year, they were letting people out. So we left just before the, we didn't stay a year, but you could get out if you could confirm that you had a job. And that's how we got to Chicago.

Anna Takada: So can you tell me more about, about that process of-- You mentioned that your, your father had to find another job in Chicago, so, so what happened sort of after camp and as your family was leaving camp?

Edith Maeda: Well, you had to have a job, but I don't know if they let you out. 00:33:00I think we had to stay a year. It seems to me, although... We were bused, my brother and I were bused to a Indian school for a while, so I don't, I don't remember, I don't know if it was a complete year. And then, but you couldn't leave unless you had a job, and actually we were the only kids because most of the volunteers were people who you know, could help settle the camp.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And so--

Edith Maeda: So we were the only kids.

Anna Takada: How did you get to Chicago?

Edith Maeda: Well, we had a friend who drove us into camp and our car, we had a, a big Buick, and then I think he came, gave us, brought the car and we were able to drive out you know when you're leaving. I think that's after a year.

Anna Takada: And so--

Edith Maeda: And we drove to Chicago.

Anna Takada: When your family first came to Chicago, do you remember who all came? Was it everybody? You, your brother, your...

Edith Maeda: My two older sisters were married and they came, and our family came. And, I'm-- we had a, a friend who kept our car and, so I don't know how he 00:35:00got back home.

Myles Glasgow: That was the sheriff.

Edith Maeda: Yeah. I don't know how he-- Well, he might have had somebody else come with him with another car, because they had our car.

Anna Takada: And this was a friend, non-Japanese, so he was not in camp?

Edith Maeda: Oh, no. They were not Japanese, they would have had to be in camp.

Anna Takada: And so when you first came to Chicago, where did you stay?

Edith Maeda: You had to have a place to stay, I don't know who found it, but I know it was, it was an apartment with three bedrooms in the West side. And, 00:36:00somebody must have found it for us.

Anna Takada: It was on the West side you said?

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm. Maybe, maybe... Maybe I had a cousin, I had four cousins who may have come early. I think they came out to college, but I think they found us an apartment it was, on the West side.

Anna Takada: And um...

Myles Glasgow: These were the Sonodas.

Edith Maeda: Huh?

Myles Glasgow: These were the Sonodas.

Edith Maeda: The Sonodas are the ones that--

Myles Glasgow: Mary.

Edith Maeda: Mary, Margaret [Marguerite], Pearl and Louise, uh-huh, four girls.

Myles Glasgow: Mary ended up being the assistant to the president of Roosevelt College.

Edith Maeda: Roosevelt College, yeah. Was it because Roosevelt College was just opening?

Myles Glasgow: I don't know.

Anna Takada: You said it was Mary, Margaret ...

Edith Maeda: Pearl and Louise that were our cousins, their father was a rancher, or a farmer I guess you'd call him, because he introduced asparagus. And he always wanted a son, he had four girls, so he had to send them off to college, but they--

Anna Takada: And their last name, it's--

Edith Maeda: Sonoda.

Myles Glasgow: S-O-N-O-D-A

Edith Maeda: S-O-N-O, Sonoda, D-A.

Anna Takada: D-A, okay.

Edith Maeda: S-O-N-O-D-A.

Anna Takada: And, while we're doing names, can you tell me the names of your parents and your siblings?

Edith Maeda: My parents were Junichi and ... What was my mother's name? We never called her I... I forgot what her first name was. Junichi and-- anyway. Mr. and 00:38:00Mrs. Junichi Maeda.

Anna Takada: And how about your siblings?

Edith Maeda: I had Mar-Marvel was my eldest sister who had finished college I think by then, 'cause she went to the University of California. I think she had finished college, she was the oldest, they named her Marvel, M-A-R-V-E-L, because she was first. And Betsy and Alice and Grace, four sisters, and then myself, Edith. And I held-- I had an older brother who I did not know, his name was Jack and he was killed when he was in college. But my brother and I were too 00:39:00young to really know him, because he was always away.

Anna Takada: What was your younger brother's name?

Edith Maeda: Robert.

Myles Glasgow: So he must have been about six years old when he was in the camp.

Edith Maeda: Yeah.

