11 10 140 https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/4bfc146f47906e6fb10075432337c049.pdf de00d96ce5579fb42b7d4fd8627e579e PDF Text Text �������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Annual Reports Description An account of the resource Record Group 9, JASC Publications Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chicago Resettlers Committee Japanese American Service Committee Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1946-2011 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RG09 Subject The topic of the resource Annual Reports of the Chicago Resettlers Committee and Japanese American Service Committee Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Text Any textual data included in the document Annual Report 2007-2008 For almost 11 years former Executive Director Jean Fu jiu was the face of the JASC. She represented the organization at private and public functions and gatherings in the Japanese and Asian American communities, as well as to the city at-large. Jean also was a visible participant in agency and community activities, attending not only as JASC's leader, but as an individual truly interested in Japanese American culture and history, who wanted to learn, listen, see, do and preserve the legacy left to us by our forebears. But more importantly, Jean's was the hand at the helm as the agency grew its cultural programming and embarked on strategic partnering initiatives with other organizations. In doing so the JASC's reach expanded, and for the first time people outside the Japanese American community were coming to its exhibitions, performances and programs. She helped poise the agency for a sea-change. The JASC board of directors, staff, members and others within Chicago's Japanese American community are indebted to Jean for her untiring work on our behalf. This is the type of debt that can never be repaid, but we can say, Domo arigato gozaimasu, and wish her the best of fortune in all her future endeavors. Four years ago the board of directors and staff members of the Japanese American Service Committee met to discuss the future of the organization. Of paramount importance was addressing this question: How could the JASC remain a vital and vibrant organization in the wake of the imminent passing of the founding generation of Nisei? Led in great part by the vision of former Executive Director Jean Fujiu, it was determined that to remain relevant in today's society, the JASC would need to be systemically transformed from an ethnic-based organization to an extroverted, inclusive one. It must remain an agency where Japanese American culture and heritage is preserved and cherished, nurtured and grown, and social services are imbued with Japanese American values, but all activities would be open and directed to the greater multicultural community in the Midwest. This shift in paradigm requires that we overcome the weight of 60 years of organizational history and over 100 years as immigrant Americans with very real reasons to remain unobtrusive, blending in with our fellow Americans. It would require that the JASC not only literally open its doors to all interested parties, but loudly proclaim, "We are different; we are here." As an organization in the midst of such decisive change, we are working to fulfill our three primary strategic goals. We are learning to become the JASC we need to be. And we are Gaining Momentum. Create a destination center whose design showcases Japanese culture and tradition. The space will be flexible in use and be designed to accommodate a variety of programs and services. A variety of highly professional programs) services and events will be offered at the center, with specialized programming being developed for families) children) teens) young adults and seniors. Concurrent use of the facility by different groups would be fostered) so that all members of the community can feel comfortable utilizing the facility at any time) and the environment helps build) not fractional1ze that feeling of community Adult Day Services (above and right) is the "home away from home" for some 20-30 seniors each weekday. This model program does not use televisions to entertain seniors. Staff members and volunteers engage them in discussions on current events, and lead seniors in peer-to-peer group games, exercise and other activities that help stabilize their mental, physical, emotional and social well-being. Staff nurses work closely with family members to ensure that the needs of our seniors are being met, at home and at the JASC. Our current facility has been described as "having an ambience somewhere between a l 970's light-industrial warehouse and your grandmother's sewing room." But what the JASC Community Center currently lacks in decor, it more than makes up for with energy, sustenance, acceptance, and programs of substance. No matter what time of day or day of the week, the JASC is bustling with purposeful activity. It holds a special place in the hearts of thousands of people of all ages and ethnicities who visit it on a regular basis -whether that basis is daily, weekly, or annually. Tampopo Kai (right) is a unique bilingual, bicultural Japanese/English program for preschoolers. Many of the 30-40 children and their parents are Japanese nationals. Other children are Japanese American, of multiple ethnicities (Hapa), or not of Japanese ancestry at all. Whatever the case, they all share, learn, dance, sing and play in an accepting and caring atmosphere. Poignantly showcasing the value of the JASC as a mixed-use facility, the Tampopo kids perform for the Adult Day Services seniors on Japanese and American holidays. TREASURES from the Legacy Center The JASC Legacy Center is an archive and library that collects, preserves and makes historical resources from the Japanese American community in metro Chicago available to others for research and reference purposes. This past year, staff members provided reference services to over 100 individual researchers and groups, taught off-site archival workshops, and contributed to the national on-line Discover Nikkei project. The preservation and use -for research and educational purposes (left) -of historical documents, images and objects from the Chicago Japanese American community is a matter of prime importance to the JASC. Social Work services can take many forms. JASC's licensed clinical social workers provide individual and group counseling, and provide outreach services to isolated seniors. They also plan care with seniors and their families, and, unique to JASC, follow-through to evaluate care and intercede as necessary. The activity­based Out of the House program (left) emphasizes keeping seniors physically and psychologically healthy. 3 The JASC is the de facto Community Center for Japanese Americans in the Chicagoland area. Each December hundreds gather to do a little specialty shopping, eat great food, have fun, and just get together at Holiday Delight/ Kodomo Matsuri (above and top right). Hundreds come to the JASC for more than just fun and food. Our biannual Health Screenings (right) and free flu vaccines (in conjunction with the Chicago Department of Aging and the Chicago Department of Public Health), help community members stay well. The JASC also serves daily hot lunch to seniors as a member of Chicago's Golden Diners program, and hosts special presentations on insurance for seniors and an AARP driver safety course, offered in both Japanese and English. With Tohkon Judo Academy, JASC is the site of the annual New Year celebration Kagami Biraki. It is a day-long celebration starting with the traditional steaming, pounding (right) and rolling of sweet rice into the dessert mochi. A Shinto purification ceremony, Japanese drumming, judo demonstration and potluck feast complete the event. With its commitment to cultivating Japanese culture in America and making it our own, the JASC offers classes (left, top to bottom) in Sumi-e (ink painting), Shamisen (Japanese 3-stringed lute), Origami (paper folding), Japanese cooking, and also Taiko (Japanese drumming), Shinobue (Japanese flute), Ikebana (flower arranging), Tai Chi and Japanese Language . The JASC also serves as home to a number of cultural partners and community organizations, including the JASC Tsukasa Taiko, Fujima of Chicago ( classical Japanese dance, Ryu bottom right), Tohkon Judo Academy (below), Northside Friends, Stir Friday Night! (Asian American improvisational comedy troupe), Nisei Post no. 1183, Thursday Dance group, New Horizons, and Cooperative Investors. The Japanese Mutual Aid Society, Leadership Center for Asian Pacific Americans Community Leadership Program, Kyushu Kai, Asian American lnsitutue, and Asian Giving Circle also used the JASC for gatherings this year. Reach out to the dispersed Japanese American population and beyond, offering broader services, partnering and coordinating with other organizations to share resources and consolidate efforts. This includes the development of the infrastructure and capacity needed for the support of outreach programming. The expanded staffing, communication, transportation and facility needs required to deliver and support satellite programming and services would also be developed, so that they provide an alternative delivery site for some of the programs and services located at the destination center. For reasons that probably lie somewhere between politically-motivated racism and democracy in action, there has never been a "Japan Town" or "Little Tokyo" in Chicago. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, some Japanese Americans continued their migration into middle class acceptance by joining the "White Flight" to the suburbs, further dispersing the ethnic community. The JASC has always been about coming together. Reaching out is a newer development. Through our research initiatives, cultural performances and educational efforts, we have begun this part of our journey. Home Support Services (left) provide essential in-home help to seniors to allow them to maintain their independent living. An average of 20 seniors were provided with basic housekeeping duties, shopping, meal preparation and/ or escort service each week. Funded by the United Way Chicago Metropolitan and Suburban Venture Investment Funds, JASC conducted an Isolated Nikkei Elders Assessment Project. The initial report (left) was released this year, and work continues on planning the delivery of the services most needed by isolated seniors in the city and suburbs. JASC continued its outreach into the community, participating in the National Night Out against Crime with the 23rd Police District Diversity against Violence parade and community gathering (below). Staff members, volunteers and JASC Tsukasa Taiko participated. .. The JASC exhibit Origins of Now: ReBuilding Community was on display at the State of Illinois building (above), and also on view at the Association for Asian American Studies national conference. Much of our cultural outreach is performed by our cultural partner Fujima Ryu of Chicago (top left), and the JASC Tsukasa Taiko (left and below). Both of these groups performed dozens of times around the Midwest this year, including many at high-visibility venues. 7 1 .;:;!;dl:in..:..1:ting manner among all Japanese American community organizations, and look for a commonality of purpose and opportunities for collaboration. As the largest non-sectarian locus of Japanese Americans, and the organization with the most community resources, the JASC will strive to collaborate and coordinate with , other community organ1zations for the betterment of all. The development of teens and young adults into community leaders will be another organizational focus. Taking a leadership role within a self-effacing community is a tricky thing. As the Honorable Norman Mineta told us when he visited JASC, when he was contemplating a decision to enter public life in San Jose, his father told him to do what he believed right, but that he should be prepared to be "the sticking up nail." Organization-wide, the JASC is standing up. Within the Japanese American and greater mudi-cultural community in Chicago, our goal is to partner with others who would also strive to make a difference, and bring positive change to individuals and society in general. We are seeking to provide leadership, but are committed to doing so on a collaborative basis. Our focus is on growth, learning and the betterment of all, and in this effort we will not be bent. The JASC was able to collaborate with Nisei Post no. 1183 in hosting a Go for Broke National Education Center presentation with General Eric Shinseki (Rec., above), and with the Chicago JACL chapter to host a town hall meeting (left) with the National Parks Service regarding proposed uses of a government appropriation to honor the Japanese American World War II internees. The JASC Community Mural Project (above) brought rogether people of all ages, each with his or her own reason for becoming involved in paying homage to the Japanese American experience. Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education was an invaluable partner in helping this dream project become a reality. The JASC partnered with Tohkon Judo Academy, JACL and the Asian American Law Enforcement Association in another wonderful Community Picnic, which was a great day for all, although, fittingly, more so for the kids (right and top right). The JASC Legacy Center continues to work on documenting the stories of those who lived through evacuation, internment, and resettlement in Chicago. With Nisei Post no. 1183, Chicago Japanese American Historical Society, and Asian Improv aRts Midwest, the JASC is also preparing a local component (below) to be shown alongside the national Military Intelligence Service exhibit, which will be in Chicago in 2010. Congratulations to future leaders and scholarship award honorees (above, from left) Michael Bart, Laura Terumi Yamasaki, Michelle Nitahara, Mari Yamagiwa, Paul Kato, Ryan Miyashiro and Crystal Banks (not shown), and to our scholarship donors (see page 14). Dear Friends, I am proud and pleased to report that JASC in 2008 did not experience any semblance of a "sophomore slump" or similar letdown after such a successful 2007 during which we celebrated our 60th anniversary. In fact, if I could be so bold as to say that we matched or topped 2007! As you will see from this year's annual report, our past fiscal year can best be described as one of growth and change. The JASC board of directors and staff continue to work closely together toward refining our programs and services in ways to better serve the community. During the past year, we welcomed new additions to the staff that assist us in far-reaching capacities: a new Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a new Controller, new Adult Day Service activity leaders, a new Marketing and Development professional, a new receptionist, new staff for Home Support Services, and a Cultural Programs Curator. Our growing team allows us to provide direct services and cultural programs to more people in the community and at increasingly higher levels of quality. With each passing year, JASC receives more recognition for the work we do and the success of our outreach efforts is continuously exemplifi ed by the new people we welcome through our doors at 4427 N. Clark Street. While the economic climate continues to challenge families, businesses and organizations alike, I am optimistic that JASC is well-positioned to make the necessary adjustments for us to continue advancing our quality social services and cultural programs in ways that impact an even broader audience. Please stop by and witness first-hand the energy going into making all this possible. We are deeply indebted to our financial supporters, friends, volunteers, and clients, for without whom all our accomplishments would indeed not be possible. JASC is truly your organization! Thank you for your support and assistance. Sincerely, Michael D. Takada President, JASC Board of Directors ........................................................................ ,, Our Sincerest Thanks to All Who Supported Our Efforts this Fiscal Year July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 Foundation Grants Matching Gifts $5,000 to $9,999 Richard K. Amano BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois Aetna Foundation M/M Donald W Sloan M/M Yoshi Amino Chicago Japanese American Abbot Laboratories Matching Gifts June K. Aragaki Council Program $2,000 to $4,999 M/M Hidemo Roy Asaki Japanese Mutual Aid Society of BP Foundation, Inc. M/M Bing R. Nishiura Noboru James Asato Chicago Discover Financial Services Patrick Phillips Jennifer N. Barnhart Morgan Stanley Foundation FM Global Foundation M/M Daniel Yoshida David C. Becker Asian Giving Circle Pfizer Foundation Matching Gifts Frances A. Benbow United Way of Metropolitan Program $1,000 to $1,999 Debbie & Bob Burns Chicago Prudential Foundation Matching Judith Tanaka & Cary Wong Gail M. Chase Gifts John Sagami D/M Ben T. Chikaraishi Government Support DIM Thomas Shimoda Karen Engelhardt City of Chicago Department on Individual Donations M/M Steven H. Yamasaki Marcia Faye Aging $10,000 and above Kathy Ford City of Chicago Department of Misao Shiratsuki $999 and under Richard Forrest Culwral Affairs Estate of John Iwaoka M/M Kiyoharu Aburano M/M Keith Y. Fujikawa Illinois Arts Council M/M TaketoTomiyama Yayeko Adachi M/M James R. Fujimoto Illinois Department on Aging Ailene Ai-Li Martin H. Fujimoto Shan Mariko Aki Kikuko Fujimura ID Dear Supporters, While there have been a few changes within the organization in che past year, one thing chat has not changed is our commitment to deliver consistently strong client service while also ensuring that the back office operations are managed as effectively as possible. We'd like to speak to those areas in a bit more detail. As it relates to our social services programs, we remain focused on providing an outstanding client experience. In addition, we are working hard to ensure that our program supervisors are coordinating effectively with each ocher for potential cross referrals, while also pursuing new ways of obtaining social service clients so chat our programs can operate closer to capacity. In the area of culcural classes and programming, we are striving to increase the quality of the instruction while maintaining our diverse class offerings. We have seen increased accendance recently for many of our offerings, including Japanese Language classes as well as Tampopo Kai, our children's program. We also continue to host a variety of other culcural activities, such as book signings. In terms of administration, we continue to enhance che quality of our financial and management reporting. We have developed new management reports that allow us to beccer monitor and understand our performance. On the development side, we have identified a number of new funding sources and will be looking to significantly increase che number of grants we will be writing for in the coming year. As a staff, we remain strongly commicced to carrying out the agency's Mission and working with the board of directors, members, clients, guests and community members in true partnership. Thank you. Sincerely, Bryan Robson Sharon Harada Interim Executive Director Assistant Executive Director Sayoko Fukuchi MIM Makoro Fukuda Yuji Fukunaga MIM Colin Hara June Harada Aylen I. Hasegawa Todd Hashiguchi Roy M. Hashioka MIM Mike Hattori MIM Howard Y. Hieshima Harry A. Higa Merry Hirata Tats Hirocsuka Matsue Pac Honda MIM Shoji Horita George Ichiba MIM Takaaki Ichikawa MIM George K. Ichishica MIM Yuichi Idaka Grace K. Igasaki Tomi Iijima Muneo R. Iman Charles Inamine Evelyn S. lnamine Tomiko Inouye Calvin Ishida Emiko Ishikawa Julie Icahara Harriet H. Icano Masashi Itano MIM Takeo lcano MIM Thomas T. Ito Dr. Valerie Ito Dr. Robert S. Iwaoka Mary Iwaoka Carol Y. Iwata Ruby C. Izui May Joichi Ken Kadowaki MIM Frank M. Kajikawa MIM Tooru Kajiwara Mary T. Kambara May Y. Kambara Cindy Kaneshiro MIM Darrell Kaneshiro Sachiko Kano MIM Tosh Kasai MIM Ken Katayama MlM Alan D. Karo Yoneko Frances Kawabata MIM Yoshio F. Kawaguchi Kay Kawamoto MIM Morris Kawamoto MIM Ryan Keener Kie Kikuca MIM Raymond Y S Kim Michiko Kim MIM Eugene T. Kimura Donna Kobayashi Edward Koizumi MIM Norman Kono Yasushi Kubo Mitsue Kuramoto Elaine E. Kurokawa DIM Roy Y. Kurotsuchi Hiroko Kusayanagi MIM Shigeru Kushi Marcia L. Kushino Laura E. Maeda Martha Makino Arlene Manelli Deborah H. Matayoshi MIM John S. Matsuda Pac Tsuyako Matsui MIM Jerry K. Matsumoto Elaine T. Matsushita MIM Thomas Mayahara Chizuko Mazawa Masao Menda MIM Bob Merrick Pac Michalski Ingrid L. Milarski Kei Mine Yoko A. Mitani Hisako Sue Miyake MIM Shu Miyazaki Macsue Momohara Yoshiko Mori MIM George W. 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Takagi M/M Kenneth Yoshida Andrew Saco Bigscon Corporation Miyuki Ohshita Stephen Takagishi Shigeko Yoshimura Lary Schectman Gim Electric Hanako Okamoto M/M Kenichi J. Takaki M/M Ken Yoshirani Yuki Scroggins Kikkoman Foods, Inc. M/M William Okamoto McLean Takaki Kenneth K. Yoza Anne Shimojima TDK Corporation of Mitsuko Okamura Richard K. Takaki Anonymous (16) Arlene Suekama America Hiroshi Okano Steven Takaki Midori Sugimoto Nobuko I. Okawa Edward Mas Taketoshi Individuals In-Kind Kayoko Suzukida Anniversary Sponsors Perry H. Okubo Asako Takusagawa Edith Aburano Noriko & David Takada M/M Peter Bajor Noriko Okutomi Atsuko Tamura Lori Ashikawa Ichiro Takehara Chicago Chapter JACL Chiyoko Omachi Ken Tamura Paul Bruce Art Takei Christ Church of Chicago M/M Tom Y. Omachi M/M Seizo Tamura Sara Cohen Joanne Tohei Jean and Kiyoko Fujiu Janice H. Omachi-Lee M/M Osamu Tanabe Bob Colman Alice Towata Steven Hamlin Toyoko Omori Mary Y. 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Okigawa Chicago Children's Museum Chiyoko Omachi M/M Tetsuo lko May One Patron Chicago Cubs Chieko Onoda Anne Inouye Hiroshi G. Ora M/M Colin Hara Chicago History Museum Onomoli Fine Jewelry Emiko Ishikawa M/M Masaco Ozaki M/M James K. Kumaki Chicago Sinfonietta Ashley Oshita Hiromi Ishikawa Amy Rasmussen EricW. Mah Chicago Sky Leeanne Oue Peggy L. Ishikawa M/M John M. Ruh Donna Mukogawa Chicago White Sox Over Easy M/M Randall 0. Ishikawa Emi Sakaeda Peter Nelson Chicago Wolves Park Hyatt Chicago/NoMi Harriet S. Iro Harry I. Sakai M/M John R. Sasaki Frances Chikahisa Restaurant John R. Janik Henry K. Sakai Takeshi Yamashita Court Theatre Planet Obi/ Laurel Fujisawa Grace M. Kajira M/M Yoshicaro Sakai Denrisrry for Kids/Cissy Plum Tree Studio M/M Enoch H. Kanaya M/M Jim Sakamoto Supporter Furusho, DDS Renga-Tei Restaurant M/M Kevin Kaneko M/M Leonard M. Sakoda 0/M Harold Arai Egg Harbor Cafe Lidia Rozmus M/M Tosh Kasai Nancy S. Sakurai Yuji Fukunaga Electro-Wire, Inc. 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Kuse Sachi Suzuki Frank Sasai Grand Lux Cafe Program M/M Tersuo Matsuda RIM Shunjo Takahashi M/M John Sasaki Marilyn Hayashi Spare Time, Inc. Emi Matsushita Mc Lean Takaki Carlos S. Shibata Heaven on Seven Sunshine Cafe M/M Hirn Mayeda M/M Michael K. Takaki M/M Shiro F. Shiraga Hilldale Golf Club Szechwan Kingdom M/M James K. Mica Fukiko Takano Momoko 0. Steiner Image Salon Chinese Restaurant Yoko A. Mitani M/M Ichiro Takehara M/M Go Sugiura Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea Szechwan Restaurant Mark M. Micsunaga Dr. Joe Takehara M/M Dennis R. Torii Yumiko Irei-Gokce Michael Takada Helen Miyake George Takeroshi Jane Yakushiji Jamin Juice Michael Tanimura M/M Takanori Mizura Hideko Tamanaha Kiyo Yoshimura Japan Airlines Arthur Towata M/M George W. Morimirsu M/M Kiyoshi Tamanaha M/M Ken Yoshicani JASC LilyTuruda Jessie Morisaco Ken Tamura The Jaffrey Bailee Union League Club of Dr. Joyce C. Morishita Ralph K. Tamura Friend Kim & Scott's Gourmet Chicago Makoco Morita Frank T. Tanaka Janee Ayers Pretzels Terri Yamaguchi Pamela Morooka Mary Y. Tanaka Bure Fujishima Albert Koga Trust/Marion Yancha by Shuko Akune Mary Muramoto M/M Yoshicaka Tanaka Jean M. Fujiu Ishii Yoshi's Cafe Mark V. Murphy Jim Tanouye M/M Jim Grodzins Natalie Koga Zanies Comedy Nice Club M/M Fred M. Nagaro M/M Thomas S. Teraji M/M Yoshiro Harada Kohl Children's Museum Zapatisca Jean T. Nakamoro M/M George Torimaru Paul M. Harada Lettuce Entertain You Fujiye Nakamura Ruby D. Tsuji M/M Kaz Horita Enterprises M/M Toshia Nakanishi M/M William S. Ujiiye Miki Thomas Ishikawa Lou Malnati Pizzeria Miyeko Nakao 1homas Uyechi M/M Ellen Maeda/John C. Janka May Y. Kambara Cindy Kaneshiro Hon. Lynne Kawamoto Rebecca C. Nakamura Tom Naokawa Asako Nishimura Dr. Michelle Nishina Kimberly Robinson Kim W. Sagami Kevin Saiki Reiko Sacoh James Y. Shikami Barbara Shikami M/M Hiroshi Shimotake Momoko 0. Steiner Dr. Danny H. Sugimoto Michael D. Takada Dr. Joe Takehara Hiroshi Tokubo Ayako Yamada JASC Scholarship Funds Anheuser Busch Sam Fukaye John Iwaoka Frank T. Kambara Southside Nisei Bowling League Jean E. Taketoshi Fred Toguri William T. Yamamoto Donor In Honor of M/M Donald C. Farley, Jr. Kiyoko Kasai Fujiu Marilyn E. Fires M/M Neil Y. Kanemoto Barbara A. Neumann June Ora Ellen Parrnchak M/M Steven Samson M/M Donald W Sloan M/M Henry Terao William E. & Julia Y. Morita Trick Richard B. Turner M/M lwao Yamanaka Donor M/M KokiAbe M/M Koki Abe Rosalia Ahern Patricia Lee Angell Robert & Gerri A. Armstrong Allen Aron M/M Steven Y. Azuma Janet L. Barkell Cynthia Barnard Frances A. Benbow M/M Stanley Birnbaum Brenda Borri Diana K. Barri Joseph Chevalier Rain/Baro Golf Club Charles M. Cohen Elizabeth Cole Barbara B. Davies M/M Paul Doi Alfred Doi Mary Doi M/M Paul Doi M/M Paul Doi Mo Domoco Bruce Domoco M/M John R. Doyle Lillian M Eaker Edwin T. Endow Ed Fernandez Barbara H. Frei-Schmid Janet A. Fujii Janet A. Fujii Jean M. Fujiu Kiyoko Kasai Fujiu M/M Charles Furuyama Patricia Gehron Ruth Gilbert Andreas H. Glaeser Lorraine D. Goll Inez Green Carol Yamamoto Hisa Chino's 100th Birthday Kiyoko Fujiu Lydia Omori and Greg Sahli Laura Maeda Hisa Chino's I 00th Birthday Kevin and Susan Kaneko Alyse Azuma Hiroshi Kaneko's 90th Birthday Carol Yamamoto Tomoye Muraoka In Memory Of Hosen Oshita Thomas Teraji Hosen Oshita Hasen Oshita George Nakanishi Lou Saco Sue Azuma Hasen Oshita Hoshen Oshita Marie Otaka Hosen Oshita Hasen Oshita Hosen Oshita Tom Teraji Kimiye Omura Tanaka Henry S. Inouye George Nakinishi Albert Kamiya Gerald Sunahara Thomas Teraji Thomas Teraji Marie Otaka Hasen Oshita Tom Teraji Henry Inouye Hasen Oshita Louie Sato Sam Himoto Hosen Oshita Henry Inouye Tsugiye Shimokubo Fredy Fujii Tom Teraji Tom Teraji Hosen Oshita Hasen Oshita Hosen Oshita Henry Inouye Louie Sato Louie Sato Donor In Memory Of Barbara Gunderson Lou Sato M/M Sreven E. Hall Hasen Oshita Karen R. Hansen Henry Inouye M/M Kei D. Harada Henry Inouye M/M Yoshiro Harada Tom Teraji M/M Yoshiro Harada Marie Oraka M/M Yoshiro Harada Gora Takeshita M/M Yoshiro Harada Henry Toyama M/M Yoshiro Harada Ayako Ideno M/M Yoshiro Harada Hosen Oshita M/M Yoshiro Harada Al Kamiya M/M Yoshiro Harada Toshiko Hicshima M/M Yoshiro Harada Mitsuye Nishikawa M/M Yoshiro Harada Bob ltashiki M/M Icy J. Hasama Hasen Oshita Yuri Hirami Hattie Umekubo Don Hirota Tom Teraji Jeannerre K. Hori Henry Inouye Asayo Horibe Keichi Nishikawa & Mitsuye Nishikawa Georgene E. Hrdlicka Louie Saco M/M Takaaki Ichikawa Yoko Matsumoto Glenn Ikeda Dorothy Ito Marion K. Ishii Sam Himoco Marion Ishii Sam Himoco Dr. Valerie Ira Tom Teraji Ruth N. Iwami Simko Sara Takeuchi Ellyn J., Judy & Dr. Sam Isamu Iwaoka Robert S. Iwaoka M/M Roy T. Iwata Henry Inouye M/M Roy T. Iwata Lou Saco M/M RoyT. Iwata Tom Teraji Ruby C. lzui Mitsuye Nishikawa Ruby C. lzui Tom Teraji Dr. Victor S. Izui Henry Inouye M/M Jerold L. Jones Hasen Oshita Ken Kadowaki Hasen Oshita M/M Ken Kadowaki Tom Teraji May Y. Kambara Jenny Taniguchi Tellyer M/M Neil Y. Kanemoto Mitsuye Nishikawa Henry M. Karikomi Hasen Oshira M/M Alan D. Kato Hasen Oshita Ruth Katsuyama Mitsuye Nishikawa M/M Yoshio F. Kawaguchi Robert Tsuru M/M Yoshio F. Kawaguchi George Nakanishi M/M Yoshio F. Kawaguchi Tom Teraji Jeanne M. Kawako Hasen Oshita Fowziya Talip Kelry Hasen Oshita Mary Agnes Kelcy Hosen Oshita Maureen P. Kelry Hosen Oshita M/M Jack Kenmotsu Hosen Oshita M/M Jack Kenmotsu Mirsuye Nishikawa M/M Jack Kenmorsu George Nakanishi M/M Eugene T. Kimura Tom Teraji Lillian C. Kimura Tom Teraji Ruth Kosaka Louise Tani Ruth Kosaka Tom Teraji Rurh Kosaka Lou Sato Miranda Kouri Hosen Oshita M/M James J. Kowalczyk Hasen Oshita If Donor In Memory Of Rena Kumai Lou Sato Ruth K. Kumara Henry Inouye Elaine E. Kurokawa Mirsuye Nishikawa M/M Stanley S. Kurokawa Mirsuye Nishikawa Dorothy S. Kuse Tom Teraji Dorothy S. Kuse Mirsuye Nishikawa Marsha Lee Louie Saro Phyllis R. Lisack Hasen Oshita Martha Makino Hasen Oshita M/M George N. Mirsuye Nishikawa Maruyama Kam10 Matsumoto Joe Miyake Ernest Michio Matsunaga Henry Inouye Ernest Michio Matsunaga Tom Teraji M/M Thomas Mayahara Tom Teraji Chizuko Mazawa Louie S. Sato Ann Fafard McWarrers Hiroshi Mayeda Tarniye M. Trejo Meehan George Nakanishi June Merkel Hasen Oshita Kiyo Kay Minaga Chico Minaga M/M Steven Y. Minaga Chico Minaga Debbie Miyashiro Mirsuye Nishikawa Ted S. Mizuno Tom Teraji M/M Kenneth Modaff Tom Teraji Kimberly F. Moran Al Kamiya Evelyn R. Mullen Ted Oda M/M John A. Muntean Hasen Oshita Roy Y. Murano Lou Sato Shigesato Murao Henry Inouye Shigesaro Murao Tom Teraji Tsuneko S. Nakagawa Hasen Oshita Tsuneko S. Nakagawa Henry Inouye M/M Toshia Nakanishi Tom Teraji Kathy L. Nakanishi George Nakanishi M/M Toshia Nakanishi George Nakanishi M/M Hiroshi Nakano Henry Inouye Gerald Y. Nakayama Herbert Nakayama RIM Masaru Nambu Tom Teraji M/M Aki Francis Hasen Oshita Nishimura Ruth A. Nishimura Hasen Oshita Masaya Nishimura Toshia Kotani M/M Gary Nishiura Jerry Nishiura Takeko A. Nomiya Tom Teraji Takeko A. Nomiya Henry Inouye Elsie Ogawa Sam Nakaso M/M Robert E. Ogi Mitsuye Nishikawa Nori Okamura Lou Sato M/M ShigOki Hasen Oshita M/M Ted Y. Okita Hasen Oshita Dennie H. Okuhara Mirsuye Nishikawa M/M Jimmy A. Omura Kimiye Omura Tanaka M/M Hasen Oshita William Furuyama MerryY. Oya George Nakanishi Molly Ozaki Henry Inouye Molly Ozaki Hasen Oshita Molly Ozaki Tom Teraji M/M Sam S. Ozaki Hasen Oshita M/M Sam S. Ozaki Tom Teraji Elaine Pawlak Lou Sato Donor Patricia A. Polich M/M Donald Rooney Susan Rosenberg Diane Rorrer Henry K. Sakai Henry K. Sakai Henry K. Sakai Lisa A. Sakai M/M Yoshitaro Sakai M/M Jira Sakamoto M/M Jira Sakamoto M/M Tad T. Sasamoto Rev. Kei Sarah M/M John J. Seely M/M Kane K. Senda M/M Kane K. Senda Al Shimizu M/M Yoneo Shimomura M/M Yoneo Shimomura M/M Yoneo Shimomura M/M Yoneo Shimomura M/M Yoneo Shimomura M/M Yoneo Shimomura Margaret Shintaku Margaret Shintaku Julie Simpson Deborah A. Smith John Stark Maribeth K. Stein M/M Theodore R. Steiskal, Jr. Loretta B. Stern Eiki Sugai Midori Sugimoto Hiroshi (Joe) Suzuki Sachi Suzuki M/M David T. Takada M/M David T. Takada M/M David T. Takada Michael D. Takada Michael D. Takada Mary Takaki Asako Takusagawa M/M Osamu Tanabe Rosie C. Tanaka M/M Yoshitaka Tanaka Alan Teraji LilyTeraji Shizue Sue Terusaki M/M Paul J. Thoma Chiye Tomihiro Chi ye Tomihiro M/M Taketa Tomiyama GraceTorii M/M Hiro Toyama Ruby D. Tsuji Grace K. Tsuru Yoneko M. Tsurusaki M/M Shoji Uchida M/M William S. Ujiiye Thomas M. Ujiiye In Memory Of Frank Fukami Hasen Oshita Lou Sato Lou Sato Hasen Oshita Henry Inouye Tom Teraji Tom Teraji Hasen Oshita Kit Nishikawa Mirsuye Nishikawa Mirsuye Nishikawa Tom Teraji Hasen Oshita Henry Inouye Louie Sato Mirsuye Nishikawa Robert Tsuru Hasen Oshita Tom Teraji Hiro Mayeda George Nakanishi Mirsuye Nishikawa Sara Takeuchi Sam Himoro Hasen Oshita George Nakanishi Lou Sato Hasen Oshita Hasen Oshita Henry Inouye George Nakanishi Tom Teraji Hasen Oshita Hasen Oshita Ken Kuzuhara Jack Sugioka Tom Teraji Hasen Oshita Tom Teraji Sam Nakano Tom Teraji Harrie Umekubo Hasen Oshita Hasen Oshita Henry Inouye Thomas Teraji Misao Saro Hasen Oshita Tom Teraji Henry Inouye Tom Teraji Suero C. Torii Hasen Oshita Micsuye Nishikawa Robert K. Tsuru Mitsuye Nishikawa Albert Kamiya Hasen Oshita Lou Sato Donor In Memory Of Hattie Wallen Sara Takeuchi M/M James Warczak Hasen Oshita M/M Melvin Waskin Marie Oraka Jennie Watanabe Mirsuye Nishikawa Philip Wong Quincy Wong M/M Donald F. Woodlock Lou Sato DIM Ernest I. Yahiro Hasen Oshita Yoshio Yamada Tom Teraji M/M Fred Yamaguchi Louie Sato M/M lwao Yamanaka Hasen Oshita M/M lwao Yamanaka Albert Kamiya M/M Michael Yamaoka Torn Teraji Mary Yamasaki George Nakanishi Jane Yamato Albert Kamiya Toshiye Yokota Henry Inouye Kiyo Yoshimura Tom Teraji M/M William J. Yoshino Hasen Oshita Sharon L. Zminda Lou Sato Hebert H. Zuegel Henry Inouye Illinois Auto Electric Co. Frank Fukami Indian Trails Public George Nakanishi Library 1) If we have inadvertently omitted your namea from any list, please call Sharon Haradaa (773.275.0097 x229) at the JASC office.a Thank you.a 2)aThe 2008 JASC Membership List cana be found in the 2009 Member Services & Programs Book. 3) This FY 2008 annual report covers the timea period July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008.a 4)aJapanese American Service Committeeadoes not discriminate in admission to programs or treatment of employmentain programs or activities in complianceawith the Illinois Human Rights Act; thea U.S. Civil Rights Act; Section 504 of thea Rehabilitation Act; the Age Discriminationa Act; the Age Discrimination in EmploymentaAct; and the U.S. and Illinois Constitutions.a If you feel you have been discriminateda against, you have a right to file a complaint.a If Condensed Statement of Activities for the year ended June 30, 2008 Revenues Individuals Membership Special Events (net) Corporation and Foundation Grants United Way Governmental Agencies Support Program Fees, Activity Fees and Other Total Support and Revenue Expenses Operating Expenses Program Services Management and General Fund raising Total Operating Expenses Non-Operating Expenses Pension Related Charges Investment Losses Total Expenses Deficit of Revenue and Support over Expenses $175,814 $69,541 $90,981 $23,750 $120,000 $318,034 $287,935 $1,086,055 $985,432 $107,502 $133,459 $1,226,393 $9,515 $37,809 $1,273,717 $ [187,662] The above figures are from the final audit. A complete copy of the financial statements, audited by John D. Kopczyk, Ltd., is available for viewing at the JASC office. Revenues Individuals 16.2% Governmental Agencies Support 29.3% Corporation and Foundation Grants 2.2% Expenses Fundraising 10.5% Non-Operating Expenses 3.7% lb JASC Board of Directors Executive Board President -Michael D. Takada Discover Financial Services LLC, Project Manager VP Finance/Treasurer -John Sasaki Huron Consulting Group, Managing Director VP Fundraising -Jacquelin Denofrio United Airlines Regional Manager Cargo, Executive Coordinator VP Programs -Josina Morita United Congress of Community & Religious Organizations, Executive Coordinator VP Marketing/Secretary -Michael Tanimura Silver Image Creative, Principal Board Members Ken Anno Lori Yokoyama & Associates, Attorney Jody Oshita Bajor NBC 5 Chicago, Manager of Business Development & Marketing Cindy Kaneshiro Walgreens, Corporate Manager Equal Opportunity Erika Kono Japan America Society of Chicago, Director of Administration and Logistics James Kono HRP Realty, Inc., Principal Partner Kevin Kumashiro (FY09) University of Illinois at Chicago, Associate Professor & Chair of Educational Policy Studies Jason Matsumoto Chicago Board ofTrade, Investigator Craig D. Mizushima Harris N.A., Senior Vice President/Regional Business Marker Manager James Onoda Chicago Public Schools, Technology Coordinaror Leeanne Oue Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago, Public Relations Coordinator Gerald L. Richardson Huron Consulting Group, Managing Director Kimberly Robinson Cassiday Schade LU. Partner Reiko Satoh (FY09) Johnson & Bell, Led., Associate Glenn Sugiyama OHR Incernarional, Executive Vice President Douglas Tono Tohkon Judo Academy, President JASC Staff (as of November 2008) Administrative Staff Interim Executive Director -Bryan Robson Assistant Executive Director -Sharon Harada Office Manager -Carol N. Yoshino Controller -Melanie Koga Development Associate -Kimberly Kiyomi Turley Receptionist -Yuki Scroggins Receptionist -Valeria Nickel Custodian -Victor Diaz Legacy Center Archivist -Debbie Mieko Burns, MA, MUS, CA Legacy Center Manager -Karen Kanemoto Adult Day Care Services Coordinator -Melba B. Ristow, RN Day Care Nurse -Nanyces (Tess) Cana, RN Activity Planner -Karren Mesa Activity Planner/Driver -Doris Mason Aide -Sonyto Mao Driver -Cecilio Ocasio, Jr. Activity Planner/ Kitchen -Carolina Mangulabnan Social Work Services Social Worker -Michiko Frances Chikahisa, LCSW Social Worker -Kaori Miyazawa Liebler, MA, LCSW Home Support Services Supervisor -Helen Nakayama Homemaker -Mika Borgwardt Homemaker -Danuta Knapik Homemaker -Mari Lim Homemaker -Wei Lin Lee Homemaker -Valeria Nickel Homemaker -Roxane Tono Cultural and Community Affairs Coordinator -Sharon Harada Assistant -Kay Kawaguchi Nutrition ADS Scaff Annual Report: Kimberly Kiyomi Turley, project management & creative direction; Kiyomi Negi Tran, graphic design & illustration; Kay Kawaguchi, photography; David Musashi Tanimura, photography, art production & layout; Michael Tanimura, copywriting Japanese American Service Committee 4427 N. Clark Stree t • Chicago Illinois 60640 , administration: 773.275.0097 social services 773.275. 7212 : fax 773.275.0958 : jascinfo@jasc-chicago.org • www.jasc-chicago o rg . Founded August 30 1946 the JASC is a not -tot -profit 501 (c)(3 ) corporation o f the State of Ill i nois. , , The mission of theJapanes e American Servic Committe e e is to preserve and raise awarenes fJapanes e American o s culture and heritage and promote th physical and e , spiritual well-bein g ofJapanese Americans and the greater multicultural community in the Midwest. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Annual Report, 2007-2008 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-2008 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RG09_Series01_Box01_2007-2008 https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/638c5e246f847a60fb59ae32a329c7c6.pdf bdc49eaae83a14dd5d1caf86feeb990e PDF Text Text �������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Annual Reports Description An account of the resource Record Group 9, JASC Publications Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chicago Resettlers Committee Japanese American Service Committee Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1946-2011 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RG09 Subject The topic of the resource Annual Reports of the Chicago Resettlers Committee and Japanese American Service Committee Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Text Any textual data included in the document Japanese American Service Committee Annua Report 2008-2009 4427N. Clark Street Chicago, IL 60640 administration: 773.275.0097 social services: 773.275.7212 f. 773.275.0958 'Board of'Directors, 'FY 2009 Michael D. Takada/Michael Tanimura, President John R. Sasaki, Vice President Jacquelin Denofrio.Vice President Josina Morita, Vice President Michael Tanimura, Secretary John R. Sasaki, President Jacquelin Denofrio.Vice President Leeanne Oue, Vice President Reiko Satoh, Vice President Administrative Staff Karen Suzuld-Okabe, Chief ExeclltMI Officer Sharon Y. Harada.Assistant Executive Director Carol N. Yoshino, Office Manager; Special Ewints & Outreach Coordinator Melanie K. Koga, CPA, Controller Jere<! G. Pruitt, Director, Development & Communications Yuki Scroggins, Receptionist Ryan Toguri, Receptionist Victor Diaz, Custodian Socia(Work Michiko Frances Chikahisa, LCSW Kaori M. Liebler, LCSW Jody Oshita-Bajor Jason Matsumoto Cindy Kaneshiro Craig Mizushima Erika Kono James Onoda Jim Kono Leeanne Oue Kevin Kumashiro Gerald L. Richardson 'Boardof 'Directors, 'FY 2010 Glenn Sugiyama, Vice President Betsy Buckley Craig Mizushima, Treasurer Cindy Kaneshiro Michael Tanimura, Secretary Erika Kono Jody Oshita-Sajor Jim Kono j'ASC Staff ,J-[ome Suyyort Services Helen Nakayama, Supervisor Mika Borgwardt, Homemaker Mari Lim, Homemaker Wei Lin Lee, Homemaker Jamie Fujimi Serrano, Homemaker Kimberly Robinson-Sprinkle Reiko Satoh Glenn Sugiyama Douglas Tono JosinaMorita James Onoda Kimberly Robinson-Sprinkle Douglas Tono 'Adult 'Day Services Melba Ristow, RN, Supervisor Nanytes (Tess) Cana, RN, Day Care Nurse Doris Mason, Activity Planner/Driver Katren Mesa.Activity Planner Carolina Mangulabnan, Activity Planner/Nutrition Cecelio Ocasio Jr., Driver Sonyto Mao, Driver Cufrura( &' Community 'Affairs Sharon Harada, Coordinator Kay Kawaguchi, Assistant Coordinator Karen Kanemoto, Manager, Legacy Center ?lduft 'Day Services Our ADS program provides seniors who require supervision a safe and active environment where their chronic illnesses can be managed and monitored. We provide professional medical care in a socially active environment where they can exercise and sustain their physical and cognitive well-being. These services also benefit family caregivers with much needed respite which decreases stress-related illnesses, work absenteeism, loss of employment, and family instability and dysfunction. Socia( Work Services Our Social Work program offers linguistically and culturally competent licensed social workers who assist people from all over the Midwest. Individual, family and group counseling provides emotional and psychological support and focuses on strengthening coping skills to deal with issues such as intergenerational relationships, language and cultural difficulties, health challenges and preparation for death and dying. '}[ome Su_p_port Services Home Support Services (HSS) assists seniors, many of whom are disabled or suffer from a chronic illness, in their homes with household tasks such as cleaning, planning and preparing meals, grocery shopping, transportation to doctors' appointments, and picking up prescriptions. Homemakers help with personal care tasks such as dressing, grooming and adhering to special diets. Homemakers also assist seniors with translations for personal business (medical, legal, financial). Out-of-tfie-'}[ouse Out-of-the-House addresses the needs of seniors who live alone or with family members, but are isolated during the day when their caregiv­ers work or are isolated due to geographic location. Most have lost their social network of friends because of illness, frailty or death and use this group as their network of connection to peers. Out of the House offers exercise, socialization and activities which are directed toward keeping the seniors active and from isolation; well documented causal factors associated with early nursing home placement. In addition, our social work staff provides group counseling sessions that address some of the key mental health and wellness issues of seniors. Cufrura( Pro3rams JASC is committed to building quality cultural programming, classes and events that not only preserve the culture, history and legacy of Japanese Americans, but also keeps them living, developing and relevant in our contemporary cultural milieu. JASC has done this, in part, by fostering, partnering and collaborating with masters and experts in Japanese culture.JASC offers these masters support through its artists-in­residence program, which encourages them to continue to expand mastery of their arts, provides them with a means to showcase it to the greater community, and creates environments where their skills and knowledge can be passed on to others, of all ages, ethnicities and economic backgrounds. 'The Le,qacy Center The JASCLegacy Center is a community-based archive and library that collects, preserves, and makes historical resources from the Japanese American community in the metropolitan Chicago area available for research and reference purposes. It seeks to preserve and promote community heritage and common understanding of the Japanese American experience as an integral part of American history through the collection of books, letters, diaries, oral histories, newspapers, magazines, ephemera, films, photographs, dissertations, etc. that document the Japanese American experience before, during, and after coming to the Chicago area. During an average year, the Legacy Center provided reference services to more than I 00 individual researchers and groups and conducted archival workshops. Our 'M.ission The mission of the Japanese American Service Committee is to preserve and raise awareness of the Japanese American culture, and heritage, and promote the physical and spiritual well-being of Japanese Americans and the greater multicultural community in the Midwest. Founded August, 30 1946, the JASC is a non-profit 50 I ( c)(3) corporation of the State of Illinois. Statement ef .ctivities For the year ended June 30, 2009 Revenues: Individuals: Membership: Special Events (net): Corporation and Foundation Grants: United Way: Governmental Agencies Support: Program Fees, Activity Fees and Other: Total Support and Revenue Expenses: Operating Expenses Operating Expenses: Management and General: Fun raising: Total Operating Expenses Non-Operating Expenses Pension Related Charges: Investment Losses Total Expenses Deficit of Revenue and Support over Expenses $125,755 $70,126 $42,271 $33,544 $120,000 $296,628 $318,341 $1,006,665 $1,043,803 $101,657 $156,397 $1,301,857 $10,091 $157,684 $1,469,632 <$462,967> The above figures are from the final audit. A complete copy of the financial statements, audited by John D. Kopczyk, Ltd., is available for viewing at the JASC office. Program Fees.Activity Fees and Other 31.6% Corporation and Foundation Grants 3.3% Special Events 4.2% Non-Operational Expenses Governmental and Agencies Support 29.5% Membership 7.0% 11.4% Management and General ----­ 6.9% Fundraising 10.6% 'Donors $25,000 and above Illinois Department on Aging United Way of Metropolitan Chicago $10,000-$24,999 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Foundation $2,500-$9,999 Asian Health Coalition of Illinois The Boeing Company Chicago Japanese American Council Grant ComEd:An Exelon Company Harmony Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center Huron Consulting Group Illinois Arts Council Illinois Humanities Council Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago Foundation United Bindery Services, Inc. United States Department of Agriculture US Bank Anonymous Mrs. Lisa Sloan Mrs. Sumie Tanimura $1,000-$2,499 Chicago Nisei Post No. 1183 City Arts LJT Agra Corporation Wachovia Foundation Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC Ms. Mary M. Fukami Mrs. Leslie Johnson-Stay Mr. Phillip Moll Mr. and Mrs. Bing R. Nishiura Mr. Patrick Phillips Mr. John Sagami Mr. Cary Wong Mr. and Mrs. Steven H.Yamasaki $500-$999 Asian Health Coalition of Illinois Japanese American Citizens League, Chicago Chapter Pfizer Foundation United Way Riverside Partners LLC 7/1/2008 TDK Corporation of America Mr.John Asai Mr. Martin H. Fujimoto Ms. Kikuko Fujimura Mr. Ronald Hirasawa Mr. Masashi ltano Mrs. Pamela A Kagan Ms.Arlene Manelli Ms.Anne Namba Mrs. Nobuko L Okawa Mrs.Wynn Shende Mr. Phil Umeki Mr. and Mrs. Jack Yau Mr: and Mrs. William J. Yoshino Mr. and Mrs. Ken Yoshitani $100-$499 Abbott Laboratories Employee Giving Campaign Alsdorf Foundation Aon Foundation Chicago Judo Black Belt Association Christ Church of Chicago Circle of Service Foundation Cosmos Services (America), Inc. Discover Financial Services LLC Illinois Department of Human Services Perkowitz Window Fashions Inc. Prudential Foundation Matching Gifts Ms. Kimberly Abe Mr. and Mrs. Koki Abe Ms. Christine Anderson Mrs. Jane Anselmino Ms. Kay Arita Mrs. Fujiko Asa Mr. and Mrs. Hidemo Roy Asaki Ms. Janet Ayers Ms.A. Kiyoko Binosi Mrs. Dorothy Bossung Ms. Elizabeth T. Breyer Dr. & Mrs. Ben T. Chikaraishi Ms. Georgia H. Chilton Mr.Yao H. Chuang Ms.Jackie Denofrio Mr. Richard Forrest -6/30/2009 Ms. Judith E. Fors Mrs.Yaho Y. Fujii Mr. Ralph Fujimoto Ms. Eiko Fukai Mr. & Mrs. StanleyY. Fukai Mr. & Mrs. Mitsuo Goi Mrs.Yoshimi Golden Mr. Ray Hallowell Mrs.Yuri Hamada Ms. Donna Sagami & Mr. David Handwerk Mrs.June Harada Mrs. Sharon Harada Mr. Roy M. Hashimoto Dr. & Mrs. Stanley Hew Mr. Carey E. Hidaka Ms. Gaile A Higashi Mr. Steven D. Hirasuna Ms. Jeannette K. Hori Mr.Tom T. Horita Mr: & Mrs. Yuichi ldaka Mr. & Mrs. Michael lga Ms.Tomi lijima Mr.Warren lkezoe Mr. Masao Thomas lnada Ms. Joyce M. Inouye Mrs.Tomiko Inouye Mr. Calvin Ishida Ms. Emiko Ishikawa Mr. & Mrs. Yukio lsoye Mr. & Dr. Gregory J. ltahara Dr. & Mrs. Seiji It.a.hara Mrs. Harriet S. Ito Mr. & Mrs. Charles J. lzui Mrs. Ruby C. lzui Mr. & Mrs. Yukio J. Kaku Mrs. May Y. Kambara Mr. & Mrs. Kevin Kaneko Mr. & Mrs. Neil Y. Kanemoto Ms. Cindy Kaneshiro Mr. & Mrs.Alan D. Kato Mrs. Ruth Katsuyama Mr: & Mrs. Rich Katz Mrs. Yoneko Frances Kawabata Mr. & Mrs.Yoshie F. Kawaguchi ,-.,v.:"11"( ........ II I Ms. Kazumi K. Kawamoto Mr. Charles Valauskas & Ms. Linda S. Kawano Mr. & Mrs. Bruce Kena more Mr. & Mrs. Eugene T. Kimura Mrs. Grace W. Kimura Ms. Donna Kobayashi Ms, Janette S. Koga Ms. Carolyn Aiko Kojima Ms. Carol Brindley Konagamitsu Mr. John Kopczyk Mr.& Mrs. Bruce Kosaka Mrs. Ruth Kosak.a Mrs. Hiroko Kusayanagi Mrs.Yurie Kushino Ms.Toyoko Teresa Kuzuhara Mrs. Barbara J. Lai Ms. Jacqueline Mac Ms. Laura E. Maeda Ms. Martha Makino Mrs. Mary Maruyama Mr. Brent Mason Mr. & Mrs.Jerry K. Matsumoto 1,Ms. Patricia M. Matsumoto Mrs. Kazuko Mayahara , I Ms. Kathleen McArthur Ms. Donna J.Melkonian Mr. Masao Menda Mr.Allen H. Meyer It Mrs. Kiyo Kay Minaga Mrs. Shizuka Mine Mr. & Mrs. James K. Mita Mrs. Hisako Sue Miyake Mr. & Mrs. Shu Miyazaki Mr.Ted S. Mizuno Mr. & Mrs. Craig D. Mizushima Dr. & Mrs. Richard I. Morimoto II Dr. Joyce C. Morishita Ms. Josina Morita Mr. Makoto Morita II Mrs. Grace F. Matoaka II Ms. Jacqueline M. Motooka Dr. & Mrs. Glenn H. Murakami Mrs. Mary Muramoto II 1,Mr. Cliff Nagatani II ,. 'Donors 7/1/2008 -6/30/2009 Naomi Negi .rr.& Mrs. Kiyoto Nishimoto Mr. Joseph K. Suzuki Ms. Toshiye Yokota Mr. Jae Cerney & Ms. Mary Doi Mr. Michael D. Takada Ms. Lori S. C. Yokoyama Ms. Sandra Dolan Mrs.Asako Nishimura Mr. Darren R. Honda Mr. Stephen Takagishi Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Yoshida Mr. & Mrs. John T. Nishimura Mr. & Mrs.Alan Endo Mr. & Mrs. John Kawano Mrs. Paula Horel Mr. & Mrs. Ronald T.Yoshino Ms. Noreen K. Enkoji Ms. Kathleen M. Kearns Ms.Asayo Horibe Mrs. Jane Takehara Mr Leland K. Nomura Mr. & Mrs. Ryan Keener Mr. J::>seph W Noth Ms.Asako Takusagawa Ms. Marie Zajac Mrs. Kazuko Ernst Mr. Michael Tam Ms. Bonnie J. Ettinger Mrs. Harriet Horita Mrs Hideko Ogawa Mr. Hugo Chi-chao Hsu Mr. & Mrs. Jack Kenmotsu Mrs.Atsuko Tamura $0-$99 Ms. Marcia A. Faye Mrs. Joyce Ogura-Yamamoto Mrs. Chieko Kimura Mr. Ralph K. Tamura Abbott Laboratories Employee Giving Campaign Ms. Susan L. Fink Ms. Diane Ohi Mr, & Mrs. Takaaki Ichikawa Mrs. Grace K. lgasaki Ms. Lillian C. Kimura Mr. & Mrs. Spencer Y, Kimura Mr. Miyuk1 Ohshit.a Mr. & Mrs. Osamu Tanabe Fujima Ryu of Chicago Ms. Nancy Frank-Thomas Mr. & Mrs. Tadao Tanaka Pfizer Foundation Matching Gifts Program Ms. Masae Fujii Mrs. Jean lkezoe.Halevi Mr. & Mrs. Hideo Oishi Mr. & Mrs. Tetsuo lko Mrs. Ellen Kobayashi Ms. Ryoko Kobayashi Mrs Leslie Okamura Mr. Benjamin S.Tani Morganelli Dental Center Mr. & Mrs. Keith Fujikawa Mr. Charles lnamine Ms. Melanie Koga Mrs. Mitsuko Okamura Ms. May Tanimura Chicago Creative Coalition Mr. Benjamin Fujimoto Mrs. Masako Inouye Ms. Jody Natsue KoizumiGrace Okazaki Mr. & Mrs. Michae1W.Tanimura Mr. FumioAdachi Mr. & Mrs. James R. Fujimoto Ms. Karen Ishibashi Ms. Mihoko Koizumi Mr ry H. Okubo Mrs. Laura Fumiko Terada Mrs.YayekoAdachi Ms. Laurel S. Fujisawa Mr. Keith G. Ishida Mr.Alan Teraji Mrs. Shizuko Akitomo Mr. & Mrs. Mitsuo J. Fujishima Mr. Greg S,hli & Ms. Lydia Omori Ms. Marion K. Ishii Mr. & Mrs. James Kono Ms. Erika V. Kono & Mrs. Hideo Onoda Mr. Naomichl Terazaki Mrs. Helen N.Allen Ms.Jean M. Fujiu Mr. & Mrs. Yasuo Ishii Ms. Donna Koyanagi ""1rvu O h1r Ms. Robin Terusaki Mrs. Miki Ambrogi Mrs. Kiyoko Kasai Fujiu Ms. Hiromi Ishikawa Ms. Patricia Kubistal !on. Sandi, R. Otaka Ms. Chiye Tomihiro Mr. Yosh Amino Mr. Makoto Fukuda fli1r.& Mrs. J mes A. Ouchi Mr. Douglas K. Tono Ms. Elizabeth Anbo Mr. & Mrs. Masaru Funai Ms. Peggy L. Ishikawa Mr. Kevin Kumashiro Ms. Leeanne Oue Mrs. Grace Torii Ms. Joanne T. Aono Mr. Ken Garcia Mr. & Mrs. Glynn lsoda Ms. Ruth K. Kumata Ms. Julie ltahara Mr.& Mrs.TomAono Mr.Aaron Golub Ms. Mitsue Kuramoto Mr. & Mrs. Fred Y. Sasaki Ms. Suzanne R. Sawada Mrs. Shigeko P. Scott Mr. & Mrs. Ken Sera Mr. & Mrs. Mitsuzo Shida Dr. Steven M. Shikami Mr.Allen Shimada Ms, Julie Shimada Ms.Anne L. Shimojima Ms. Ruth U. Shiozaki Ms. Madonna Sivwright Mrs. Kimberly L. Robinson Sprinkle Mrs. Momoko 0. Steiner Ms. Christine S. Sumida Mrs. Linda Murakishi Whitted Mr. Philip Wong Mrs. Masako Yada Ms. Jane Yakushiji Mr.& Mrs.JoiYamagata Ms. Futami Terri Yamaguchi Mrs. Ruth Yamamoto Ms. Mary Yamasaki Mr. Takeshi Yamashita Mr. & Mrs. George Yamate Mr. Jim Yamauchi Mrs. Marie Yamauchi Mr. Robert Yamauchi Mr. & Mrs. Dudley Yatabe Ms. Karen Blacker Ms. Patricia R. Branscome Mr. Neil K. Brown Mr. & Mrs. Robert Burns Mrs. Gail M. Chase Mr. Hsu Hugo Chi-chiao Mrs. Michiko Frances Chikahisa Mr. Marshall H. Chin Mr. & Mrs. Peter G. Cico, Jr. Mrs. Barbara J. Cochrane Mrs. Sharon N. Costabile Ms. Karenlla Coteus Mrs.Anne Coulter Mr. & Mrs. Paul Doi Mr. & Mrs.Aylen I. Hasegawa Mr. Roy M. Hashioka Mr.Yasuo John Hat.a Mr. & Mrs. Mike Hattori Mr. Richard Hattori Mr.James A. Hayashi Mr. & Mrs. Peter N. Hayashi Mr. & Mrs. Howard Y. Hieshima Mrs. Edith T. Higashi Mrs. Merry Hirata Mr. & Mrs. Frank Hiratsuka Ms. Hanako Hirose Mr. Tats Hirotsuka Mrs. Hannah Hogan Ms.Amy Homma Dr. Robert S. Iwaoka Ms. Carol Y. Iwata Ms. Deanne D. Jackson Mr. Richard Jones Mr. Eddie Jonokuchi Mr. & Mrs. Ken Kadowaki Mrs. Lynn Kaihara Mr. & Mrs. Frank M. Kajikawa Dr. Jewel Kanai Mr. & Mrs. Enoch H. Kanaya Mr. Hiroshi Kaneko Ms. Ruth Kaneshiro Mrs. Sachiko Kano Mr. & Mrs. Tosh Kasai Ms.Amy F. Kato Mr. & Mrs. Morris Kawamoto Mr & Mrs. 5am S. Ozaki Mrs.Arusa Tsugawa Mrs Wmnie Furusho Ricker Mr. & Mrs. FredY.Tsuji Mrs. lkue ltami Ms.June K.Aragaki Mr. & Mrs.Jim Goodman Mr.Todd Ryoji Kurisu Mr. Glenn H. ltano Ms. Elaine E. Kurokawa ti-Ir Lance idolft Mrs. Grace K.Tsuru Mr.Yusuke Arakaki Mr. & Mrs.Alberto M. Gorevich Mrs. Harriet H. ltano Mr Bryar-S. Robson Mr. Richard B. Turner Mrs. Diane K.Azuma Mrs. Kathryn M. Green Mrs.Yemiko Kurokawa Mr. Gerr Rothbauer Mr. Henry Umeki Mrs.Alyse Azuma Ms.Alice Greenhouse Mr. George T. Ito Ms. Chiyeko Kusayanagi Mr. & Mrs. Thomas T. Ito Ms. Dorothy S. Kuse Ms. Jody Oshita & Mr. Peter Bajor Mrs. Iona Hachiya Mr. Seth Rubin Ms. To ., ko Sahara Mrs.SuellrNa Mr. David C. Becker Mr. Ryan Hamilton I's. Em, Sakaeda Mrs. SharonM..zVan Pelt Mrs. Frances A. Benbow Mr. Charles Hanano Ms. Ellyn). Iwaoka Ms. Michelle Levander 'Donors 7/1/2008 -6/20/2009 Ms. Cheryl A. Ludes Ms. Carolyn K. Nakamura Ms. Mitzi Omura Ms. Tomiko Shimojima Mr. Nobuo Tokunaga Ms. Peggy Wallace & Mr. Calvin Manshio Ms. Joyce Nakamura Mrs. May One Mr. & Mrs.Yoneo Shimomura Mr. Joshua Tomcisin Ms. Deborah H. Matayoshi Dr.Akemi Lynn Nakanishi Mr. James M. Onoda Mr: Cary Shinsako Mr. & Mrs. Taketo Tomiyama Mr. & Mrs. John S. Matsuda Mr. & Mrs. Hiroshi Nakano Mr. & Mrs. Robert K. Oshiro Ms. Gail S. Shintaku Mr. & Mrs.Jack K.Tono Ms. Mariko Matsuda Mr. & Mrs. lsamu S. Nakao Ms.Ashley Oshita Mrs. Margaret Shintaku Mr. & Mrs. Dennis R. Torii Mrs. Pat (Tsuyako) Matsui Mr. Kurt Ken Nakaoka Ms. Merry Y. Oya Ms.Yoneko K. Shintani Ms. Wendy-Jo Toyama Mr. Katsuo Matsumoto Ms. Janice Nakashima Ms. Molly Ozaki Ms. Sharon Shiraiwa Ms. Ruby D.Tsuji Ms. Dorothy Matsumoto Mr. Robert T. Nakazawa Ms. Marsha Hawley Paul Mr. Scott Sikkema Ms. Lisa Tsuji Ms. Elaine T. Matsushita Mrs.Jean S. Narimatsu Ms. Carmen Porter Mr. & Mrs. Theodore Steisk Mrs.Joan T.Tsuruda Mr. Douglas J. McDonough Mrs. Rebeca Narrajos Ms. Joyce T. Ku base & Mr. Robert Prosise Mrs. Theresia B. Stewart Mr. & Mrs. Shoji Uchida Ms. Constance I. McPherrin Dr. & Mrs. Katsumi Neeno Mrs.Amy Rasmussen Ms. Lillian F. Stramel Mr. & Mrs.William S. Ujiiye Ms. Ingrid L. Milarski Ms. Ruth E. Nehring Mr. Gerald L. Richardson Mrs. Frances S. Sugai Mr. Thomas Uyechi Mrs. Jean M. Mishima Mr. & Mrs. Peter Nelson Mr. & Mrs. Greg Rivera Mrs. Midori Sugimoto Ms.Andrea Vance Mr.& Mrs.RobertT.Mita Ms. Michelle A. Nicholson Mrs. Marjorie S. Rogasner Mr. Glenn T. Sugiyama Ms. Patricia M.Vega Mrs.Yoko A Mitani Mrs. Stella Nishibayashi Ms. Cheryl Rogers Mrs. Tomoe Sunahara Ms. Rose Marie Crane Vita Mr. James M. Mitsunaga Mr. Gordon R. Nishimoto Mr. Philip C. Roth Mr. Masato Suzuki Mr.& Mrs.Tad H.Wada Mr. & Mrs. Mark M. Mitsunaga Ms. Elaine Nishimura Mr. & Mrs. Mark H. Sachs Mrs. Sachi Suzuki Mr. Craig C. Warner Mr. & Mrs. Kazutaka Miyajima Mrs. Ruth A. Nishimura Ms. Kim W Sagami Mr. & Mrs. Kenji Tademoto Ms. Grace Watanabe Mr. Gregory A Miyake Ms. Susan M. Nishioka Mrs. Helen H. Saiki Mrs. Haruko Tademoto Mrs. Jennie A. Watanabe Mrs. Helen Miyake Mr. & Mrs. Gary Nishiura Mr. & Mrs. Hideo Saiki Mrs. Mary Tagami Mrs. Lynne K. Oshita Wong Ms. Ko Miyamoto Mrs. Jessica Nlshiura Mr.& Mrs.JamesT.Saiki Ms. Christine I. Takada Mr. Christopher Wong Mr. John K. Miyasaki Ms. Mary Nishiura Mr. & Mrs.Yoshitaro Sakai Mr. & Mrs. David T.Takada Dr. & Mrs. Ernest I.Yahiro Mr. & Mrs. Takanori Mizuta Mrs. Maudie Noma Mr. Sadao Sakane Ms.Agnes H. PalmejarTakaki Mr. & Mrs. Howard Yahiro Mrs. Etsuko Momil Mrs.Takeko A. Nomiya Ms. Kathryn Sakata Mr. & Mrs. Kenichi J. Takaki Mr.& Mrs. Paul H.Yamada Ms. Matsue Momohara Mrs. Rosalie S. Nowak Mrs. Nancy S. Sakurai Mr. Richard K. Takaki Mr. Richard M.Yamada Ms, Kiko Morgan Ms. Nancy A. Ocampo Ms. Susan W Saltzman Ms. Hisako Takami Mr. George H.Yamagiwa Ms. Jessie Morisato Ms. Sayuri O'Connor Mr. & Mrs.John Sasaki Ms. Fukiko Takano Mr. Keiji K.Yamagiwa Mrs. Helen K. Morishita Mr. Jack H. Oda Mr. John R. Sasaki Ms.Yukiko Takano Ms. Julie Yamaguchi Mr. Mort Morita Ms. June C. Oda Mrs. Elizabeth R. Sasaki Mr.& Mrs. lchiro Takehara Mrs. Lois R.Yamaguchi Ms. Lola Mukogawa Mrs. Fumiko Ogasawara Mr. & Mrs. Kenichi Sato Mr. & Mrs. Kiyoshi Tamanaha Mrs. Mari Yamaguchi Ms. Sumi Mukoyama Mr. Mitsue Ogata Ms. Reiko Satoh Mr. & Mrs.Alvin K. Tamura Mr. & Mrs. Masao T.Yamaji Mr. & Mrs. Hatsuichi Munemoto Mrs. Elsie Ogawa Mr. Lawrence D. Schectman Mr. Ken Tamura Mrs.Alice E.Yamamoto Ms. Laura Muraoka Mr. & Mrs. Robert E. Ogi Ms.Adi Schneider Mr. Frank T. Tanaka Mrs. Janet T. Yamamoto Mrs. Tomoye Muraoka Ms. Donna N. Ogura Mrs. Kristen Schreiber Mr. & Mrs. Tadashi Tanaka Ms. Karen & Ms. Greta Yamamoto Dr.Alice Murata Ms. Hanako Okamoto Mr. Kenneth Schug Mr. & Mrs.Yoshitaka Tanaka Mr. & Mrs. lwao Yamanaka Ms. Gerda Muri Ms. Glenn Okazaki Mr. Jane Seefeldt Mr. David Tanimura Mr. & Mrs.Yoshie Yamashita Mr. MarkV. Murphy Mr. & Mrs. Shig Oki .Mr. & Mrs. Kane K. Senda Mr:JimT.Tanouye Mr. Masaki Yoda Ms. Maryanne M. Murphy Mr. & Mrs. Kazuichi K. Okigawa Mr. Stanley S. Serikaku Ms. Rose M. Tashiro Ms. Janet Yoshida-Gordon Mrs. Lauretta M. Nagatomo Mr. & Mrs.TedY.Okita Mrs. Hisae Kuri Shea Mr. & Mrs. Masayasu B. Taura Mr. & Mrs. Hiroshi Yoshimoto Ms. Ruby Nakagawa Mrs. Sakiko Okuda Mr. & Mrs.Anthony Shek Mrs. Lily Teraji Mr. Glenn A.Yoshimura Mrs.Ann Midori Nakaguchi Mr. David Nakai Mr. & Rev. Gary Nakai Mrs. Keiko Okuizumi Ms. Elinor N. Olin Mr. Donald Olstinske Mr. & Mrs. Joe Shemanski Mrs. Rosemary Shieh Mrs. Masako Shimizu Ms. Elsie Terao Mr. & Mrs. Henry Terao Mr. & Mrs. David J. Toguri Ms. Kiyo Yoshimura Mrs. Shigeko Yoshimura Mr. Kenneth K. Yoza Mr. Ron Nakai Ms. Toyoko Omori Mr. William Shimizu Mr. Hiroshi Tokubo Mrs. Pat Yuzawa-Rubin Ms. Judy H. Zeddies Donations: In Memory Of: Albert I. Kamiya Alvin Tomiyama Anne S. Inouye Betty Okamoto Chico Minaga Daniel Kuzuhara Ken Kuzuhara lkue Kuzuhara Dr. Henry S. Inouye Dr.Victor S. lzui Ed Asaki Eddie Sasaki Frank Fukami Frank Sugeno George & Shiori Yamasaki George H. Morimoto George khiba George Katahira George Oba Gus Hikawa Haru Shimojima Helen Crane Henry Inouye Hirao S. Sakurada Hire Mayeda Hosen Oshita Iva Toguri June Uyeda Kei Mine Kimie Fukai Kiyo Norikane Lilia Taniguchi Masaro Harada Mas Sari Mimi Tsuji Mitsuye Nishikawa Naomi Hasegawa Nobuo Nojiri Quincy Wong Richard Hikawa Robert Matza Sachie Yoshimura Hajime John Yoshimura Sam lsamu Iwaoka Sara Takeuchi ShizArima Smoky Sakurada Sueto Charles Torii Sumie Tanimura Teruo Nagay Thomas J. Fujibayashi Thomas Mayahara Thomas Teraji Tomoye Muraoka T oyoko Hagie Victor lzui Yo Fujita Yoshiye Fujita Donations: In Honor: Frances Chikahisa Yoshiro Harada Carol Yamamoto lrl Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Annual Report, 2008-2009 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-2009 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RG09_Series01_Box01_2008-2009 https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/51cbc531e252ae49c1864c4024fdf338.pdf 6afc5e4aa151bab0fddec9a38373bc9d PDF Text Text ������������ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Annual Reports Description An account of the resource Record Group 9, JASC Publications Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chicago Resettlers Committee Japanese American Service Committee Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1946-2011 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RG09 Subject The topic of the resource Annual Reports of the Chicago Resettlers Committee and Japanese American Service Committee Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Text Any textual data included in the document P: 773.275.0097 F: 773.275.0958 w ww 4427 North Clark Street Chicago, Illinois 60640 .j a sc-c h icago. org - BOARD OF DIRECTORS, FY 2010 idee nt Leeaenne Ouee , Veice Presidee nt Craig Mizushimo, Treasurer ki John R. Sasea , Prese Jeli Defri o ViePeside nt Re iko SoetoheVice Preseidee nt Michael Tonimuro, Secretory ae q eeene, ce ree, cuen oeGleenn Sugeiyama , Vece Preseidee nt ie Jed y Oehit -Boej Bet Beckle yeCindeKanesehir Ereka KonoeJim Kono, Josino Morita, Jomes Onodo r , , seoeo, esey u, o, oey ie Kimberly RobinsoneDougelas Tono, . JASC Staff di St ff Develo men Staff Finance and Facilities t ative a Am nisr ti pt K. CPA,Sen Tyeb oen , Cehief Execueve Officer Jered G. Pruitt, Chief Developemen t Officer Melonie Koga, Controller usae Lisa Sloon, CPe, Accounts Receivable*Joanna LakatoseGraneWritee* Ae , t re Edwin Mongulobnon, Mointonence k Adult Da Se rvices Worker, CustodianSo cial Wor y SW k Melba Ristow, RN, ADS Superviso JNea kea o, LCe, Direector oeSocial We r on h Cehik f oreNonytes (Tess) Cano, RN, Doy Core Nurse Cultural & Community Affairs MieikeFeeehiso, LCSW co r ances o KeMLiebl LCSW Doris MasoneActivity Plannee Sharon Harada, Coordinator ori . eer,e , r oeKoy KawaguchieAssistant CoordinatorKotren Mesa, Activity Plannee, r i Koren KanemotoeManager, Legacy CenterH me Supp Serv e Carolina Mongulobno n, Nutrition , o ort cs l kaeaea , Sueereis Hose NavoeSenioeAid* f veor r, Heeen Na ymper Ou o the House t m HirosheAroshidoeDriver* , Meori Lei m, Heo ker i Morey Tokar, Ouet of the House Coordeinator meeae Lin e , k Lawrence ercodeseSenior Volunteee* . Wei LeHeme maer M, re oe JeFujiei Seano, Homemek Toshiko SharaeSenioeVolunteee* aem ie m errea er , r re ReTHeak oxane neo , memeee* Kenneeh YozoeSenioeVolunteee re, r* ooetr Suppor t Staff Carol N. YoshenoeOffice Manager, Specia Evente , iel s YukeScroggeins, Receptionis i t Reyon Togeu reReceptionis i, t Indicatees contracet worker or permanenet voluntee * r Social Services JASC provides a myriad of social services to individuals of all ages , races and ethnicities with focus a , on physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being With our culturall com etent rofessiona l staff h o . y pp w provide services in-home or at JASC, we are able to reach more i ndividuals in need regardless of p h ysical ,li mitations . Adult Day Services (ADS) Our ADS program provides seniors professional medical care in a socially active environment where they can exercise and sustain their physical and cognitive well-being. These services also benefit family caregivers with much needed respite which decreases stress-related illnesses, work absenteeism, loss of employment, and family instability and dysfunction. Social Work Services Our Social Work program offers linguistically and culturally competent licensed social workers who assist people from all over the Midwest. Individual, family and group counseling provides emotional and psychological support and focuses on strengthening coping skills to deal with issues such as anxiety and depression, language and cultural difficulties, health challenges and preparation for death and dying. Home Support Services Home Support Services (HSS) assists seniors and adults wanting to stay in their homes with household tasks such as cleaning, planning and preparing meals, grocery shopping, transportation to doctor appointments, and picking up prescriptions. HSS also supports young professionals who are too busy in their careers by managing tasks such as housekeeping, laundry and grocery service. Out-of-the-House Out-of-the-House (00TH) addresses the needs of seniors who have lost their social network of friends because of illness, frailty or death and use this group as their network of connection to peers. 00TH offers exercise, socialization and activities which are directed toward keeping the seniors active physically, mentally, and emotionally. Arts and Culture Programs JASC is committed to building, preserving, and promoting Japanese and Japanese American culture and heritage through: the Legacy Center archive which preserves Japanese American history, cultural classes which enrich and educate the general public, and an artist-in-residence program which fosters growth of Japanese and Japanese American artistic tradition. Legacy Center The JASC Legacy Center is the largest publicly accessible archive and repository on Chicago Japanese American history, with particular emphasis on the period following World War II, when Japanese Americans were released from wartime internment camps. Its focus is to preserve and showcase these valuable archives while educating the public through local and traveling exhibitions and workshops. I Cultural Classes JASC is committed to building quality cultural programming, classes and events that not only preserve the culture, history and legacy of Japanese Americans, but also keeps them living, developing and relevant in our contemporary culture. JASC has done this, in part, by fostering, partnering and collaborating with masters and experts in Japanese culture. JASC offers these masters support through its artists-in-residence program, which encourages artists to continue to expand their mastery, provides them with a means to showcase it to the greater community, and creates environments where their skills and knowledge can be passed on to others, of all ages, ethnicities and economic backgrounds. Tampopo Kai Tampopo Kai provides Japanese language and cultural education for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their parents by laying a strong foundation for Japanese language at an early age and nurturing the beginnings of a positive ethnic and cultural identity through cultural activities that are responsive to the l developmental needs of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. I For the year ending June 30, 20 l 0 ] Revenues: Individuals: $480,123 Membership: $65,045 Special Events (net): $44,375 Corporation and Foundation Grants: $173,615 United Woy: $72,428 Governmental Agencies Support: $307,160 Program Fees, Activity Fees and Other: $328, l 07 Investment Income $121,551 Total Support and Revenue $1,599,224 Expenses: Operating Expenses Programs: $998,992 Management and General: $66,840 Funroising: $158,185 Total Operating Expenses $1,224,017 Non-Operating Expenses Pension Related Charges: $11,236 Total Expenses $1,235,253 Revenue ond Support over Expenses $356,971 The above figures ore from the final audit . A complete copy of the financial statements, audited by John D. Kopczyk, ltd., is available for viewing at the JASC office. Investment Income 7.6% 1 Governmental and Agencies Support - 19.3% Program Fees, Activity Fees and Other 20.6% United Way 4.5% Corporation and Foundation Grants 10.9% Non-Operational Expenses Fundraising I 1.0% 12.8% '-.,,. Programs 80.8% Management and General _ 54% $25,000 and above Illinois Deportment on Aging Notional Pork Service United Way of Metropolitan Chicago $ 10,000-$24, 999 Chicago Community Trust Research Retirement Foundation Northwestern University Chiye Tomihiro $2,500-$9,999 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Foundation Chicago Japanese American Council ComEd: An Exelon Company Harmony Healthcare & Rehab Center Horris Bonk Huron Consulting Group Illinois Arts Council Japanese American Citizens league Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago Japanese Mutual Aid Society National Endowment for the Humanities Peoples Gos United Bindery Services, Inc. United States Deportment of Agriculture Yamamoto-Yoshida Family Anonymous Lisa Sloan Mr. & Mrs. Craig Mizushimo Mr. & Mrs. Bing Nishiuro Charles Valouskas & Linda Kawano $ 1,000-$2,499 Anne Nombo Designs Barry-Regent Cleaners Boeing Chicago Nisei Post# l 183 City Arts Masuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell, Ltd. National Japanese American Historical Society Prudential Foundation Matching Gihs Donors 7/1/2009 -6/30/2010 Trans Agra Anonymous Mr & Mrs. Jack Dairiki Mork Murphy Rose Okabe Mr. & Mrs. Jomes Onodo Lisa Sakai John Sasaki Mr & Mrs. Glenn Sugiyama Jack Yau & Sibyl Mayeda $500-$999 TDK Corporation of America Wachovia Foundation Anonymous Mortin Fujimoto Kikuko Fujimura Hiromi Ishikawa George Ito Pamela Kagan Donna Kobayashi Carol Konogomitsu laura Maeda Arlene Manelli Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Matsumoto Yasuko Metcalf Asako Nishimura June Oda Hanoko Okamoto Greg Sahli & Lydia Omori Peter &Jody Oshito-Bojor Mr. & Mrs. John R. Sasaki Mr. & Mrs. Mitsuzo Shido Mr & Mrs. Osamu Tanabe Lynne Oshita-Wong Mr. & Mrs. Ken Yoshitoni $100-$499 Chelsea Christmas, Inc. Chicago Metro History Education Center Anonymous Christ Church of Chicago Circle of Service Foundation Shoji Abe Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Nak Investment ·company, Inc. Mr & Mrs. Matthew Ambrogi Jone Anselmino June Aragaki Mr. & Mrs. Poul Arakawa Fujiko Asa Mr & Mrs. Poul Ase Todd & Julie Asmussen Janet Ayers Bruce Bank & Sharon K. Ogawa Frances Benbow Mr & Mrs. Robert Burns Frances Chikohisa Marshall Chin Wonda Chirnside Mr. & Mrs. Paul Doi Patricia DuShone Doris Endo Noreen Enkoji Mr & Mrs. Roy Esaki Marilyn Files Richard Forrest Judith Fors Mr & Mrs. Elwood Frigo Alfred Fujii Mr. & Mrs. Keith Fujikawa laurel Fujisawa & Michael G. Vosilou Mr. & Mrs. Wayne Fujiwara Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Fukai Martha Fukomi Mary Fukami Yoshimi Golden Jim Goodmon &Jean Mazawa Alice Greenhouse Alberto Gurevich & Nora Nakayama Ray Hallowell Mr. & Mrs. Yosh Harada June Harada Dr. & Mrs. Michael Harada Roy Hashimoto Roy Hoshioka Mr & Mrs. Howard Hieshimo Edith Higashi Martha Hikawo Darren Hondo Mr & Mrs. Yuichi ldoko Tomi lijima Cheryl lkemiya Tomiko Inouye Colvin Ishida Mr. & Mrs. Masuo Ishida Miki Ishikawa & Stephanie Cara Mr. & Mrs. Yukio lsoye Dr & Mrs. Seiji ltahoro Ruth Iwami Charles lzui & Christine A Sullivan Jacqueline Jackson Mary Lise & Jin no Tomohisa Mr. & Mrs. Tooru Kojiwara Moy Kambaro Katherine Kamiya &Jomes D. Weilhammer Mr. & Mrs. Darrell Kaneshiro Mr & Mrs. Rich Katz Mr & Mrs. Yoshio Kawaguchi Mr & Mrs. Jay Kawakami Dr & Mrs. Henry Kawonaga Dr & Mrs. Bruce Kenomore Charles Killman Dr David Kim Richard Kimoto & Janice Ozimo Mr. & Mrs. Eugene Kimura Jo Ann King Mihoko Koizumi Yuki Kumoki Kevin Kumashiro Elaine Kurokawa Yurie Kushino Kwesi Leggett Martha Makino Mary Maruyama Kotsuo Matsumoto Donors 7 /1 /2009-6/30/2010 Kazuko Mayahara Mr & Mrs. Corey McPher.rin Tamiye Meehan Masao Mend. Kiyo Minaga Mr & Mrs Andrew Mine Mas Mitsuda John Miyasaki Mr & Mrs. Shu Miyazaki Violet Mizuki Ted Mizuno Matsue Momohora Mr & Mrs. Jun Mori Mr. & Mrs. George Morimitsu Dr. & Mrs. Richard Morimoto Jessie Morisato Jacqueline Matoaka Mory Muramoto Tsuneko Nakagawa Janel Nakai Rebecca Nakamura Coralyn Nakamura Mr. & Mrs. Stanley Nakamura Dr Akemi Nakanishi Mr. & Mrs. Toshia Nakanishi Miyeko Nakao Mr & Mrs. lsamu Nakao Kats Nakashima Margo Nakayama Patricia Nakayama Kyle Nakazawa Rev. & Mrs. Masoru Nambu Mr & Mrs Tom Naokawa Ruth Nehring Mr & Mrs. Kiyoto Nishimoto Ruth Nishimura Mr & Mrs. John Nishimura T, ,shie Noguchi Takeko Nomiya Dr. Eric Nussbaum & Ann Chikahisa Kenneth Oba Miyuki Ohshita Mr & Mrs. Hideo Oishi Mr. & Mrs. Richard Okabe Mr & Mrs. William Okamoto Hiroshi Okano Pat Okita Mr. & Mrs. Jimmy Omura Mitzi Omura May One Mr. & Mrs. Hideo Onoda Sue Oshita Leeanne Oue Dr Ryoichi Oyasu Mr & Mrs. Sam Ozaki Molly Ozaki Mr & Mrs. Andrew Pork Marsha Paul Bertrand Phillips &Joyce C Morishita Sharon Ouintenz & John Von Pelt Bryan Robson Marjorie Rogasner Donna Sagami & David Handwerk Toshiko Sahara Emi Sakaeda Mr. & Mrs. Yoshitoro Sakai Henry Sakai Machiko Sakai Sadao Sakane Nancy Sakurai Mr. & Mrs. Fred Sasaki Suzanne Sowada & Leonard S.JoyKenneth Schug Shigeko Scott Mr. & Mrs. Marvin Scroggins Mr. & Mrs. George Sekiya Mr & Mrs. Kane Senda Mr. & Mrs. Anthony Shek Mr & Mrs. Carlos Shibata Mr & Mrs. Takeshi Shibayama Dr Steven Shikami Anne Shimojima Mr & Mrs. Shiro Shiraga Nikki Smith Peter Soraoka Mr & Mrs. Kenneth Spielman Mr & Mrs. Roger Suekama Midori Sugimoto Mr. & Mrs. Go Sugiura Christine Sumida Mary Tagami Michael Takada & Susan J. 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Terop Sueto Chorles Tori i Elenore Tori ikBorboro Ujkiye ikGery Uyeno rk Richord Yoshijiro Mine Richord Yoshijiro Mine, Jr Yoshizo Jomes Yoshimura Hojime John Yoshimura Jomes Yoshizo The mission of the Japanese American Service Committee is to preserve and raise awareness of the Japanese American culture and heritage, and promote the physical and spiritual well-being of Japanese Americans and the greater multicultural community in the Midwest. Founded August, 30 1946, the JASC is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation of the State of Illinois. 1-rl Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Annual Report, 2009-2010 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-2010 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RG09_Series01_Box01_2009-2010 https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/7d1425d78627efa0fcaa446dde49f9d4.png e39eda439f0aff540cca64fc77f97016 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Japanese Americans--History. Description An account of the resource This collection contains oral history interviews from the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) Legacy Center's holdings. Where available, transcriptions have been included and synced to the recordings to enable full-text searching. Interviews were recorded at various times, some by JASC staff and some by external partners, often supported by grant funding. See the metadata associated with each interview for full details. This digital collection will continue to grow as new interviews are recorded, and as additional pre-existing recordings are received by donation or discovered in the physical archives. The digitization and transcription of many of the recordings in this collection, the recording of interviews between July 2018 and June 2021, and the creation of this publicly accessible digital platform, were funded by a Japanese American Confinements Sites (JACS) grant awarded by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The JASC Legacy Center gratefully acknowledges the financial support received between 2018 and 2021 that enabled this project to succeed. --- This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity National Park Service 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Lincoln, Emma Saito Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Koizumi, Edward Interview Keyword Kibei Nambu-cho Yamanashi-ken Manzanar McClurg Company Nichiren Buddhist Church Institute of Design Illinois Institute of Technology OHMS Object Text 5.4 5/12/2021 Koizumi, Edward (5/12/2021) 1:20:32 JASC_OHP JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection OHP Oral History Project Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center Recorded, transcribed, and made accessible online with financial support from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program. Kibei Nambu-cho Yamanashi-ken Manzanar McClurg Company Nichiren Buddhist Church Institute of Design Illinois Institute of Technology Koizumi, Edward Lincoln, Emma Saito video 1:|18(1)|34(11)|45(15)|56(10)|70(9)|81(5)|96(5)|117(3)|125(2)|138(5)|152(13)|167(6)|180(14)|194(1)|205(16)|220(4)|236(12)|248(4)|259(18)|271(3)|284(2)|297(13)|307(6)|317(9)|332(7)|342(3)|350(14)|360(7)|369(13)|379(13)|390(12)|402(11)|414(12)|425(4)|438(13)|449(5)|458(4)|470(3)|483(5)|496(2)|511(2)|525(2)|537(8)|547(5)|558(11)|569(6)|582(11)|592(14)|605(11)|616(8)|634(10)|648(2)|663(6)|675(1)|686(6)|699(4)|713(9)|727(2)|736(3)|750(8)|760(5)|769(14)|784(11)|795(5)|807(1)|816(1)|828(3)|837(8)|845(3)|858(8)|869(10)|885(2)|897(8)|905(14)|917(11)|927(5)|938(13)|948(13)|963(2)|973(9) 0 https://vimeo.com/551685115/4be1789505 Vimeo video &lt ; iframe src=&quot ; https://player.vimeo.com/video/551685115?h=4be1789505&quot ; width=&quot ; 640&quot ; height=&quot ; 360&quot ; frameborder=&quot ; 0&quot ; allow=&quot ; autoplay ; fullscreen ; picture-in-picture&quot ; allowfullscreen&gt ; &lt ; /iframe&gt ; Edward Shinichi Koizumi is a shin-issei born in 1950 in Nambu, Yamanashi, Japan. Edward Emma Saito Lincoln (EL): Today is May 12, 2021, and this oral history is being recorded at the Japanese American Service Committee building at 4427 North Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois. The interviewer is Emma Saito Lincoln, and the interviewee is Edward Shinichi Koizumi. This interview is being recorded by the JASC Legacy Center in order to document the experiences of Japanese Americans in the Chicago area. So let&#039 ; s begin with just a little bit of background about you, and if you could please state your full name for me. Edward Koizumi (EK): Oh, my name is Edward Shinichi Koizumi. EL: Thank you, and what&#039 ; s your year of birth? EK: Oh, uh born 1950. EL: Alright, and where were you born? EK: I was born in Nambu-cho, Yamanashi-ken, Japan. And this would have been the ancestral home of my maternal grandfather whom we&#039 ; re talking about today. EL: Right, and how old were you when you first came to the U.S.? EK: Um, it was 1955, so I would have been four and a half. And just a little bit before starting kindergarten, kindergarten would have come about half a year later, and you know coming to America was quite a shock in that you know I think the first thing we did was start taking off our shoes as we entered the apartment in Chicago and my grandparents saying &quot ; Oh no, no in, in America we don&#039 ; t have to take off our shoes.&quot ; And I, we thought that was quite, quite a shock I thought. EL: And, I understand that your family&#039 ; s journey to the U.S. actually began much earlier than your arrival, so could you tell me a little bit about the first people? EK: Actually it was great-- yeah, actually it was great-grandfather. His name was Bunjiro Koizumi, and he had come to the United States at the age of 21. And I couldn&#039 ; t tell you what year it was, I, sorry I didn&#039 ; t do the research there. But, he called for his son, which would have been my grandfather, Seiichi Koizumi and Seiichi came when he was 16-years-old and-- And this would have been the Seattle area. And you know there were various work for you know, immigrants. I remember him talking about working in a canning company, I think they were you know, canning salmon. And he was a young man so he would you know be up in the, you know near the top of the, of the mechanism, you know this, this big assembly-line machine. And he would be loading the, the empty cans on top. And so these empty cans would be coming down the chute and all these people would be very busily, you know packing the uh, the cans with, with fish. And then, you know one of the stories-- and he was, I think a bit of a devil, even as a, as a young man. He said every so often you know he would, rather than putting the cans in this way as he should, he&#039 ; d see the people working below, working very hard and sweating, he said &quot ; Oh I&#039 ; ll put the can in this way&quot ; and then this can would go down the chute and jam up the machine. (laughs) And, and then everybody got a 15-minute break while the engineers you know came out and they had to clear the machine. Anyway, that&#039 ; s the kind of person that he was I think. (laughs) So, he did various kinds of work, um-- There was a lot of produce going-- a lot of, uh growing and so uh-- I&#039 ; m not so sure he did that much farming he didn&#039 ; t, you know say that much about that, but he was doing you know clerking, and working in grocery stores, even at one point he traveled and he was working at a railroad line and they said uh, one of the things that he did was to jump on the train as it left the station, and then he would work his way up to the, the lantern of this, of the, the steam engine clean it off, and then as soon as that was clean, he would jump off, and then he&#039 ; d you know walk back to the station and so, so he said, &quot ; You know the faster you work the, the shorter a trip it was back to the station!&quot ; So I, I think he had quite a colorful career. EL: Was he in Seattle that whole period? EK: Uh he was, um until um-- Well let&#039 ; s see. Well, when he was 20 he went back to, to J- to Japan, and my older sister June was saying that there was a change in the law which would have made it more difficult for, for immigrants to bring people over, your family members over. So they, they learned about that so he thought that was a good opportunity to get married, so he went back to the old village and, and he married a uh, a woman that he had known previously. Um, and then, then he went back to America, to, to work some more and to make enough money so that he could bring his wife over, and so she came over, and-- So I guess she would have been 20. Um, I asked my grandmother, her name would be Rei Koizumi, her maiden name was Sano, if she was afraid of coming to, you know, a new country without you know, knowing the language, and she said, &quot ; No&quot ; . And I was, really quite surprised that uh, that she was so adventurous and bold like that, and but I think maybe that was, you know her personality. And, and I think for people who are immigrants to the United States, you know they wanted something better for themselves. Um, now I was born, coincidentally I was born in the same uh house, that he had lived in, and uh-- And you know the area is rural, it&#039 ; s a, it&#039 ; s a mountain valley, and people were, you know, subsistence farmers. You know they grew rice and they grew vegetables for themselves, and there wasn&#039 ; t a whole lot of spending money, you know there wasn&#039 ; t any cash crops, so you know I think a lot of the adventuresome people you know, wanted something better for themselves and decided to, to head off. And America was the um, you know the place of opportunity then. EL: Do you know if your grandparents or your great-grandfather lived near other Japanese immigrant families? EK: There must have been because I think a lot of immigrants, you know they&#039 ; re fortunate enough to, um you know have the community of, of people from their-- you know, of their own nationality. Although he was very early on, probably would have been in, in the earliest peoples. So, you know, I-- that I do not know and, you know unfortunately at this point, there&#039 ; s no one left to ask you know a lot of these questions that we might have! And you know when I was younger well, you know these weren&#039 ; t questions that I had. I pretty much you know took for granted that you know here we were you know in this country and uh, you know, a-and living f-fairly well. And hadn&#039 ; t really appreciated the hard work and the, you know and perhaps the prejudices that they had to work through to get to you know where we were then. EL: So we have your great-grandfather, comes to the U.S. then calls his son over, EK: That&#039 ; s right. EL: --and that would be your grandfather who then returned to Japan to find a wife, t-to marry someone actually he knew before. Then he comes back to the U.S. and then she follows once there&#039 ; s enough money. EK: That&#039 ; s correct, yeah, a little while later yeah. EL: And then could you fill in a little bit of what happened after that? EK: Okay so this was still in Seattle, um-- I think it was about, oh maybe 10, 12 years later that, that Grandfather&#039 ; s father Bunjiro decides to go back to Japan. And he goes back to Japan permanently. And at this point the young couple moves down to the Los Angeles area, and I don&#039 ; t know when, you know, the children came along, but uh, their first, you know their, the eldest, their, their daughter, named Lily Hisae sh- she came along first and then came Herbert Shuichi and then the youngest was Wood Masao Koizumi and, and then Grandfather got into the uh, the produce business, being a greengrocer. He would drive his truck to the various growers in the area, you know load up his truck and then bring it down to his market and then he would display them and you know people would come and um, you know and buy the goods. I think he had a number of different stores, you know, you know not simultaneously but he would start-- you know he would start simply and the first store seemed more like a stall and then I think he had a few, and then by the time 1945 came along he-- it was, or, &#039 ; 41, it was a fairly large store that he had had. EL: Do you know what the name of his store was? EK: It had a number of different names because he would you know buy, buy one and then he&#039 ; d sell that and buy, you know, and then upgrade. And, well one of the, the store names was called Sam&#039 ; s and, and you know h-he di-- he wouldn&#039 ; t bother to change the sign, I mean why, you know, why waste the money to change the sign, and then people started calling him Sam &#039 ; cuz, you know, he was the owner, and so he decided, &#039 ; Well Sam&#039 ; s a good name&#039 ; (laughs) and so I think that&#039 ; s how he, he got his American name. And, you know I guess our family tended to uh, adopt American names just to make it simpler, you know, for us to navigate. So he became Sam. I don&#039 ; t believe my grandmother ever took a American name though she was always Rei. Um, but you know the uh, the children had American names. Uh-- EL: So then, what happened in 1941 or leading up to 1941? EK: Well you know, when, well shortly before, well before Pearl Harbor, my grandmother had taken the, the three children back to the old village in Japan. I&#039 ; ve heard a couple of different versions of this. I thought they were just to visit family, but they were there a number of months so-- I, I don&#039 ; t know if you know some people had an inkling that there would be trouble ahead so, I thought you know this would have been a very, you know difficult decision but, you know to, t-to split up the family. But Grandmother, you know, took the three children you know back to Japan, and Grandfather stayed in Los Angeles. I think they were living in Santa Monica at the time but his business was in Los Angeles. You know, to continue you know minding his business. And then you know Pearl Harbor was struck and that pretty much closed the Pacific and, and so the family was separated for you know those years of the, of the war. EL: And then what happened to your grandfather? EK: Well Grandfather would&#039 ; ve had to liquidate the business he didn&#039 ; t say if he got much money for that, but he ended up in Manzanar, which is in the s-, you know, southern part of California. And I guess a lot of people from the Los Angeles-Seattle area were put into that particular camp. You know there were, you know I guess 10 camps altogether. So, he was pretty much there during, you know, for the duration. EL: Is that, a period of his life that he talked about much when you were growing up? EK: Uh, just a few stories, I knew that he had learned woodworking there, since the um... I, I guess the folks were saying, you know the men were saying, &quot ; Well since we&#039 ; re going to have to be here, you know, is there something that we could learn, and something that would be useful?&quot ; And so a woodshop was set up for them, and, and I&#039 ; ve got a picture of my grandfather, you know, learning wood- woodworking. Because I think this was something different that he had not had much exposure to and this is a-- (grabs photograph) a photograph that always hung in his workshop. (*Refers to off camera) Do you have that Maria? So you know the men are standing in front of various machines, about a dozen of them and actually, I r-- this, here&#039 ; s my grandfather here. And this man here standing right next to him I believe that&#039 ; s Mr. Kondo who was a family friend whom we knew in Chicago. So you know this is in California so a number of the, the people would have traveled Eastward after, after the war. EL: Do you know if during that time while he was incarcerated and his wife and children were in Japan, were they able to communicate with each other at all? EK: They w-, yeah they, they were able to write letters, and, and I have a few of those letters. And, and you know some of those are, you know have black marks on there. And they had been opened, and there would be a sticker on the envelope saying censored by you know, the, the war department and so-- You know, any correspondence going back and forth you know would be looked at, you know, by the government. EL: And then eventually, as he left Manzanar, do you know when and how he left? EK: He left a few months before war&#039 ; s end, and I guess they were sp-- People who were given special grants to, to leave the camp. And-- as long as they would be going East rather than, you know to, you know t-to the West. So, so he chose Chicago, I don&#039 ; t know why Chicago, but there was a, a Japanese Americans living there then. And so you know they may, they may have suggested that he come there. And so he had to start over again, and there was a, a man named Mr. Okuhara who, I believe worked with him at the um, at the uh, the farmers market in Santa Monica. Where-- --And so these two men got together and pooled their money, and they were able to buy an apartment building. And you know, this would have been important for Japanese Americans because they were coming displaced, and they were coming East and they needed a place to stay and they were still, you know they were you know suffering some discrimination. So this would have been a safe place for them to have an apartment. And then my grandfather, you know this became his second career, becoming a landlord. So he had this building-- So in 1955 when, you know my family, you know came to Chicago he was living on LaSalle Street and that was another building that he had bought. So at this point he had one, and he had one on his ow-- by himself, and then you know the others he, you know he half-owned with Mr. Okuhara. EL: Do you know the locations, or the addresses of those properties? EK: The um, well, yeah when my, when my grandfather first came to Chicago, he was living in apartments on the Southside, and that was an enclave of Japanese Americans living there. But then the area that we you know, call Little Tokyo at the time was centered around like Clark Street and Division, and so his first building you know with Mr. Okuhara was like I want to say about 1200 North on Clark Street. And then the, the building that, that he lived in was at 1244 LaSalle Street so that would have been just a little North of Division. EL: Thank you. So let&#039 ; s shift over to Japan for a little bit, EK: Mhmm EL: And, how much do you know about your grandmother&#039 ; s experience with her children during the war? EK: The, well there was suffering there in, in Japan. You know Japan had started this thing and they thought they would win it but you know-- Well you know, hindsight being 20-20 how could, you know how could a small country like Japan compete against the United States with you know, all the manpower and, and, and all the resources that it had. And if you, you know, anger a, a country like that oh boy you know you&#039 ; re really in for it. But the Japanese government, you know the Japanese people fought the best they could. So they continued farming, and luckily they were in a farming area as opposed to the cities. Now the people in the cities, you know they didn&#039 ; t grow their own food so they were quite dependent on, on the government or you know on, on capitalism to have any, even, you know things to eat. So anyway, the farmers were a little bit luckier in that, you know they were able to grow their own food, although you know the problem was is that the Japanese government would confiscate the rice that, they that they grew. And, and then rice would be rationed back to them. Now, you know Japanese love fresh rice and especially farmers, and, and the rice that would be rationed back to them would be you know, old rice. So you know, they were, you know growing a new rice and then having that taken away from them. And then you know, they get old rice back. And then you know there would be relatives coming from the cities, and they would expect to be you know entertained and fed. And, then, you know before they left back into the city they would say, &quot ; Oh, oh by the way you know our family in, back in the city, you know we&#039 ; re, we&#039 ; re very hungry. Could you, you know, could you gift us with some food?