Myles Glasgow: And his daughter is Kimi, and she put this play together about the impression that the sculptor Isamu Noguchi had on Robert, and she's performed that play and it's on the web. She was trained in Williams College. She's now living in Japan, her mother was born in Japan.

Edith Maeda: Is she? She's still there?

Anna Takada: And so when you came to Chicago, and you settled on the West side, 00:40:00you must have still been of high school age?

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm, mhmm.

Anna Takada: Did you enroll in a high school in Chicago?

Edith Maeda: Oh, yeah. You had to enroll.

Anna Takada: Do you remember which high school that was?

Edith Maeda: It was called McKinley.

Anna Takada: Do you remember your... some of your first impressions of Chicago when you came, because that was probably the first time that you had come?

Edith Maeda: Well, I didn't concentrate so much on that, but I mean it's a big city when you come from a little town of El Centro, which is about 20,000 people, but you go to school or your neighbors are you know close so... But 00:41:00Chicago was just a big city, and...

Anna Takada: And, what was, what was McKinley like as a school?

Edith Maeda: That was the high school, let's see did I go to junior high school? I, I actually lived near and I became friendly with a, a girl that lived not too far from us, and she happened to be the superintendent's daughter, the superintendent of the schools. So she and I were very, I mean it was very helpful because she had a lot of people, contacts, she knew some of the teachers and so on. So, so it was easy for me, because of her.

Anna Takada: So this was in Chicago.

Edith Maeda: Yeah, mhmm.

Myles Glasgow: No, that was in El Centro.

Edith Maeda: Oh, no. This is when we came to Chicago. I was--

Myles Glasgow: When you came to Chicago was one of your friends the daughter of the superintendent?

Edith Maeda: Yeah, Esther Weekly.

Myles Glasgow: Weekly is from El Centro.

Edith Maeda: Oh, I have her in Chicago. Why do I have her in Chicago? You're probably right. Was I in high school?

Myles Glasgow: I don't know. Was Walt Disney connected to any of the schools?

Edith Maeda: No, but I went to elementary school with her. We just sort of grew up together, so I, she was in El Centro. Yeah.

Anna Takada: And then so Chicago then, were there, on the West side, do you remember other Japanese families? Maybe people who had also come from camp?

Edith Maeda: There weren't any... We had, my parents volunteered and then volunteered to leave too, early, so I don't remember.

Anna Takada: So you were, you were probably one of the few, if not the only Japanese student at McKinley.

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm, mhmm.

Anna Takada: What were some of the, the demographics of that area at that time?

Edith Maeda: Where, in Chicago?

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm--

Edith Maeda: Oh.

Anna Takada: On the West side where you were and at McKinley.

Edith Maeda: It was, they were mostly Caucasian, and there were very few Blacks there, because Chicago is sort of isolated. I think it's, you know most of the African-Americans live on the South side I think, and we lived on the West side.

Anna Takada: And do you, do you remember being aware of maybe your, your 00:44:00Japanese-American identity, as a--

Edith Maeda: Oh, always, always. Yeah.

Myles Glasgow: Mhmm.

Anna Takada: Can you tell me more about that?

Edith Maeda: Well, where we grew up, it was very integrated. I mean, there were no Japanese living in the little town, they were mostly farmers and lived in the country. So we were used to being always in school and around neighbors who were non-Japanese. So my brother and I hardly knew any Japane--, we didn't know any Japanese. Except, my parents did attend a Japanese church. But still, there weren't many kids and we didn't have a Sunday school that I know of.

Anna Takada: And how about in Chicago, did you do anything outside of school, 00:45:00any other activities, or...

Edith Maeda: Well, I had developed friendships and we did, did something. I was, somehow or another I got acquainted with the superintendent's daughter, not knowing she was that or anything, but she was sort of a quiet... and I don't know why people didn't mingle with her, but we sort of got close. In fact, we got very close, we sort of grew up together. Mhmm.

Anna Takada: And in Chicago, did your family, did you find any church or did you go to church in Chicago that you recall?

Edith Maeda: My parents, when there, there became a Japanese community, they, 00:46:00they started a, a Japanese church. I think they rented or something. But my brother and I did not get involved, 'cause they didn't really have anything like a Sunday school for... yet. I think it was more of a church.

Anna Takada: Do you remember what that church was called or maybe the people that were involved?

Edith Maeda: Well I, I think, I think they rented you know, the use of it, I don't know what the name of it was.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. Was that on the West side or somewhere else?

Edith Maeda: I gu-- Yeah, it would have be on the West side.

Anna Takada: Did your family move anywhere after first staying on the West side?

Edith Maeda: I don't know. I think that we bought the house, but it was a 00:47:00two-story house, so... I think we stayed there, and then my brother and I went to college out, out of the city, so...

Anna Takada: Where did you go to college?

Edith Maeda: University of Illinois. Where did Robert go? Bra-Brandeis?

Myles Glasgow: He went to Michigan, and then he went to Harvard.

Edith Maeda: Oh, who went to Brandeis?

Myles Glasgow: Robert taught at Brandeis.

Edith Maeda: Oh, he taught at Brandeis, oh.

Anna Takada: And was that something that was kind of expected for your family, 'cause I know your, your older siblings went to college?

Edith Maeda: Yeah, yeah. All my older, we all went to, to college, mhmm.

Anna Takada: Would you happen to remember what year you graduated from high school?

Edith Maeda: What year I graduated? Let's see, from McKinley High School, gee, I don't know. I can't really... I just, I didn't even keep a diary.

Myles Glasgow: Well you might have a yearbook.

Edith Maeda: Huh?

Myles Glasgow: You might have a yearbook.

Edith Maeda: Could. Oh, yeah. I think there is one, but...

Anna Takada: So when you were, before we started recording you had mentioned a, a house on Magnolia, was that before you left for college that you, you moved to Magnolia Street?

Edith Maeda: Yeah. Yeah, we lived on Magnolia, uh-huh.

Anna Takada: And, but that, that wouldn't be the west side, I don't think.

Edith Maeda: Magnolia? Is, is it near North S--

Myles Glasgow: Oh, she's talking about the school down near the, you know university. She, she's talking about--

Edith Maeda: University of Illinois?

Myles Glasgow: --the house that you and I went down to visit on Clifton.

Edith Maeda: Yeah, we lived on Clifton Street. Well wasn't that the West side?

Myles Glasgow: Clifton might be the West side. Yeah.

Edith Maeda: Yeah.

Myles Glasgow: I'm not from Chicago.

Anna Takada: When you were still in high school, well earlier you mentioned that when you were first here, there wasn't much of a Japanese-American community, but it sounds like over time people were coming?

Edith Maeda: I guess so, uh-huh

Anna Takada: Do you remember that or do you remember experiencing that shift?

Edith Maeda: Well, we never, in our hometown of El Centro, we were, there were 00:50:00never Japanese who lived in the city. And we, we lived in the city. Mostly they were living in the country, because they were farmers. So when we came here, there were less, I mean we had less contact. So my brother and I were basically, I don't think he had much contact with Japanese children either.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And, what about, do you remember any other maybe Japanese-owned businesses or grocery stores, or...

Edith Maeda: In El Centro or in Chicago?

Anna Takada: In Chicago.

Edith Maeda: Hmm...

Anna Takada: Or any other families?

Edith Maeda: I'm trying to think of... Well we had cousins and my father sort of looked after them, there were four girls, they were all college educated, but their mother, her husband had died early. So he sort of, you know, he always kept in touch with them, they always called him.

Anna Takada: You said that there was a two-story building on the West side that your family shared?

Edith Maeda: Well, when we first came, you just had to get something quickly, and so we lived on the West side and there was an empty storefront, but upstairs there was a three-bedroom apartment. And it was empty, so that's how we got here, 'cause you had to have a place to stay. And then after that, my father 00:52:00found a house out... Where was it?

Myles Glasgow: I think it was on Clifton.

Edith Maeda: Clifton Avenue, is, that was in the suburbs, right?

Myles Glasgow: No, Clifton is down near one of the main streets.

Edith Maeda: Clifton, it was in the city? I'm trying to think of what school.

Myles Glasgow: Yeah, and the first house that you're talking about is...

Edith Maeda: There was an apartment we lived in.

Myles Glasgow: Yeah, yeah.