&quot ; And then, you know the, the, the uncle would you know produce a big wrapping sack, you know furoshiki cloth and of course the family would have to you know put food in there and then he would tie it up and then thank them very much and then he&#039 ; d go back to the city. And, you know, there was a lot of suffering on that side. I had known, I had known Iva Toguri who had, had troubles in, in Tokyo. And, and I could see how people in the cities would, you know would be very much, you know in duress because of lack of food and you know, and, and maybe the lack of support of the families close by. EL: How old were the children at that point in time, do you know roughly? EK: They were grade school, my, my mother would have been in high school and, and what&#039 ; s, what&#039 ; s hard for the, that the kids, is that now they&#039 ; re American citizens right because they&#039 ; re born in, in America. And so they would be singled out as Americans, and you know as being part of the enemy. Now my, let&#039 ; s see my, my mother would be in high school, and, and-- You know and when they started school in Japan and they had to go, you know go to school, they would have been put back a grade or two because their Japanese and their, their writing would not be up to, up to par with their, with their age group. And so that, that must have been difficult for them too. EL: Did they talk about that much? EK: No, but I&#039 ; ve seen photographs of them. And, oh I don&#039 ; t know if, they, they, they, you know these old black-and-white photographs they look sad. (laughs) You know it, it, they to contrast that with the photographs of them taken in, in Santa Monica in Los Angeles when they were doing, you know when they, when they were prospering, you know in standing in front of their car, you know in nice clothing, smiling. And then you know a photograph that I, you know that I might see, in Ja-- you know from th-- of them in Japan, in their country clothes. And you know, these, these photographs would have been um, you know rather expensive to have so they were-- There&#039 ; s not that many of them but, you know, it, it looks, it looks, it looks hard. EL: And, and then what happened as the war came to an end, to the piece of the family that was in Japan? EK: Well, at war&#039 ; s end of course you know Grandmother would want to bring the family back together again. So she made arrangements to, you know to, to, to go back. But it turns out that my, you know their, their oldest daughter had voted in a Japanese election, and-- And this was new, you know to, for, for a woman to be able to vote in a Japanese election and it would have been the influence of the, of the U.S. occupying forces. And so when, women were allowed to vote there was a lot of excitement, you know and, and it could be that my, that my mother was kind of caught up in that excitement and she unwittingly voted. Now, what she didn&#039 ; t know was that as a U.S. citizen she should not have voted in a Japanese election. So, you know, when the government found out that she had done this, well then she was barred from going back to the U.S. So, so, so what could Grandmother do? You know what could her mother do? So she sent the sons back, and she had to stay back to be with her daughter. And, well, now she would have been about 18 or so, so she would have been a marriageable age. So that would have been the solution, so she, she cast her net to find an eligible young man to marry her. Now that&#039 ; s difficult, &#039 ; cause after the war there&#039 ; s so many, so many young men were killed. And um-- But what happened coincidentally with the man who would become my father, he had been fighting in Sumatra and he was a, a Signal Corpsman for the Imperial Army which meant that he would not be in, in the front lines. He would have been b-behind the front lines and the Signal Corpsman were very valued because, you know without them you, you can&#039 ; t send radio transmissions and, and such. And he especially knew the codes you know he knew the Morse codes and the encryption codes for the transmissions so-- He told me afterwards that well you know there was some suff- there was suffering of course in, in, all the, the Japanese units, but he said luckily he didn&#039 ; t get the worst of it. He was taken prisoner by the, by the British forces at the war&#039 ; s end, and what I found out later is that he was stuck in Sumatra for two years even after the war. The Japanese government could not, you know they didn&#039 ; t have the resources to bring back you know to repatriate their soldiers that were stranded you know in these various places so-- So about two years later they finally you know got a ship-- [recording paused and restarted] EL: Okay so let&#039 ; s pick back up with after the war, and your grandmother seeking a suitable husband for her daughter who couldn&#039 ; t return to the United States. EK: Yeah, that&#039 ; s right my, yeah my mother had voted in an election and, and that caused her to be barred from returning to the United States to rejoin her, her father. So, so my grandmother, or her mother would have to-- So she decided that she would have to find a, a suitable husband for her daughter so that she herself could return back to the United States so-- So she must have contacted all the people that she knew in the area, you know could there be a uh, you know for a, a suitable young man. And of course this was difficult right after the war because so many young men had been killed, but what had happened with my, with the man who would become my father, he had been fighting in Sumatra you know as a Signal Corpsman and-- But then at the, at war&#039 ; s end, they surrendered to the British forces there, but the Japanese government could not repatriate the stranded soldiers and so they had to bide their time there for, oh maybe a couple of years. And finally, a ship was sent to, to bring them back to Japan. So you know he goes back to Tokyo where he had, had a job, but Tokyo had been bombed out so then he went back to the old village. Now his old village was a neighboring village to where my grandfather&#039 ; s home was. So he, so, so when he returned, it was a-- It was the match that my, you know that, that my grandmother was looking for. And so, what&#039 ; s key here is that my father was the second born son of his family. Now the first born son you know his older brother, would have the, he would inherit the farm so he would inherit you know the, the fortune of the family you know, a-- but also you know would be the, the responsibility of taking care of the elderly parents. But then that left the second born son to seek his own fortune and to make his own way in the world. So this was advantageous for him too, in that you know he had very little but the, but the, the bargain that was struck was that he would now you know, marry the eldest daughter, I mean the, the oldest child, the, the daughter. But you know she was the eldest child, but then he would assume the position of the eldest son of the family. And he would change his name, he would change his name from Mochizuki, which was his name, to Koizumi. And, and then he and his new wife would move into the, the farmhouse and start a life there. And he didn&#039 ; t know that much about farming, so he had to learn and the Koizumi clan helped them, you know learn about farming, and he worked hard, and, and then the, and then they started having children. My older sister June was born, she was named Harumi at the time, you know she took on the name June afterwards so, probably because she was born in June. And then I came along, my name was Shinichi, I didn&#039 ; t take on Edward until we came to America, and then Michiko was the youngest and her name you know would be Grace. And so you know we lived in, and so I grew up on a farm and it was actually you know rather idyllic I thought you know we just play in the fields and the streams and there wasn&#039 ; t, you know we were too young for chores. You know that would come later I suppose. But then, the U.S. government relented and, and there were a number of I think Japanese Americans who had lost their way back to you know Japane-- I mean American citizen Japanese people who lost their way, not being able to you know go back to America. And so a lot of these people were then allowed to come back. And so this would have been 1955 that you know my parents affairs were cleared up and, and then we all came. You know for, for my father that must have been you know quite, quite a challenge because he didn&#039 ; t speak English, and you know truthfully you never did learn English that well. But you know, he was able to do well in this country and, and, an-and I think it was a, I think was a good bargain that he had struck and it was actually a, a good marriage. And you know they, they, they stayed together until my mother died at 85. And he would continue on till ninety-- till 98-- Anyway-- EL: Do you remember, you were quite a young child when you left Japan and came to the United States, do you remember how you felt at that age? EK: Um, I think I must have been totally clueless. (laughs) Because, you know it seemed like one day I was playing with my, with my cousins and I must not have been-- I, I don&#039 ; t remember people bustling around, packing things and my, my older sister June was a year-and-a-half older, remembers that, you know there was a lot of sadness but... I was a little boy, I was 4 and I just remember being packed into a car and that was, that was a new experience for me being packed in a car. And I was you know, looking at the car and people were saying goodbyes I suppose, and, and then the next thing I know you know we&#039 ; re in, we&#039 ; re being taken to Tokyo. And I remember being on the tarmac of the airport, seeing the big engines of the, of the plane that we were going to take off in, you know revving up and the smoke coming out and I was just fascinated by that. But the thought that you know, I might not see you know, my, my, the family members that we left in Chic-- in, in Japan that did not occur to me. And so I think I just took things as they came. EL: What are some of your strongest memories of that childhood on the farm? EK: I th-- I think a lot of people have asked me you know, what do I remember? And for, you know I think for kids who have, you know been in the same house for their entire childhood you know it might be a, a big blur but you know there was quite a difference between you know the, the mountain valley in Japan, you know to Chicago so I do remember a lot of things. I think the earliest memory was me laying you know on the tatami, looking up at the ceiling, and there was a skylight and it was raining. And I hear the sound of the, the rain falling on the tin roof. We had a tin roof on our farmhouse, you know a lot of the houses along there had, had thatched roofs. And so after a big rain you know I would see the, the men on ladders you know trying to fix the, you know the holes, you know rearrange the thatch you know where the water had gotten in. I remember my parents taking us kids across a rickety bridge to the mountains, you know to collect mushrooms and to, you know we had a field of um-- I think we had a stand of bamboo there too. And my father would j-- I was too small you know to walk, so he would just throw me into a basket that he had on his back. So I would ride like that. My older sister, to this day she has a terrible-- She&#039 ; s, she&#039 ; s truly quite frightened by heights. And that was because you know she had to walk on the, the suspension bridge. And you know a number of the boards of the suspension bridge were broken so you know you could see the water rushing underneath and so she had to hop from board-to-board you know, you know, with my, taking my, my mother&#039 ; s hand of course but-- I&#039 ; m sure that early experience just, just terrorized her to heights. I remember playing with my cousins, you know in the farms playing with crabs that were you know in the, in the riverbeds. Well, you know it was good times I thought. EL: And then what do you remember about your arrival here in Chicago? Where did you live initially? EK: So we, our, our plane touched down in Midway, Midway you know O&#039 ; Hare was not built yet. And so Midway at the, you know in the 50s and 60s was known as the busiest airport you know in the world. And, you know which is kind of funny you know &#039 ; cause we think of Midway as kind of a, a postage stamp airplan-- airport in the middle of the, you know of the city right now. But, so you know we landed, and, and this would have been a four-engine Constellation you know airplane you know. So you know a big plane that would, you know drone on and on and on. I remember the, the trip across the Pacific was just ocean and ocean and then all of a sudden, well actually we touched down in San Francisco. And, and I don&#039 ; t remember the layover I, I remember having ice cream for the first time. And then we got on another airplane, I think the first one was Pan Am the second was Northwest Orient and, and then we came to, to Chicago. My grandfather picked us up, and he drove a Chevy Station Wagon, 1955 Bel Air. And it was, I think it was brand new at the time, so I was quite, you know quite impressed that you know that, that grandfather had, had his own car. So then he brought us to the apartment building at 1244 LaSalle Street, and the first few nights you know we stayed in their, in their apartment, it was pretty cramped. But then, my grandfather opened up a unit for us in an adjoining-- There were, there were these two buildings that were joined together through a hallway. And so we had a unit in, in that, in the next building and so, you know we started school at that point, you know living there. And you know we didn&#039 ; t move to another building at 1332 till I think till I was seven or so. And that was an interesting building, it had been a converted mansion. But you know, during the war, there was a housing shortage so a lot of these buildings, a lot of these single-family buildings had been chopped up into small rooming-- rooming apartments. And so this is what happened to this building you know when my grandfather bought it. And it was a rambling old house and it must have been quite handsome at the time. But you know there was a Japanese person living in the parlor and then a person living across in the, you know maybe it may have been the, the drawing room. And then another person living you know in another, a room behind that. Now we had like four rooms in the back of the building and we also had a yard so you know it was lucky for us kids that we had a yard. But there were you know, there were units in the basement next to the coal room. There was, I remember a Mexican man lived there and he would have friends over, and he would invite me down, down there. You know they played the, you know they played guitar and sing and it was y&#039 ; know quite a nice time. There were people on the second and the third floor, the third floor would have been maid&#039 ; s quarters at one point, but there were units up there and people were living there. It was quite a lively, it was quite a lively building. I remember an old fellow named the Mr. Papan, was a Hungarian man he wanted to talk with his brother in, back in the old country. So the phone was in the, in the hallway just outside our bedroom and he was hard of hearing, and his brother was very hard of hearing, and so they would talk for about an hour in, in Hungarian, and we didn&#039 ; t understand what he was saying but it was very loud. (laughs) And that was kind of like the childhood we had. EL: In a building like that where it was at one time a single-family home, a, a mansion chopped up into smaller units, how, how did the kitchen facilities and the bathroom facilities work were those all shared? EK: What had happened with this building was that you know there, there would be these rooms but then another wall would be erected a few feet away from one wall and then archways cut into the wall, and then this became a hallway, and then there was a bathroom at the end of the hall, so each of the floors had-- You know all the tenants of a floor would share a bathroom. And of course if the bathroom here on the first floor was, was busy, well then you could run upstairs and you know use an-another bathroom. And of course you know, the, the, the, the tub would be there too, so you didn&#039 ; t really want to hog all the time you know taking a leisurely bath when other people wanted to use the bathroom or wanted to take a bath. There would have been a refrigerator in the middle of the hallway for the people of that floor to use. You know, which, which made for some interesting times because there was a fellow who had bought a dozen eggs, and the, the eggs were missing. And so he started knocking on the doors of his neighbors and say &quot ; You know, have you seen my eggs?&quot ; and the fella came to the door and he had a skillet with fried eggs in it. And he says &quot ; Oh, hello?&quot ; (laughs) Well, he found out where his eggs went. Cooking facilities you asked, would have been a hot plate. Would have been a gas hot plate, which would have been like a cast-iron arrangement where there&#039 ; d be two burners you know on a grate. And that would be on top of a t-- on the top of a table. And a lot of these rooms would be piped for a sink so you know you&#039 ; re pretty well complete except for the bathroom and, and the refrigerator you know within your room. And so you know we call these single room occupancy you know hotels I guess. EL: And your parents raised you and your siblings in that arrangement until approximately what age? EK: Well you know, we, we actually had a kitchen, and so my mother had her own stove and refrigerator, and so I guess we were lucky. EL: And it sounds like that building in particular had quite a diverse occupancy. EK: Yes. EL: So outside of your, your home life, did your family socialize with a lot of other Japanese or Japanese American families? EK: Yeah, we were, we were members of the Nichiren Buddhist Church, so that would have been o-our family&#039 ; s--well, our family&#039 ; s social life. I didn&#039 ; t-- my sisters and I didn&#039 ; t have a lot of American friends outside the family and so we went to Sunday school with the other you know, Japanese kids and so-- You know so that was Sun- that was Sundays. I don&#039 ; t recall you know birthday parties and that sort of stuff you know we didn&#039 ; t do very much of that. Every so often my parents&#039 ; friends would come over and, and they would visit. You know not a lot of partying, my parents were not that, you know big on parties. EL: What kind of work did your parents do? EK: Well, my mother was a you know mother and housewife of course. My father, well he would have to do something to support the family, and so there was a company called the McClurg Company and I didn&#039 ; t really-- you know it&#039 ; s &#039 ; cause we didn&#039 ; t know the word McClurg because my father always pronounced it &quot ; Ma-ku-ra-gu&quot ; . So he went to &quot ; Makuragu&quot ; company and what they did was, it was, it was a mail-order house. And so the foreman there I believe was Japanese so-- And the bosses were very happy to have Japanese men. I don&#039 ; t know if too many women worked there, but I never asked but you know the Japanese workers were studious, and they, and they worked hard. So-- and you know, and so they were happy to employ Japanese. And so, so my father would pack a lunch, and uh- well actually my mother would pack his lunch. My mother would pack a lot of lunches for us kids too when we started going to school. So he would go to work on the bus, and, and hi- and his job would be to take the merchandise that was put on a tray and then he would wrap them in the newspapers, put them in a box, and, you know and then get the next tray and pack that. And for that he got $0.95 an hour. And that was, you know that went on for a little while, and then, and then he happily said, &quot ; Oh I just got a raise, I&#039 ; m now getting a dollar an hour!&quot ; And so-- But, there was an opportunity for him to learn a skill, and, and so he became a silkscreen printer. And silkscreen printing, you know people think of silkscreen printing for artwork, but back then silkscreen printing could be used for making nameplates, and for making printer circuit boards. And, and that was pretty precise work and my father was very good at, at precise things he had very you know, skilled hands. So he would spend his days you know taking-- the boards that, that printer circuit boards started out as, you know there would be a piece of fiberglass or a piece of plastic and then there would be copper either one-sided or two-sided, and then that would be put down on a board and then the s-silkscreen will be laid on top and the silkscreen would have a pattern on it and then we&#039 ; d take a, a black ink and then with a rubber squeegee, squeegee that pattern onto the, the copper clad. And then the copper clad board would be baked and then put into acid, and then the, the parts that did not have the, the black resist ink on it would be eaten away. And then the boards would be chopped into squares, and then all the holes would be drilled, and then that would become you know, the, the board for which you know electrical components would be soldered on. So this was actually a very good skill for him to have and he was able to do that until he retired at the age of 65. And then by this time, shortly afterwards, you know the, the company that, that he had worked for all these many years, went out of business because so much of the, you know so much of this assembly work was being you know, you know shipped off overseas. But he was lucky in that, he, he-- maybe just a dozen other employees of that company qualified for a pension. You know for, you know, having worked for that long. And so the pension wasn&#039 ; t that much, but it was a couple hundred dollars a month, but he lived till 98. So from sixty, from si- age 65 to 98, he collected that 200, 250 dollars a month, and you know he was very well pleased for that. EL: So during that period as your parents were establishing themselves, what was the experience like for you as, as children? Did you speak English when you arrived here? EK: No we spoke very little (laughs) we spoke no English at all. Um, well after we got to America and this would have been in October of &#039 ; 55 I would have started, I think I started the next year, probably spring. Without knowing any English at all. And so everything was just, just confusing. I didn&#039 ; t know what people were saying. I didn&#039 ; t know what I was supposed to do. All, all I knew was I was really good at making things out of clay. You know one time my, my, my teacher gave me a pencil because I had made a really nice clay little car. First grade though, there was a Japanese female teacher named Mrs. Wada. And so that helped, but you know, I remember spending a lot of time sitting next to her while she played piano crying &#039 ; cause I didn&#039 ; t know what was going on. I think you know, it, it was tough. For, I think it was tough for, I think it was tougher for my older sister &#039 ; cause she went right into first grade you know she didn&#039 ; t have kindergarten. But I think you know two or three years later we were speaking English and being able to write and, and actually I think we were doing actually better than you know some of the other immigrant kids who were struggling with their English. And we, we actually did very well in school after that. EL: Are there particular places, or people, or maybe annual events from your childhood that really stick out in your memory? EK: Well Grandfather would take us out to, well he, you know he, I think my grandparents were still country you know people at heart. So every so often he would pack us up in, in his station wagon. And of course you know everybody is sitting and me and Mr. Kondo from, you know from, from before. We would be laying on our backs in the back of the station wagon you know while the rest of the family was sitting in front kind of cramped up. And then he would take us to, to the Indiana area, kind of an undeveloped area because they loved mushrooms, and they loved picking ferns. There were these, these ferns that reminded them very much of the ones that grew in the mountainside of Japan. So then we would spend a little bit of time picking and filling the bags of the fern. And then my grandmother would bring them back and dry them and then she would, you know, put them in soup and, and then use them for cooking. So, so that was something that we looked forward to. My grandpa liked to go fishing, and actually he might have gotten this, the love of fishing from, from his time at, at Manzanar camp. I didn&#039 ; t know this, but this was something of a thing that the men did at Manzanar, was they would sneak out at night, and they would have to avoid the searchlights and, and hide when the searchlights were you know circling around. But then they would find themselves to the stream and then they would, um, they would fish and then come back and so this was maybe a little bit of rebellion that they indulged themselves in. And, you know and luckily they didn&#039 ; t get caught. So fishing was something that they liked to do. You know Grandmother was always, you know she was famous for her chicken teriyaki and so she&#039 ; d always make a very nice picnic for us. And then there would be the, the holidays at the church, I was not a very good student of Buddhism, but you know when the holidays came along well you know I was very happy to eat the food and, and to do the dances and to celebrate, why not? (smiles) EL: You had mentioned earlier about your mother packing lunches for your dad and you as children. EK: Mhmm. EL: What kinds of food did she pack for you? EK: Well let&#039 ; s see, well they were I guess what you&#039 ; d call American lunches I suppose, it was, you know it was easy. It would be, you know for each and that would have been you know for Father and, and me and my sisters. It&#039 ; d be you know in a brown sack, it would be a, a sandwich wrapped up in, in, in wax paper. It would be two slices of white bread with mayonnaise and either a slice you know, and only one slice of either bologna or, or ham or it might be cheese, but just one slice because you know of course you know she thought that well it comes in the package and its sliced so this one slice must be a, you know, must be a helping. And then there might be a piece of lettuce. And then there would be a, a fruit, it&#039 ; d be a banana, or an apple, or an orange. And then if you&#039 ; re lucky you know there might be a candy bar or a piece of cake or something like that. And so she must have made thousands of these lunches you know for, you know &#039 ; cause I, you know there were four, you know there were four kids and, you know and my father. EL: And at home for your family meals, what kind of food did you eat then? EK: Well, I think you know there was, there were like seven things that my mother made for dinner, and I can&#039 ; t remember what they all were, I just remember that there was, one of the dishes was, it was a bell pepper that she would cook with ground be--beef inside. And that was probably my, I don&#039 ; t know why I remember that one &#039 ; cause that was my least favorite dish. (laughs) There was always rice. You know e-, you know even if we had Thanksgiving and my grandmother put together a, a nice Thanksgiving feast with the turkey, and gravy, and mashed potatoes and all that there would have to be rice. You know of course you had to have rice. But back home, my mother would either fry chicken or, or pork. I remember she cooked pork, well you&#039 ; re supposed to cook pork you know very much back in those days. And it would be, you know, as hard as cardboard but you know I liked meat so that was fine. EL: And what language did you speak at home? EK: You know we spoke Japanese early on, but little by little you know as, you know as us kids were getting more proficient with English and we were starting to speak English amongst ourselves and of course English you know at school with my friends. And my mother spoke English, because you know she, you know she was uh, she was born in America. You know we started you know, gradually losing our Japanese. The only time I would speak Japanese would be to our grandparents and to my-- our father and my mother of course and-- But little by little as we went along you know we, you know my Japanese is really terrible now. Although it&#039 ; s probably better than my older sister&#039 ; s, because my older sister moved to New York City, she became a doctor, and so she didn&#039 ; t have much chance to practice her Japanese until-- you know unless you know the one week that she came back to Chicago to visit during the holidays. Yeah, you know I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m kind of sad about that, and we did go to Japanese school on Saturdays, but once again I was not a very good student of Japanese and, you know I&#039 ; ve kind of lost that facility too. EL: Do you remember if your family ever frequented Japanese-owned stores or Japanese American owned stores? Grocery stores or-- EK: Uh, yes we did. You know we visited Toguri&#039 ; s of course. You know if there were Japanese goods that you wanted to buy well that, you know Toguri&#039 ; s was the place to go. I had briefly dated Patty, who was the, who was uh, Iva&#039 ; s niece, I guess I&#039 ; d call her Aunt Iva at the time. And then there was Aiko&#039 ; s papers for origami papers. Umm but I guess we didn&#039 ; t do that much shopping. No, we went to Star Market and you know for, for Japanese food, Toguri&#039 ; s also. And it was a handful of other Japanese food markets on the North side of Chicago. And you know and little by little they, you know they either went farther north or they&#039 ; d gone out of business. You know with Japanese kinda leaving you know the, the centralized area and you know marrying off and you know going away. I guess we never did have a, you know as closely knit an area like Chinatown you know the Chinese people there. But Little Tokyo kind of like fell apart at one point. EL: Did you have an awareness as you were growing up of, the history of incarceration of Japanese American people and then the resettlement history here as a child, is-- was it, were you even aware that there was this -- EK: I can&#039 ; t say that I was aware. Every so often you know a-at church or you know I would hear adults talking about you know, about the early days and you know if, if a couple was asked you know, &quot ; Well, how did you meet?&quot ; well, quite often they would say, &quot ; We, we met at camp.&quot ; And that word &quot ; Camp&quot ; it, it sounded kind of benign and you know maybe even fun who knows I don&#039 ; t know what camp was. I hadn&#039 ; t realized that camp was, you know, concentration camp. So those are things that the older people kind of shielded from us. And you know and, and I suppose we should be grateful for that, that you know we were kind of spared some of those details. EL: Was it, was it ever brought up in, in a school context? EK: Uh, I don&#039 ; t remember. I don&#039 ; t remember that subject coming up you know even in high school U.S. history. EL: And do you recall any incidents of bias or discrimination against you or your family members? EK: There might have been toward the, at the beginning because you know I would have been going to school in 1956 which was not that much removed from the end of the war. But, I think, I learned pretty early to keep my head down, and t-to stay away from the bullies. And, you know to make friends, and especially if you have you know big, tall, strong friends. That&#039 ; s, that, that&#039 ; s a good thing for a small person like myself. I can&#039 ; t really say that I had suffered that greatly you know with discrimination and for that I&#039 ; m grateful. EL: Could you maybe describe for me, what it was like being part of a Japanese American community in Chicago in the 60s, 70s, maybe even into the 80s? EK: I&#039 ; m not so sure that I was that personally involved. I remember in high school a lot of... Well, I went to Lane Tech High School, and there were a lot of Japanese American kids there, you know boys, &#039 ; cause it was all boys then. And there were, you know there was this clique of Japanese American boys. I was not part of that. You know, not that I was not-- you know, that they were unfriendly to me or anything like that, but, I had gone out for ROTC, and you know, my friends were, you know, my, my fellow you know ROTC cadets. And so, I, I can&#039 ; t say that I really palled around with Japanese Americans that much. There was a boy who lived in my neighborhood, and you know his father was a doctor. And, so I played with him. He was very good at chess. And, so David would beat me at chess, and then we&#039 ; d go bowling and I would beat him in bowling. And so that was kind of like, you know the, the friendship that I had with him. EL: Did you belong to any, any clubs or social groups? EK: No, not really. I was too busy I guess being a student, yeah. EL: Was your identity something you thought about a whole lot as a teenager? EK: You know it&#039 ; s funny because there&#039 ; s you know, like I was talking about you know the, the boys at, at, in high school. Maybe they were more aware of being Japanese Americans. And, and these would have been boys who were born in America. Now, I was born in Japan, and so, I spent more of my effort trying to become more American. And so, I don&#039 ; t know, I don&#039 ; t know if I ever thought that much about being Japanese except for the fact that in the, in my core I am Japanese. You know I look Japanese. And you know maybe a lot of the, and, and, and, and I&#039 ; m sure that I am, but you know I, I try to be, you know, more open, you know, to, to everybody. EK: As you entered into adulthood and now perhaps in retirement, looking back, do you think your relationship with your identity has changed over time? EL: I don&#039 ; t know, I guess I&#039 ; m always me. (laughs) I remember when I, when I, when I met my, when I met my, my fiancée&#039 ; s parents. And we had gone to, they live in Holland, Michigan and my wife is half Dutch. When, I guess I was described to them previous, before you know I, I actually met them, you know, they, they learned that I was Japanese so they thought that I would be kind of a, a reserved, Japanese man. And then when I showed up and I was you know, talkative and friendly, they thought, &quot ; Oh, well Ed&#039 ; s a regular guy!&quot ; And so, I thought that was good. So that-- we had a, we had a very wonderful relationship, you know, my, my in-laws and myself. I learned to come whenever we, we visited in, in their house in, in Michigan that I&#039 ; ll bring a toolbox, because Carol&#039 ; s dad was pretty hopeless with tools. But they would like, have a running list of things that was wrong with their house so that when I came, they said, &quot ; Okay, could you fix this thing here, and you could fix that thing there, and we&#039 ; re trying to install this telephone there.&quot ; And they, they, they kept me busy but you know I enjoyed, I enjoy doing these things and, and I loved them very much. EL: Could you explain a little bit maybe about how you came to have those types of skills? EK: I think maybe I, I, I had a, a natural interest in these things. You know if you go back to the, the farmhouse my, my father had the, the engine, the gas engine that, that ran the threshing machine. Now the threshing machine was a, kinda like a metal box that had these wire whisks and it had a big pulley on the side, and then the, the gas engine was put a few feet away from it with a big flat belt going back and forth. And you know, it was an open belt, and so I was warned to stay away from that, that looked pretty scary. But that was just fascinating to me you know, these mechanical things were just fascinating. And so, so when we, we moved to America, into that apartment building my grandfather had a, a workshop in the basement. And so anytime he forgot to padlock that door, I would be in there, and I&#039 ; d be exploring and getting into his stuff. I would find a piece of wood and a saw and I&#039 ; d start sawing and making things. I think, I remember making a yo-yo for myself. Duncan yo-yos were very popular, you know, in the 50s. So, you know I wouldn&#039 ; t ask my parents to, to buy me a yo-yo, so I thought, &quot ; Well maybe I&#039 ; ll make myself a yo-yo.&quot ; So I took some wood, and my grandfather had a coping saw so I, I d-, I drew two circles on this piece of wood and with a coping saw you know I, I, I cut these two crude circles and then I took a hand drill. And you know, I, I knew enough not to use his power machines, and I would drill a hole in this disc, and a, you know, here, another hole there and then with a short little piece of dowel, I stuck these things together and wound the stri- string around her. And it made a very bad yo-yo, but I was proud of it and it kept me busy for that afternoon. And then later on, my grandfather would start showing me how to do these things, how to, how to make, you know how to nail things together, how to, how to varnish, how to stain. He had a pot of hide glue going on in, in a little gas stove that he had, and so he would liquefy the hide glue, and then he&#039 ; d use that to, you know, to make the joints. And so you know I guess he would have been my first, my woodworking teacher. And then later on I had formal shop training at, at high school. I had wood shop, and electric shop. And, and I guess those were my best subjects. U.S. History was probably my worst. But that and drafting, I was able to make a life for myself, you know making things, drawing things. I always said, you know, &quot ; Anything I can draw, I could probably make.&quot ; And, you know I became a model maker and, build things for photographers and for TV sets--um, TV production. And, later on, my, I, I went to the, I&#039 ; d gone to the Institute of Design f- which is part of IIT [Illinois Institute of Technology] you know for, for college. And, after I was done with model making, they asked me, the school asked me to be a, be a shop teacher. So, so from about 2008 to 2018, for 10 years you know, I was a shop teacher. And, I found that very rewarding, you know teaching the kids how to, to make things. Because, young people today, you know they&#039 ; re, they&#039 ; re, maybe they&#039 ; re wizzes at computers, but they haven&#039 ; t had a whole lot of exposure to manual arts. And a lot of these kids that were at the, at college, you know they&#039 ; d come from good, you know good, good families, you know their fathers were you know lawyers, and professionals, and you know doctors maybe, and, you know they, they didn&#039 ; t have the advantage of having tradespeople in their, in their families I suppose. But, so, I was able to teach them how to use the machines and the tools. And, and whenever somebody, you know a young person makes something, you know they are just so proud, and you know I was very proud for them too. EL: Do you think there are any-- I&#039 ; m wondering if there are lessons that you&#039 ; ve drawn from your own experience, and your family&#039 ; s experience of, of immigration and separation and incarceration, that you think have informed your approach to teaching? EK: Well the lessons that, that I appreciate now would be you know the hard work that, that my grandparents and parents had gone through to, you know to adapt themselves to this country, to make a life, and to, you know make it easier for our generation. I mean we got to go to college, you know, my, my sister, my older sister became a doctor. She&#039 ; s a patho- pathologist in New York City and, soon to retire, at the age of 72. She should have retired earlier, but anyway. (laughs) And I got to go to college. You know, college you know allowed me to avoid Vietnam, and that would have been the war of my generation. And you know, my father suffered through his war, I&#039 ; m very fortunate not to have suffered through my wa- you know through my era&#039 ; s war. And my younger sister, went to the Art Institute and you know she got to pursue her creative life. Um-- You were asking about me teaching, I don&#039 ; t know if, you know, I think maybe teaching was, is, it&#039 ; s, it comes easily to me in that, I can see a process and I want to impart that process you know to my student. You know, let&#039 ; s go about this in a practical manner. And, I, I guess I&#039 ; m having a hard time answering that question that way. EL: I suppose what I&#039 ; m wondering is, i- if over the many years that you have taught, have you encountered any students where maybe you were able to connect with them in a, in a particular way, perhaps because of your experiences in life, or, or your knowledge of what your family has experienced? EK: I, I don&#039 ; t really know in that, you know the students that I had at The Institute of Design-- Now when I was going there it was, I, I did foundation year. But The Institute of Design became a school for, for a master&#039 ; s program. So there was a, you know it&#039 ; s not a, you know not freshmen, but these were graduate students going for a master&#039 ; s in product design. And so you know they had already proven themselves as good students, and-- You know I&#039 ; m sorry I&#039 ; m m- kind of meandering here! (laughs) EL: That&#039 ; s perfectly all right! I think, I&#039 ; d like to wrap things up maybe with some, some broader questions, but before we do that, I&#039 ; m curious, given that your grandfather was incarcerated, when the redress movement happened and Civil Liberties Act was passed, was he able to receive reparations? EK: Yes, he, yes he was. You know he was, he was, very happily, you know he very happily you know accepted his $20,000 check. But then the next sentence was, you know although he was happy to have it, I didn&#039 ; t think that it was as important to him as you know being able to, to call the U.S. his home. I, I think he had adopted-- Well, he had gotten his U.S. citizenship, probably about 1954. So he had been a U.S. citizen for a long time and so he had, he had always considered the U.S. his home. And you know the, the, the money was nice, but you know luckily he was successful enough in that it wasn&#039 ; t something that was you know, something they d- that was really you know necessary for him. EL: And when that all happened did you understand why it was happening, the significance of it? EK: Yeah, I was old enough to know. I was old enough at that point to know what had happened to, you know, Japanese Americans. EL: Did your grandfather ever express anger about what had been done to him? EK: I think by the time we came along, he had gotten some success you know in his second career, you know as, you know as renting, as a r- you know as a landlord renting to tenants. And, you know, buying buildings and taking care of them. So, you know, I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m sure he was bitter at the time, but I think by that time you know the grand--, you know, us grandchildren came along, he was too busy with his other things. And then, you know and then, he, and he, he retired comfortably. EL: And, do you think there are any behavioral patterns that you observed in your family that might have been attributed to the experiences of the war? Be that, incarceration in the U.S. or deprivations in Japan? EK I, I think it was actually more their adapti- you know, the, the, the fact that they were able to adapt to their surroundings and, and to make the best of it that allowed them to survive and you know actually get some benefit, whatever benefit that, you know, that they got from that experience. Um-- I, I don&#039 ; t know if it affected them personally so much although you know they were very devoted to the Japanese American community and, and you know they were very active in the, the resettler movement. Actually, (laughs) I&#039 ; ve always aft-, I&#039 ; ve always, you know whenever my grandfather said, he, he wasn&#039 ; t able to say resettler, it always came out, came out &quot ; re-se-tu-ra&quot ; . Because you know Rs and Ls are so difficult! But later in life about 1990, the Japanese government did award him you know with a, with a medal ; in fact I have it here. And I remember him, proudly wearing it, with a suit. And, and this was for his generosity, and his support of you know Japanese Americans, and also you know, the, the relationship that he had with, you know with, with Japan. And, so anyway, he was very, you know he was very proud to, to wear it. EL: Are there any questions that you wish now that you could ask of your parents, or your grandparents, or even your great-grandfather? EK: Oh gosh, all kinds of questions I suppose. (laughs) You know, how things actually were, and you know comings and goings and years. And, and you know what their early experiences would have been but, but you know as, as children we didn&#039 ; t have these questions. And then now sadly you know everybody who knows the answers are gone. I- I guess, you know my s-, my sister June and myself, and we have a cousin Wayne, who was you know the, the son of, of Uncle Herb, you know my mother&#039 ; s middle son uh-- m-middle brother. You know we have some questions about, about the family tree, and actually Wayne did a, a very large graphic you know as far as, as far back as he can go, you know with the various branches of the family, and he was quite involved with that. And, you know with mountain families in, in, in small communities, the, you know there&#039 ; s been a number of times that, the, the, the Koizumi family and the Mochizuki family have gotten together. I have a cousin in Japan who&#039 ; s also, who&#039 ; s, who&#039 ; s a Koizumi who had married to a Mochizuki. There&#039 ; s, there&#039 ; s not as many, you know people in you know, that you could, you know that might be marriageable at any particular time, so you did what you could. But people did survive and it&#039 ; s just really quite amazing that they did. EL: And, what motivated you to participate in this oral history project? EK: There was a woman named Lourdes, and I met her at a screening of a movie at our local, in Oak Park&#039 ; s library. The movie was called The Orange Story and it, it talks about this Japanese American grocery store owner who has to sell his grocery store you know at the, when he&#039 ; s about to be relocated to a, to a camp. And it&#039 ; s a short story about his life and you know, goes on to him, what happens to him. And afterwards, there was a, a few people who, who got up and spoke and Lourdes was one of them. And her mother was born in Manzanar Camp, and she talked about you know her mother&#039 ; s experiences. Now, afterwards I had a chance to talk with her and, and we became friendly, and, and she connected us, she connected me to some people in, in Manzanar. And actually what was amazing is that the park ranger that she connected me to was a woman named Rose Masters. It turned out that one of my students was a, was a best friend of hers. I thought Rose might have been an older woman but no Rose is a, a woman in her late twenties, and you know, as are you know, my students. So, it was quite amazing when one of my students came into my shop and said, &quot ; Oh Ed! You know Rose, she&#039 ; s my best friend.&quot ; And I thought, &quot ; Well that was a very interesting story, you know these you know six degrees of separation.&quot ; And, what we were talking about? (laughs) EL: Oh, what motivated you to participate in our oral history, oral history project? EK: Oh, right, so anyway, Lourdes asked, told me that this oral history project was, was going on with the, with the Japanese American Service Committee and would I participate? And I usually try to stay away from things like this, but I thought I should, I should do this. You know I should honor my grandfather because you know he and Grandmother worked so hard to make a good life for, you know for, for his grandchildren and family and so that&#039 ; s why I&#039 ; m here. EL: Well we&#039 ; re very grateful for your participation. So, to close us out here, I&#039 ; d love to know what you would most like for younger generations to know about the experiences of you and, and your family. EK: I think it&#039 ; s a story about immigration, that, that America should be a welcoming country. America needs young blood, you know it needs people who are motivated enough to leave their own countries. You know whether it&#039 ; s the, you know the pull of the, the opportunities available in the, in the U.S., you know or the push of bad things happening in their country, they have the motivations to, to come to this country. And they bring resources and you know, their knowledge and their willingness to work and to, to be good citizens. And you know we should be welcoming of them rather than turning them away and, and that would be, you know, that would be my thought. EL: Thank you very much, and thank you for participating in our project. EK: (laughs) Okay, you&#039 ; re quite welcome. Copyright held by the Japanese American Service Committee, Chicago, Illinois. video Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from the Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center. 0 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=KoizumiEdward20210512.xml KoizumiEdward20210512.xml http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/collections/show/1 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/find?tags=Series%3A+Oral+History+Project&amp ; layout=1 Sort Priority 3800 OHMS Object https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=KoizumiEdward20210512.xml Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Koizumi, Edward (5/12/2021) Description An account of the resource Edward Shinichi Koizumi is a shin-issei born in 1950 in Nambu, Yamanashi, Japan. Edward’s maternal grandmother and grandfather were separated during World War II, as Edward’s grandmother was traveling with her children to visit family in Japan at the time of Pearl Harbor. As a result, while Edward’s maternal grandfather was incarcerated at Manzanar, his family was unable to leave Japan. After the war, Edward’s mother, although she was an American citizen, was unable to return to the United States as she voted in a Japanese election. Edward and his siblings spent their early childhood on his family’s farm in Japan, but eventually, when Edward was four years old, his mother was allowed to move back to the United States. Edward’s family packed up, and moved to join his mother’s family in Chicago. Having a natural curiosity and talent for building and design, after graduating high school, he attended the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology and worked as a model maker, building models for photographers and TV production. Given his personal experiences and those of his family, he hopes that others can learn from these experiences and foster an open-minded society where immigration and differences are welcome and celebrated.  Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-05-12 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video ISHRAB Series: Oral History Project https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/998120c2b89ed4e7f37f5b920214b179.png 5842bfdfddf7c0cd9e1379adec9295f8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Japanese Americans--History. Description An account of the resource This collection contains oral history interviews from the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) Legacy Center's holdings. Where available, transcriptions have been included and synced to the recordings to enable full-text searching. Interviews were recorded at various times, some by JASC staff and some by external partners, often supported by grant funding. See the metadata associated with each interview for full details. This digital collection will continue to grow as new interviews are recorded, and as additional pre-existing recordings are received by donation or discovered in the physical archives. The digitization and transcription of many of the recordings in this collection, the recording of interviews between July 2018 and June 2021, and the creation of this publicly accessible digital platform, were funded by a Japanese American Confinements Sites (JACS) grant awarded by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The JASC Legacy Center gratefully acknowledges the financial support received between 2018 and 2021 that enabled this project to succeed. --- This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity National Park Service 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Lincoln, Emma Saito Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Hikawa, Barbara (Sunnie) Dolinar-Hikawa, Chelsea Interview Keyword Sansei Yonsei Intergenerational Mixed-race Tule Lake Drum and Bugle Corps Christ Congregational Church OHMS Object Text 5.4 6/23/2021 Hikawa, Barbara and Chelsea Dolinar-Hikawa (6/23/2021) 1:08:37 JASC_OHP JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection OHP Oral History Project Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center Recorded, transcribed, and made accessible online with financial support from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program. Sansei Yonsei Intergenerational Mixed-race Tule Lake Drum and Bugle Corps Christ Congregational Church Hikawa, Barbara (Sunnie) Dolinar-Hikawa, Chelsea Lincoln, Emma Saito video 1:|24(16)|44(3)|62(2)|79(8)|95(2)|112(1)|126(12)|141(5)|163(1)|178(9)|195(6)|208(4)|230(8)|248(4)|263(12)|283(4)|297(3)|311(1)|332(10)|345(1)|357(4)|377(6)|405(2)|424(3)|436(10)|452(13)|471(6)|495(4)|509(5)|534(2)|563(7)|588(7)|602(16)|617(4)|637(1)|655(4)|681(11)|691(2)|705(17)|725(3)|738(11)|763(2)|773(13)|802(2)|818(4)|839(14)|866(2)|883(12)|903(3)|924(8)|947(10)|959(1)|976(5)|985(14)|998(11)|1010(8)|1023(9)|1035(5)|1048(9)|1059(1)|1072(4)|1082(7)|1094(4)|1105(10)|1118(11)|1133(12)|1151(8)|1166(11) 0 https://vimeo.com/583597304/2e900ffb4f Vimeo video &lt ; iframe src=&quot ; https://player.vimeo.com/video/583597304?h=2e900ffb4f&quot ; width=&quot ; 640&quot ; height=&quot ; 360&quot ; frameborder=&quot ; 0&quot ; allow=&quot ; autoplay ; fullscreen ; picture-in-picture&quot ; allowfullscreen&gt ; &lt ; /iframe&gt ; Barbara (Sunnie) Hikawa is a sansei born in Chicago in 1949, whose family has a rich history and strong roots in the local Japanese American community. In this interview, she is joined by her daughter Chelsea Dolinar-Hikawa, a yonsei hapa who was also raised in the Chicago Japanese American community, particularly the Japanese American church community. During World War II, Sunnie and Chelsea Emma Saito Lincoln (EL): Today is June 23rd, 2021 and this oral history is being recorded at the Japanese American Service Committee building at 4427 North Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois. The interviewer is Emma Saito Lincoln and the interviewee is Barbara Hikawa. This interview is being recorded by the JASC Legacy Center in order to document the experiences of Japanese-Americans in the Chicago area. So to get us started, could you please state your full name for me? Barbara Hikawa (BH): Barbara Hikawa. EL: And what name do you go by? BH: I- But I go by Sunnie. EL: And what year were you born in? BH: I was born in 1949. EL: And where? BH: In Chicago, at Frank Cuneo Memorial Hospital, which no longer exists. EL: And is Chicago also where you grew up? BH: I grew up here, and I went away-- only away when I went to college and graduate school. EL: And where were your parents born and raised? BH: My mom was born in Las Animas, Colorado because my grandfather had a, a ranch there. And my grandfather-- my father was born in Walnut Creek, California which is near Sacramento. EL: And what about your grandparents? BH: So I believe all of my grandparents were from Yamanashi-ken. That&#039 ; s the Mount Fuji, I think -ken and I&#039 ; m pretty sure my grand- my maternal grandparents are from there. And my maternal, my paternal grandmother, I don&#039 ; t know about my paternal grandfather because he died when I was, before I was born. EL: Do you happen to know approximately when your grandparents on either side first came to the U.S.? BH: Well, I think that my maternal grandfather was actually a very early arrival. I feel like there may be a family story that he came when the San Francisco earthquake happened that he was there, which would be like 1903? So I think that was pretty early, I don&#039 ; t think many others came &#039 ; til the teens but I could be wrong about that. So I think he came, and then later I think my grandmother must have been a picture bride or something and came. And then my paternal grandparents I don&#039 ; t know when they came. EL: Do you have any idea what motivated them to immigrate? BH: I don&#039 ; t. I do k-, well let&#039 ; s see, the pater- the maternal grandfather who came early, was I believe he was one of those sons he was like the second of a bunch of sons so he was given to another family to have their name to carry on the name. So, I don&#039 ; t know. EL: And you said your, your maternal grandparents had a ranch? BH: Maternal grandparents had a ranch in Colorado. EL: Okay, and on your paternal side do you know what their, what your grandfather&#039 ; s occupation was in the U.S.? BH: I don&#039 ; t know about them, &#039 ; cause let&#039 ; s see he died, he died e-early I guess. They, my father had four brothers. And then, no, he had a brother, and then sh- my grandmother remarried and there were three more sons, and then that fa- stepfather died bef- when I was really little, that I don&#039 ; t remember so-- EL: I see. BH: So she was always just kind of a strong woman on her own. EL: Do you know on either side whether their pre-war homes were within communities of other Japanese-Americans or Japanese people? BH: Their pre-war homes? Oh, I, I do know that my mom has many friends from that era who are Japanese-American. So I assume that yes, that came, that came to different places in the country and I&#039 ; ve heard about them and know them. I think they-- her mom took in like some kids from another family even, and they lived in Florida. She had a friend in New Jersey, and another friend from Chicago I think he&#039 ; s-- he died a few years ago. EL: And those are all people that your mother knew in Colorado? BH: In Colorado. So there&#039 ; s I think a small Colorado group of, of Nisei, Issei and Nisei and then my dad&#039 ; s-- I don&#039 ; t, Walnut Creek sounds like it might have had a, a Japanese-- but I, Japanese American population but I don&#039 ; t know. EL: Did your parents ever talk about their childhood experiences with you? BH: Not much you know, the Nisei didn&#039 ; t talk that much about themselves. My mom had a younger brother who died when he was like two, like ate some poison berries. And I think that was always a big blow that the son died, and that, so my paternal grandfather I think was very, connected-- proud of, you know, my father. That, she married this guy. So he became like the son they never had. Whereas, he came from five sons, but he was the oldest. And, I&#039 ; m sorry, what was your question? If they talked about-- EL: Just about their childhood, what, what kinds of experiences they had? BH: Well I know my mom learned to drive a tractor at 11, that&#039 ; s about all I know. My dad, I think told me that he used to eat tortillas with the Mexican farm hands in the fields with hot dogs. (laughs) EL: So let&#039 ; s shift gears a little bit and talk about wartime, and let&#039 ; s start with just when and where your family was incarcerated? BH: They were all, all of them were in Tule Lake. So I think my maternal, my paternal grandmother had a grocery store in Walnut Creek, or Sacramento? I don&#039 ; t know. And I think at that time my pat- my maternal grandparents had sold the ranch and had moved to California. So they- so both sides were all sent to Tule Lake, where my maternal grandfather was like the block captain or something? These people in charge of things sort of. And my mom worked on the Tule Lake newsletter. She was the secretary, you know, illustrator, she made the covers. She was, my mom was an artist. And um-- Yeah, so they all-- My dad always tells the story how, he was graduating from high school and his- he wanted to buy a car. And he had his eye on this car, he had saved up the money, he was going to get the car-- and then he got interned. So. EL: So your father was just at the tail end of high school, how old was your mother? BH: She was a, she was exactly- they had the same birthday, she was exactly a year younger. So, I guess he had just graduated and she was going to graduate. EL: Was she able to finish her high school education in camp? BH: You know that&#039 ; s a good question, I don&#039 ; t know. I mean I know she went to community college, before-- You know? That doesn&#039 ; t-- I don&#039 ; t know, I, I guess not. I don&#039 ; t know, I mean I know she went to college later so-- I guess so? EL: And what can you tell me about their experiences or your grandparent&#039 ; s experiences at Tule Lake? Did they ever talk to you about that time? BH: No. They don&#039 ; t talk about it. My mother, who is strangely-- she has-- Well, they may not be so strange, it may be pretty typical, I&#039 ; m not sure, for Nisei. Will say, &quot ; Oh, it wasn&#039 ; t so bad. It was not that bad, we had fun.&quot ; You know she was there, there were a lot of young-- other people her age, teenagers I guess. Seventeen, eighteen-year-olds and they had fun or whatever. Though, we did find a sketchbook of hers from that period, and there&#039 ; s pictures of the, the sheds and the camp and everything. EL: Do you have any idea maybe what kinds of things they brought with them, or what they might have left behind? BH: No. EL: No? BH: They, they have, obviously had to leave everything behind. The grocery store, sell a grocery store in three days and all the inventory? Yeah. EL: Do you know what their living quarters were like? BH: I don&#039 ; t. I mean they were in a stable, right? But I think they were, like maybe just my grandparents and my mom and-- I-- but I don&#039 ; t know for sure. EL: And then at some point your father was able to leave camp? BH: Right. He, the one way to get out was to go dig-- is it sugar beets? Something like that, up in Idaho or someplace like that? And so he signed up for that to get out of the camp. And he said that was just horrible, horrible, brack-baking, brack-bak-, back-breaking terrible work. And so he did not want to do that anymore so when the opportunity came to leave-- to enlist, he was ready to do that. And I guess they, there were some problems at the camp, I think Tule Lake had a bunch of, a lot of resistance people, so they, in the middle of the night, they got in a truck and left. So, like nobody knew that they were leaving, it was like they were whisked away. EL: Do you know what his motivations were for serving? Was it mostly as a way out of camp, or was it patriotism? BH: (laughs) Well that&#039 ; s a good question. I, you know, the way he tells it, yeah he wanted to get out of camp. I&#039 ; m sure there&#039 ; s a patriotic motive in there. EL: And do you know how his parents felt about it when he made that decision? BH: I&#039 ; m sure they were fine with it. Trying to think, the f- of the four brothers, probably at least three of them were with him. I think one might have gone, I think one maybe went back to Japan. Like they were given that choice, go to the camp or go to Japan, and I think the second brother may have done that. The other three went with my dad I think. And then they all, I think joined the Army too. EL: So what unit did he serve in? BH: So he was in the military intelligence. And I hope I&#039 ; m not jumping your questions, but he&#039 ; s got some, he had a great story about it which I only found out about when my second husband passed away and his family had come for the funeral and my dad just started talking. I had never heard him tell these stories. And so he told this story about the military intelligence service that he was in, which I&#039 ; ve later read, I think-- And I knew he was in Minnesota, so I&#039 ; m assuming that&#039 ; s why he was in Minnesota was where, that&#039 ; s where they were training them. Well there were some people like him who spoke English perfectly, he was born and raised here, and he could understand s- you know Japanese, but he could speak English perfectly. But he wasn&#039 ; t very good at writing or reading. And then there were other people who were really good at writing Japanese, but they weren&#039 ; t so good at speaking English. And then there are other people who could read it really well, but then they couldn&#039 ; t write it-- Anyway there were three different types of skills, and what they discovered was, that in order to make one complete translator they had to have three people. To like really do like, hear what the thing was-- the person was saying in Japanese or read the, the document in Japanese and then sort of be able to tell it to my dad who then could translate in English and tell people what they were saying. But the Army he said, this is how efficient the Army is. So they made these groups of three. They all had their assignments and they&#039 ; re in groups of three. And then when they got deployed they were all separated and sent to different troops. So all that work and-- I don&#039 ; t know, he said, &quot ; That&#039 ; s the army for you.&quot ; (laughs) EL: Were his brothers also serving in the MIS? BH: Uh no, they weren&#039 ; t in MIS I don&#039 ; t think. But I think they were in some other combat or something. EL: And do you know where he was sent during the war? BH: He was in the South Pacific. So I mean he does talk about-- he, I do know he was in the South Pacific with MacArthur. EL: And while he was serving, his brothers were also serving, one brother was in Japan, his parents were still in camp, correct? BH: Yes. EL: Yes. Can you tell me a little bit about, connected to his military service, can you tell me about after the war, his involvement in the Nisei Post? BH: Oh, well, alright so-- I&#039 ; ll kind of be broad here. My grandfather on my mother&#039 ; s side, remember I said he was like the block captain but had also come over as-- he&#039 ; d also been given a name that wasn&#039 ; t his name, but I believe th- a cousin of his, like a blood cousin, had come to Chicago and was part of the Resettlers Committee. So that&#039 ; s why they came here to Chicago. And then my dad was up in Minnesota and I think he had known my mom, but was dating somebody else at the time. But then he started coming down and seeing my mom, that&#039 ; s when they got together. And wait, and your question is-- how-- EL: Nisei Post. BH: --Nisei Post. Oh, well then-- EL: (laughs) But this is also very interesting! BH: --Yeah, but so then, after the war, they settled in Chicago. And well my guess is anybody who was a veteran would join the, the American Legion Nisei Post. &#039 ; Cause there were plenty of you know four, four four two, 442nd and MIS people here so, there was a, a solid Japanese American community, not huge but you know pretty well connected. And I do know, I actually met somebody from the, from, from New York or something, a, a Nisei woman who had never been interned because she was on the East Coast. So they didn&#039 ; t get interned, or Hawaii. EL: So let&#039 ; s, let&#039 ; s rewind a little bit then, &#039 ; cause you were trying to explain about your parents and how part of your family came to Chicago, and then your father was coming down to Chicago, so-- Your parents had met in camp? BH: Yeah, I think they knew each other. Right, so-- I mean, you know they, they knew of each other maybe or something. And then, I don&#039 ; t know how that switched that my dad suddenly started visiting to see my mom. And then yeah, his family came out to Chicago too. EL: And what about your, your dad&#039 ; s parents, where did they go after camp? BH: Well that-- I don&#039 ; t know when, I don&#039 ; t exactly how-- But I-- this was what I was, what I had written to you. My pat- my father&#039 ; s mother had a boarding house in Chicago that was like a way station for a lot of Nisei or even-- Is it Nikkei? People from Japan? Coming through Chicago. So, a lot of people would come and stay there and live there for a few years before getting married or doing something else. So that, she was sort of known I think, with that. EL: Did that have a name, did the building have a name? BH: No. It was-- EL: Do you know where, where it was located? BH: Yeah I do know where it was. It was-- Let&#039 ; s see what was it? It was something like 1122 or 1022 North LaSalle. EL: And what was her name? BH: Her name was Wakao Hikawa. But my father&#039 ; s father, blood father was named Sato. But he took my, his stepfather&#039 ; s name of Hikawa. EL: So at what point did your parents actually marry? BH: That&#039 ; s a good question, I don&#039 ; t know? Let&#039 ; s see, I was born in 1949 and I think they were married for probably a couple years before that? So 47, 46, 45? I don&#039 ; t know. EL: And at that point in time, were they both working? BH: Let&#039 ; s see-- Oh my dad, on the GI Bill, he got into Harvard Law School and Northwestern Law School and he wanted, my mom wanted him to go to Harvard, but he wanted to stay in Chicago so I think he went to Northwestern. So he was in law school, I think probably at the very beginning and then he became a lawyer. And so she was-- I think, she was helping out at-- Oh, the name is going to escape me but it was another pretty prominent Chicago Japanese American family. Is it Yamamoto maybe? The Yamamotos, they had a, he had a trading import company and so she worked there with him. --Or, Dick Yamada? Well anyway-- (laughs) EL: And then you&#039 ; re born in 1949, do you have siblings? I do, I have two younger sisters. My second sister lives in-- now, Greenwich, Connecticut and Palm Beach, Florida and she was a lawyer at-- um, vice president at ABC television. And my youngest sister is the associate principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Symphony, and she&#039 ; s been there for like 40 years so she&#039 ; s a real Los Angeleno. EL: And where did you all grow up? Which neighborhood? BH: We all grew up in Uptown, which was a changing neighborhood at the time. It was, it had been really Jewish, and then it was starting to just change over to Appalachian white people were moving in. And I remember a Chinese laundry family moved in, and I used to play with that son. There was a lot of playing in the neighborhood with a lot of different kids. And so it was changing over. EL: And what schools did you go to? BH: All, we all went to Francis Parker School which is a private school not in our neighborhood. We should have gone to Goudy Public School but we didn&#039 ; t. And, and then Senn High School but we went to Francis Parker. EL: And was Francis Parker all the way through from K through 12? BH: (nods) I started at 5 years old, went through high school and my sister started at 4 years old and went through high school. EL: Were there many other Japanese-American families in your orbit at that time, or at your school? BH: Not at my school, no. There was a Korean kid in my class, which is, I think how we got to Parker because his father was a dentist and he&#039 ; d been in dental school at Northwestern when my dad was in law school and they&#039 ; d gotten to be buddies. And that&#039 ; s how my dad found out about Francis Parker. But other than that, no not at Parker. But in the neighborhood, every summer I went to the Park District Day Camp and then I did meet more neighborhood kids and there was a, there were a couple of Japanese American Sanseis like me, and so-- EL: Did your family participate in any Japanese American organizations? BH: Oh yes, (laughs) of course they did. So, I s- mentioned that we, my grandparents went to the Presbyterian Church on Sheffield. But not, then my family when I was like five, we switched to Christ Congregational Church on Buckingham. And there was a huge Sunday school, I mean there must have been two hundred kids and, and they also had like a volleyball league for teenagers. So my cousins, my sort of cousins from the original family of my grandfather&#039 ; s cousin, like my mom&#039 ; s second or third cousin. They were older than us and they played in like that volleyball or softball league. And my dad was in the American Legion Post 1183, right? God, my memory is going. And they started a Drum and Bugle Corps so I participated in the Drum and Bugle Corps. And through that, you really got to know there were like six Japanese churches. So there was like the Presbyterian Church, there was our church Tri-C, there was MBT which is Midwest Buddhist Chur- Temple and now it&#039 ; s called BTC, Buddhist Temple of Chicago but back then we just called it-- something else I can&#039 ; t remember. And CFC, Christian Fellowship Church, maybe a couple others, JCJC Japanese Church of Jesus Christ, and one that was on Lakeside I think. Um-- but so you, as teenagers you kind of, if you had a dance, if one group had a, if the Legion Posts had a dance, all the other people from all the other churches your age might show up, you know the Eagle Scouts and-- And then Drum Corps was started out mostly Japanese American but then changed. And then I remember my parents joined a group or started a group with a bunch of other Japanese Americans called The Co-Op Investors, cooperative investors. And so that was a big part our li- of our lives. A lot of those people I know were good friends of my parents and they always had a big Christmas party that we looked forward to every year and I think they socialized and had dances and stuff. EL: Can you explain to me what that group did? BH: Oh yeah, it was an investment group, they invested money. EL: So they pooled their funds and-- BH: They pooled their funds I guess and did investments, I don&#039 ; t know. EL: Were they investing in, in other community efforts? Or community, or-- BH: I was a kid, I didn&#039 ; t know what they did. It was just, &quot ; Co-Op Investors&quot ; and I think they had a credit union maybe, I was able to get, start a little savings account or something with them and, and a bunch of those people&#039 ; s kids I knew who also went to Drum and Bugle Corps, stuff like that so-- EL: And about Drum and Bugle Corps, what kinds of activities did you do as part of that? BH: Well, mostly t-the drum and bugle corps. We had you know, practices like twice a week or whatever and then marching practice and then we&#039 ; d go to competitions and parades and-- And so you were with those people a lot (laughs). But they started getting bigger and, and lettin-- like more people start to join from all over the city and far away. EL: I think we&#039 ; ll pause there. -- EL: And we have an additional interviewee has joined us, so could you please introduce yourself? Chelsea Dolinar-Hikawa (CDH): Hi, my name is Chelsea Dolinar-Hikawa and I am Sunnie Hikawa&#039 ; s daughter. EL: And in what year were you born? CDH: 1974. EL: Okay, and you were born here in Chicago? CDH: Um, I was actually born on the West Coast in Oregon but we moved here, back here when I was very young maybe 2 or so? Or a baby, yeah I think? BH: Yeah. EL: And then you&#039 ; ve-- CDH: And then I&#039 ; ve lived here ever since, yes. EL: Okay, so let&#039 ; s switch back to what we were talking about. We had just finished discussing the Drum and Bugle Corps and the many organizations that your family was part of. In particular, church. And could you explain to me your involvement in the choir at church? BH: Well so, let&#039 ; s see. So I, I would say I grew up in the church. Um-- You know I think the Nisei population here was close-knit in that most of them knew everybody and they all did things with-- amongst themselves. Whereas my generation I would say-- We spread out a little bit more. Yes we still had Sansei friends, but we also had other friends too. Whereas I would say most of my parents&#039 ; friends, most, were, if they weren&#039 ; t work colleagues, were Japanese American-- were also Nisei. So the church, I&#039 ; d gone there as a child, and then I went away to college. I got married, I had kids, and I decided I think I had, I think at, at some point I decided to go sing in the choir. So, &#039 ; cause my family was very musical, we had all been musi- musical, studied music. So I decided to sing in the choir and then they lost the choir director and they asked me if I would be the choir director. So without having experience I gained it by doing it on the job. And then oh about five la- years later I actually did get my job at Francis Parker as music teacher accompanist/companist, and then got a master&#039 ; s degree in music. So then I was the choir director for a long time! (laughs) For 30, I don&#039 ; t know 35 years, maybe more? 40? EL: And, what did you find most rewarding about that? BH: You know that the church is a wonderful group of people. A very caring and supportive group of people, and so it was just, it was-- and there were also quite, some very good singers and good musicians in the choir. So it was pretty fun to work with them and create music. EL: And I understand this choir connection is, is a thread that carries through to the next generation so could you explain a little bit about that? BH: Well I, I was also working full-time, and I started to get burned out from the two jobs. And so I decided to retire from the choir job. And so they said okay, and they put up a listing, and my daughter Chelsea who is also, has a music degree, decided to apply for the job, and she got it! CDH: Yes, about 10 years ago. So I applied, and initially of course I thought, &quot ; Oh well I&#039 ; m Sunnie&#039 ; s daughter, I grew up in the church, of course I&#039 ; m gonna just be given this job!&quot ; But they had an entire application process so I had to t- apply and I had interviews and everything and then I got the job as choir director, as music director. And so I&#039 ; ve been doing it for about the last 10 years I&#039 ; d say, and it&#039 ; s been wonderful. EL: How does it make you feel as a mother to know that you&#039 ; ve passed on this-- BH: (Laughs) EL: --both the talent and the position to your daughter? BH: Oh, it&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s great! It&#039 ; s great because I can, we can talk about it, and we- I understand the, the problems or the issues that, that she might encounter. And, you know, and so I still sing in the choir for her. CDH: She still helps me a lot. She&#039 ; s still quite present, and actually this past year because of the pandemic we sort of jointly worked together. I have two young sons who were hybrid learning and so I had kind of a difficult year and my mom h-- now that she&#039 ; s retired, she was actually had time to help me. So we were able to go completely virtual with the choir and she learned an entirely new set of skills to master it and so we did that jointly. That was a really fun project that we, we mastered, and recorded. BH: To make virtual choir videos. CDH: Yeah, virtual-- more than 20 songs that we worked on over the year with, with our choir. BH: (smiles) They&#039 ; re online, and anybody can hear it. CDH: They&#039 ; re on YouTube, you can watch them. (laughs) EL: And, and one of those was part of the Memorial Day program correct? BH: Right, because for the last, I don&#039 ; t know, 30 years a lot of the other choirs of the other Japanese churches kind of faded away, but ours remained quite vibrant. And so they asked us to perf- to sing for the the Memorial Day services so every year we&#039 ; re the church that they ask to do that. And, this year, as in the past they, well they decided on a virtual service, and I guess-- CDH: Right, Karen Kanemoto had written to me saying, &quot ; Do y- is there anything that you could submit?&quot ; and I was like, &quot ; Oh, well coincidentally, actually we&#039 ; ve been working on videos for our choir for the last six months so I definitely have a good selection I could send you.&quot ; EL: How has the past year changed how you view choir leadership? I mean aside from having to take on a new skill set and adapt to things being virtual, has it, has it altered how you think about leading a choir? CDH: Yes, I think so. But I, I have to think about that. I think it became even more apparent to me that it&#039 ; s actually a really fundamental part of community and a worship service that, I think everyone understands that music is so powerful but when you don&#039 ; t have access to it, it&#039 ; s absolutely just so important and people really feel the lack of it. So when the pandemic first happened, and I was just singing solos every week and it wasn&#039 ; t quite the same thing and then my mom had the idea, we should try and actually do this virtual thing and I was worried, a lot of our choir members are older and it&#039 ; s a really hard new thing to learn with computers I was like, &quot ; Oh, I&#039 ; m not sure it&#039 ; s gonna be really complicated.&quot ; But my mom was like, &quot ; No, I really think we can do it, we&#039 ; ll, we&#039 ; ll figure it out step by step and do it together.&quot ; And we did. And I think initially people were hesitant, but then-- BH: Oh, they were hesitant. (laughs) CDH: They were hesitant (laughs) to do this. But then when we did, and they saw that we were still recreating this, this powerful experience of singing together, even though we weren&#039 ; t actually, technically in the same place, it was just-- it was-- BH: The response was-- CDH: The response was huge, and people were so appreciative, and I just think more than ever people recognized that, that music, that singing together in harmony is such a fundamental part of being a human. Like it&#039 ; s really taken on even more import don&#039 ; t you think? BH: Yeah. And I think that, I think our church was proud because they pivoted so quickly to online services, but I was noticing they just felt kind of lacking something. So I&#039 ; m glad we did that. CDH: Yeah, and actually the really beautiful thing, (to BH) did you talk about Makoto and, an-- BH: Oh! No I didn&#039 ; t, oh! CDH: So of course, the one silver lining about doing virtual choir is that anyone can participate regardless of where they are in the world, and we have some wonderful members of the church who&#039 ; ve moved back to Japan, and have never been able to sing with us again. But then they joined again, and they&#039 ; ve been singing in our virtual choir this whole year. BH: Yup. CDH: So that&#039 ; s been a really big li- silver lining. EL: Is your church still majority Japanese American? CDH: Yeah? BH: Yeah? CDH: Maybe half and half? Or maybe even more than half? BH: Maybe probably still majority, yeah. EL: Do you have any sense if that&#039 ; s also the case for the other churches that were prominent in the Japanese American community when you were growing up? BH: I&#039 ; m going to guess that we are more diverse than some of those that have survived. I mean I know that the Presbyterian Church that was on Sheffield, and then they&#039 ; ve moved to Ravenswood area, right? Is that where Elaine&#039 ; s sister goes? CDH: I can&#039 ; t remember. BH: That-- it&#039 ; s a more fundamental church. CDH: Yeah. BH: And I understand they&#039 ; re doing very well. Like they have a, a they&#039 ; re pretty, they have a pretty good population. CDH: Yeah. BH: But I think it&#039 ; s mostly Japanese American, but I don&#039 ; t know, so maybe I should stop. CDH: Yeah I think our church makes a very concerted effort to be very much about social justice and interaction with the community. And we happen to be located in West Ridge, which is a very diverse community, though obviously not that many Japanese Americans. And so that&#039 ; s taken on more of a presence in the church. And we&#039 ; re open and affirming as well so-- EL: So we talked a little bit, Sunnie, about your upbringing and your school experience, but Chelsea I&#039 ; m wondering if we could talk a little bit about your Chicago upbringing as a Japanese American and whether, you know whether you had Japanese American classmates at school or whether you were engaged in a lot of social activities or organizations out- other than church that had a JA focus. CDH: Right so at school, at Francis Parker where I attended in the eighties and nineties, I think it became much less diverse than it had been when my mom was there previously. I think it&#039 ; s gotten more diverse again, but it was a very homogeneous period back then, so my classmates and I would always joke that there was one and a half Japanese people in the class. There&#039 ; s one other classmate who was Japanese and then me, being half Asian. And that might have been the only Asians in, in my whole grade actually. There was not a lot of Asians back there, then. However, I did grow up in the Japanese church in that I had to go every Sunday, and I was always at all of the cultural events. That was, I, I feel very large part of my life as a child. I can remember all the things we celebrated, you know Aki-Matsuri, and making ozoni, and all these things that, that were culturally important to me when I was a kid. And I did spend a lot of time with my maternal grandparents growing up, with my mom&#039 ; s parents. And so I think both for me and my sister that informed a lot of how we feel about like eating Japanese American cuisine like we really, really used to doing things like that. And I did also study taiko drum at Midwest Buddhist Temple when I was in high school and I really enjoyed that. But in my school experience I would say no, there was very little exposure or kinship with other Asians. And actually, I can remember in eighth grade my mom felt that Parker was not a diverse community, and she really wanted me to switch and go to Whitney Young where at least there&#039 ; d be more people of color. But I was very attached to my friends, and I didn&#039 ; t want to move so I stayed there the whole time. But I feel like a-- both my sister and I studied Japanese, the language in college and we both studied abroad in Japan &#039 ; cause that was very interesting to us. And so I feel like much more in college I was able to access that part of my cultural heritage. EL: When you were young, did you have much awareness of the history of incarceration and what your family had been through during the war? CDH: I think when I was very young I did not. I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m thinking I became more aware of that maybe as a preteen? And also I would say like, for my grandfather he would sometimes speak about his experiences with um-- he was with Military Intelligence translating in the Pacific, my grandmother was incarcerated at Tule Lake and she would never talk about it. Right? BH: (shakes head) CDH: It was a very taboo subject for her. So even if you would ask her directly about it, it was just something she didn&#039 ; t want to discuss, so I think as a child I was not aware of that but definitely as a preteen I, I became more cognizant of what had happened. EL: Was that because it was taught to you at school? Or did you hear, h-hear it from your mother or other community members? CDH: I&#039 ; m trying to remember, I, I don&#039 ; t know. I know, well actually, &#039 ; member? I think I was in high school there was a, an interesting exhibit at the Field Museum about Japanese American women in Chicago. Do you remember that? And we performed there. It was, it was back in the 90s I think there was actually an exhibit. BH: Oh maybe, yeah. CDH: So I know that was a part of it, and I, I&#039 ; m not sure? Maybe at church, I&#039 ; m not, I&#039 ; m not sure. EL: And Sunnie did you, do you have a memory of learning about incarceration at a specific point in your life, or did you kind of always know about it? BH: No, I, I don&#039 ; t know-- I can&#039 ; t pinpoint a spot, but I do know, I told you that we-- I have this old, yellowed, Tribune magazine from, I&#039 ; m going to say 1954? No, probably 1958 or 9. That, where they did an article about the incarceration, and they interviewed my family. --or they did an article about my family and I think it was because of the incarceration. So-- that&#039 ; s probably it. CDH: I just remembered something. BH: Oh you did? CDH: So I don&#039 ; t remember when reparations were given, but I was a teen or pre-teen and my grandparents did receive reparations. And I remember that. EL: Did you understand at that time what it was for? CDH: I think it, then it was explained to me. That Grandma and Grandpa are getting money from the government, why is this happening, what are they gonna do with it, and then I can remember that being like, &quot ; Oh yes, so the government is finally apologizing.&quot ; And I remember it was sad for my grandparents because their parents were the ones who substantially lost property, but they were not alive anymore to receive the apology and the reparations. I can remember that quite well. EL: Do you remember your grandparents&#039 ; emotional response? CDH: Not real-- I feel like they were like, &quot ; It&#039 ; s about time!&quot ; (laughs) But, maybe they didn&#039 ; t discuss that with me as much. BH: Yeah. EL: Were they at all involved in the redress movement, or, or were you Sunnie? BH: No, not at all, my guess is that it was incidental. It had happened, it was done, moving on. Oh, here&#039 ; s this check, isn&#039 ; t that nice? EL: And this question is, is really for both of you, when you were growing up or in adulthood, did you ever experience racism or bias due to your identity? BH: Well, I have one story I always tell. Which is that when I was about 10, I was going to the grocery store and this kid yelled at me from across the street, &quot ; Ching, chong, Chinaman!&quot ; something like that. And I remember the shock, and the with being, what, withdrawing. But then I pulled myself together and said, &quot ; I&#039 ; m not Chinese, I&#039 ; m Japanese!&quot ; But, like, I really showed him! (laughs) What a good repartee, retort. So I remember that very clearly. CDH: I have, well I have a couple stories. I do remember as a teenager walking down Diversey right by your house, with my grandparents, Courtney and I, and a bunch of drunk people were coming out of the bars and they surrounded Grandma and Grandpa and started yelling &quot ; Ching Chong&quot ; in their faces. And my sister and I got up in their faces and were like, &quot ; Leave our grandparents alone!&quot ; and they ran away, but I remember that very distinctly. They just surrounded them and started yelling, &quot ; ching-chong-ching-chong-ching&quot ; right in Grandma and Grandpa&#039 ; s faces. So that was crazy. Me personally, because I&#039 ; m biracial, people don&#039 ; t always know what I am, often they think I&#039 ; m Latina. I&#039 ; ve actually experienced name calling because of that. But I did have a pretty crazy experience about 10 years ago, I was walking in the Little Saigon neighborhood with my husband and his friend, and this man came up and punched me as hard as they could in the chest a couple times and knocked the wind out of me. And at the time I thought, &quot ; What is happening, is it &#039 ; cause I&#039 ; m a woman? Like I can&#039 ; t be &#039 ; cause I&#039 ; m Asian? Like what is happening?&quot ; And we called the police, and they picked him up and he told the police officer I was a, a, &quot ; Chink Gook Bitch&quot ; sorry. And I had to get out of his neighborhood. So that was very shocking to me, but that did happen about 10 years ago. EL: Wow, especially given what&#039 ; s going on now-- CDH: Mhmm. EL: --that&#039 ; s incredible to know that you experienced that, not during this current wave, but, but prior to it. CDH: No, I, I think that just shows that it&#039 ; s always been there but it&#039 ; s just much more public, public now that people are aware of that, but I&#039 ; m sure incidences like that happe- have happened for the last fifty years. And yeah, I mean at the time I remember they said, &quot ; Do you want to press charges?&quot ; and I was just sort of in shock, and I didn&#039 ; t. But maybe knowing what I now-- know now maybe I should have, but I, I didn&#039 ; t even think of it. EL: How did you, how did you move past that experience? CDH: Um, I don&#039 ; t know, I still think about it sometimes. I can remember the man&#039 ; s face, and how he looked at my face and he just hated me. I can see it very clearly. He just saw my face, and he just hated me right away. Which is crazy! I, I will say he actually was black, and I understand that there is sometimes animosity between those two communities, and I know why that&#039 ; s there because he&#039 ; s obviously more oppressed than I am, so I just sometimes think of that. EL: And given that, that you had this experience some time ago, when all of this news over the past year started t- to be talked about, that hate directed at AAPI folks, especially directed at women, and in many cases elderly women, CDH: Yeah, EL: How did you react to that? CDH: Well it made me feel very sad, it made me feel vulnerable, especially for like my mom, my aunts, my grandma, it made me worried a l-, really worried for them. But so we did, my mom and I are working on an initiative, we&#039 ; re raising funds for Advancing Justice Chicago. We have a, a five concert series that we&#039 ; re performing at church, and all the money we raise will go to fight anti-Asian racism. That&#039 ; s the best we can do. EL: Have either one of you changed your, your behavior, your sort of daily behavior to protect yourselves? Do you feel you can protect yourselves? CDH: I don&#039 ; t think we have, I keep telling all my relatives, &quot ; You have to be careful!