Edith Maeda: On Clifton, what was it? 2241 North Clifton.

Myles Glasgow: Clifton was a really nice house.

Edith Maeda: 2241, I remember the address.

Myles Glasgow: Right, walk, you know, stairs coming up from the sidewalk.

Anna Takada: And what did your father find as work in Chicago?

Edith Maeda: He worked at the Goldblatt. You had to have a job I think before you came out, so at the Goldblatt department store, they had a, a shoe repair 00:53:00section I guess. But you had to have a job in order to come out, so that's how we came out early.

Anna Takada: And, your mother, did she find work?

Edith Maeda: No, she, she was always... because, she had a lot of kids! (laughs)

Anna Takada: Then so you mentioned you went to University of Illinois, after graduating from college, where did you go or what did you do?

Edith Maeda: Well, I majored in occupational therapy, so I always had a job, and I always liked to work with kids. So I worked at the research hospital, what was it called? What is the research hospital? But anyway, I worked with the...

Myles Glasgow: NIH?

Edith Maeda: NIH. I worked for NIMH, National Institute of Mental Health.

Myles Glasgow: That was in Bethesda.

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm. And they had a wonderful pediatric, pediatrician, and he was wonderful. So he was opening up a ward for disturbed kids, they were all boys, and he was doing research, so he, I'm an occupational therapist, so he, he wanted that definitely in a school teacher. Mhmm.

Anna Takada: And, was that, that position, was that in Chicago? Or, where--

Edith Maeda: It's in Chicago, yeah. Research, at the Illinois Institute. Was it 00:55:00the Illinois Institute of Psychology?

Myles Glasgow: The name of the psychologist was Doctor...

Edith Maeda: Oh, yeah... Gee.

Anna Takada: And so, so you moved back to Chicago after college to work?

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm.

Myles Glasgow: No, you stayed in, you stayed in Bethesda, and your, your teacher from the University of Illinois connected you to your... Joan Doniger. She too was a graduate of occupational therapy from--

Edith Maeda: The university.

Myles Glasgow: The University of Illinois. So there, they had this occupational therapy professor in common, and Joan Doniger and Edie hooked up in Bethesda, 00:56:00Maryland, and Joan said to Edie at some point, "I want to start a halfway house for the mentally ill." And, Redl was the name of the psychologist you were working under in--

Edith Maeda: Fritz, Fritz Redl.

Myles Glasgow: Fritz Redl, who was an outstanding psychologist. So anyway, Edie and Joan Doniger hooked up and used their occupational therapy training to start a halfway house for the mentally ill, applying occupational therapy principles to how they would run the halfway house. And so Edie worked there for 40 years after she came back from Norway or someplace where--

Edith Maeda: Norway.

Myles Glasgow: Where she was working with...

Edith Maeda: Disturbed kids, yeah.

Myles Glasgow: Disturbed kids, and she said to Joan, "I'm going away to work there." And Joan said, "Well, when you come back, well I'll have started the halfway house." And Joan's father was well-endowed from inventing the X-Acto knife, and so the family money helped start the halfway house, which was then used. It followed, the, I think the Menninger's Clinic also started a halfway house late-- years later on, but they used the halfway house called Woodley House, because it's at Woodley Road in Washington DC, so that's where Edie, Edie worked for 40 years. And Joan died with a car accident in New York when she was hailing a cab, but she adopted a girl and helped bring Edie's life into that 00:58:00adoption by letting Edie be the godmother of that daughter, who is now in California, et cetera, et cetera. So Joan Doniger obviously played a very big part in Edie's life post... Probably when you started that it was somewhere around 1950.

Edith Maeda: Probably.

Anna Takada: So...

Myles Glasgow: So she left in 2000.

Edith Maeda: Yeah her, her father was so nice too. How was she killed, in an accident?

Myles Glasgow: Yeah, she was hailing a cab outside of her sister's home and the cab stopped and then another cab came too fast and wiped out Joan, who was by then standing in the street trying to get into the car that had stopped. So... 00:59:00so we got through that.

Edith Maeda: So I carried on, but that was so sad.

Anna Takada: And so where, I'm sorry exactly were you living at that time?

Myles Glasgow: We were living in Washington DC.