&quot ; but, but they&#039 ; re like, &quot ; No we&#039 ; re strong we&#039 ; re fine!&quot ; Though I will say one of my best friends who is Korean, drives with a block over the side, so that no one can tell she&#039 ; s Asian when she&#039 ; s driving. Teresa does. BH: Oh really? CDH: &#039 ; Cause she&#039 ; s, she lives in the suburbs and she&#039 ; s afraid. EL: Thank you for sharing that experience. So, I want to switch back to Sunnie briefly, are there any particular people, places, or events that hold special meaning for you from your childhood? BH: Hmm, well I&#039 ; m sure there are, as I said the Co-Op Investors, that Christmas party, and then every year the Resettler&#039 ; s committee had a picnic, and I remember going to that one. Co-Op Investors would also do a, we did, like a r- not a retreat we&#039 ; d like, we went up to a camp somewhere for a weekend, stayed three nights at some cabin in Northern Michigan, or something, or Wisconsin. That was super fun. The church&#039 ; s, it used to be called a Bazaar, now it&#039 ; s called Aki-Matsuri for the last 30 years, and that&#039 ; s always a great event. Can I think of anything else? I can&#039 ; t. EL: Can you describe for me some of the activities at the Resettler&#039 ; s picnics? BH: I&#039 ; m afraid I can&#039 ; t, I was young. They w- I&#039 ; m sure they had relay races and games and stuff like that. Tha- our church picnic is also a lot of fun. We have games, but we also have like a potluck I should say that the potlucks of, like Mother&#039 ; s Day potluck, or just any of the potlucks that we have at our church, the food is fantastic! So it&#039 ; s a lot about the food and it&#039 ; s great! EL: And then, are there still elements of Japanese food present at those events? CDH: Oh yeah! It&#039 ; s all Japanese food. BH: Oh! Yeah a lot. It&#039 ; s mostly, it&#039 ; s mostly Japanese food. CDH: It&#039 ; s the best home cooked Japanese food! BH: Yes, it&#039 ; s y-you know, age-sushi, inari-sushi, and maki-sushi, and-- CDH: --teriyaki, BH: --teriyaki, CDH: --chashu, BH: --yeah! (laughs) EL: I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m curious about language, especially because you mentioned Chelsea that you studied Japanese, and your, your sister studied Japanese. Barbara, did you grow up knowing Japanese at all? BH: I did not! (laughs) And this is crazy, because I did visit my other daughter in Japan when she was living there, and everybody would come up to talk to me and I would give them this blank look, and then my daughter would start talking in very fluent Japanese. And that was kind of off-putting I think for the people there. I-- this is one of those things like, &quot ; Oh I wish I hadn&#039 ; t quit piano when I was young&quot ; --that people say. I mean I didn&#039 ; t quit piano, I still play piano. But all the other kids had to go to Japanese school, and we did not. And I was really happy that we didn&#039 ; t have to go, &#039 ; cause they all hated it, but of course now I wish I could speak Japanese. I really do. EL: Do you know why your parents didn&#039 ; t make you go? BH: My parents, I like to think that my parents were pretty modern, sort of, not separate from the Japanese American community, but willing to send me to private school, and look at other outside opportunities for us-- CDH: --I think Grandma also really wanted to assimilate, I feel like they were purposely not giving you a Japanese cultural childhood, you and my aunts. Because they really felt-- I feel like for my grandma after the experience of the internment camps, she really wanted you guys to be Americanized. BH: And ambitious yeah. CDH: Yes, and really be true American girls, with American names and like leave that behind you know? BH: Yeah, I think you&#039 ; re right. EL: How did, how does that make you feel about some of the elements of Japanese culture that have been lost, that weren&#039 ; t transmitted from your grandparents generation to your mother, and thus couldn&#039 ; t be transmitted from your mother to you? CDH: Yeah, I, I do think it&#039 ; s a shame and I think all my cousins feel that way. We, we wish, I mean hindsight is 20-20, but we wish there had been more of a passing of it along, because neither of my aunts ha- have it either and all of their kids are interested in their cultural heritage too. So it&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s too bad that that&#039 ; s not what happened. EL: Do you feel that by studying Japanese yourself in college and then studying abroad in Japan you were able to reclaim some of that heritage? CDH: Oh definitely, and I know my cousin also studied Japan-- Japanese in school as well. We were all kind of wanting to get back that piece of our identity that we didn&#039 ; t have as much, and it, it&#039 ; s not anyone&#039 ; s fault! (laughs) BH: (laughs) CDH: But it was important to us, so yes, mos- we all studied Japanese and we all went abroad and lived in Japan, and yeah it was very-- it was, it made me feel proud to reclaim that. BH: I think, like Jane Kaihatsu too, like a l- there were people even my age, CDH: She&#039 ; s a sansei. BH: --who felt, they wanted to find out more about that piece of themselves of their identity and did go explore in Japan. CDH: Mhmm, definitely. EL: And regarding incarceration, have any members of your family participated in pilgrimages back to Tule Lake? CDH: No, I think we would be interested, but that&#039 ; s the piece of th-- my grandma wants to not look at it, is I don&#039 ; t think she would ever want to go back there. And she wouldn&#039 ; t ever want to discuss it. And in fact most of the Nisei I know do not want to talk about it, the only Nisei I, I knew who would let us like interview her was very young at the time, she was only like 10 when she was incarcerated, so she didn&#039 ; t have the same emotional experience that older people did. But so, for my grandma s- I don&#039 ; t think she&#039 ; d ever be interested in retracing that. BH: And she&#039 ; s 100 now, so clearly her parents and all the Issei are gone. CDH: Yeah, it&#039 ; s too bad &#039 ; cause I think the rest of us would be interested. EL: If you could talk to your grandmother about her time in camp or if you could speak to your mother about time in camp, what would you most want to ask her? BH: Hmm, (laughs) CDH: I mean, I would like to know her, how she felt emotionally and like everything! I&#039 ; d want to know what her daily life was like, and I&#039 ; d want to know everything about the experience. Remember we did find that, she had been like the publisher of the newsletter or something we found these old papers and, yeah-- BH: Right, no I told her about that, and I want to bring them and have them go into the historical-- CDH: But my feeling is that she is just not interested in discussing that at all. BH: There&#039 ; s, yeah. I- even when we found those sketches, I believe what I was doing was trying to do oral histories from my parents on camera. So I was interviewing my dad, &#039 ; cause my mom didn&#039 ; t want to do it and I found those sketches, I think I was showing them to my dad and my mom, or-- I was asking my dad about questions, and my mom brought out these sketches. She would never have done it if we had asked her directly, but it was because I was interviewing my dad that all of a sudden these little sketches suddenly appeared. But then, she didn&#039 ; t really want to talk about them after that. CDH: Actually, I tal- do you remember this crazy story? So, my husband is Italian-American and I&#039 ; m Slovenian and Japanese, so when we had our, we had like a bridal shower at church and we had all different kinds of food and I was like, &quot ; Oh I, I thought it&#039 ; d be fun, I put up the three flags for Slovenia, Italy, and Japan, and one of the nisei woman came up to me and said &quot ; Chelsea, I&#039 ; m worried we&#039 ; re going to get in trouble because you put up the Rising Sun, should we take that down?&quot ; She&#039 ; s like, &quot ; What if the police come?&quot ; And I was like, &quot ; Well, I, I promise you we will be okay but if you really feel uncomfortable, I could take it down?&quot ; and she was like, &quot ; No, no I just want to make sure that you&#039 ; re careful.&quot ; But she was like, afraid! EL: And what year was that in? CDH: 2007? Like this was fairly recent, but she was nervous cuz I put up the Japanese flag. BH: Wow. EL: Chelsea, I would like to ask you as a fellow mixed-raced Japanese American, BH: --it&#039 ; s almost 4:15 so-- CDH: Okay. EL: --and given that you grew up very much connected to the Japanese American community here, were you ever made to feel less than because you were half? CDH: Definitely not by the community here in Chicago, and definitely not my parents or grandparents, friends, definitely not. But I will say in college I sometimes felt I didn&#039 ; t really belong in one group or the other just from being mixed race. So I, I felt that more when I stepped out of my own community that I&#039 ; d been raised in. EL: And did you know many other mixed-race Japanese Americans growing up? CDH: Aside from my own family I don&#039 ; t think I did. My cousins are, and-- BH: That&#039 ; s it, yeah. CDH: --no, I think I really-- and in fact I think it was much a rarer to be mixed Japanese when I was little, now I see many-- like my sons, many of their friends are half-Asian, but when I was little it was much rarer to be half-Asian. EL: And I think we&#039 ; ll pause there so that you can take off. -- EL: So we were talking about pilgrimage and maybe interest in your generation and your children&#039 ; s generation but out of respect for your mother&#039 ; s feelings about it, you all choose not to participate in pilgrimage. We talked a little bit about Chelsea&#039 ; s mixed-race experience, and I&#039 ; m wondering, you mentioned trying to do oral history, and, and how your mother engaged a little bit only because you were talking to your father. Was your father willing to talk about camp at all, or was it just his military experience? BH: Yeah, I think he would have been much more willing to talk about it, I just don&#039 ; t even remember if I asked him much. But, yeah my dad was, is more open-- Was. EL: And did you, did you have other relatives or family friends who did talk openly about camp? BH: I don&#039 ; t think so. I think, I would think a universal Sansei experience would be that the Issei and the Nisei did not talk about camp. There&#039 ; s that Japanese um, Japanese virtue gaman. You don&#039 ; t monku-monku about, you don&#039 ; t complain, you just get on, so-- EL: So how did you go about educating yourself about this very important piece of your family&#039 ; s history? BH: I think, I didn&#039 ; t go about educating myself, I think pieces of it just would come out here and there like, &quot ; What camp were you at?&quot ; &quot ; We were at Tule Lake.&quot ; &quot ; Oh, how old were you?&quot ; That, but over the years. Just, and you put it together, that piece of the puzzle with what you read of elsewhere or find out about from films, or other media, and it just fits in and becomes part of that picture. EL: Did you feel a sense of loss in terms of cultural heritage, or did it ever occur to you that, that you hadn&#039 ; t received cultural knowledge from your parents? BH: No, as I say because-- we&#039 ; re so Western, my family was so Western compared to many of the, most of my other Sansei friends, that I felt unique or proud of that. So no, I didn&#039 ; t feel that until now. I wish I could speak Japanese, or knew how to cook Japanese food better-- EL: So how did it feel when your children did feel a sense of loss or something missing and then took steps to acquire that for themselves? BH: I don&#039 ; t think it was expressed as a sense of loss, I think it&#039 ; s more of a sense of curiosity, wanting to know about this. So when she took Japanese in college I said, &quot ; Oh, that&#039 ; s great, that sounds like fun!&quot ; And the same thing for m-- and then she did her junior year abroad in Japan, in Osaka. And then my youngest daughter actually got a fellowship to teach at a college in Ja- Japan, to teach English at a college in Japan. So she was there for three years, and got really fluent in Japanese culture and Ja- and Japanese language. EL: And other than the awkwardness of people expecting you to speak Japanese when you were in Japan, what was the experience like for you, going to visit your, your children in Japan? BH: Well it, that was the last two weeks of a three month around the Pacific thing. My partner and I backpacked, we went to Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and then we went to Japan. So, he was tired, and wanted to get home, and I thought it was just-- the food was fantastic, just delicious food which is a crucial part of any culture for me. And so the food was great, but he found the culture so foreign. Like of all the places that we had visited, this was the most foreign. We&#039 ; ve been all over the world in many, many different cultures but the juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern and I mean technologically, way futuristic modern, just was so jarring to him. And the fact that when we approached anybody to talk to them people were very, and would run away. They just, they were very wary of us and t- of tourists and didn&#039 ; t want to talk. And he found that pretty off-putting. (laughs) EL: Was that in more rural areas, or also in cities? BH: No, no no no. That was in Tokyo and Osaka. Everywhere we went, we&#039 ; d ask a question, people&#039 ; d just, in English, I would say like, &quot ; Do you speak English?&quot ; and they&#039 ; d all (no gesture). And this was in 2000 so, I understand-- well I could be wrong, I think somebody told me that now things are, you see English signs and things like that. But then you didn&#039 ; t. So when we&#039 ; re trying to get around the subway, and every name of every stop was in Japanese letters, and we&#039 ; d just like, they all look the same! It&#039 ; s very hard. Like which stop did we want? Is it that one? That one? That one? So, yeah. So he, he was not very fond, he didn&#039 ; t like it very much. I would of course love to go back. We did have a couple of wonderful experiences at a ryokan, a minshuku, and that was pretty amazing &#039 ; cause it was in the winter, so nobody was there. We were the only guests. They have the outdoor Japanese, the min-, what is it, the hot tub out there? And the, in the minshuku, the woman, her neighbor had caught a fish. She said, &quot ; Oh, my neighbor caught a fish, I will, do you like, I will serve it to you as sashimi.&quot ; She brought in this huge platter of sashimi. I&#039 ; m a vegetarian, my daughter does not care for sashimi, so we just sort of looked at, at my partner, Randy, and said &quot ; You gotta do us proud.&quot ; So he ate the whole thing of sashimi, the entire big tuna that was on this platter! EL: He took one for the team. BH: He did. I mean he loves sashimi, but there was enough for five people. (laughs) EL: So I think, I would like to know, what you think I should be asking about the Sansei experience in Chicago? BH: Um, what should you be asking about it? It&#039 ; s pretty great I think. I think there was a lot of opportunities in the, amongst the different groups and activities. So the MBT I think had the Boy Scouts, and the Drum and Bugle Corps, and then there was the Inter-church volleyball league. And, I, I feel like, and the, and Senn High School I think a lot of Japanese Americans were at Senn High School. There was also a group who were in Hyde Park, then they moved up to the North side too. But then, a lot of people started moving out to the suburbs, as I got, by the time they were getting out of, getting into college. I think a lot of families were moving out. But for a while there, it was pretty, I think it was a pretty nice, connected community. As I said earlier, you can meet somebody and they&#039 ; d say, you&#039 ; d say your name, they&#039 ; d say, &quot ; Oh, Hikawa!&quot ; or whatever their name might be. They&#039 ; d know somebody, or they knew of you or-- So there was a lot of connection, there were the three grocery store-- the three stores on the Belmont-Clark intersection, and so we used to always go to York Foods, or Toguri&#039 ; s, or-- Star Market, yes, Star Market I believe the owner went to our church even. So, and those communities were big, as I said we had a huge Sunday School, there must have been 300, 500 members? Not like now, where we have 50, maybe? Because, our Nisei, we used to have a Nisei congregation, they&#039 ; re all gone. Now we have the Nisei, and very few of them left. My mom is a hundred, but she lives with my sister, wherever my sister goes. So, she&#039 ; s not part of that community anymore, most of &#039 ; em, a lot of &#039 ; em have left, and a lot of them have died. So that&#039 ; s pretty sad. And I guess I think, you grew up on the East Coast, but you didn&#039 ; t know a Japanese American community, my guess is. EL: No, I didn&#039 ; t. BH: But even if you had, I wonder if there were one. Even for my daughter&#039 ; s age, for the Yonsei. Here, this far removed from the West Coast. West Coast, I don&#039 ; t, there&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s certainly not as much solidarity to that group as there was when I was growing up, when it was definitely-- a lot of my, the people I know like at my church, other Sansei, their friends are all other Sansei. They have lots of Sansei friends, so-- And certainly, as I said, my parent&#039 ; s group of friends was very connected. And I think that&#039 ; s really nice to have had that. So I feel sorry for other communities that weren&#039 ; t as rich perhaps as the one in Chicago. My guess is if you lived out in a smaller town or some other state it wasn&#039 ; t that. So I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m grateful for that. EL: Do you think there&#039 ; s anything that the Japanese American community in Chicago now could or should be doing that would help strengthen the sense of community or connectedness between us? BH: No, I&#039 ; m afraid I feel like it&#039 ; s-- not disintegrated, but it&#039 ; s been stretched pretty thin maybe. I- more people moving out to more suburbs. A lot of the Sansei I know, their kids don&#039 ; t live here, they&#039 ; ve all moved away. That&#039 ; s just the way of the world we&#039 ; re a much more mobile society that way people move away they don&#039 ; t stay as my parents&#039 ; generation did and raising their families in one place. So I don&#039 ; t, I, I wouldn&#039 ; t, I can&#039 ; t think of anything. I know that coming here to the JASC, I come for taiko drumming lessons here, and I&#039 ; m sort of impressed that the other people in the group, some of whom are also Sansei, do speak some Japanese. And the offerings here are a lot for Japanese people who have, there&#039 ; s, there is that community here because-- mostly in the north suburbs a lot of corporations I think brought Japanese executives in, people from Japan. So there&#039 ; s a &quot ; Japanese-Japanese &#039 ; &#039 ; community that exists of which I know absolutely nothing, I&#039 ; m not in touch with them. But I do have a friend from Berlin who is from Japan, so when she comes-- her husband is from Chicago, so when she comes, they come to Chicago, she plays in a koto group out in Arlington Heights or someplace and is-- And since she speaks Japanese, she&#039 ; s in touch with that group but as a Japanese American, I&#039 ; m not. Oops, I think I touched my mic. So I, I wish I could a- think of something, but I, I don&#039 ; t know. EL: And for your grandchildren, Chelsea mentioned that her spouse is not Japanese American, so that would make your grandchildren one quarter Japanese American. BH: She calls them &quot ; quapa&quot ; . Quapa, like half is hapa, and then quapa. (laughs) EL: What do you do as a grandparent to, to help them understand that piece of their diverse heritage and-- BH: Well, I don&#039 ; t think I do anything particular. But I do know that for example, at my younger grandson&#039 ; s nursery school last year, Chelsea offered to do a unit on Japan with the four-year-olds, or three-- no they were three-year-olds. And she said, &quot ; Do you want to help?&quot ; So I went, and we read a Japanese fairytale, and she&#039 ; d created an art project with some watercolor on paper or something like that, making a, a fish kite or some Japanese-y kind of thing. So, I did that, I don&#039 ; t know how connected they feel to it, but it&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s a w-, it&#039 ; s something that keeps it alive I think. EL: Is there anything, now that she&#039 ; s not in the room, that you would like to ask Chelsea that you&#039 ; ve never really felt you could or never had the opportunity to? BH: No not really, I pretty much would ask her whatever I want to if I feel like it! (laughs) EL: And, as we wrap up here I&#039 ; m, I would love to know what motivated you to participate in the oral history project? BH: A couple of things. There was an exhibit not too long ago, at, I can&#039 ; t remember the name of the gallery, but over on Fullerton and Halsted. And I went to that and they-- it was about the internment. And they showed some films, several films. And then I saw some people I knew. And often I&#039 ; ll see films, or see exhibits even say, &quot ; This soldier from the 442nd&quot ; and it&#039 ; d be like, &quot ; Oh it&#039 ; s Sats Tanakatsubo&quot ; or some family I know, and I always feel like, &quot ; Well, why isn&#039 ; t my family up there?&quot ; And then I thought, &quot ; Well, if I don&#039 ; t do it nobody&#039 ; s going to do it.&quot ; So when I saw the thing that said, &quot ; Do you want to do an oral history project?&quot ; I thought, oh, I should do one. I&#039 ; m about 10 years too late, but I should do it, so, that&#039 ; s why I&#039 ; m doing it. (laughs) EL: It&#039 ; s never too late! And I&#039 ; m very grateful for your participation. I think to close things out here, I&#039 ; ll ask you what, what would you like future generations to know about you and your family? BH: Oh, hmm I just thought of something I wanted to say, and then let me think about that question. EL: Okay. BH: Which is, I remember that my grandparents, my maternal grandparents, did go back to Japan for a visit a couple of times. And they said, the thing they said was, everybody knew they were American-- by their shoes. It was the funniest thing, because obviously they were J-Japanese, they spoke J-Japanese, she said, but people would look at their shoes, and know that they weren&#039 ; t Japanese. Why? Because our shoes were better? I&#039 ; m not, I don&#039 ; t know the answer to that. --Okay so now your question about is there anything I&#039 ; d like-- EL: What would you most like future generations to know about you or your family? BH: Oh, hmm. About me and my family. EL: What would you like your legacy to be? BH: Oh I don&#039 ; t know, that we, that we were part of the human race and tried to do our best to, to promote justice, and make the world better for some people? I guess? EL: I think that&#039 ; s a lovely sentiment. I think we&#039 ; ll end there so thank you very much. BH: Thank you. (smiles) Copyright held by the Japanese American Service Committee, Chicago, Illinois. video Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from the Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center. 0 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=HikawaBarbara20210623.xml HikawaBarbara20210623.xml http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/collections/show/1 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/find?tags=Series%3A+Oral+History+Project&amp ; layout=1 Sort Priority 1800 OHMS Object https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=HikawaBarbara20210623.xml Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hikawa, Barbara and Chelsea Dolinar-Hikawa (6/23/2021) Description An account of the resource Barbara (Sunnie) Hikawa is a sansei born in Chicago in 1949, whose family has a rich history and strong roots in the local Japanese American community. In this interview, she is joined by her daughter Chelsea Dolinar-Hikawa, a yonsei hapa who was also raised in the Chicago Japanese American community, particularly the Japanese American church community. During World War II, Sunnie and Chelsea’s family members were interned at Tule Lake. After the war, Sunnie’s parents moved to different areas of the Midwest but eventually settled in Chicago, where Sunnie’s father went to law school, and where they raised their family. Sunnie’s paternal grandmother ran a boarding house on LaSalle Street, providing temporary housing for many nisei resettlers. Both Sunnie and Chelsea are involved in their church as the current and past choir directors, and talk about how their experiences with church informed their experience with the JA community. They share their experiences with racism, thoughts about their upbringing, and the differences between generations and how Japanese culture is shared and maintained across them. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-06-23 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video ISHRAB Series: Oral History Project https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/8ef65993f7558b08757aef044938bd9a.png 2080b17d6215abe37b5a90bee6c9c436 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Japanese Americans--History. Description An account of the resource This collection contains oral history interviews from the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) Legacy Center's holdings. Where available, transcriptions have been included and synced to the recordings to enable full-text searching. Interviews were recorded at various times, some by JASC staff and some by external partners, often supported by grant funding. See the metadata associated with each interview for full details. This digital collection will continue to grow as new interviews are recorded, and as additional pre-existing recordings are received by donation or discovered in the physical archives. The digitization and transcription of many of the recordings in this collection, the recording of interviews between July 2018 and June 2021, and the creation of this publicly accessible digital platform, were funded by a Japanese American Confinements Sites (JACS) grant awarded by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The JASC Legacy Center gratefully acknowledges the financial support received between 2018 and 2021 that enabled this project to succeed. --- This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity National Park Service 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Ueunten, JJ Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Nicholls, Lourdes Interview Keyword Yonsei Harding, George Tsuchiya, Kiyotsugu Manzanar Block 20 Visual Education Museum Pre-WWII Chicago OHMS Object Text 5.4 4/26/2021 Nicholls, Lourdes (4/26/2021) 1:07:40 JASC_OHP JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection OHP Oral History Project Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center Recorded, transcribed, and made accessible online with financial support from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program. Yonsei Harding, George Tsuchiya, Kiyotsugu Manzanar Block 20 Visual Education Museum Pre-WWII Chicago Nicholls, Lourdes Ueunten, JJ video 1:|17(8)|30(6)|45(2)|54(9)|64(12)|73(10)|87(4)|95(14)|105(9)|114(2)|120(16)|128(9)|137(3)|145(7)|152(11)|160(9)|177(4)|192(8)|202(9)|214(5)|226(4)|235(4)|260(8)|269(2)|277(9)|292(10)|302(6)|311(1)|322(14)|333(14)|341(3)|356(12)|365(4)|401(3)|415(14)|429(1)|441(5)|457(4)|469(11)|478(10)|498(1)|505(15)|516(11)|527(2)|538(14)|555(10)|568(1)|583(13)|593(14)|602(13)|611(14)|626(3)|639(8)|647(5)|655(7)|667(13)|679(15)|693(6)|704(10)|719(6)|729(1)|741(12)|757(12)|772(5)|779(1)|788(14)|804(4) 0 https://vimeo.com/574592707/576ce06808 Vimeo video &lt ; iframe src=&quot ; https://player.vimeo.com/video/574592707?h=576ce06808&quot ; width=&quot ; 640&quot ; height=&quot ; 360&quot ; frameborder=&quot ; 0&quot ; allow=&quot ; autoplay ; fullscreen ; picture-in-picture&quot ; allowfullscreen&gt ; &lt ; /iframe&gt ; Lourdes Nicholls is a fourth-generation Japanese American born and raised in California. Her maternal grandfather, Kiyotsugu Tsuchiya was one of the few Japanese Americans in the Chicagoland area prior to World War II, and after completing his education at the Art Institute of Chicago, worked as a museum curator for George Harding, Jr.. After George Harding, Jr. passed away in 1939, the family moved to Los Angeles. Shortly following their move, they were incarcerated at Manzanar, where Lourdes JJ Ueunten (JJU): ​​Today is April 26, 2021 and this oral history is being recorded at the Japanese American Service Committee building at 4427 N. Clark St. in Chicago, IL. The interviewer is JJ Ueunten and the interviewee is Lourdes Nicholls. This interview is being recorded by the JASC Legacy Center in order to document the experiences of Japanese Americans in the Chicago area. Okay, what is your full name? Lourdes Nicholls (LN): Lourdes Michelle Nicholls... Kaczkowski. I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m marr-- I go, I don&#039 ; t go by my married last name. (laughs) JJU: And what is your year of birth? LN: 1967. JJU: And where were you born? LN: I was born in Culver City, CA. JJU: Were you or any members of your family incarcerated during World War II? LN: My mother was born in February 1945 at Manzanar, and her parents and her sister and grandmother lived together in Block 20 a--at Manzanar. JJU: And when did your family first come to the US? LN: Okay, so my mother&#039 ; s father Kiyotsugu Tsuchiya came to the United States by himself at 15 or 16 years old in 1916, and took a ship to Los Angeles to find his father who was working at a flower shop in Los Angeles, and to get him to go back to Japan. Because he had been in the United States for maybe 10 years, and was not coming back to Japan. And my grandfather was the first boy in five generations, and h--and was sent to the United States to bring him, his father back even though he didn&#039 ; t really know his father &#039 ; cause he was just a little boy when he left. JJU: Did he go back? LN: He went back, but my grandfather stayed, and again you know he came by himself at 15 or 16 years old not knowing English and... I can&#039 ; t even imagine... I mean he found him luckily, but you know it wasn&#039 ; t a text or a phone call I don&#039 ; t think, it was like letters and finding him. JJU: And when and how did your family come to live in Chicago? LN: So my grandfather lived in Los Angeles in the late teens and early 20s. He went, he went through the United States, he went to Oklahoma to become... To find oil. And what he said was that the Standard Oil Company set up oil rigs right next to where my grandfather and his uncle had property and sucked all the oil out and so my grandfather and his uncle ended up going north to Chicago, and my grandfather, who by the way originally wanted to be a dentist, ended up at art school at the Art Institute of Chicago in about 1922 or 1923. JJU: Wow, okay. And do you know, kind of when your grandmother came? LN: So my-- my grandmother was born in 1911, in Sacramento. Her parents were from Japan, and her mother was born in 1890, her name was Chiyo Konishi. And she was... She came to the United States to get married to my grandmother&#039 ; s father, who was 25 years older than my great-grandmother. Yeah, I&#039 ; m not sure if she knew that when she... You know, signed up for that but anyway, yeah so they were both born in Japan, and my grandmother was born in Sacramento. JJU: Do you know what motivated them to immigrate? I-I know your your great-grandmother came to get married-- LN: Yes, my great grandfather... seems like he was like an actor. He had a lot of interests. He had a Go parlor in Los Angeles in their house I believe? And I think he was kind of a Jack-of-all-trades. I know that when the 1908 earthquake happened in San Francisco, which you know they were-- he was in the area, I guess he walked from San Francisco to Sacramento which is really far. To-- because he had nowhere else to go at that time. That&#039 ; s what our family has said for generations, that he walked, he left San Francisco and walked to Sacramento. I don&#039 ; t know, but they were in Sacramento and eventually went to Los Angeles. My grandmother and her sister who was born in 1912 were in a very strict household and their parents wouldn&#039 ; t allow them to go to school if their horoscopes were not good. And they also had them work in silent movies. So my grandmother and her sister were in the Sessue Hayakawa movies as child, child actors. So, that was kind of a interesting life I guess, that they had. And I have a lot of photos of them from those movies, from the movies they were in. JJU: Wow. LN: And Sessue Hayakawa was in Chicago as well so he&#039 ; s, he&#039 ; s kind of a interesting character as well. JJU: Was-- Do you happen to know if your family was part of Japanese American communities before the war? LN: They... My grandmother&#039 ; s family was in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles and they seem to have been very ingrained in that, in, in that community. My grandmother went to an integrated school in high school, she went to Lincoln High School in Los Angeles with some later... Marcus Welby I can&#039 ; t think of his name now, he was a big star. So she, even though she was required to speak Japanese at home her parents had her, you know her and her sister in an integrated high school. And they graduated around 1928-29 the sisters. JJU: And, yeah do you mind speaking a little bit about the pre-war life in Chicago that you know about? LN: Sure, sure. So my grandfather came to Chicago in the early 1920s, and he went to the Art Institute, and there he met a man named George Harding Jr. who was a very eclectic, wealthy collector of arms and armor. And he really liked my grandfather, so he asked my grandfather to become his curator of his collection. And he lived at 4853 Lake Park Ave. which is in the Hyde Park-ish Kenwood neighborhood. The house has been destroyed now because it was going to be revitalized, that neighborhood was going to be changed. And so unfortunately, it&#039 ; s not there, it&#039 ; s an empty lot. But the house was a mansion, and George Harding actually I believe was the first person in Illinois to have a car. He had an airplane, he had, he would fly to Europe and all over the world to collect art pieces. And after World War I, there were a lot of families in Europe selling things, and he was able to take advantage of those things. I&#039 ; ve read that the Hearst family and George Harding had a lot of competition between pieces of art. So my grandfather ended up being his curator, and I have a photo of him in the-- his little workshop. He would take care of the arms and armor in the collection. And he would give tours to presidents, vice presidents, Al Capone actually he, he told me about going there. In the, I think late 1920s, George Harding had wanted to dismantle a castle in Germany and bring it to Chicago but because that wasn&#039 ; t allowed he actually built the Chicago in... He built the castle, and had it created in Chicago. My grandfather lived on the property, and you could see him actually in these photos in front. But he was kind of a Jack-of-all-trades, he gave tours, he cleaned armor, he lived on site, he met with people, he appraised things and yeah he had kind of a busy life. ​​A very, you know, extravagant life I would say. My grandfather, you know, I have a lot of old photos of Chicago from the 1920&#039 ; s through his eyes because he was living here, and... I know that he told me he would walk, I don&#039 ; t know maybe 40 blocks to save maybe like $0.02 to, in order to mail something. He would-- instead of taking the streetcar he would, he would walk from 4800 South to the Loop which-- that&#039 ; s pretty far, as you know. (laughs) And I think he was happy working there, he worked for George Harding for over 15 years, and then in 1939 George Harding unexpectedly died. And at that time, my grandfather didn&#039 ; t know if he could continue working at the museum. There was a lot of drama, even though George Harding was married, he had a mistress who was taking over the business. And I think my grandfather was very uneasy about things, and he also, he-- my grandparents were married in 1936. Sorry, I&#039 ; m jumping. But, and they were expecting a child in 1940, so when George Harding died there was a lot of-- you know, I&#039 ; m sure a lot of stress about what they were gonna do. But so... That&#039 ; s kind of the back story. My grand, my grandparents were married on December 7th 1936, which was five years before Pearl Harbor day. It was a Monday. I don&#039 ; t know who gets married on Monday, but they got married, and they got married in Los Angeles. It was an arranged marriage, my grandfather was 36, my grandmother was 25. And they, I think that they got married on a Monday because of horoscope types of things, that&#039 ; s what my idea is. And they came back to Chicago, and lived at the mansion. But in maybe a year or two after they came back to Chicago and they were living here, they opened a Japanese restaurant in Chicago which is pretty unique I would say. Because, I believe there were only 400 Japanese Americans in Chicago at that time, and they were two of them. So they opened this restaurant, the address is 5253 Cornell Ave. in Chicago. And this is a photo of them in the restaurant. They are on the left so-- with their friends. So I thought that was pretty unique because here&#039 ; s the interior of the restaurant, I mean I don&#039 ; t know of any Japanese restaurants you know, that were in business then. And it looks very elegant. Oh, I also brought, sorry, a picture of my grandfather at the Harding Museum with the armor that he worked on. And I recently found these brochures of the Harding Museum, which actually my grandparents boxed up, and when they were sent to Manzanar, they actually, you know, saved these albums because those things were probably going to be destroyed. So, so yeah, here&#039 ; s another workshop photo, and here&#039 ; s a, a castle photo of, I think that&#039 ; s-- I think that&#039 ; s George Harding right there. So, so even though I didn&#039 ; t grow up in Chicago, I feel like something kind of brought me here. And that my grandfather loved it here, I think he was very happy here. But in 1940, my aunt was born, here in Chicago and because my grandfather&#039 ; s job was in jeopardy, or not knowing you know what would happen to the museum, they moved to Los Angeles in August of 1940. And they thought it would be a temporary place for them because my grandfather was asked to run a museum in Manchuria, but my grandmother&#039 ; s family thought it was very dangerous for them to go there so they stayed in Los Angeles. And because my grandfather was unable to find a job, he opened a garden nursery in Culver City. JJU: Wow, wow! LN: I know it&#039 ; s a lot of info sorry! JJU: No, no, this is great! So did they, they had the restaurant after George Harding died? LN: They had the restaurant, I believe in like &#039 ; 37, &#039 ; 38 I think that they were doing it you know, at the same-- like maybe my grandmother was working there while my grandfather was working... But it may have been &#039 ; 39, my grandmother told my mother, and my mother told me that there were some anti-Japanese feelings at that time, and they felt that that&#039 ; s why the restaurant wasn&#039 ; t successful because even though we weren&#039 ; t at war, people were not real open to that. I don&#039 ; t know-- I, I&#039 ; d love to know what, what was going on. JJU: And do, do you know, do you happen to know if they were in, kind of communication or community with other Japanese people here? LN: Good question, I know that they had their best friends. Fred Uno, who was in that photo that, they opened it together. But I, I don&#039 ; t know, I think my grandfather was used to working with people that were not Japanese. My grandmother, I think she was adjusting to life in Chicago. It was very different than Los Angeles, I&#039 ; m not sure... I wish I knew more, yeah-- JJU: Oh yeah, thanks for sharing that. That&#039 ; s incredible. LN: It&#039 ; s kind of-- Yeah, it&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s unique. JJU: Um yeah, so maybe moving into like, wartime incarceration maybe you&#039 ; ve answered this but when and where was your family incarcerated? LN: So my family was... From what I know, my grandparents had this garden nursery, and I&#039 ; ve seen photos of it, it was beautiful. It was not little, it was pretty large. My grandfather was told by one of his customers who worked for the FBI that... Maybe, right after Executive Order 9066 was the 19th of February 1942. That if he had a-- if he could go to Manzanar, that would be the &quot ; best place&quot ; . I don&#039 ; t know, that&#039 ; s, I have my grandfather saying that on tape, so... I don&#039 ; t know why somebody would have said that, it&#039 ; s really hard to know what, what would be a best place. I mean, it&#039 ; s all horrible! But my grandparents were unable to sell their garden nursery, and finally my grandfather spoke with the milkman, and he said, &quot ; Would you like to buy it?&quot ; and my, and the milkman said, &quot ; I only have $75&quot ; . And so he sold the whole thing for $75, and they went to Manzanar on April 8th 1942. So they were some of the first people to arrive at Manzanar, and they were in block 20. I just recently found their tags. JJU: Wow. LN: Yeah, I knew they were in block 20 but it looks like they were in another block, and then they switched because maybe they were friends with the people there. Toyo Miyatake was in block 20 and Toyo Miyatake took my grandparent&#039 ; s wedding photos in LA, so it&#039 ; s kind of full circle. You know, they, they were married in 1936, and then in 1942 they&#039 ; re neighbors with their wedding photographer who did a lot of things to help people at Manzanar. JJU: Are there, did your family kind of tell, share any stories with you about their time there? LN: So when I was in high school, I was required to interview my grandparents, so I did get a lot of information. They, my grandfather started the visual education museum at Manzanar, which, which I have a picture of... Well let me see, I have this photo that shows my grandfather here, and here&#039 ; s Toyo Miyatake. He started the visual education museum to show the incarcerees what life was like outside of camp because they didn&#039 ; t know how long they were going to be there. Ralph Merritt, who ran Manzanar, asked my grandfather to start a museum and collect things to show children and adults and work on art. So even though this is a blurry photo, I mean it&#039 ; s a copy, that&#039 ; s what he did. He, he knew, Ralph Merritt knew that he had this museum experience, so he asked him to use that, his experience at Manzanar. And in this book about Manzanar, my grandfather put together the Ansel Adams exhibit, and he&#039 ; s, he&#039 ; s mentioned in this book as well. JJU: The Ansel Adams exhibit like at Manzanar? LN: At Manzanar. Yes, yes, so Ansel Adams went to Manzanar four times, and my grandfather put together this exhibit of his work at the visual education museum. JJU: So were these like the Ansel Adam photos that he took of Manzanar, LN: Yes, yes. JJU: and then it was a-- LN: Yes. JJU: --it was like a...Wow, okay! LN: Yeah, so those are the photos that were at the-- Then, they came from the exhibit, you know that were blown up. Those photos, my grandfather had the first showing of those photos at Manzanar. JJU: That&#039 ; s amazing... Yeah, any I don&#039 ; t any other-- I know that you&#039 ; ve kind of shared, and your mom&#039 ; s shared, but any other stories that you&#039 ; d like to share about kind of what you know about their life at Manzanar? LN: So, all I know... My grandmother said that the food was horrible, the thing that always stuck to me is that she said that there was, there wasn&#039 ; t any butter and that they would give you basically like Crisco grease, and little yellow packets to color that grease so that you would think that it was butter. That is really... I mean when I was 16 and I heard that I thought, &quot ; Ugh, yeah that was really gross&quot ; . And I know that the wind and the dust were horrible, they talked about that, my grandfather actually wrote a document about starting the museum and how the conditions were, I mean he made light of it, but it was actually pretty sad. And again, he went from you know, working with millions of dollars worth of inventory and, to working and collecting butterflies and bugs and putting them in little displays, so... My mom always said that he was very depressed after that experience because, it was just so humiliating, you know, to, to be like that. My grandmother was the secretary of the museum, so she was paid, my grandfather was paid I think $21 a month to be the head of the museum, which was I think the same that doctors got at Manzanar. It was considered a very prestigious job. My great-grandmother worked in the mess hall, and my mom said it was the only job she ever had in her whole life, but I don&#039 ; t know how long she did that. And my aunt was two when she went to Manzanar, and she was five and a hal-- five, when she left, so those were her earliest childhood memories were there. She went, started kindergarten at... there. JJU: And your mom was born there? LN: My mom was born, yes February 26th 1945, and didn&#039 ; t remember it but for her lifetime said that there was intergenerational trauma because of all that her parents had endured, yeah. JJU: Did, did she kind of, I mean she, she wouldn&#039 ; t remember but I don&#039 ; t know, do you wanna share a little bit more about you know what, what she thought of how, how that kind of got passed down? LN: Yeah, well I&#039 ; m moving ahead a little bit, but my grandfather, right when the war was ending got a job in Oklahoma, Stillwater, Oklahoma, which is now Oklahoma State, teaching naval officers Japanese. And from there he became the translator for US War Crimes Trials, in Japan and went to Japan. And my mom and her whole family went to Japan, so... They had a very different life-- they never came back to Chicago. They... again, they went to Oklahoma, then they lived in Japan for two years, and when they finally came back to the US, they lived in Boyle Heights in Los Angeles. And my mom just said that my grandfather wasn&#039 ; t able to get a job after that, that he-- you know, he had worked in a museum, he had been a translator, he was doing all of these things, and no one, no one wanted to hire him. She said that he sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door which didn&#039 ; t last very long. But I mean, that&#039 ; s pretty, pretty, pretty dire. He... Then opened a garden nursery again, and he had a lot of success with that but I don&#039 ; t think he ever was able to do really what he wanted to do. Until, maybe in his 70s in Los Angeles, he opened a frame shop, which kind of gave h-- brought him back to the art world, and what he used to do. Yeah and he didn-- he worked there until his, maybe he started that in his 60s and then he worked at the frame shop he owned until his 8-- until he was 80 or or older, yeah. But my mom was, she said that growing up in Boyle Heights which was Japanese, and La-Latino you know she had a lot of friends of a lot of different backgrounds which she loved, but I think she had a strict household, and her dad was... I think people were very depressed. I think that her parents were depressed, even though they were trying to make it better. They seemed like they were, you know struggling for a bit, yeah. JJU: And so-- Do you know kind of like how old your mom was when they moved back to-- or to Boyle Heights? LN: To Boyle Heights she was about, I think she was four. I think it was 1949 and she went to Japanese school, she was a pianist, I mean her parents made her take piano very seriously. She was a top student, she skipped grades, she was, she kind of, she didn&#039 ; t rebel against them but she, she went to college. They wanted her to go to UCLA, she went to Occidental where she met my dad. And you know, she, she wanted to live a little, a different life. She was, she, she had again, she thinks that she had intergenerational trauma from that experience. I thought I brought another picture go ahead, sorry. Oh! I think I left it in the car, sorry. I had one of our family, in Los Angeles with my grandparents, but I can&#039 ; t find it. So... JJU: That&#039 ; s okay, yeah I guess... Let&#039 ; s see, and you kind of said in your form that your family had some kind of part in the redress movement, or that-- yeah. LN: I don&#039 ; t know if my... That&#039 ; s a good question &#039 ; cause I&#039 ; m literally just filling out the form to see the testimonies. I don&#039 ; t think that they testified but they did receive the redress check, and unfortunately my grandfather died August 26th 1990 and his check arrived that October. So even though he knew it was coming, he didn&#039 ; t see it. I didn&#039 ; t really talk with them about that. I think it&#039 ; s really hard to, hard to think about. Yeah, it&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s sad. I mean I think my grandmother thought that it would, was never enough for all that they lost. Yeah, and I&#039 ; m sure my grandfather thought the same. The ironic part is that if they had stayed in Chicago, they wouldn&#039 ; t have been at Manzanar. Now, I&#039 ; ll... You know, that&#039 ; s hard to, hard to believe but it&#039 ; s true. You know they-- the only reason that they were required to go is &#039 ; cause they moved, yeah. So, their lives would have been so different. JJU: Yeah NL: I mean still hard you know, but yeah... I don&#039 ; t think that they ever really wanted to talk about Manzanar, until I had to do this school project. They really didn&#039 ; t want to talk about it. JJU: When you did the school project, at that point were they willing, or did you kind of have to like... NL: They were willing, my mom and I flew from San Francisco to Los Angeles just to do this interview. And again, it was in 1982 and I had required questions and they answered them, but I&#039 ; m sure that they were really, you know, ashamed of it. And my grandmother, the quote that I remember her saying is that, &quot ; Now that it&#039 ; s over, I can remember the good things&quot ; . But obviously, you know it&#039 ; s kind of like-- yeah a bad nightmare you know, so... Yeah, and having been to Manzanar numerous times I&#039 ; m... Every time I go there I kind of you know, see new thing-- or notice new things so... I haven&#039 ; t been there in the real cold, I&#039 ; m usually there in like the springtime or summer when it&#039 ; s really warm. But it&#039 ; s got to-- it must have been a miserable place to be you know? And my grandmother was pregnant to-- too so, yeah. JJU: Yeah, thank you. I&#039 ; m gonna move a-a little bit into like your life if that&#039 ; s okay? LN: I thought it was all about them! (smiles) JJU: (laughs) No, it&#039 ; s also about you! LN: (laughs) What!? JJU: Especially because you, you know you spend a lot of time kind of learning these stories and stuff. But also, if there&#039 ; s other things that you want to share before I start asking you questions about yourself, that would be great. LN: Yeah, I, I think I&#039 ; m in pretty good shape, I&#039 ; m just disappointed, I had a picture that I, is sitting in my car so I might have to, I don&#039 ; t know what-- if we take a break? JJU: You could take a break and you could get it? LN: Yeah I&#039 ; m, it&#039 ; s kind of an important... That was the first thing I grabbed, and now I don&#039 ; t have it so... yeah. JJU: Yeah, do you want to take a quick break? LN: How am I doing? JJU: Or should we do later, like-- -- Other voice: Yeah! I just... JJU: Okay, but yeah, do you want to share those with us? LN: I was just, I&#039 ; m-- First I&#039 ; ll share my grandfather&#039 ; s document while he was at Manzanar. Which is the history of the visual education museum, which he wrote on-- in May 1943 while he was at Manzanar: One hot day in August 1942 a desk piled with a few magazines, pictures from old calendars, and other, and a scissor were given to us... Sorry, I gotta start over I need my glasses. Can I have my-- Other voice: I&#039 ; ll get them! LN: Okay, thank you. I&#039 ; m sorry, this is going to be bad, I&#039 ; m just going to, I&#039 ; m-- I can, I kind of know it, but I need to-- Yeah! Yeah, they[glasses] might be right on top! Yeah, thank you. I&#039 ; m sorry. Okay better, okay now I can really read it, okay. &quot ; One hot&quot ; Okay, so... I&#039 ; ll start over, if you want? Okay, this document my grandfather wrote while he was incarcerated at Manzanar, May 1943 : History of the Visual Education Museum One hot day in August 1942 a desk piled with a few magazines, pictures torn from old calendars, and a scissor were given to me in the corner of the superintendent&#039 ; s office to develop visual resources for Manzanar schools. In September, I was moved to block 2015 Library. There, my staff of workers were formed. Kango Takamura, artist, Toyo Miyatake, assistant director, and Carole Kageyama, secretary. Our department began with a pile of old magazines for picture file, one live owl, and a mouse. While we collected insects to be mounted, Mr. Takamura painted the local wildflowers. When we opened our present museum at Block at 815, Block 815 in October, we began to write to various institutions and manufacturers for free materials on visual education which soon began to arrive, enabling us to have enough things to be displayed on one table. In our early days, the walls and floor were unlined. Dust and wind blew through the open seams of our buildings. We worked with-- with our coats on because the heat was inadequate. To add to our misery, the owl, the sparrow, and the snake died of cold. The mouse escaped and ate up our collection of insects. Yet we were not discouraged. We wandered around the center collecting everything from bugs to minerals. After five months of hard toil, our first exhibition on December 5th 1942 was a great success. Since then, we have held special exhibits every month. Today we have a permanent exhibit of local minerals, plants, wood carvings, posters, and handicrafts, and also a picture library of approximately 4000 mounted and unmounted pictures, models, slides, diagrams, globes, and other visual aids. The Manzanar public has had an opportunity to enjoy several interesting special exhibits such as Fine Arts, point rationing, relocation week, traveling exhibition, art exi-- exhibit, Know Your Manzanar, World of Science, etc. With the newly selected board of directors, we know that the day will be here soon when we will have a visual education museum of which Manzanar can be proud. -- Kiyotsugu Tsuchiya, Director, Visual Education. So, that kind of illustrates in a nice way probably, what, what he was doing or trying to do. And, at Manzanar, currently in one of the barracks, there&#039 ; s a exhibit based on what he did so... Yeah. JJU: Whoa. LN: It&#039 ; s hard, yeah. But he did it so... I&#039 ; m very proud of him even though I&#039 ; m sure it was depressing. Yeah. JJU: Have you ever connected with anyone who like remembers that museum? LN: I have, yes. My mom passed away unfortunately, about a year and a half ago, and before she died, she wanted to connect with Kayoko Wakita, who actually gave the eulogy at my grandfather&#039 ; s funeral. And she has, I just spoke with her a couple months ago, and she had really nice things to say, yeah. But the museum, there are some pieces, you know, there are some pictures of exhibits they had a chrysanthemum-- you know people would grow flowers and be able to display them. They had a stick figure exhibit where you could cut-- whittle sticks and make shapes or animals out of them. So I mean people had to use whatever resources they had, and they couldn&#039 ; t go to a store to- to do that. So, I think, you know he pivoted obviously. It&#039 ; s like COVID right now, it&#039 ; s like, what do you do? You know, I think he came up with-- there was one called Relocation Week that was, I think you were to show what you brought in your suitcase. Yeah, I have the poster from that exhibit, yeah... So, yeah you don&#039 ; t really think about it, and the thing I say to people is that no one knew when World War II was going to end. You know, we know now, but it&#039 ; s like, when is COVID gonna end? You know, right now we don&#039 ; t... you know, we think maybe it&#039 ; s over, or getting there? But yeah, who knows? So, it was a very uncertain time, and I&#039 ; m just thankful that, I believe my family stored things in a Buddhist temple in LA and it wasn&#039 ; t broken into, so-- I&#039 ; m fortunate to have a lot of things that they probably didn&#039 ; t bring to Manzanar, that they trusted other people to take care of. JJU: Wow. So yeah, that&#039 ; s such a huge pivot that he made. LN: Yeah, huge pivot. I mean, I-I have pictures of him in like, you know suits, and doing all sorts of things in Chicago, and then he&#039 ; s collecting bugs with mosquito nets, so-- JJU: Which I&#039 ; m sure made like a huge difference for people who are in Manzanar, you know? LN: Yeah, yeah. JJU: Do you, I found that &quot ; what you brought in your suitcase&quot ; so interesting, do you know any other exhibits that they had that stand out to you? LN: The Relocation Week, the Ansel Adams exhibit, I have pictures of the chrysanthemums, they had two exhibits every month, so I mean he was, you know, busy. And they were thinking up new, new things for all sorts of people. And then, I do have a piece from the Manzanar Free Press about him, that other people kind of maybe they weren&#039 ; t laughing at him about it, but they were kind of like, yeah, we&#039 ; re not going to participate. But in the end, I think it really did help people, to show their things and, and be proud of it. Paintings... I have another quote, sorry, from the Manzanar Free Press that I am particularly proud of. And I think it, it is good for Chicago. So in June 1945, on the, on the cover of the Manzanar Free Press, I don&#039 ; t know if you could see that. It says, &quot ; Tsuchiya to Aid Relocation Office&quot ; . &quot ; Continuing to employ interviewers with outside experience, the relocation division last week added Kiyotsugu Tsuchiya,&quot ; my grandfather, &quot ; to it&#039 ; s growing staff. Tsuchiya is well known for-- to center residents, as the past director of the Visual Education Museum. His experiences on the outside include approximately 4 months in Chicago,&quot ; because he visited during World War II, &quot ; and another six months at Seabrook Farms on a trial indefinite leave. He will leave Manzanar only until he finds suitable employment.&quot ; He wrote, he said &quot ; &#039 ; Chicago, the city of foreigners&#039 ; , said Tsuchiya, &#039 ; offers far greater and more varied opportunities than California ever did. In general, this is true of the whole East.&#039 ; Seabrook has done mu- much more than halfway in working things out for the evacuees. It is a fine place for persons who desire to do manual work, and have, many have received promotions. Speaking of the attitude of people in center, Tsuchiya expressed his own convictions in these words, &#039 ; Fear of the outside is the first thing that disappears from the mind once we go outside. Fear is a thing that has been the result of three years away from the world. There is no reason for fear.&#039 ; &quot ; So, I think that it shows that he was trying to... give the incarceree&#039 ; s hope that they would not, they, they could make it outside of Manzanar. Because, I&#039 ; ve since learned, and I can understand that many people didn&#039 ; t even want to leave Manzanar. And, because they didn&#039 ; t have things to go back to. They didn&#039 ; t have family perhaps, I mean I&#039 ; m just ready to cry just thinking about that, because I can see why, you know after a while you just get used to the way it is. And, even people who are currently detained right now, I mean, it&#039 ; s really opened my mind. Yeah, to that. Yeah. JJU: Yeah thank you. LN: Yeah so, I mean it&#039 ; s nice to find these quotes that he was trying to lift people&#039 ; s spirits, I think? And he was trying to illustrate that things were going to be okay. Now, he was from Chicago, so I&#039 ; m sure he felt like this was a welcoming place. I believe it was, it&#039 ; s just hard to know how, you know, how things were. I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m kind of surprised they didn&#039 ; t come back to Chicago. But, yeah, it&#039 ; s kind of, I think he always regretted-- I don&#039 ; t think, I think the last time he was ever in Chicago was in the 40s. I don&#039 ; t think he ever went back again. And I was just starting to possibly-- well, I was talking to him about Chicago right before he passed away, and he still knew all the streets, he knew, I mean he knew everything. So, yeah it&#039 ; s sad. It would have been great if he could have come back, because the Art Institute now has the collection that the-- that George Harding had, so it&#039 ; s now one of the most popular exhibits at the Art Institute, and that&#039 ; s the, that&#039 ; s the work, those are the items that he worked on. Yeah. JJU: So that&#039 ; s like the armor exhibit-- LN: Yeah! JJU: In the, in the Art Institute. LN: Yeah, that&#039 ; s the whole armor. Plus, there were, hundreds of other things that they owned, but the armor is really... If you walk through the Art Institute, and there&#039 ; s some Remingtons some, little statues, like the Cowboys like with the guns and bronzes. Those were George Harding&#039 ; s as well. And you&#039 ; ll see at the Art Institute how many pieces there were. There was a musical, musical instrument exhibit, so my grandfather would clean these instruments, yeah. Yeah. JJU: And, you had a photo you wanted to share? LN: Oh right, so when you were saying I was going to, you wanted to talk about me. So this is my family in 1969, and Toyo Miyatake&#039 ; s son Alan took this of my family in my grandparent&#039 ; s house in Los Angeles. Here&#039 ; s my grandfather, here&#039 ; s me, here&#039 ; s my dad, here&#039 ; s my mom, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, my mother&#039 ; s sister, and my cousin. And my uncle was sick that day and they took it without him, so-- Yeah. So-- JJU: The same photographer-- LN: Yes, so yeah so right here you could see Toyo Mikaytake, who was the most famous photographer other than Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange at Manzanar. This is my grandparent&#039 ; s house, and yeah it kind of comes full circle because Toyo took their wedding photo and then in the 60s, you know came and took these photos, yeah. JJU: So yeah, I-I kind of want to know h-how you made it to Chicago or the Chicago area? LN: So I, made it to Chicago, I was... I met my then boyfriend in college, and he moved to Chicago. And I was in graduate school, I finished graduate school, I said I&#039 ; d never move to Chicago, and I&#039 ; ve been here for 30 years now. Almost exactly 30 years. Yeah. So, yeah so the first time I went to the Art Institute in 1990, I-- my grandfather had just died in August, I went in September, and I walked in the Art Institute and I said, &quot ; This is what my grandfather worked on. These, this is it! This, he worked on these, these pieces.&quot ; Even though I had only seen photos, and my husband at that-- my boyfriend at that time was like, &quot ; Yeah, right.&quot ; I mean it&#039 ; s kind of a crazy thing. But, I was so obsessed! I was like, &quot ; No, this is it, I know this is the stuff he worked on!&quot ; So I went to the head of the museum, I mean I went to the lobby and I demanded to talk to the people in charge. And the person that was in charge of the exhibit had just died in a car crash. And, I was... I didn&#039 ; t know what to do, I was like, I kn-- I know this is, this is what he worked on. But, because my grandfather had just died, I couldn&#039 ; t talk to anyone about it. And, it took years, but through a few coincidences, I was introduced to Gloria Groom, who is the head of the European Arts collection, I hope I have her title right, but she&#039 ; s a neighbor of mine, our, our kids were in the same class in elementary school. And long story short, I showed her these albums and she connected me with Jonathan Tavares, who was working on recreating the arms and armor exhibit, so they used these photos from these albums to put the exhibit together. And yeah, so kind of, kind of all happened for a reason. I mean they, they didn&#039 ; t know about a lot of things only because of these albums that they found out where the, where the armor was, what pieces, I mean all the armor kind of looks the same to me, sorry but it-- (shrugs) But, anyway, they know their armor, and they could identify all the different pieces. So, it felt, it felt good. It felt good to help, you know, a place like the Art Institute, and be a part of that exhibit. You know, even if I&#039 ; m, I didn&#039 ; t do anything, I just felt like we-- you know, these photos helped, my grandfather helped for over 15 years when he was with George Harding so-- JJU: And then, just backing up a little bit or-- So did you, oh I guess when and where did you grow up? LN: So I grew up in the Bay Area, I, I was born in Culver City, I lived in LA as a little girl. And then my family moved to Berkeley, and then they moved back to LA &#039 ; cause my dad went to graduate school at USC, and then we ended up in Oakland and Berkeley. So that&#039 ; s where I went to elementary school, high school, junior high. JJU: And then did you grow up with Japanese or Japanese American family or friends nearby? LN: So when I lived in LA, my grandparents in this picture had a, had a house and then they had a rental house. I grew up in that rental house when I lived in LA, which was really great &#039 ; cause you have your grandparents and great-grandmother right next door. When I was in grammar school, when I was in like third or fourth grade, I really wanted to learn Japanese, and so I went to Japanese school. Even though my mom did not speak Japanese to me, even though she flu-- she spoke fluent Japanese, she just didn&#039 ; t. And so I tried, that was not very successful. But I will say my daughter is fluent in Japanese, and has lived in Japan, and teaches Japanese now, so I feel like it just skipped a generation. (laughs) JJU: Did your family participate in Japanese American organizations or activities? LN: You know my mom really did not, I mean later in life she finally embraced her Japanese side, she joined a sansei group, I got her to go to Manzanar, a few, a few times we went to Manzanar. She went another time without me, but she was not, she did not feel very proud of her Japanese side. And my daughter is so proud to, to be part Japanese that my mom was just like really taken aback by it. And my mother finally started accepting that, and it felt really good. It&#039 ; s just a shame that she passed away because it all, everything was kind of just coming together with, with my daughter. My mom was gonna go to Japan to go see her there, my mom was taking Japanese to re-, you know, re-engage her language skills, so, it was really-- It&#039 ; s like a dagger in my heart every day that-- it just, you know that she isn&#039 ; t here. Yeah. But, you made me think of something else. My mom was very driven, and kind of, I think she, I&#039 ; m not gonna say, she wasn&#039 ; t very proud of her Japanese side, so she just excelled in all the things she did. She was really, a hard worker. She worked for McKinsey and Company, she worked for Steve Jobs at Apple. And she, she retired when she was in her 40s. And then her second husband passed away kind of unexpectedly. And she decided to go to law school when she turned 50. And, she got a perfect score on her LSAT, she went to UC Berkeley, and became a lawyer. And she was a lawyer until she found out she had cancer. Yeah. So, I mean, I think that she was very driven, and a lot of that had to do with pleasing her parents and making them, you know, she was always trying to make them proud. Although, they weren&#039 ; t real happy &#039 ; cause my parents actually eloped, and... because their parents weren&#039 ; t happy about them getting married. I&#039 ; m all over the place, sorry. JJU: Did you learn about the incarceration-- How did you learn about the incarceration? LN: I always heard my family talking about camp, and like a lot of people I thought it was like, a summer camp. But I guess it was probably around like 13, 14, 15 when I had to do this project, that I realized that camp was something different. So I think I, I always knew my mom was born at Manzanar, but I didn&#039 ; t really know what that was. And I didn&#039 ; t go to Manzanar until 2009. Even though I tried to get her to go v-- a lot of times. She did not want to go. But once we went, she loved it. Yeah, she loved it. And she went back multiple times, yeah. So, I think people, she thought it was going to be this really sad, sad place, but it was, you know, an inspiring place. And we&#039 ; ve donated things to the Manzanar museum, so it&#039 ; s nice to see you know, like this document, some posters, photos, things like that, yeah. JJU: And, and when you had to do this project, were you just like, I need to fly over there or was your mom like, let&#039 ; s go-- You know, I-I guess how did that happen? LN: Yeah, I-- You know, it&#039 ; s funny that we flew to Los Angeles just to do this interview because I guess we could&#039 ; ve done it on the phone maybe back then? But, we flew to LA to do this interview, it was November, I mean it was-- And w- and I think my mom said, I&#039 ; ve never heard my parents talk about camp, and now, I&#039 ; m gonna hear what it was really like. So, she wanted to come with me, and we both, we both went. JJU: What was that like for you? LN: That was overwhelming, actually, I put my heart and soul into this pro-- this report, and honestly, you&#039 ; re not going to believe me but-- I got really, really sick after that, like maybe, like, the flu or mono after that, and I&#039 ; ve, I&#039 ; ve never been sick a day since then. I&#039 ; ve never missed work, I&#039 ; ve never missed school, because-- I felt like that report, I put everything into that report, again, I was a sophomore in high school. You know. I&#039 ; ve worked a lot harder on other things, but it was probably really emotionally difficult, that I didn&#039 ; t realize that it was hard to hear those things, and learn new things about my grandparents that I had no idea. Yeah. JJU: Wow. Yeah, I-I guess like how do you see it relating to your own identity, like this family history that you have? LN: Yeah, I-- You know, I love talking about it, but again, like I&#039 ; m almost about to cry right now because it&#039 ; s-- It&#039 ; s just been my little platform you know, it&#039 ; s just been what I&#039 ; ve been doing. Probably, I&#039 ; ve been talking about it a while but the, &quot ; Then They Came For Me&quot ; exhibit, you know, Richard Cahan was so nice to ask for, if I had any items. And, my family had a letter that was in the exhibit that went to New York as well. It was a letter that a doctor wrote to my grandmother while she was at Manzanar, and it was really powerful to show maybe how naive and unknowledgeable people were about what was going on at the camps-- I&#039 ; m sorry now I forgot your question. (laughs) JJU: Oh, how-- LN: Oh! Yeah, JJU: --does your family history relate to like your own identity? LN: So, I feel like I wear it on my sleeve, I feel like it&#039 ; s a l-- it, it&#039 ; s a l-- a big part of me. I mean I feel more Japanese probably than I did growing up, way more knowledgeable, way more proactive and outspoken about things. But I still have a lot of work to do probably, I still have a lot of learning to do. You know, I know a lot about Manzanar, I&#039 ; ve been to Heart Mountain, I have not been to, I&#039 ; ve, I&#039 ; ve made it-- I want to go to every site in my lifetime. And I feel like I&#039 ; m just, I don&#039 ; t know, there&#039 ; s, there&#039 ; s a reason that these weird things happen to me. I&#039 ; ve had a lot of really great coincidences, that I know are like, I don&#039 ; t know, my grandparents or great-grandparents just like making things happen for me regarding this. Tomorrow I&#039 ; m gonna be on a podcast, I mean, how does that happen? There&#039 ; s a documentary about my family being worked on, I mean I&#039 ; m very fortunate, but it&#039 ; s hard to talk about, yeah. I think it&#039 ; s hard because, there&#039 ; s a lot of shame that my grandparents had you know so-- And my mom, oh, my mom broke down and cried at the &quot ; Then They Came For Me&quot ; exhibit, and I felt horrible because I brought her there, and she just fell apart. And, she said I&#039 ; ve never cried about it, and she went to the exhibit, she was so... Taken aback by everything, that it just-- all of a sudden she just started crying. And so-- And my mom wasn&#039 ; t a big crier like that, so-- Yeah, I think it&#039 ; s, I mean, things, let&#039 ; s face it, it&#039 ; s 2021, things are changing, but it&#039 ; s still hard to talk about. Yeah. JJU: Yeah, thanks so much for talking with us, you know? LN: Oh! Sorry I&#039 ; m like, whoooo, yeah, but I think it&#039 ; s... it&#039 ; s good. It&#039 ; s good. JJU: Do you feel kind of connected to other Japanese American people, groups in Chicago? LN: I, I feel really lucky to be a part of Nikkei Uprising, even though I don&#039 ; t feel like I&#039 ; m not as active as I&#039 ; d like to be. I&#039 ; m currently cleaning out my mom&#039 ; s house, which is again, a dagger in the heart because she saved everything. And, how do you get rid of these things, or how do you sort through them? But, I would like to be a lot more active, I&#039 ; m, hopeful that I will have time to be more active, and I like everybody that&#039 ; s involved, I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m so impressed with everyone all the time. I just feel like I&#039 ; m, dropping the ball. (laughs) JJU: (laughs) That&#039 ; s not true! I don&#039 ; t know if this is within my interview job-- LN: Oh yeah right! JJU: --But, that&#039 ; s not true at all! LN: No, no thank you! I, I&#039 ; m learning a lot, I&#039 ; m learning a lot, I have a lot of, I&#039 ; m, I have s-some Japanese friends, I mean being bi-racial, I have a lot of bi-racial friends too. Growing up in Berkeley, it was very common to have people from every, I mean, my friends are of all different backgrounds. So, I feel lucky. Yeah. JJU: And, I know you touched on this earlier but is, is there kind of, ways that you feel, I-I think you spoke about how your mom kind of felt the intergenerational impacts-- NL: Yeah. JJU: --of incarceration, like how do you feel it&#039 ; s kind of, in your generation, your children-- NL: I feel like, it&#039 ; s interesting, my mom had the intergenerational trauma, I feel like I&#039 ; m-- I&#039 ; m not going to say warming up to that, but it&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s been something that, I&#039 ; ve recognized more and more, especially with learning about HR40 and, and I had testimony for reparations for African Americans. I don&#039 ; t feel as much like I have endured what she has endured, but I know it&#039 ; s in me. And I&#039 ; m just, always searching for more information about my family and what they went through. I know I&#039 ; m probably not answering this very well. But, my children are very aware of what happened at Manzanar, they&#039 ; ve been there, they preach it. So, that feels right. I mean, for me to not know these things unless I t-- had the interview with my grandparents, that&#039 ; s kind of, a shame. However I will say that the last time I ever saw my grandfather, I tape recorded his life story, thank goodness, because, I use that as what I know about him, and that&#039 ; s how I know these, crazy stories about, about him. I mean, because I have them on tape. So I&#039 ; m very lucky that I even taped that, because if he had just told it to me, I probably wouldn&#039 ; t have even remembered all the information that he gave. But, I think that everybody has intergenerational trauma, it&#039 ; s just some people, it&#039 ; s really, right here, and maybe some people it&#039 ; s, down a little bit. Yeah. JJU: Yeah. We&#039 ; re getting kinda, toward the end of our time, so I just, if-- wanted to ask if there&#039 ; s anything you really want to share? LN: Umm, JJU: I-I feel like we could ask you questions forever! LN: I know! I-I-I feel like I&#039 ; ve touched on, a lot of things that are important to me, I mean, I still think it&#039 ; s fascinating that I, I have Chicago roots, you know from, 100 years ago. But, I&#039 ; d like to, know more about what happened, it&#039 ; s just really hard to do that. And, I just think it&#039 ; s remarkable that my grandfather could have accomplished so many things even though perhaps he didn&#039 ; t think he did, I don&#039 ; t know, tha-- it just breaks my heart. He really did do a lot. Yeah, so, and my mom too, I think, she really wasn&#039 ; t, she was too young to pass away, she passed away at 74, my grandfather died at 90. You know, I thought she&#039 ; d, live a long time, so-- Yeah, you just, life is short, so you just gotta, do the right thing. That&#039 ; s what I would say. JJU: Alright, yeah, we&#039 ; ll close there. Copyright held by the Japanese American Service Committee, Chicago, Illinois. video Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from the Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center. 0 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=NichollsLourdes20210426.xml NichollsLourdes20210426.xml http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/collections/show/1 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/find?tags=Series%3A+Oral+History+Project&amp ; layout=1 Sort Priority 5900 OHMS Object https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=NichollsLourdes20210426.xml Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nicholls, Lourdes (4/26/2021) Description An account of the resource Lourdes Nicholls is a fourth-generation Japanese American born and raised in California. Her maternal grandfather, Kiyotsugu Tsuchiya was one of the few Japanese Americans in the Chicagoland area prior to World War II, and after completing his education at the Art Institute of Chicago, worked as a museum curator for George Harding, Jr.. After George Harding, Jr. passed away in 1939, the family moved to Los Angeles. Shortly following their move, they were incarcerated at Manzanar, where Lourdes’ mother was born, and her grandfather served as the Director of the Visual Education Museum. Lourdes herself was born in Culver City, California, and grew up in Northern California. Following her graduate studies, she moved to Chicago, and although she had never previously lived here herself, she found herself connected to the city through her family’s personal ties. Through a series of coincidences she was connected with a museum curator currently at the Art Institute, and was able to contribute to an exhibit that held the same arms and armor that were once worked on by her grandfather. An active member of the Nikkei community, Lourdes continues to share her family history and legacy, and is a part of Nikkei Uprising. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-04-26 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video ISHRAB Series: Oral History Project https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/ba828171d97da178a47fd5dbb56eee33.png b4e8460fefdd8598c002cd3acb623334 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Japanese Americans--History. Description An account of the resource This collection contains oral history interviews from the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) Legacy Center's holdings. Where available, transcriptions have been included and synced to the recordings to enable full-text searching. Interviews were recorded at various times, some by JASC staff and some by external partners, often supported by grant funding. See the metadata associated with each interview for full details. This digital collection will continue to grow as new interviews are recorded, and as additional pre-existing recordings are received by donation or discovered in the physical archives. The digitization and transcription of many of the recordings in this collection, the recording of interviews between July 2018 and June 2021, and the creation of this publicly accessible digital platform, were funded by a Japanese American Confinements Sites (JACS) grant awarded by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The JASC Legacy Center gratefully acknowledges the financial support received between 2018 and 2021 that enabled this project to succeed. --- This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity National Park Service 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Takada, Anna Doi, Lisa M. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Doi, Yoko Interview Keyword Shin-Issei Christianity Tokyo Yamagata Hiroshima Oxnard, CA Gila River OHMS Object Text 5.4 10/21/2017 Doi, Yoko (10/21/2017) 1:38:26 JASC_OHP JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection TTCFM Then They Came for Me Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center Recorded, transcribed, and made accessible online with financial support from the Alphawood Foundation, Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program, and the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. Shin-Issei Christianity Tokyo Yamagata Hiroshima Oxnard, CA Gila River Doi, Yoko Takada, Anna Doi, Lisa M. video 1:|13(9)|25(6)|50(9)|61(16)|71(7)|79(10)|98(2)|107(12)|115(13)|124(12)|133(1)|145(16)|154(11)|167(3)|175(9)|189(3)|197(11)|210(3)|219(10)|231(10)|243(9)|254(4)|265(9)|278(11)|289(13)|299(11)|309(14)|320(1)|328(1)|341(7)|357(15)|367(5)|380(12)|393(1)|427(10)|438(4)|449(1)|466(4)|483(7)|495(11)|507(12)|517(11)|527(14)|540(7)|552(1)|560(6)|571(1)|578(11)|588(7)|599(10)|609(9)|623(5)|633(17)|646(4)|659(4)|672(5)|685(11)|705(7)|718(4)|727(11)|740(10)|752(1)|769(6)|790(1)|802(3)|819(1)|837(13)|846(6)|857(10)|867(9)|882(1)|892(6)|906(13)|916(10)|933(3)|943(13)|952(1)|970(2)|981(1)|998(1)|1007(14)|1018(11)|1032(9)|1043(4)|1058(3)|1071(2)|1079(15)|1092(17)|1103(1)|1111(8)|1120(8)|1130(12)|1139(11)|1148(10)|1160(13)|1170(2)|1188(13)|1202(2) 0 https://vimeo.com/747424632/87dd1834bf Vimeo video &lt ; iframe src=&quot ; https://player.vimeo.com/video/747424632?h=87dd1834bf&quot ; width=&quot ; 640&quot ; height=&quot ; 360&quot ; frameborder=&quot ; 0&quot ; allow=&quot ; autoplay ; fullscreen ; picture-in-picture&quot ; allowfullscreen&gt ; &lt ; /iframe&gt ; Yoko Doi was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1935. The oldest of four children, she recalls an early childhood spent close to Tokyo Bay, rising patriotism in Japan, and harrowing wartime experiences of family and friends. Rather than being evacuated to a temple in Nagano prefecture with other children, Yoko was taken to her grandmother's home in Hokkaido during the war. Meanwhile, her family endured the fire bombing of Tokyo before escaping to live with her paternal relatives in Yamagata prefecture. After the war, Yoko was reunited with her family in Yamagata where she completed high school before attending a Christian university in Tokyo. After being introduced by her landlord, Yoko and her future husband Mikio exchanged letters for three years before he traveled to Japan to propose marriage. Mikio was a nisei who resettled in Chicago after his incarceration at Gila River. Yoko recounts many stories from both her family and her husband's family, including wartime experiences in Japan and in the United States. Anna Takada: This is an interview with Yoko Doi as part of Alphawood Gallery Chicago Resettlement Experience Oral History Project. The Oral History Project is being conducted in line with the current exhibition Then They Came For Me: Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II and the Demise of Civil Liberties. Today is October 21st at about 11:30 AM and we are recording at the Alphawood Gallery Oral History Studio. Yoko Doi is being interviewed by Anna Takada of Alphawood Gallery. So to start, can you just state your full name? Yoko Doi: My name is Yoko Doi, and um, my language, my mother tongue is Japanese so my English maybe sometime didn&#039 ; t understand you. So anyway, if, if I speak too fast please you know, let me know. Anna Takada: Okay. I&#039 ; ll let you know. Um, and so can you tell me a little bit about where and when you were born? Yoko Doi: I was born in Tokyo, Japan. And how many years ago? 83 years ago. And I had experienced the World War II in Tokyo, and my father is a technician so he was home and we are alway, always in Tokyo. And... Anna Takada: Do you, do you have any siblings? Yoko Doi: Yes, my parents both died already, and I have one brother and two sisters, and one sister died last year so I have one brother and one sister. And after the war, is, because of that their house, our house was burned and then so they have no place to live so we went to northern part of Japan, it&#039 ; s called Yamagata prefecture. There, my sisters and brother is living right now. Anna Takada: And so where are you in the birth order of your family? Yoko Doi: I am the first daughter. Anna Takada: First daughter? Yoko Doi: Yeah. Anna Takada: Is your brother older or you? Yoko Doi: My brother is younger than me. Anna Takada: Okay. So you&#039 ; re the oldest? Yoko Doi: Yes. Anna Takada: And can you tell me a little bit about what your memories of Tokyo as you were growing up before the war? Yoko Doi: Uh, you know, we lived closer to Tokyo Bay, so I remember in the summertime... Because I live in Tokyo until fifth grade, so it&#039 ; s not that much that you know I have experienced by myself as a teenager goes out and kind of thing. But summertime, every day I went to the Tokyo Bay. Right now Tokyo Bay is dead so nothing there, but at that time Tokyo Bay was really good that you know swimming place. So every day summer, every day we, my mother taking us to the thing Tokyo Bay, to that swimming and picking up the shells and things like that. That&#039 ; s a fun memory. And all the festivals, you know? That&#039 ; s about it, fun, children&#039 ; s family. Anna Takada: And um, was your, was your family religious at all, or what were some activities you did besides maybe school? Yoko Doi: Not particularly. My mother is that really... Um, what do you call that? You know, outgoing person. So we&#039 ; re going to go sit at the movies but we cannot... As a, as a child I cannot go into that, the movie theater, but that baby could go in, but the first grade and the second grade when I was first and second grade, we cannot get into that, the movie. But my mother put it on, put the baby is that you know somebody, somebody else and then he carried me and I get into the movie theater kind of things, you know? My mother was that really funny person and so we just have the fun, something like that. Then we are not that... We are Buddhist, that background, you know, and so they ha-- But I&#039 ; m Christian right now but I have a Buddhist background family. And whenever that my mother&#039 ; s family in Hokkaido, my father&#039 ; s family in Yamagata, when they come in from there to visiting that Tokyo we&#039 ; re taking to them to that you know, all the temples. And so I love to go to the temples because I have that sad story. This is, I didn&#039 ; t think about it, at the-- talk about it, but that my grandma is he wa-- she was really such a nice lady and she was taking care of me so well, and whenever I visiting her in Yamagata she was really, play with me and then this and this. But one day we went to that you know Yamagata, she was laying down in the futon and I didn&#039 ; t know what is happening and then she was dying. And she died and everybody crying, someplace they went to other world. But I wondered where she went to, you know? So I really loves to go to that temple, to that, talking to that bonsan? Obousan? Uh-- P-Priest! Priest to you know to, is that, &quot ; Where are we going to go after died?&quot ; And you know so that&#039 ; s why that whenever they come, that&#039 ; s why that it comes out right away that, you know that we&#039 ; re going to go temple to die. Yeah. Anna Takada: How old were you when your grandma passed? Yoko Doi: I was that you know, about three or something? Three or four. Anna Takada: Very young. Yoko Doi: Yeah. Anna Takada: And then when the war started you were a young child, can you tell me a little bit about your memories of... Yoko Doi: When the war start is that Japan is so happy. Everybody got the Japanese flag and I thought, &quot ; Oh, we go into that war and we&#039 ; re going to win and that.&quot ; We had a celebrating. You know but the year after September is that the American airplane came and Japanese government shook up, &quot ; Oh my goodness.&quot ; Is that you know, Japan going to be, going to be attacked very soon, this and this and that you know it&#039 ; s really, really nonsense they&#039 ; re going to doing the things. And that you know bamboo stick? They&#039 ; re going to cut off that you know that bamboo stick, cut off sideway like this and it&#039 ; s okay it&#039 ; s as it is. You could kill the people, because it&#039 ; s that the bamboo stick is that really hard you know? But, so all you know that, the women&#039 ; s club and they learned how to kill the people like this, but everybody have that you know gun. But anyway, something like that, that they started doing and not really feeling that war is losing kind of things. You know, we felt it and then the airplane came and... Oh yeah, one story is that when American side, we love that Mount Zhao... I mean that Mount Fuji. Right? Fuji-san, &quot ; Oh, that big nice mountain.&quot ; But is that you know American say any place they&#039 ; re going to come to Japan, go to the, look at the Mount Fuji first because Mount Fuji is so high and the top is over the cloud, so that they could see the Mount Fuji. So Mount Fuji come then little bit of northwest you&#039 ; re going and then at the Tokyo there. So that you know you, the army know that... We cannot sing anymore that Mount Fuji is that... Fuji-san is number one mountain in Japan that we, we have, the singing like that you know? And after that, we heard then nobody could sing that song anymore and then they&#039 ; re going to talk about, &quot ; Cut off that Mount Fuji, the top.&quot ; Or something like that they, they&#039 ; re talking about it. So war is getting worse and worse and then that you know Japanese government is trying to remove that older children third grade and up to that you know someplace else, the country side, you know? And I know my friend, my sister-in-law went to those places and that she was in the Nagano in the temple I think she went to. And then that you know, she, we have no food to eat, nothing, and then it happened to have that the Nagano area had that you know potato, is a good producing the potato. She said, &quot ; Every day, morning and lunch and night. She eat potato everyday. So right now, she didn&#039 ; t like the potato too much. Then, I know my mother went to that field and she picked the dandelion that you know, and that&#039 ; s they eating, and that much we didn&#039 ; t have no food. But I, I supposed to go to the Nagano area at some temple but scheduled it... But my grandma came, I don&#039 ; t know why she came in and she came in and somebody that... She, her brother or somebody died I think, and then she came in and that she heard, &quot ; Oh Yoko have to go to that someplace else and that...&quot ; You know so grandma said, &quot ; No. No. No, I can&#039 ; t send that, my grandma that kind of place. I&#039 ; m going to take her.&quot ; So all of a sudden I went to that Hokkaido, and so I live in Hokkaido two years so that is... War finished at August, I was in, up to September I was in there. Yeah. Anna Takada: When you were traveling were you with your siblings or your parents or how did that work? Yoko Doi: Oh, oh my goodness, is that you know traveling is that you know that really, really bad because it&#039 ; s that you know train... You, you don&#039 ; t know... After, after that is that anytime American come and there&#039 ; s a bombing there, right? And then so if you go to train and that the train bombed, everybody going to die there you know? And so it&#039 ; s a, traveling is a really, really bad thing. But when I went to Japa-- to Hokkaido it just started you know so that&#039 ; s not bad. But when I coming back from the Hokkaido to Yamagata, oh my goodness it&#039 ; s a really hard time, the, the people looking for the food, the people looking for that you know... After the war even that we had a hard... No food, no food in Japan! And that you know, my husband, the Doi families, that you know the grandpa from me, my husband&#039 ; s... The grandpa, grandma, they are living in that Hiroshima and when I met them and they say that you know, &quot ; Oh Americans.&quot ; The camp, the concentration camp. &quot ; They are more better than here.