Anna Takada: In DC.

Myles Glasgow: On Lanier Place.

Anna Takada: So you spent a bit of time there, it sounds like.

Myles Glasgow: Oh, yeah.

Edith Maeda: Mhmm.

Anna Takada: In DC. And so when, when did you come back to Chicago or to the Chicagoland area?

Myles Glasgow: In 2000.

Edith Maeda: When was it?

Myles Glasgow: 2000.

Edith Maeda: 2000?

Myles Glasgow: Edie was retiring after 40 years at Woodley House, and Joan had died, and our s-- we had adopted a boy in '89 from Guatemala, and Joan had adopted Kiyo and Teresa before that, so Edie had formed the...

Edith Maeda: Adoptees club.

Myles Glasgow: The adoptees club of these four or five adopted girls, so that was, adoption was part of our mode of living. And she, she was like a den mother, and she had a chance to adapt a, a boy herself, and that was a total surprise. But anyway, we moved here and when Jose was moving from middle school to high school, or from grade school to middle school, we figured that was a good time. She wanted to be closer to her sisters here, so she had two sisters living in Chicago on Magnolia Street a block apart, and, with their, with their 01:01:00children. So she wanted to be close to the family, and part of it was to put Jose close to that family too, those families.

Anna Takada: So Jose was your first adopted son?

Myles Glasgow: Only adopted son, yes. So he's 30 now, and...

Anna Takada: And so which two sisters were on Magnolia Street?

Myles Glasgow: Alice and...

Edith Maeda: Grace, was it?

Myles Glasgow: Grace. Grace Tatsui and Alice Hashimoto. So Grace's husband is still living in Skokie, and Alice died about five years after we were here and her husband George had a some kind of a stroke at our house.

Anna Takada: What did, what did your sisters end up doing for work, or--

Edith Maeda: One was a nurse.

Myles Glasgow: That was Grace Tatsui.

Edith Maeda: Uh-huh. Alice was a...

Myles Glasgow: She was a volunteer, I thought. George was a jeweler, jeweler.

Edith Maeda: Uh-huh. But she went to business, she went to business school, so she had always worked in business. But Grace was the nurse.

Myles Glasgow: I think Alice probably volunteered a lot down here, that's my impression. But it's her son who is the jazz player, Steve Hashimoto, so it was Alice Hashimoto.

Edith Maeda: Excuse me.

Myles Glasgow: So Steve's a very sophisticated Chicago guy, he grew up on the 01:03:00streets and he grew up in the music and he grew up playing jazz. And I think he's had a regular gig at the Green Mill for many years.

Anna Takada: And so when, when you first came back to Chicago in 2000, were you living close to your sisters or were you out in Skokie?

Myles Glasgow: Skokie.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. So when you came back you've been in Skokie since?

Myles Glasgow: Yeah, we did surveys, my brother was already here, and we did surveys of school systems and we were severely discouraged from putting our son into a Chicago school. He was born in Guatemala with a learning disability called an auditory processing disability, and the people we spoke to were very 01:04:00closely connected to the Chicago school system and, and said, this is, "This would kill him." Not kill him, but anyway, today he left for graduate school in Southern Illinois University in marketing but you know. The idea was to follow the advice of somebody who was in the school system, my brother knew him, so...

Anna Takada: And, you said that, Edie, you had retired before coming back to Chicago? Is that right?

Myles Glasgow: Yeah. That, that was the only way that she would have left Washington. She had a very good staff and you know it was... Retiring is one thing, but living two and a half blocks from where you had worked and committed your life, your professional life, would have been like looking over the 01:05:00shoulder of somebody who was essentially doing your job. And so the thought was it's better to separate yourself and gain the support that your family has. So Betsy Hashimoto is Alice's daughter, and you know, Betsy is a mainstay in our lives, and, and it's great to have that connection.

Anna Takada: So, so your niece.

Myles Glasgow: Yeah, so you hand over your Woodley House connection and you pick up your Betsy connection, and Steve and, and Glenn, Glenn Tatsui, who lives in...

Edith Maeda: The nephew.

Myles Glasgow: They live in Skokie, so there was reasons to go ahead and move 01:06:00into Skokie.