&quot ; He said, &quot ; Because they could eat three times.&quot ; It&#039 ; s a good meal and he loves the bacon. And that you know, &quot ; They eat bacon every morning I heard!&quot ; (Laughs) That you know, that much, we didn&#039 ; t have nothing to eat. Really hard time to that you know... The things is that the food was that you know... And that you know that the teenager, we are just growing up and we&#039 ; re always hungry you know? And so something like that is happening you know. Yeah. Anna Takada: Were you together with your family in these different places with your... Yoko Doi: No. My immediate family, parents and then that, my... Another three brothers and sisters, they are in Tokyo. I was in Hokkaido, way northern part you know? And so I didn&#039 ; t have any experience, with that, the bombing things you know? But uh, my mother, I mean, my fa-- her house, Tokyo house was bombed and at the time... Kamata wa, it&#039 ; s the area where they live, is that really good factory... More likely is that the making that you know airplane, part of the airplane and things like that, my father was employed in one of the things so it really is, American aim there too. And then last minute it&#039 ; s in May I think is that... I think in the, in the years May I think they, they bombed there. And um, my father said that you know, &quot ; Okay. Today the American come to bomb this area.&quot ; So they, they knew where that you know, that coming so my father said you know, &quot ; We&#039 ; re not going to go any place.&quot ; We love to go to that you know the river kind of things you know? People not too many people there so they&#039 ; re going to survive there. But no, it&#039 ; s not. It&#039 ; s that you know, and too many crowd and the family, he don&#039 ; t want our family to you know the separated? So everybody together. We&#039 ; re going to go into that shelter. It&#039 ; s our own shelter, is you know is, we made a, that igloo? Igloo like you know, that we start you know, dig the hole and put the igloo. Anna Takada: Dome? Yoko Doi: Dome kind of things you know? And each family have that one but my father said, &quot ; That&#039 ; s too small so we&#039 ; re going to go to the government made one, big one. It&#039 ; s in the public so we&#039 ; re going to go there to that you know? We&#039 ; re going to stay overnight.&quot ; And the big hospital is there, was, if that one is that you know bombing and that one is that falling down, that&#039 ; s the time is that really crucial time. So if that one goes, we are, we gonna survive so we gonna go in there. So father went first anyway is that they&#039 ; re taking my brother with, and that you know, and then my mother taking care of another... She had another baby at the time, she was one or two years old and she carried that one. And my sister is little slow you know so she really, my mother had a harder time with her you know? But she holding hand with her to that walking and that you know, that the big bomb dropping in front of her, but it wasn&#039 ; t exploded so you know she was survived it. So she went to that shelters and so my mother and all the people that they&#039 ; re inside there. But my father is out and put futon? Futon, it&#039 ; s put it in the, in the area had a big field was there, we&#039 ; re always playing there and lots of memory had and they got a pond in the middle. So she going to put the futon in the water and they put the cover, the you know the entrance one. Then so really the, whenever the hospital burned down it&#039 ; s lots of that you know that... What they call the, you know that fire? That (makes small circle gesture). Anna Takada: Smoke? Yoko Doi: Smoke and then you know that... The fire small you know fire things coming, coming out and he put it in and everybody, everybody survived there. And then a couple other young, young mother and young, young man and helping him to do that, and then that everybody say thank you so much and then nobody went to that you know river. And people who went to the river, almost 80% of people died that in the river because is that you know its, river&#039 ; s water is actually boiling I heard my father told, my father said, you know? Because of the bomb, bomb down and then that, the fire coming out and then that you know? So most of the, all the body was floating in the rivers you know? And so my mother say, &quot ; Yeah, my father always that really good and then he, he could see it.&quot ; You know? So, something like that had happened and they all went to that Yamagata. So that&#039 ; s why they live right now in Yamagata, because my father had business in Yamagata. And my brother, what is that you know? Take over his business and then he did the business there too you know? So he are living there. Anna Takada: Was that after the war that they moved? Yoko Doi: After the-- Right after the bomb that they... And hard time to go to that Yamagata too. And my mother said, &quot ; Oh my goodness we are so miserable looking.&quot ; You know? Half burning someplace, you know? That clothes and... He got a big that... His silk, big that, the things that they carries and we are just like hobo. Hobo it&#039 ; s called? Yeah, it look like, like that. And beginning in Tokyo everybody look like same, you know? That in the airplane-- I mean the, the train. And half... It&#039 ; s from the Tokyo to that you know the Yamagata is at the time is more likely 12 hours, 10 hours ride so taking that about five hours, everybody changing, all the other people get off and not too many people is there. And so now that train is changing and that the nice suits people comes in, everybody looking at us and really feels ashamed too you know? But anyway, right after that day they bombed they went to that you know, Yamagata, and then my father&#039 ; s house they went to. And then my father&#039 ; s house is a big, big house so you know they could live about there about six months or so, and then my father got another house in Yamagata. Yeah. Anna Takada: And they&#039 ; ve been there since? Yoko Doi: Uh, no, no, they built that. My brother he did well, so my brother had that nice big house that he built again. And then I came, they went there it&#039 ; s May. I think it&#039 ; s April or May is that the, the area was bombed, and then that December, then August was war finished, and August the first, second is that the atomic bomb drops. And then that you know, August 15 is that war finished, and December I came to that Yamagata I think from Hokkaido. That&#039 ; s, that&#039 ; s my that, you know war story. Anna Takada: So since you were so young but not too young where you don&#039 ; t you know remember and realize what&#039 ; s going on, can you tell me more about um... Just, I mean to experience that as a child, did you understand... Or, or, or what was that like to split up from your family during that time? Yoko Doi: Splitting up? People who went to that you know um, totally... See, I went to that grandma&#039 ; s house so it&#039 ; s a little different than that you know people went to that you know the temple and then all the student together, you know? And I heard that you know, one lady, not my sister-in-law, another lady is that you know from that Okinawa came to that you know Kyushu, and then in Kyushu she went to the separated. And &quot ; Oh I cried every night and that you know I want to see the mother.&quot ; That&#039 ; s you know that there. Because I&#039 ; m in the fifth grade and fifth grade is a little older, so you know that my age... My sister-in-law is a fourth grade I think, so she is okay then her most that you know things is she&#039 ; s eating the potato all the time, that&#039 ; s the, she remembers you know? And then, but other, another lady, she&#039 ; s younger than that, two, three younger than me, so she is that you know more likely you know third, third grade and fourth grade and, &quot ; Oh, I&#039 ; m crying every night. I want to see my mother.&quot ; You know? So it&#039 ; s a hard time to that you know, those people. But I have a fun and my grandma is it that I&#039 ; m respecting my grandma so much, so you know, as long as my grandma is there I&#039 ; m okay. Yeah. Anna Takada: Do you remember the day that you reconnected with your family? Yoko Doi: Yeah, but it&#039 ; s different than that you know my grandma&#039 ; s house. Grandma&#039 ; s house is a so big house and then that you know everybody there and lot of people there, and you know, came to that the... Yamagata at the time is that my father working at the city and then my mother living in at the mountain. So you know in the mountain, in a small cottage like house you know? &quot ; My goodness, I have to live here?&quot ; Kind of things you know happened that. But it&#039 ; s, you know getting the father, mother together and brothers and you know so it&#039 ; s okay. Yeah. But it&#039 ; s a year and a half separated, it&#039 ; s really, it&#039 ; s that... I heard that it&#039 ; s, you know that my friend went to the concentration camp you know, is that you know, my husband won&#039 ; t talk too much about it, that you know concentration camp and these kind of things. But I heard my friend went in a concentration camp and then that you know &quot ; It is fun every day, is that we are get together you know dinner time and a friend you know eating. But Yoko if you think about it, we didn&#039 ; t have that family gathering.&quot ; You know, it&#039 ; s that fun to eating with a friend but that you know mother telling her, &quot ; No, you should eat this way, you should eat that.&quot ; You know that? &quot ; I didn&#039 ; t have any manner to learn and nobody else. I just wild so much. You know, that come to think of it, all those things I really miss that the family gathering. I missed it.&quot ; That&#039 ; s, you know she said it. So in a way, but that you know, in my case it&#039 ; s different in Grandpa-- G-Grandma&#039 ; s house you know? So, in Grandp--Gra-- my mother&#039 ; s side of the, Hokkaido no Grandpa, Grandma is the really strict one. (laughs) So you know... So it&#039 ; s, I&#039 ; m okay. I didn&#039 ; t have too much, that you know those sad story. But that, I know it&#039 ; s older Nisei you know people, they had that... If you talk about it, this concentration camp things, it&#039 ; s really family gathering. And also that you know parents never telling them what to do kind of things. And always, always thinking about, &quot ; We are the enemy,&quot ; that &quot ; We are the enemy.&quot ; So they don&#039 ; t want to... Lot of Nisei people is really unsociable, you know? Is is a lot of... I, when I came to the United States from Japan, and I kind of thinking about, &quot ; Oh my goodness. This Nisei people is really is that you know unsociable, and they won&#039 ; t do too much that you know fun things and this and this.&quot ; But they&#039 ; re going to gather together Nisei club they making, and then a Nisei club they have. But go outside, they won&#039 ; t do too much about out world. That is really you know it&#039 ; s sad, is that they, inside, is, &quot ; We are enemy,&quot ; you know kind of things you know? But as long as I&#039 ; m concerned, I am that really, didn&#039 ; t have that too much, that the war is affected me. Yeah. Anna Takada: Um, so it, it&#039 ; s... Well, first, can you tell me um... So what happened with your family after the war? Where, what were you doing, and at what point did you end up going to the U.S.? Yoko Doi: Oh... Oh you know, I went to the high school in Yamagata and then at... I just want to go to the Tokyo. And then I graduated at the university in Tokyo. I, I went out to the Tokyo, and so you know it&#039 ; s that... Yamagata is, to me, is not that much my hometown. Is that, Tokyo still my hometown. Lot of friend is in Tokyo you know? I have the good friends there. And I went to Aoyama University you know? Is that, they are famous in the Christian family --uh Christian school. And there, I learn the Christianity you know? So I become Christian in the school. I mean, not school. I, I learn it from the Christianity there. So I was in Tokyo. I working at the Tokyo... My family-- my father done well you know at business. And one extended partner was that something happened, and then that you know those business things is always happen or something else. So my father had a little bit of hard time. But after that, my brother graduated college, and he take over that, my father. And my brother did a good job. Don&#039 ; t you, don&#039 ; t you think so? Yeah. He did good. So it&#039 ; s okay. And they had a nice, big nice house they built and three boys that he had. So you know it, my family, and for my brother, did a good job. Yeah. And um... Anna Takada: And in school, what did you study? Yoko Doi: English I studied. English literature you know? That school is famous teaching the English literature. And I had another one it&#039 ; s close-by and Japanese literature. And then, &quot ; Which one shall I go?&quot ; And then I thought, &quot ; Oh, well, maybe I better learn the English.&quot ; And then that you know I went the English one you know? Then happen to have that school was that you know that Christian school. And my goodness! First thing is that you know you have to learn, you have to read the Bible. Bible? What is the book called Bible? I really don&#039 ; t know. I was so shamed you know? But yeah, I studied there English and Christianity. And... But it&#039 ; s that, okay. School insist me that... Because school is a Christian, Christian school, so they could insist us to study that you know Christianity. And, so I say, &quot ; Okay, in that case, I gonna go to, I gonna go to the Buddhist zen temple.&quot ; I went to Kamakura at Engakuji, it&#039 ; s called. You know? It&#039 ; s like... Oh, you know? Yeah. There, I did the zazen. Ten years, I had experience with the zazen. I did there. You know, it&#039 ; s really a good experience I did there. Yeah. Anna Takada: Wow. Yoko Doi: So that&#039 ; s my story. And you want to know how to come to the United States, how to meet my husband? Anna Takada: Yes. Yoko Doi: (Laughs) Nothing is that too much. Like, my sister-in-law had that you know, that big story she has. But me, it&#039 ; s no. It&#039 ; s that, because it&#039 ; s I have to have that you know, my own place, right? Because my parents is in Yamagata. So happened to have that I rented the apartment. The owner of the apartment is that you know connected with my husband Mikio&#039 ; s brother&#039 ; s wife. The uncle is at that place. That, you know really is that you know-- But Mikio&#039 ; s brother is younger than Mikio. Mikio is older. And that you know that... So, wife is, she is really, really... Right now too, she&#039 ; s really thinking about other people and that you know taking care of them. So she worries about it, that his brother-in-law, &quot ; Oh, he&#039 ; s older than my husband, and he didn&#039 ; t have any that you know wife. Maybe I going to look for the wife for him.&quot ; (laughs) She wrote a letter to the uncle, &quot ; Don&#039 ; t you have anybody else can speak a little English then that you know and interesting to come to United States?&quot ; That&#039 ; s... So she wrote a letter to them, and then that you know, he looked around, &quot ; Okay, where is the girl?&quot ; Like, &quot ; Here she is in, in his apartment!&quot ; That&#039 ; s my story! (laughs) So you know the owner ask me, &quot ; Do you have you interest in?&quot ; And so I say, &quot ; Well, yeah,&quot ; but that you know I like to know what kind of person. And she said, &quot ; Of course. And how you going to know? You cannot meet him.&quot ; And I say, &quot ; Okay, yeah, write a letter.&quot ; So we exchanging the letter about three years with my husband you know? And then I know my husband is not too much outgoing type, kind of person. I could tell from that you know the writing. So I could tell what kind of person he is. And then that you know so... Anna Takada: When did that start? When did you start corresponding? Yoko Doi: Oh. I, I married at about 29, late you know, so that correspondence is about 26. 26? Six, seven, eight, nine, yeah. About 26 I think. And then three years in, and that you know his mother, my mother-in-law, is, &quot ; Ah, hurry up. What are you doing?&quot ; kind of thing. And then she&#039 ; s the one wrote me the letter... And &quot ; What are you--&quot ; Because she telling him. &quot ; What are you doing?&quot ; And he said just kinda, &quot ; Urusai, (grunts) I don&#039 ; t want to talk about.&quot ; He is like that. He&#039 ; s not that much open person. So you know and the mother-in-law wrote me, &quot ; What are you doing? And can you do something else from your side?&quot ; Anna Takada: Were you writing in English or Japanese? Yoko Doi: My mother-in-law is that more like the Kibei Nisei. So you know she understand. She graduated high school in Tokyo-- in Hiroshima. So she understand Japanese well. So write it down in Japanese to her. But for him, I write English. You know, I don&#039 ; t know how much he understand. Anna Takada: And where is his family from? Or where was he when you were corresponding? Yoko Doi: They are Hiroshima. Yeah. Anna Takada: Oh, okay. Yoko Doi: Oh! I&#039 ; m sorry! It&#039 ; s, they are in Chicago! Anna Takada: Oh, okay. In Chicago. Yoko Doi: Yeah. Yeah. And because it&#039 ; s that after the war is almost 10, 12 years after that... Yeah, I think. More than that. No, more than that. Speaker 1: 1960 maybe? Yoko Doi: Yeah. Speaker 1: Like- Yoko Doi: Yeah, &#039 ; 65 you was born, right? Speaker 1: I was born in &#039 ; 65. Yoko Doi: Yeah, born in the sixty. So 1960, around &#039 ; 60, before the sixty is you know is we corresponding, you know? Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. Yoko Doi: Yeah. Anna Takada: And so his, his mother wrote to you and said &quot ; Hurry up&quot ; . And then, and then what happens? How did you end up coming? Yoko Doi: He, he&#039 ; s... I don&#039 ; t know. I think I wrote him something you know, &quot ; Your mother said this and this and this.&quot ; You know and is that... Okay... The funny thing is that my mother-in-law and then that my husband how they connect, how they that communicating. My mother-in-law speaking Japanese to him and he speaking English to her. And they are connecting. That I learned after I came here they tell me. But at the time, I didn&#039 ; t know. But I was wondering why he didn&#039 ; t tell, she didn&#039 ; t tell him directly. And after that, I understand, yeah, &quot ; Oh, because of this.&quot ; And so I write it down what, &quot ; Your mother said this and this. Are you interest in me? Are you coming? Or what do you want to do?&quot ; And he decided, okay. That September, then he said, &quot ; Okay, I&#039 ; m coming.&quot ; And you know... But there is a story, is there. He bought that ring, engagement ring already you know? But it&#039 ; s that you know Hiroshima side, it&#039 ; s, his grandpa, grandma is in Hiroshima at that time, right? And then that you know, Hiroshima side, &quot ; If this girl say no, what am I gonna, what is he gonna do? Okay, we going to prepare another girl.&quot ; (laughs) So grandma prepared that you know couple other, three other girls and you know it&#039 ; s, &quot ; Okay, if she say no, we gonna that, have the--.&quot ; (laughs) That me told me... No. Yeah, that he told me, &quot ; My mother, my mother say something like that.&quot ; And I said, &quot ; Oh.&quot ; Oh, no. Grandma tell. Grandma the one ne? Yeah, Hiroshima no Grandma the one that tells me about that one you know? And then that, &quot ; Yeah, because if we gonna, if we thinking about if you say no, what, what are we going to do?&quot ; So you know they said, &quot ; I have prepare somebody else.&quot ; But she brought the you know that engagement ring and okay. And then that okay. Then we going to marry. Then, all right, so that you know let&#039 ; s marry. So she-- he took about, about two weeks or something, but he postpone it. And then he stayed at Japan about... And after that, then married. We married at Kobe counselor, counseling. Counselor? Counsel? Speaker 1: Consulate. Yoko Doi: Consul. Speaker 1: Consulate. Yoko Doi: Consul. Yeah. Kobe Consul. We married there. And then that, his uncle came from the Hiroshima to you know standing up for us. And then that you know, so we had a honeymoon around the you know Kyoto area, because Kobe Consul, that Kyoto and because he wanted to see Kyoto area. So we went to Kyoto. Oh, before that one, we went... Of course we went to see Grandpa, Grandma you know, and I introduce myself to them you know? And they are really, really... I love that his grandpa... I fall in love with that his grandpa. Is really, really good one. But he was fourth stage of that cancer, lung cancer. And, you know and so, but he talking to me. And can I tell the story about what the grandpa-- grandpa&#039 ; s experienced in that you know, that atomic bomb? Or shall I... Speaker 1: No, that&#039 ; s a good story. Yoko Doi: Yeah. No, shall I tell that you know, how they going to immigrate to that United States? Maybe after that one huh? Anna Takada: Whichever. Yoko Doi: In chronicle way, we have to, have to story about that you know they are immigrating, how they immigrated in America. Anna Takada: Oh, you mean the Doi family? Yoko Doi: Doi family. Anna Takada: Um, sure. Yoko Doi: Yeah. Okay, so that you know, because of this chronical way, I better start it at the Doi family story about it. So anyway, I call Grandma and Grandpa. That is, for her (points off-screen), is Great-Grandpa, Great-Grandma. But that you know, my husband&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s Doi family&#039 ; s grandpa, grandma. And when she was 18 and Grandpa was 19 I think, and then that you know she fall in love with that you know this guy, Doi. Yuji Doi. That is Grandpa. I love him too you know? She supposed to married tomorrow, the following day, wedding day, she elope with him... He, but she keep asking him, &quot ; I don&#039 ; t want to marry this guy. He&#039 ; s a nice guy. My cousin and this and this. But I love you so much, and I cannot marry this guy.&quot ; You know and kinda this. So their uncle was in, I think it&#039 ; s Canada. No, United St... No, no, no. California. So, she want they want to come to the United States. But that you know I think that is that you know... My father-in-law was born in 1909. So 18-somet--, 1890-something. United States closed that you know, Japanese immigrant, you know? Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. Yoko Doi: So that year, they cannot come to the United States. And so, but anyway, they have to go someplace, because is that you know they eloped you know? And okay, &quot ; We&#039 ; re going to elope to the United States.&quot ; That&#039 ; s they, their... &quot ; I don&#039 ; t want to stay around here. So, and anyway, let&#039 ; s go to Kobe.&quot ; So you know is that Grandma carried that, all her wedding gown and that all... Grandma&#039 ; s house is that really well doing, the house. And so she carried that one. &quot ; , Yo-san that is just about the new year time,&quot ; you know? And she carried the things. &quot ; And I wanted to go with him, but when I walking around that street to meet him, everybody so looks happy, and then the light is coming out. And I was sad to that leave this Hiroshima.&quot ; But she, she meet him, and that you know she went to the Kobe. And now that America was closed, then that you know they cannot go. And so now, &quot ; What am I going to do?&quot ; And then that, they had that opportunity to go to that, Mexico. So you know, &quot ; Okay, then we&#039 ; re going to go to Mexico.&quot ; And then that you know, I don&#039 ; t know how they attain visa and those things at that time, how they work. But then that you know she didn&#039 ; t remember all those things. So she just you know... We just went to the Mexico. And that was that really, really, really bad place they went to. And then that you know, banana plants I think. The plantation. It&#039 ; s the banana plantation. And then that you know in the place, they had a you know, big pond is there. And then, in a big pond, there is a little... Not little, but the, is... How many family was there, they say that about 10 or 15 family is there... Pond is big like this, right. And then that you know, in the middle, there is that you know, people to live here. And in this pond, there&#039 ; s a crocodile is there. And then that you know they cannot go through this easily. And then that you know, morning, they&#039 ; re going to bringing in the boat here, and then they ride on the boat and go to that the other side, then that you know, they&#039 ; re going to go to work, to the, picking out the banana things. And then coming back, then it goes in there, and it goes there. Something like that place, they live in. And then that you know and house was that you know... Just... But Mexico is warm, right? So it&#039 ; s not that the building, just a shelter kinda. And the top there, and you know that just to... So, when the wind comes in... I don&#039 ; t think that too much rain over there I think. But when a rainy day is you know, something rain comes, something like that place that they live in and then that you know... Anna Takada: How long were they there, in Mexico? Yoko Doi: Yeah that you know, Grandpa say... Anyway, Grandma, Grandma was that you know pregnant. And then Grandpa say... Grandpa is a really manly person, and Grandpa said, &quot ; Okay, we cannot that, raise the children this kind of place. I have to do something.&quot ; And then that you know, &quot ; Okay, don&#039 ; t tell anybody else.&quot ; And then that Grandpa was that you know, thinking and thinking, and he made up a really, really good, good plan you know? And, &quot ; Okay, I going to tell that this, this, this person, so you know, we going to that plan it.&quot ; Then they planned... Because they don&#039 ; t want that you know owner to hear the things, that escaping, right? So anyway, it&#039 ; s, Grandpa&#039 ; s plan is... It&#039 ; s really clever. Clever. &quot ; Okay, we have to look for that rainy day, so we cannot make a set day. If it&#039 ; s not rain, we cannot get out.&quot ; But that you know, okay. &quot ; Rainy day and a windy day, we gonna go. So everybody, if you come with us want to go us, you, better to ready. Tomorrow, we&#039 ; re going to go because rain.&quot ; Because it&#039 ; s that you know, when the rain comes, Grandpa say is that you know, is that boat coming, boat coming here to here, he going to sit down in the end of the boat. Is that you know Mexican is here and rowing, they goes, goes like this. He going to sit down here and put the string. Grandma had really good silk that, clothes, right, because wedding clothes, that they, they, they torn that. Because silk is so strong, right? So that you know they&#039 ; re making that you know three things, and they make that a silk rope. And they put that things in here, because rain, you cannot see well. So you know put this side, it, they&#039 ; re going to put it in that you know something else there, and then that you know, the boat is that you know there and coming here. And then that you know, all this, rope is here. So that&#039 ; s the way Grandpa said, &quot ; Okay, let&#039 ; s do that way. Okay, if they&#039 ; re to find out, and then that we&#039 ; re gonna kill. It&#039 ; s, can&#039 ; t help it. But this is work, so let&#039 ; s do it.&quot ; And then that... One rainy day, it&#039 ; s did it that way. And then that almost... Not almost. All people agree with him to come... So that you know, two, one is not enough. Two times they did something like that, you know? And then that, they escaped from there. And then that, but is that, part of the people is that you know... I, really don&#039 ; t know the map too well. But that you know, is that some people wanted to go back to that you know, port, where the Japanese ship coming. They want to go there. But Grandpa said, &quot ; No, we going to go that little bit north.&quot ; And Mikio&#039 ; s uncle... It means that the Grandpa&#039 ; s with the children. One of them said, &quot ; Must be that&#039 ; s Texas.&quot ; And then that you know he hear that train is there, so, &quot ; We going to go see the train. And then let&#039 ; s ride a train to California.&quot ; That&#039 ; s his plan was. And then that, so... He mentioned this, where was that place. But I just didn&#039 ; t remember that, the name of the place. And then when I talking to that in California about this one a little bit, they said, &quot ; I know. Is that somebody else talking about the same story you are. It&#039 ; s one of them is that escaping from there. It must be together with that you know grandpa. And I heard the name, but I didn&#039 ; t remember too.&quot ; But anyway, something like that, and then that you know. They find... Because it&#039 ; s from that plantation to that you know coming to that you know rail, it&#039 ; s not like now. No walls, and you could go through so easily. So you know came through. And so after the rail, railroad is they&#039 ; re really easy to find it. But the railroad, one problem is that when they walking toward to that you know California, so that means it&#039 ; s that west, right... And big, big that you know river was there. I don&#039 ; t know what kind of river it is. But the river was there. And then that you know big... You know, it&#039 ; s river is... How, how could I say? When you&#039 ; re walking that railroad, rail is here, and then wood is here, right? Speaker 1: Tracks. Railroad tracks. Yoko Doi: Tracks, yeah. Railroad tracks, I mean, on the river. Is that you know wood is here, and on the top of the wood is, rail is there. So it&#039 ; s from that wood to wood, its space is there, right? The, the track. Means the track the space about this big, right? This big. And then that you know, some, Grandpa said couple, is they fell down from there. Because train coming, so they had to run to that you know, that that... Grandpa, grandma was that you know first one. So the, the first one went in means it&#039 ; s that the last one to go out right? And then they had to run so hard and a couple people fell down from there. And then that you know, they went, they went to the river. I don&#039 ; t think... they cannot alive you know? But they cannot see anything you know? So, anyway is that, grandpa-- grandma missed the wood and she fell down halfway, and then she miscarriaged that day. Yeah. So that grandpa&#039 ; s, our grandpa is that you, that grandpa means it&#039 ; s that&#039 ; s her grandpa, my husband&#039 ; s father, Yuji-san no, the son is second son. It&#039 ; s that the first one is a miscarriage that you know. And then after that, the, they came in. But is that... Something else? You have to go? Anna Takada: No. I just... No. Yoko Doi: And then that you know, is that, so anyway, is that something like that, they came to the United States. And then that you know, is that... So they didn&#039 ; t have that official immigration, and then they are so scared too you know that they run away from them you know? Because they get the money, they pay the money to that you know go to the work things. You know? And then about six months, they are there, I think you know? And then after, they, they were, they came. And then that, but they found that job. And then you know it&#039 ; s California, they, it&#039 ; s okay. But that, you know and... End up they are living in Oxnard, right? Yeah, Oxnard. Oxnard, California. End up that Oxnard, California. Before that one, grandpa, grandma, they found that uncle was there. And then they found the uncle, and the uncle introduced that you know. He&#039 ; s really good to do that you know, working in a yard, in a tree. What do you call those... A gardener! He was in a gardener, and then that, grandma was that a maid. Oh yeah, one story. It&#039 ; s such a funny story. Grandma thought is that you know, in Japan, they&#039 ; re going to fold the futon and put it in that you know, oshi... You know the clothes, put it in the you know, the cabinet. And so grandpa folded it, whole thing, said fold it. And she didn&#039 ; t know where to, she didn&#039 ; t know how to fold that you know the mattress. She didn&#039 ; t know what to do, so she&#039 ; s standing in and that you know. The, the house, the miss, lady come in. &quot ; Oh, you folding everything.&quot ; And then she was laughing. Another one is she didn&#039 ; t know how to do the iron because in Japan, we had an iron is that they put the charcoal in it. And then you know. But electric, she didn&#039 ; t know that one. And so she said, &quot ; I had so much that you know problem with that housework. And then, oh, grandpa is really, really good and grandpa is so handy person.&quot ; But anyway, it&#039 ; s that grandma&#039 ; s house is that really good well done, well house, so she never worked at a house before. You know so that is the, that is the thing. Anna Takada: And, how many children did they end up having? Yoko Doi: Having five. Five, Isamu-san is the first one. And then that you know, four me- men-- boys and one girl, they, they had. Yeah. And then all, they are all went, went in a camp. Yeah. And then that, grandpa, you know grandpa, is that, Japan, he loves Japan. And so that, the war start and then I thought, &quot ; Okay, I&#039 ; m going back to the Japan.&quot ; So you know, the last ship, I think, they went to back to Japan, I think. Anna Takada: To Hiroshima? Yoko Doi: Yeah. And then that, grand- grand- Isamu-san, is that, you know that, my husband&#039 ; s father, is that, okay, grandpa, grandma goes to Japan and then that you know, you don&#039 ; t, you didn&#039 ; t have any... You need money, you know so you take all the money. So she, he give, they-- everybody give that whole money to that grandpa, grandma, away to their parents and then that, you know? More likely is Isamu-san is that first son, and he feel like responsible. And then, they had a store in Oxnard. They had a store and renting apartment you know is that grandpa started. The next day, is, money comes in, grandpa knows, so you know, give it to them. But that, grandpa say, &quot ; Oh, then that you know, lettuce and strawberry was there. So lettuce and strawberry money comes in, so don&#039 ; t worry about it.&quot ; Is that you know, they left, I think, December. And then that you know, no, not December. December 7th, the war started, so that you know, September ka. So-- but anyway, is that you know, the, it&#039 ; s coming, so don&#039 ; t worry about it. So they give the all the money, and then grandpa said, &quot ; No. Nothing, no money comes in.&quot ; Because it&#039 ; s that you know the camp started right away right? When the war start? Anna Takada: A few months later. Yoko Doi: Few months later, right? So that lettuce, is that you know, he expected to have the money. Is that you know, following that, the war started Sept-- December, right? So that the lettuce is about April to May. They have to leave for the concentration camp and then that, Grandpa said, &quot ; We didn&#039 ; t have no money,&quot ; because all the money he gave to the parents. Then nobody buy the lettuce. Is, they know it&#039 ; s that they have to go to the concentration camp, and strawberry, lots of strawberry was there. And then that you know, &quot ; Oh, we didn&#039 ; t have no money.&quot ; Anna Takada: That&#039 ; s what they sold in the store, or where were the strawberries? Yoko Doi: Oh, grandpa-- grandpa, grandma Yuji-san went to Japan one, grandpa, grandma had a store and then the apartment. It&#039 ; s, they are the ones is taking care. And then my husband&#039 ; s father, Isamu-san, is that taking care of field. They grow that you know lettuce and strawberry and something else, I forgot. Is that you know, quite a bit of big ones that they are taking care. So you know that&#039 ; s why they thought they&#039 ; re going to come in the money, so they give all the money to that grandpa, grandma. So, grandpa said that, &quot ; Yeah, I had, I got money and so I, I have that house right away.&quot ; And then they went to Hiroshima. Anna Takada: Do you know if-- Do you know if your father-in-law owned the land? Yoko Doi: No, no, no, no, no. That renting. Anna Takada: Okay. Yoko Doi: Yeah. And then that you know, that, the store too, it&#039 ; s not... Because it&#039 ; s that you know grandpa was, grandpa was born in that United States. Oh, no, no, no. Speaker 1: Yes, he was. Yoko Doi: Grandpa, grandpa was born in United States, but they got scared because of that you know, because it&#039 ; s that right away, she pregnant again. So you know, it&#039 ; s that why a year later or something, they were, he was, 19, 1902, I think, Grandpa is that you know, if I could, memory is correct, that he was born. And then that, because they cannot register he&#039 ; s born because scared, because they don&#039 ; t want to, government to know who they are because it&#039 ; s that you know, oh, Mexico. They, America maybe let them return it. Grandpa didn&#039 ; t, didn&#039 ; t have anything, so they didn&#039 ; t have any right to own the things. You know so that&#039 ; s why they didn&#039 ; t own nothing. Yeah, even the, those you know, store too, yeah. Anna Takada: When the evacuation orders went out, where did the Doi family, where were they sent to? Yoko Doi: The Gila, number two, I think. Yeah. They went to there. Yeah. And my, my mother-in-law said that, &quot ; Oh, Yoko-san we thought they going to kill us.&quot ; Because is that you know something in suitcase two, and then Mikio carry the two suitcase and go in that you know, the train. And all the window is that, blacked out. You know? And everybody carried that gun and that you know? Oh, they thought they going to kill. You know but that is scary. But, Gila was is just, only thing is the sand, really sandy. Grandma say is that, Grandma means is that you know, Isamu-san&#039 ; s that, my husband&#039 ; s mother, is every day about three times you had to sweep because of the sand. If the sandstorm comes, sand is right there on the floor, everything. You know, so that is the only thing. But is that you know grandma say, &quot ; But, in my family is that you know, more likely have to be that you know, appreciated the you know, concentration camp because it&#039 ; s that Mikio is okay, but that you know, Tetsu, the second son, he had asthma, bad, bad asthma, no matter what that you know they&#039 ; re taking and this and this.&quot ; And then that the doctor said, &quot ; Only things is you have to move to that you know dry, hot land.&quot ; Means Gila is dry, hot land, right? And then that, but Tetsu&#039 ; s asthma is cured there so you know that grandma say is that you know we, the government send us there. She was laughing about that you know? Yeah. Anna Takada: How old was your husband at the time? Yoko Doi: Same as, he&#039 ; s the same as me. He&#039 ; s six months older than me, so you know he was that, about fifth grade too. Yeah. Yeah, fifth. And fourth, Tetsu is fourth grade I think yeah. Anna Takada: And, when... Was that something that he would... It sounds like you got a lot of information from your mother-in-law. Was that something that your husband would share with you? Yoko Doi: No. My husband never share anything. Yeah. He won&#039 ; t talk about it. I don&#039 ; t think it&#039 ; s that you know I know is that you know, lot of people don&#039 ; t want to talk about the those... If I going to ask, that is the 442 too, the uncle. But that you I don&#039 ; t think they are really open to things. And then that you know, we are inside. One lady said, &quot ; Yoko, I&#039 ; m always talk about those things. Is I didn&#039 ; t like it. I feel like I am enemy to United States and it&#039 ; s, it feels so shame to talk about. So that&#039 ; s why I don&#039 ; t want to talk about.&quot ; That&#039 ; s my friend said it you know it&#039 ; s that... &quot ; So we don&#039 ; t want to, we don&#039 ; t want to do something is you know &quot ; show up&quot ; things you know? It, or people to make attention. No, I don&#039 ; t want, I don&#039 ; t want any attention. I want to be quiet, living there.&quot ; That&#039 ; s I thought, &quot ; Oh my goodness, that is so sad a story.&quot ; You know? Yeah. Anna Takada: Do you know at what point, because I&#039 ; m guessing they went from camp to Chicago, is that right? Yoko Doi: Yes. Anna Takada: Do you know at what point they left? Yoko Doi: They left is that you know, after-- before the war? Anyway, it&#039 ; s government closing that you know, that camp and then that they are going to... I think is that more likely right after October, so two, three months later, I think, they left that there. And then that Chicago is that you know... Because they want to go to California, but I didn&#039 ; t, I don&#039 ; t think they cannot go to California at that time, I think. Right? Anna Takada: Mhm. Yoko Doi: So they say that, &quot ; Okay, then you know Chicago is a good place.&quot ; To have that, job wise, they could find a job, so they came to that way to the Chicago. And-- Anna Takada: Do you know what jobs they got or where they settled in Chicago? Yoko Doi: Yeah. They, the first time they came, it&#039 ; s that they you know, that Wilson. They came and the Uptown area. And then that you know. And they stayed there, one, one-two little house, the apartment kind of things you know? There are two families together, two, three families together. And then that you know, I think that my husband went to the school there little while, but they cannot live like that way you know? So they, they say, &quot ; Okay, we going to buy the house someplace.&quot ; And then that, they went to South Side. Speaker 1: West, yeah. Yoko Doi: Southwest side, right. Yeah. I heard right now it&#039 ; s so bad neighbor I heard. My husband took me once that you know what kind of house that you know. It&#039 ; s three flat that you know. And then that, they that you know, they live second floor, and then that first floor, that&#039 ; s, Isamu-san, my husband&#039 ; s father&#039 ; s brother lived at the first floor. And then at the second floor and the third floor, they went to Georgia. They lived there, I think. They lived something like that. And, Isamu-san no brother, have that, they started that cleaning store, dry cleaning, cleaning, you know, those one. And wife is a really good sewer, so you know that sewing you know, and... And then that, Isamu-san have that 3M? Speaker 1: You&#039 ; re, right. 3M. Yoko Doi: 3M. Speaker 1: The company, they make like Post-It notes. Anna Takada: Oh, sure. Speaker 1: So, it was manufacturing. Yoko Doi: Yeah. And, the manufacturing job. And then that you know, at that time, is that 3M is a big company is that you know, in there. And, the third floor one, they had some kind of small job and this and this, but that you know, they are interesting, too. That you know, have you ever heard of, chick sexing? Yeah, yeah. That, they did it. Chicago was a really big one, they have. So they did that in Chicago a little while, but that, I think the Chicago one is closed or something. And then they went to the Georgia, so that&#039 ; s where they end up. The two uncles went. No, three uncles. Two, Isamu-san have that you know, three, four brother right? And one is Isamu-san. And one is Riku-san. is the dry cleaning, and two went to chick sexing, and the middle woman, girl, married that Asamoto, husband... three went to Georgia. So, they&#039 ; re in Georgia right now. Anna Takada: And... Yoko Doi: Go back to the Hiroshima story, no? Anna Takada: If you want. (laughs) Yoko Doi: Why? What else you want to ask? Anna Takada: Well, I was just, I was going to ask about, I know you&#039 ; d mentioned that your husband didn&#039 ; t share very much, but do you have a sense of what life was like in Chicago for them when they came here? He was probably getting to high school age. Yoko Doi: Yeah, yeah. And then that you know, they had that graduation right? And then that you know, my mother-in-law said, &quot ; You know, that Mikio... &quot ; That&#039 ; s Mikio, the, my husband&#039 ; s name. &quot ; Mikio told me, &#039 ; don&#039 ; t come to the graduation ceremony&#039 ; .&quot ; And I-- &quot ; Why?&quot ; and then that you know, &quot ; Oh, no, no, they are all hakujin, and no Japanese there.&quot ; And, my mother-in-law said, &quot ; What is he thinking about? Is he hakujin?&quot ; Because she can&#039 ; t speak that any English, right? And then that you know, my husband said to her something like that. So you know it&#039 ; s that, my friend say, is that you know, &quot ; Hard time you know, that enemy kind of things.&quot ; You know? So, I feel like most of the people have some kind of things, and they don&#039 ; t want to show, &quot ; I am Japanese&quot ; kind of things. I think that&#039 ; s in the back of his head, I think you know? So, I said once that, &quot ; Your mother said this and this.&quot ; Then he said, &quot ; Okay.&quot ; That&#039 ; s it, that&#039 ; s it. He didn&#039 ; t say anything you know? Yeah, he didn&#039 ; t talkative person anyway you know so.... But my mother-in-law said something like that. &quot ; He told me, &#039 ; Don&#039 ; t come.&#039 ; &quot ; Anna Takada: Well, and you brought this up a few times, just the, the concept of the enemy you know, Japanese, and Japanese Americans living in the U.S. Um, when you-- I mean, when you were in Japan, did, was there a similar dynamic there in terms of views and perspectives of Americans? Like did, was, in your experience of being in Japan during the war, were there like similar ideas about the U.S. and- Yoko Doi: Oh, yeah. We called that American is that... American is... There is that this, we singing song all the time, something like &quot ; Ruuzu beruto no beruto ga kirete. Chachiru, chiru, chiru hana ga chiru &quot ; . Something like that. It&#039 ; s, we all make fun of that, all those people, you know that loose belt. Loose belt, right? &quot ; Beruto&quot ; is you know, oh they&#039 ; re belt is broken down so that the pants falling down. You know it&#039 ; s, it looks a shame. And then &quot ; cha chiru, chiru, chiru hana ga chiru&quot ; hana, flower falling down. And then it&#039 ; s &quot ; cha chiru&quot ; , right? &quot ; Chiru, chiru, chiru&quot ; , it means that the flower falling down. And so, &quot ; Cha chiru, chiru, chiru hana ga chiru&quot ; mou, that the flower falling down like that, they gonna die. And, you know, that&#039 ; s we are singing about that you know, that enemy... Also, we are thinking about that you know, American is all hairy, and &quot ; oh, they&#039 ; re not people&quot ; . They are more likely kichiku, means is that that you know ogre animal kinda. You know, we calling them something like that you know? So, we are, is that we, that, government tell us that, that&#039 ; s the way that we think you know? Anna Takada: Did that affect in any way your thoughts or ideas about moving here and marrying an American? Yoko Doi: Oh, no. Before that one, she told me, or the you know, we had, I had that you know experience with that you know that American soldier when they comes in you know in the mountain when I was living in the countryside you know? And then, all the children is playing around in the yard. And then, the, we hear the some, that you know, horse coming. And then that you know, we hear the horse riding. Then, &quot ; What is it? What is it? Oh, American coming.