Anna Takada: One thing I wanted to ask you was, do you remember what motivated or inspired you to work in occupational therapy and then you know, start that career that you had?

Edith Maeda: Oh, going into it? Well, it, I went to the University of Illinois and they were, they had the course, the graduate course, and I just got acquainted with a lot of people who were in that field. So I got interested, mhmm. And I was working with mental health, and I worked with the mentally ill in the halfway house, so, so it was just fine. 'Cause, yeah, it was a great 01:07:00place to work.

Myles Glasgow: Well when you worked with Fritz Redl too--

Edith Maeda: Mhmm oh yeah.

Myles Glasgow: --you had already been trained in occupational therapy, but he showed you how a, an occupational therapist could fit within a team structure.

Edith Maeda: Oh yeah, yeah I worked with disturbed kids with Fritz Redl, who was very well-known and, oh he was unbelievable. (Laughs) Everybody, when he talked, everybody stopped and listened, yeah. Including the kids, disturbed kids.

Myles Glasgow: These were fire-setters. He had specifically asked principals of schools in Maryland near NIMH to take advantage of the support and program that he was directing at, in Bethesda, Maryland. So the principals knew who to 01:08:00encourage to go to this program, so Edie says that she was one of the few who were not tackled by these kids.

Edith Maeda: Yeah, he was doing research at the, was... at the National Institute of Health, Mental Health.

Myles Glasgow: --Mental Health.

Anna Takada: And so we have time for a few more questions. One thing I, I want to ask is just about, kind of overall and in general, what are, what's... When you think about your experiences of living and in part growing up a little bit in Chicago, you know how does-- I guess, how has Chicago played a part in your life, if at all?

Edith Maeda: Well, played a big part, because the Japanese were put into camps and this was in the middle of the Arizona desert, is where we ended up, and so my father volunteered, so we were the, my brother and I were the only kids in the whole camp and it was a dust bowl. And so as soon as he, we could leave, we-- Which you, you had to have a position, my father got out here and worked at one of the department stores, Goldblatt's, I think it was Goldblatt's. And so we got out of camp fairly early, I don't know if we even stayed a year, but we were guinea pigs in camp because we were the only kids, because the people who had come in were volunteers and they were all adults. School teachers and so on, people who were being sort of trained to, you know to welcome the crowd. And 01:10:00they were, really, it was in a desert, all dust bowl.

Anna Takada: Well and, and back to Chicago, how do you feel about living in, in Chicago?

Edith Maeda: Oh, we enjoyed it, it was good to be in Chicago and go to school here and I went to college here at U of I downstate. So my brother really liked it, as far as the schools go and mhmm.

Anna Takada: One thing, one question I like to ask people, as we're wrapping up these oral histories, is if you could leave any kind of legacy or message with your children or your son, what's, what's something you would want to leave with 01:11:00them? A message or legacy?

Edith Maeda: A legacy?

Anna Takada: Mhmm.

Edith Maeda: Well, I think for any child or any family, is you know certainly registering you know the fact that growing up in a family is a way hopefully that we did that would sort of sustain him I think. We have one child, uh-huh, yup. And he was adopted, so it would be important to, to have, leave that with him.

Anna Takada: Mhmm, kind of the importance of family.

Edith Maeda: Mm-hmm.

Anna Takada: Are there any last things that you would like to, to share with me 01:12:00or that I might have missed in this conversation? Any other things you'd like to add?

Edith Maeda: I can't think of anything, except, what is this for? (laughs) How did we get in contact with this? How did this happen?

Anna Takada: Well, your, your husband, Myles, reached out, since we're, we're working on this oral history project.

Edith Maeda: Oh, how did you find out about it?

Myles Glasgow: I must have read something.

Edith Maeda: Oh, and what is this connected with?

Anna Takada: The Japanese American Service Committee.

Edith Maeda: Oh, the Service Committee.

Anna Takada: And, and the Chicago Japanese American Historical Society.

Edith Maeda: Oh, oh so you work with them?

Anna Takada: Mhmm, yes.

Edith Maeda: Oh.

Anna Takada: So thank you so much again for coming in and for taking the time to, to speak with me.

Edith Maeda: Mhmm.