&quot ; And then, &quot ; Yoko, you go. You go see them, hello.&quot ; Because they stopped at the front of... We are playing at the downstairs. And, because mountains, so another, it&#039 ; s a bit, little bit up there is a street is there you know. There, and that you know, they stopped there. And then that you know, and all other, village people, village children, &quot ; Yoko, you go, you go because you coming from that Tokyo. You could speak to them.&quot ; So I said, &quot ; No, not me. And that those animals, can&#039 ; t talk.&quot ; You know, but anyway, is that they pushing me, so well, I just went up and then that you know, &quot ; Hello.&quot ; No hello, &quot ; Konnichiwa&quot ; That I said you know. And then that you know, they&#039 ; re giving us chewing gum and chocolate! Oh my goodness, that chocolate, was so good! Tastes good! And then that the next time when we hear the &quot ; pak, pak, pak&quot ; (sounds of the horses) the you know horse coming, everybody gonna go &quot ; Wah!&quot ; &quot ; Chocolate!&quot ; So you know, in the beginning, the, they are scared because it&#039 ; s that government telling us that you know, &quot ; If you see the American, run away. They going to that, rape you. They gonna, that you know, they are animals!&quot ; You know, that, that kind of things, you, you know, so it&#039 ; s scared. But oh my goodness, that is the one experience, I had a good experience with American. You know, and then that you know, is that, married that Amer--. That, my, I, I didn&#039 ; t have too much, I am not too much that you know, who&#039 ; s who, what country. I didn&#039 ; t have too much of that, what they call the things, that the differen-, difference? Speaker 1: Prejudice? Yoko Doi: No. I didn&#039 ; t have too much prejudi- prejudice because I was prejudiced. I was that, you know? Because from Tokyo to, went to the countryside, I had a hard time there that you know. &quot ; Oh, Tokyo people. You Tokyo people.&quot ; Because it&#039 ; s that the countryside, Tokyo people is stuck up, and then these kind of things you know? And, that, ebatteru and kind of, they&#039 ; re talking about you. So I had that kind of prejudiced kind of things. It&#039 ; s, same Japanese but the things. So I didn&#039 ; t have that you know. So I didn&#039 ; t too much that you know problem, but I know my uncle, uncle, auntie got the problem. &quot ; Oh&quot ; , when that, we, taking to the Mikio to that you know, that, &quot ; Oh, he&#039 ; s not blue eye.&quot ; (laughs) I said, &quot ; He is Japanese!&quot ; But they thought he&#039 ; s, he got that you know, that he came from America and blue eye and then that you know the hair is you know... So, but everybody okay, yeah. Yeah, I didn&#039 ; t have that too much problem you know. Only things is, I am out from Japan and all my friend is in Japan you know? That is you know, the, the things. Anna Takada: When, when you heard about what happened to Japanese Americans in the U.S. during the war, what were your reactions to, to learning about their wartime experience? Yoko Doi: Um, one t- oh, yeah. It&#039 ; s that you know, is that government had that you know 20,000, they paid it. Remember? It&#039 ; s at that time-- Anna Takada: Redress. Yoko Doi: Yeah. Just before that one, is, they are talking about the things. It happened to have that you know, all the auntie and the uncle is came to our house to that have the dinner. Mikio told me, &quot ; Yoko, shut up. Don&#039 ; t open your mouth. Cannot open any mouth in, in this meeting.&quot ; You know, the, no- not meeting, the dinner, if they start talking you know? I said, &quot ; Okay, I&#039 ; m not going to say anything.&quot ; (laughs) Yeah. It&#039 ; s that, you know... Is, to me, is that you know that 20000 is 20000. It&#039 ; s okay, you know I, that doesn&#039 ; t matter. You know, but that you know, most likely is that, they, they, they start talking is that 20000 is not enough. And then that you know, 20000 give us that too late. Because, that is, I agree, too late that government give the... Because the people who really, really fight people, and then that you know all the son is die, died in, in the war, and that the parents, the, they&#039 ; re old, and then that you know they didn&#039 ; t have that nobody to support. And those people had no money, and then that you know, they are suffering to die. That I agree, is government, if they going to give that 20000, little bit more before that one you know. And then that, but it&#039 ; s that you know, more likely is officially government say, you know, &quot ; I am so sorry. We did wrong things.&quot ; And more publicly, or you should put it in that you know history book, to you know, government did something like that. I thought that that is more important than the 20000. That I, I want to say it, but I didn&#039 ; t say it. Yeah so you know is that, I know is my husband knows I am, you know is, my view is that you know is... Okay, anyway, it&#039 ; s a war. And in any place, war is suffering people is there, a lot of people. Mostly children, is suffer a lot. You know, so that&#039 ; s my base. You know, so 20000 and this kind of things you know, I, it&#039 ; s okay. It&#039 ; s that you know, government did it, you know, things like that you know. But, but to that you know, most likely when I heard that you know 442 more likely concentration camp, you know is that the 442, how they did it, and 100 battalion. That&#039 ; s more likely. When I heard the news, I mean that story, I am crying. I am-- They did a really, really good job. That&#039 ; s, I want to talk about it you know? Yeah... So but before that one, can I go to that you know, atomic bomb? Go back to the atomic bomb? Anna Takada: Sure. Yeah. And we can wrap up with some of the, the last stories that you want to be sure to, to record? Yoko Doi: Do 442, right? Anna Takada: Yeah. Speaker 1: We&#039 ; re gettin&#039 ; late on time, so make the stories a little shorter. Yoko Doi: A little shorter? Okay. That, that, grand- that, my grandpa, Yuji-san you know is the get out from the Mexico they went back to the... And he is really the m-man. And then that, he, in the village he was the only... Most likely everybody went to the w-war, you know young people, so nobody else is there. And then that you know the atomic bomb dropped is that, August 2nd, in Hiroshima, I think, in eight o&#039 ; clock in the morning. So it means is that everybody went to the work. And, some people is that you know, not some people, most of the people, village people, his village is that you know most likely from our house is more likely is the Rogers Park to that you know downtown. That, that much that you know away from that you know that their house. And when atomic bomb was dropped, that grandpa&#039 ; s house is that you know, the, the glass was broken &quot ; crrrrr&quot ; . And &quot ; Oh, this is something, something funny. And something happen.&quot ; And everybody is so scared. And nobody came home. So in the mo- next morning. And everybody come to the grandpa. &quot ; Grandpa pleas--&quot ; no not grandpa. &quot ; Yuji-san, please go to that you know...&quot ; So he didn&#039 ; t have that actually you know when the pika don. That, right? He never got it. But is that atomic that you know, atomic things is still ... Anna Takada: Radiation. Yoko Doi: Ah, radiation, still there. So you know, he went in there. You know, that&#039 ; s why that you know he is with the lung cancer, he died. But that, when he, he, he told me, &quot ; I don&#039 ; t know why, but I have to take this.&quot ; That you know, usually it&#039 ; s the cow or a horse carry- you know, holding the... What they call that in the hold... niguruma. Speaker 1: Like a wagon. Yoko Doi: Wagon, kind of. Big wagon, like you know. And he, he said he didn&#039 ; t know why he need that one, but he took that one with... And then that long time, long distance. He walked with that one to an inn. And then he said that you know, he said, &quot ; When I went into that town--&quot ; he said he saw the hell. He saw the hell. Oh, it&#039 ; s... &quot ; War is bad.&quot ; That&#039 ; s he thought. Because it&#039 ; s you know August, so hot. You know, Hiroshima is hot, hot. And then that you know everybody burned. And then, everybody wear the short, short right? And then that you know, the skin, falling down from here, and then that because of the nail, the skin is falling down, dropping like this. And then everybody wants the water. And you know, that the people who didn&#039 ; t die, they, they, konishite, &quot ; Water. Water.&quot ; They, he, they could, somebody move, they could tell somebody move, I don&#039 ; t, &quot ; Water. Water.&quot ; And that hand, you know hanging down? He said, &quot ; Oh, my goodness. I could still, I could see it.&quot ; And then that&#039 ; s really, really sad. And that&#039 ; s grandpa actually look at it. But that you know museum is there. Is that, when I married, is that, married, and then three years later, my husband send me, send me to that Japan to you know to look at that mother. She was three years old. And then that, we went to see that grandpa, grandma, too you know and-- No, grandma. Grandpa already died. So grandma. And then that, his that great-grandma. So we went to see that you know that-- And the uncle was there. So the uncle took us to that you know museum. And then that you know, just to look at the museum, and this. Because he&#039 ; s only three years old. And you know she&#039 ; s... And then, last year-- oh no 2014, we wen-- we went again to the Japan you know, and then we, we visited Hiroshima you know? Then, and I took her to that you know, because I, I thought that he didn&#039 ; t remember any-- she didn&#039 ; t remember anything. So you know she took the library... I mean that, the museum you know? And the entrance, we, I tried to get in, and she just stood. You know? She just freezed. And she said, &quot ; Mom, are you going to there?&quot ; I said, &quot ; Yeah. Don&#039 ; t you want to see it, and how that you know the atomic bomb affect it?&quot ; She said, &quot ; Well, I don&#039 ; t know.&quot ; And I said, &quot ; What do you mean, I don&#039 ; t know?&quot ; And she said she feels something inside, is not good place to go in to see. And all that picture, she said she don&#039 ; t like to see. And, and when I walk up, upstairs you know... And at the time, was that some places that closed, though huh? Speaker 1: Mhmm. Yoko Doi: So we didn&#039 ; t see everything. But that, when I go, goes up the stairway, and then there, and the big picture is-- &quot ; Yeah, this picture I remember ma. I remember.&quot ; Three years old and she went... So that much is affecting the people to see this kinda... You know? And that picture is really good picture. All the, I mean that you know drawing nice. And you know, all the other things, and the children&#039 ; s you know wearing, that the, the water. We always carrying the water. You know, that water. And the little that metal, that you know, the bottle, that cracking, and you know, all those one is in the museum. And then he, she say, &quot ; I don&#039 ; t want to see. I don&#039 ; t want see.&quot ; So we cut off the day, cut off the time, and we get out from there. She, she, that much is three years old, she affected. That much is that you know, war and Hiroshima no the atomic bomb is bad. You know, and my uncle, talking about a uncle, uncle is that, she is saying, &quot ; Another one minute if I go faster, and I am that you know really is that atomic bomb, that, that pika was in me.&quot ; But he was at Hiroshima Station. He goes, he we- he worked at you know that, Hiroshima City that you know? And when that pika don happened, he, he was still inside the station, so he didn&#039 ; t have that directly, he didn&#039 ; t got the things. So people who had this kind of you know the thing, the burn, and this kind of things, is directly got hit, the you know, the things, and then that you know the burning. And so it&#039 ; s really actually the meat you could... Oh yeah, and then grandpa said, &quot ; Meat, meat is there, and then that there is already that worm.&quot ; Worm? Worm? You know the fly had that- Speaker 1: Oh, like um... Anna Takada: Like maggots? Speaker 1: Yes, yes. Yoko Doi: Yeah, yeah. It&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s already moving around here. You know, that kind of things you know? And, but is that, still my uncle had that you know some affected, to that you know that radiation. So good story is... Good story, it&#039 ; s a bad story. But anyway. He had appendix. And the that you know oh, doctor say... It&#039 ; s countryside, so you know that, only one, one doctor. And then that this doctor say, &quot ; Oh yeah, appendix is not that much bad. I have to go see this that you know, emergency. So okay, tonight you gonna stay home, and then that you know, tomorrow morning you come.&quot ; And tomorrow morning his, the appendix is busted out. Then the doctor didn&#039 ; t know what&#039 ; s going on. And, because he said it&#039 ; s nothing! And then that you know so he send him to that you know that big that university that hospital. And then they, they say because of the atomic, the radiation is that those things is that you know progress fast. And that he busted out. And about two, three months, I think, he had a problem with it. But he, he did, at the time, they thought in Hiroshima, they never have that green plant, and they never have that good children, everybody gonna born is that you know some kind that you know affecting radiation you know. Oh, no. But that you know good things is that, I really thankful, is not too many people affected with radiation. He has about five or six that, three boys and two girls. No, two girl-- three girls, two boys. The five children, everybody so, you know healthy, and they got a good job, and they still living there you know. So, it&#039 ; s then the next following year is that the green came in. And oh that time was that so, &quot ; Green came in! Buds come into that tree!&quot ; All that you know Japan is so much that you know happy about it you know? That &quot ; Hiroshima is alive! Hiroshima is alive!&quot ; You know, yeah, that&#039 ; s the kind of things is that you know sad story is that atomic bomb. So now going to the 442. Speaker 1: Okay. And you have to be fast, mom. Yeah? Yoko Doi: Okay, 442 is that you know is that, two, Doi family had two 442. It&#039 ; s, it, and one is that he died last year. He was 91, he died. It, he was actually, he was that you know the, that France? France. And he, they rescued that you know Texas one. He was in there. And then that you know I am so you know nois-- nosy. I&#039 ; m not nosy, but I wanted to hear all this story. I wanted to you know, what happening and that they saw. Whenever I meet this uncle, &quot ; How was that in the war? How was this?&quot ; He never, ever talk about the war. And then that you know he didn&#039 ; t say anything. But he died last year, right? The year before, two years before, at Las Vegas. We meet at Las Vegas all the time, because it&#039 ; s that the 442 reunion had at Las Vegas, so you know whenever we going to see that you know, when we go Las Vegas we could see the uncle. And then at the Doi family reunion it&#039 ; s there you know. And then that you know it&#039 ; s that the buffet time, and the reunion, and the, you know, th-this uncle started talking. And everybody, &quot ; What is he saying? What is, what is he talking about?&quot ; He talking about that you know, this experience. And, &quot ; What he saying?&quot ; And everybody so quiet and listening. And then he said, happen to have, I&#039 ; m sitting down there, he&#039 ; s sitting in the corner, I&#039 ; m sitting down here, my husband is here, so I could hear everything, what is he saying. And he said, &quot ; I am so sh-coward. I was coward. That&#039 ; s why I live. Everybody died. I, I live right now. And I am so shamed living right now.&quot ; That he said. That I wanted to share. All the people there cannot say anything. &quot ; Oh, you are not shamed. You are not the coward.&quot ; That is so easy to say! How much he suffered. Was that the, and my friend, his best friend among that you know, that, that group, that battalion. He guard that friend that best friend he guard, he died next to him. &quot ; Yoko-san, I didn&#039 ; t know what to say to him. He, that he needed...&quot ; But, the war is there, fight right? So he cannot take care. So he put the all the, you know that the blanket and everything, and he wrap it up, and he took the dog tag out, because I don&#039 ; t want that you know the enemy to take his body, and enemy to know he is who is he. So he took that dog tag, and then he went to the fight you know? &quot ; But I didn&#039 ; t fight. I maybe I will hiding with that you know ditch. That&#039 ; s why that I didn&#039 ; t die. That&#039 ; s why I&#039 ; m telling, telling you guys I am coward. I am shamed to live right now. If it&#039 ; s really I&#039 ; m fight, I died, like my you know friend.&quot ; Oh my goodness. I didn&#039 ; t know what to say, uncle, is that all his life, you know 20 something he was in that fighting, 90, 80 something you know before he died, couple years before, how many years he was living like that? But he, he said that you know after the war, the that fight finish, and then coming back, and he had that you know... They have that service every Sunday, he said. And happened to have that this person he knows, so he went to service, and that is Christian, Christian (bokushi-san) pastor, he was that you know, Reverend is that you know. So he had it. And then that you know, and then that, he had a service there with him. And he, he talking to him some-something like that his feeling you know? Then he came to the Chicago, because we are in the Chicag-, that you know that, Isamu-san, and all the family is in Chicago, so he came back to the Chicago. And happened to have that pastor was in that, opened a church in Chicago, so he attending the church, and that helped me, but that you know I, I just cannot think I am really coward, and I am really you know shamed to live right now. That&#039 ; s, you know. I- But is that, those, and 100 battalion, how they started 100 battalion. Right? They want to show that Japanese is really, that you know, we are honored Americans. That&#039 ; s, they are started that you know that Inoue-san and all those right? 100 battalion. And it followed that 442, right? So I, I worked at some that you know lawyer&#039 ; s office and then that, Americ-- Japanese lawyer came, and I worked to him you know. And this Japanese lawyer is a really good lawyer. And then that, he say, you know Doi-san, is that you know is that, &quot ; We could live here. As, a-- You know, I could live here um, makenaide, with all other, you know that other American lawyer. I could fight with them, that you know together. I, I, I, I&#039 ; m, I didn&#039 ; t lose. I am really you know fighting with this American lawyers you know? Because of that, it&#039 ; s that all those Nisei people, how they fight. Japanese is that really loyal. It&#039 ; s good, you know, that spirit.&quot ; That, you know he said it. &quot ; That&#039 ; s why we could do the business here. In Japa-- In Japanese is that more, is, in a way, it&#039 ; s Japanese people respecting, respected from that American people, I think you know. That&#039 ; s because of them. That&#039 ; s you know 100 battalion, 442, all those people.&quot ; He said, &quot ; Doi-san, we cannot forget them. We cannot forget them.&quot ; Then, I read, I saw that Grandpa had the interview, and Grandpa said... Grandpa didn&#039 ; t go to that you know oversea, but he went to the Florida to training. You know? Speaker 1: The U.S. army. Yoko Doi: Yeah. So he is that volunteer to go there. So he a spirit, too. You know so that&#039 ; s why he said it. That you know, interviewer asking, that you know, &quot ; What else you wanted to say to your children?&quot ; And he said, &quot ; Honor the America. We are live in America, so love the America.&quot ; That&#039 ; s you know his grandpa, you know my husband&#039 ; s father said. When I heard that one, I got, &quot ; Ohhh!&quot ; I&#039 ; m so happy you know that the Doi family is the two, 442, you know and then that you know that Grandpa&#039 ; s those spirit is that have to be that, love the America, honor the America, and then that you know we applaud to American, that we should keep that you know thinking about it. You know, and all of those 442 is the, the uncle. Oh, I&#039 ; m so sad for the, when uncle say something like that. Yeah, I can, we can&#039 ; t say anything. We cannot comfort him or nothing you know? Yeah, so that&#039 ; s my ending. I wanted to end this, the 442, and it&#039 ; s really, really and I am proud Doi family to serve that you know, two people serve that 442. And the second one is still he&#039 ; s living in Georgia, 92 years old. And, but he, he was that released, released that battalion of this battalion, it you know that fighting with that you know, but he fight with that Italy, the, you know the mountaintop that you know Germany was- Speaker 1: Monte Cassino. Yoko Doi: Huh? Speaker 1: Monte Cassino. Yoko Doi: Okay. There is he fight with there. You know, yeah. So the-- he had another story there is that you know how he fight you know that&#039 ; s you know. But yeah, he talkative person, so his talking is, that you know &quot ; Okay, okay. I could you know that listen.&quot ; You know? His, his name is Mike Doi, is that I, I am so sad. That, how many people live? Right? And, how many people coming back from the fight? How many people? I bet a lot of people thinking like that, shame, living the shame, you know all the friend died or something like that you know? Anna Takada: Well, thank you so much for, for sharing all of that. Yoko Doi: I got the paper. Anna Takada: Before we wrap up, I actually do want to pose the same question to you that was asked in that video that you&#039 ; re talking about. When you, when you think about your family, your children, maybe grandchildren, and generations to come, what is your hope for them? Or what, what would you like to, to pass along to- Yoko Doi: You know what, Anna? If you&#039 ; re asking me something like that, I am Christian, okay? So you know all the family, children, carry that you know Christian that faith. And actually in Bible, Roman 5, that they saying is that you honor that you know your country. So whatever the country is that you know made a you know law, you have to follow that, country is America. So you know is that, Bible say is that really what Grandpa say you know? It&#039 ; s a good things you know so... Anyway, if you asking me that question like that, I, I know I, I have to ask that my children to that you know faith have that Jesus Christ as the lord. That&#039 ; s important for me. Anna Takada: Thank you so much, again, for coming in and speaking with me. Yoko Doi: Okay. (smiles) Copyright held by the Japanese American Service Committee, Chicago, Illinois. video Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from the Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center. 0 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=DoiYoko20171021.xml DoiYoko20171021.xml http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/collections/show/1 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/items/browse?tags=Series%3A+Then+They+Came+for+Me Sort Priority 0800 OHMS Object https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=DoiYoko20171021.xml Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Doi, Yoko (10/21/2017) Description An account of the resource Yoko Doi was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1935. The oldest of four children, she recalls an early childhood spent close to Tokyo Bay, rising patriotism in Japan, and harrowing wartime experiences of family and friends. Rather than being evacuated to a temple in Nagano prefecture with other children, Yoko was taken to her grandmother's home in Hokkaido during the war. Meanwhile, her family endured the fire bombing of Tokyo before escaping to live with her paternal relatives in Yamagata prefecture. After the war, Yoko was reunited with her family in Yamagata where she completed high school before attending a Christian university in Tokyo. After being introduced by her landlord, Yoko and her future husband Mikio exchanged letters for three years before he traveled to Japan to propose marriage. Mikio was a nisei who resettled in Chicago after his incarceration at Gila River. Yoko recounts many stories from both her family and her husband's family, including wartime experiences in Japan and in the United States. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-10-21 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video ISHRAB Series: Then They Came for Me https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/4fade97eeade8024136a2b1c003770a7.png abeb54be79ee9f99056d341785bd9157 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Japanese Americans--History. Description An account of the resource This collection contains oral history interviews from the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) Legacy Center's holdings. Where available, transcriptions have been included and synced to the recordings to enable full-text searching. Interviews were recorded at various times, some by JASC staff and some by external partners, often supported by grant funding. See the metadata associated with each interview for full details. This digital collection will continue to grow as new interviews are recorded, and as additional pre-existing recordings are received by donation or discovered in the physical archives. The digitization and transcription of many of the recordings in this collection, the recording of interviews between July 2018 and June 2021, and the creation of this publicly accessible digital platform, were funded by a Japanese American Confinements Sites (JACS) grant awarded by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The JASC Legacy Center gratefully acknowledges the financial support received between 2018 and 2021 that enabled this project to succeed. --- This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity National Park Service 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Lincoln, Emma Saito Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Fujii, Sono Fujii, Midori Interview Keyword Chicago Shimpo Santa Anita Heart Mountain Doshisha University San Jose, CA Redress Fujii, Ryoichi Hyde Park Postwar housing OHMS Object Text 5.4 6/9/2021 Fujii, Sono and Midori (6/9/2021) 1:37:11 JASC_OHP JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection OHP Oral History Project Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center Recorded, transcribed, and made accessible online with financial support from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program and the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. Chicago Shimpo Santa Anita Heart Mountain Doshisha University San Jose, CA Redress Fujii, Ryoichi Hyde Park Postwar housing Fujii, Sono Fujii, Midori Lincoln, Emma Saito video 1:|25(11)|47(13)|58(11)|87(3)|99(6)|111(8)|124(3)|143(9)|153(13)|163(1)|175(6)|187(15)|210(2)|225(2)|234(12)|246(10)|260(1)|275(5)|293(4)|305(13)|321(9)|345(5)|378(5)|398(3)|414(10)|428(7)|448(6)|460(12)|468(14)|486(8)|502(3)|513(10)|534(14)|551(11)|561(14)|573(10)|592(10)|608(7)|623(12)|633(1)|666(4)|681(2)|693(8)|706(12)|732(9)|748(6)|769(11)|783(6)|803(10)|814(12)|827(8)|837(2)|865(7)|876(1)|894(2)|907(8)|929(15)|956(15)|967(10)|978(14)|995(2)|1016(9)|1032(5)|1043(18)|1054(2)|1067(9)|1080(1)|1095(3)|1117(10)|1130(6)|1145(13)|1165(15)|1185(2)|1200(4)|1224(8)|1247(11)|1272(9)|1289(16)|1306(5)|1323(4)|1343(3)|1359(15)|1374(13)|1381(6)|1391(13)|1409(11)|1423(4)|1437(7)|1462(10)|1474(4)|1481(3)|1492(10)|1507(1)|1516(11)|1524(1)|1535(7) 0 https://vimeo.com/582590267/6aecedb9b4 Vimeo video &lt ; iframe src=&quot ; https://player.vimeo.com/video/582590267?h=6aecedb9b4&quot ; width=&quot ; 640&quot ; height=&quot ; 360&quot ; frameborder=&quot ; 0&quot ; allow=&quot ; autoplay ; fullscreen ; picture-in-picture&quot ; allowfullscreen&gt ; &lt ; /iframe&gt ; Sisters Sono and Midori &quot ; Dori&quot ; Fujii were born and raised in Chicago in the 1950s and 60s. Their father was born in Gifu, Japan and their mother, a nisei, was born in San Jose, California. In this interview, they discuss their mother's experiences growing up in the Japanese American community in San Jose, their father's early life in Japan, and their family members' experiences of incarceration and resettlement in Chicago. Their mother was in college at San Jose State University prior to her incarceration at Santa Anita and then Heart Mountain, where she met Sono and Midori’s father, Ryoichi Fujii. The youngest of five children in a family that suffered financially after the death of his father, Ryoichi Fujii had a difficult childhood, taught himself English while apprenticing in a textile business, was accepted to Doshisha University, and eventually moved to the United States to study theology at Oberlin College. At Heart Mountain, he taught American history and government classes to other incarcerees. Following the war, he founded the Chicago Shimpo newspaper while Sono and Dori's mother worked in a number of roles, including as a social worker and a therapist. In sharing the experiences of their family, Sono and Midori want to ensure that younger generations understand the importance of this history and not let it be forgotten. They express that understanding this history is crucial as context for present-day social and political issues. Emma Saito Lincoln: Today is June 9th, 2021 and this oral history is being recorded at the Japanese American Service Committee Building at 4427 North Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois. The interviewer is Emma Saito Lincoln and the interviewees are Sono and Midori Fujii. This interview is being recorded by the JASC Legacy Center in order to document the experiences of Japanese Americans in the Chicago area. To get us started, could you please each state your full name and your year of birth? Sono Fujii: Sono Christie Fujii, 1951. Midori Fujii: Midori Fujii, 1950. Emma Saito Lincoln: And where were you born? Sono Fujii: Chicago. Midori Fujii: Both of us in Chicago. Emma Saito Lincoln: And is that also where you grew up? Midori Fujii: Yeah. Sono Fujii: Yes. Emma Saito Lincoln: And where were your parents born and raised? Sono Fujii: Our father was born in Gifu, Japan in 1950. And our mother was, I mean, sorry, 1905. 1905, and our mother was born in 1920 in San Jose, California. Emma Saito Lincoln: And could you tell me first, a little bit about your mother&#039 ; s family? Could you tell me where your maternal grandparents were born? Sono Fujii: Maternal grandparents... Japan. Emma Saito Lincoln: And do you know when they came to the US? Midori Fujii: So, my grand, my maternal grandfather came here in the early 1900s right? He must have come in like 1910 or so? And our grandmother came in 1918, 1917, &#039 ; 18. Emma Saito Lincoln: So initially, your grandfather came alone. Midori Fujii: Yes. Mhm. Emma Saito Lincoln: And then was he already married and he called his wife over? Midori Fujii: No, he was not, but the marriage was through a family connection. Sono Fujii: It was an arranged marriage, but it was not a picture book marriage. Emma Saito Lincoln: Do you know what it was that motivated your grandfather to immigrate? Sono Fujii: We don&#039 ; t know a lot about his family. Um, I suppose we could ask? We have one surviving aunt and one surviving uncle, but we, I don&#039 ; t know that much. Midori Fujii: He came here, he was a businessman, which was in some ways, unusual at that time, so he came to the U.S. And then he was an insurance salesman in the Japanese American community in San Jose. Our grandmother was university-educated, very unusual at that time. She went to Doshisha. Right? Sono Fujii: I don&#039 ; t think she went to Doshisha. Midori Fujii: Where did she go? Sono Fujii: She went to a women&#039 ; s college. Midori Fujii: Where did she go? Okay. Sono Fujii: There&#039 ; s, I think that&#039 ; s in her... Midori Fujii: We should look in Issei Women it&#039 ; s in that. Sono Fujii: Yeah. It&#039 ; s in Issei Women or it&#039 ; s in that book about the San Jose pioneers. I&#039 ; ve been working on a family chronology and didn&#039 ; t bring it with me. Emma Saito Lincoln: That&#039 ; s perfectly alright. So in any case, she was, she was university educated-- Midori Fujii: She was. Sono Fujii: Yes. Emma Saito Lincoln: --which was extremely unusual. Sono Fujii: And she was Christian. Her father had been with the Japanese railroads and they were in, she spent some part of her childhood in Korea, with, working on the railroads, Japanese railroad built in Korea. I don&#039 ; t know much about that history, I&#039 ; m not sure it&#039 ; s a good history, but I know she was there and she remembers the cold. Emma Saito Lincoln: So, let&#039 ; s fast forward a little bit, and would you be able to tell me a little bit about your mother&#039 ; s childhood in California? Do you know much about what that experience was like for her? Midori Fujii: I think we know a fair amount, just anecdotally. So she grew up, she was one of eight children, seven surviving, and the kids spanned an 18-year period. They lived next door to, what were the Okagakis to them? Sono Fujii: Mr. Okagaki was her uncle and he knew Mr. Kimura, our grandfather. He knew Mr. Kimura. I think they were somehow both involved with the Japanese newspaper in town? I&#039 ; ve seen connection-- I&#039 ; ve, I&#039 ; ve seen that they were both involved... I didn&#039 ; t necessarily put it together, but they may... Anyway, my grandmother was one of three sisters and I don&#039 ; t know how it happened, but she was the one who came to the United States and married Toshio Kimura. And they lived together. Midori Fujii: So, the Okagakis and the Kimuras live next door to each other. I mean, literally, like no fence. Sono Fujii: There was, there was these big, there was this big house, these two big houses, and the kids sort of ran back and forth. And even when-- they sort of paired off by age. Midori Fujii: So there were, so the, there were nine Okagakis-- kids, so there were like, in all, like what, 16 kids in this like big extended family? I think the other thing that&#039 ; s notable at that time is that there were laws against Asians owning property, correct? And I know that for our grandparents, and I&#039 ; m assuming for the Okagakis, too, and one of the people in town signed, an American white, Caucasian citizen, signed the deeds so that the, the property was in his name and not in our grandparents&#039 ; name. And then when my mom and her older brother-- her younger brother became of age, because they were born in the U.S., They were able to transfer title to the house. To their names. Sono Fujii: I think it, I think it went to Mom&#039 ; s name. Midori Fujii: Mom&#039 ; s name first. Sono Fujii: And then when she married and came to Chicago- Midori Fujii: Married, okay. Correct. You&#039 ; re right. Sono Fujii: She transferred it to her older brother, no to her brother and then the n-next oldest sister. Midori Fujii: Right, but it was all of that sort of the land laws were like a big issue and probably one of the things that saved the house during the war when the, when people were evacuated, right? Because the house wasn&#039 ; t in their name. So, it actually probably protected the family in a way that&#039 ; s sort of weird. Emma Saito Lincoln: Do you know, other than living in very close proximity to the Okagaki family, did your mother&#039 ; s family live within a Japanese American community? Sono Fujii: Yes. So, my grandmother, until she died, was very active in the Methodist Church. It&#039 ; s a Japanese American Methodist church that was like two or three blocks. They lived in what is still now Japantown of San Jose. Midori Fujii: Yeah. Geographically, they&#039 ; ve, I don&#039 ; t know, somehow the city has mapped that out and they&#039 ; re in that quadrant. Sono Fujii: Right. But the interesting thing about that, the school boundaries, there was just a little bit of Japantown that was in one school and there was, a majority of Japantown was in another school. And, Mom always said that she went to Jefferson School. She and the Minetas and the Okagakis, so Norm Mineta&#039 ; s, Norman Mineta&#039 ; s family was in that area, and Mr. Mineta was also an insurance salesman. They went to the better school and the other&#039 ; s kids that went to a different part of, different school. It wasn&#039 ; t as good. It was closer to the canneries. So, when we would visit, I remember visiting there in the 1960s, there was still a Del Monte processing plant, where you would hear the whistle blow and there was this big like water tower with the Del Monte sign. Midori Fujii: But I, but I would say what, what is really striking about our mom&#039 ; s childhood and it&#039 ; s and my grandfather, was like quite a... He has, like bo-- I don&#039 ; t know, baskets of family video somewhere? And they had a very like typical American childhood. You know they went to the 4th of July parades, they did picnics, they went to Yosemite, they went to the ocean, my mom, you know my da-- my grandfather made ketchup in the backyard, you know it was kind of, you know a very, you know very American childhood in a lot of ways for the times. And they were also the Japanese that were living in town as opposed to the Japanese that were more doing agricultural work right? Sono Fujii: &#039 ; Cause that was when Santa Clara Valley was like this big fruit and vegetable basket and so there were a lot of truck farmers in, in Santa Clara Valley. Midori Fujii: So I do think that... So the backdrop to everything that happened later, in terms of the evacuation was, I mean, it was striking. So this was not a family that was like... You know, they observed Japanese custom and some holidays, but it was a very American family. My, like my mom and her siblings took piano lessons. They you know, did their school song. And, my aunt and my grandmother could still... n- my aunt and my mom would like sing their like junior high school song, you know so it was like really pretty a normal, typical American childhood and I don&#039 ; t think it ever occurred to my mom or to her dad that anything like the evacuation could happen, um and it just, not. Although Japantown was Japantown right? It was still pretty segregated. And as I think Sono alluded to, in, she mentioned it in the write up. When my mother&#039 ; s brother, who was I think older than her or just a hair younger- Sono Fujii: No he was, he was, she was the first born, he was born... Midori Fujii: --was born, he died within a very few days of his birth. My, our grandfather couldn&#039 ; t bury him in the regular communit-- in the regular cemetery and needed to find a plot for him way at the edge of the cemetery in town because he was not permitted, I guess. I don&#039 ; t know exactly what the law was, but... Sono Fujii: And I, right, right, but there&#039 ; s a, now there&#039 ; s a Japanese section. Midori Fujii: Yeah, in that cemetery. Sono Fujii: --in that cemetery and that&#039 ; s where the rest of the family is buried. That&#039 ; s where all the Okagakis and the Kimuras are buried, but Megumi is still way out. Midori Fujii: Way out by the fence. Sono Fujii: Way out by the... Midori Fujii: Literally, I&#039 ; m serious, by the highway. Sono Fujii: --by the highway. And actually my mom, when she died, she asked that some of her ashes be buried with him &#039 ; cause she didn&#039 ; t like him being there all by himself. Emma Saito Lincoln: So other than what you&#039 ; ve already mentioned about the restrictions on property ownership and cemetery segregation, are you aware of other ways in which your mother&#039 ; s family felt discriminated against during that time? Sono Fujii: I mean... Midori Fujii: Not directly, I think... You know, after all, so my mom was like, she was like, how old, 21 when the war started, right? In 1941. So she was the oldest of her siblings and she was in college. Sono Fujii: She was at San Jose State. Midori Fujii: She doesn&#039 ; t really talk a lot about the racism that no doubt was present right? And some of the political stuff, in terms of the economic kind of like biases and practices that were trying to marginalize the Japanese community, in particular. You know, and I&#039 ; m sure that everybody was aware of the, the alien laws then and the fact that her parents couldn&#039 ; t be citizens, but I don&#039 ; t know that that was like a front and present issue. Do you get a sense of it? Sono Fujii: I think it, I think it showed up in... I&#039 ; m not, I don&#039 ; t think it was like in your face all the time but I remember, I think I must have been in high school, I asked my mom if she went to her prom and she said no. And she said that one of the-- she&#039 ; d overheard a conversation between some of the Caucasian kids that one of the Nisei boys was taking another Nisei girl and the comment was, &quot ; Yeah, she&#039 ; s his girlfriend,&quot ; and it was sort of like this sort of idea that she-- you could only ask another Nisei to prom. Midori Fujii: Yeah, I think that probably was really clear. You didn&#039 ; t cross racial lines like that. That was probably, I think, the more... Sort of the, those norms then, were probably... Sono Fujii: And I also, I don&#039 ; t know about how many friends she had. We don&#039 ; t know how many friends she had or if she had friends in the Caucasian community because the families, were so... There were so many kids. Like the Okagakis were, Mr. and Mrs. Okagaki were a little bit older than my grandparents and they had, some of their older children were maybe seven or eight years older than my mother, who was the oldest. But like my mom was paired up with someone, she was paired up with Ellen and Eddie and Janet were paired up. Midori Fujii: You know so when the families would go, I mean they, when they would go, like that those pairs, but when they would go on a like a family trip, obviously you don&#039 ; t take 16 kids. Or even if you could, they&#039 ; re not all the same age. But they, those cohorts, like five or six of them would pile in the car and go with our grandfather, so some of the Okagakis, some of my mom&#039 ; s. So, but they like, so Mom and Guyo and Ellen and those guys would always do something together. So, it&#039 ; s like a, a really close cousinship right? Sono Fujii: Right. I mean, even though they weren&#039 ; t, I mean technically... Our grandmother was cousins to the Okagaki kids but generationally, I mean, she was aligned with her aunt and uncle. But I think that also, my mom said it made my grandmother&#039 ; s life challenging because she had to be obedient to her husband, her aunt, and her uncle. Midori Fujii: So yeah, maybe one of the things, to add is that she&#039 ; s 15 years younger than our grandfather and that wasn&#039 ; t that uncommon then, and that&#039 ; s the age difference between our parents. Emma Saito Lincoln: So your grandmother was 15 years younger than your grandfather, and then your mother also was 15 years younger than your father. Midori Fujii: Correct. Emma Saito Lincoln: And so I&#039 ; m getting the sense that you&#039 ; re not quite sure how much social interaction or friendship your mother had outside of that large familial unit because there were so many children. Midori Fujii: Yeah you know what? I think the thing that it, the way I would say is notable by its absence is their conversation about relationships outside of that cohort or pictures of people outside. Sono Fujii: But we don&#039 ; t have a, we don&#039 ; t have a lot of pictures of their growing up? Midori Fujii: Well, there&#039 ; s, Juni has a lot. They did in San Jose. There&#039 ; s a lot of albums there. And then there&#039 ; s a lot of like photography, like video, whatever you call it, motion picture right on those, on those slides, and the big reels, but those are all of family and Japanese holidays and the 4th of July. And I think one of the things that my mom talked a lot about was building floats for the 4th of July, &#039 ; cause it&#039 ; s California right, and you can just put flowers and everything on them, and so that was kind of a big deal. Emma Saito Lincoln: So let&#039 ; s fast forward a little bit. You mentioned that your mother was in college when Pearl Harbor happened, and... Midori Fujii: Wasn&#039 ; t she at San Jose State? Sono Fujii: She was at San Jose State. I actually just saw this last night in the materials that you brought over. There was her transcript from, I don&#039 ; t know it was from San Jose State... It said that she was enrolled in the spring semester at San Jose State in 1942 and she withdrew on May 27th, 1942, but she was granted like 10 and one quarter credit hours for the work that she&#039 ; d completed. And it&#039 ; s like, &quot ; Yeah, that&#039 ; s when she was shipped off to Santa Anita.&quot ; Midori Fujii: Well, of note they, where they sent the transcript was to her father in Heart Mountain. That&#039 ; s the mailing address on the transcript. Sono Fujii: The mailing, it says that your guardian and it gives his name and his barrack address and that just like, that&#039 ; s just like... devastating. Emma Saito Lincoln: What year was she in school? Was she quite close to graduating at that point? Sono Fujii: She went to ... What&#039 ; s the other thing we saw, I saw last night? She went to NYU. She was, she had attended school at NYU and I think this was stuff that she asked for when she applied to go to graduate school in the early 1960s, so she&#039 ; s got these transcripts. You know-- Midori Fujii: So she left camp, I think, to go to, to NYU. You could leave, right? You could leave Heart Mountain if you had a place to go that wasn&#039 ; t in the Western command. So I think she went first, I think she went to NY-- to New York, and then she went to Cleveland and worked for the American Friends Service Committee. I think that&#039 ; s the sequence, right? Sono Fujii: I&#039 ; m not sure. I haven&#039 ; t gotten that far, but there&#039 ; s- Midori Fujii: Something like that. Sono Fujii: But there&#039 ; s, but yeah, I was surprised to see that she&#039 ; d gone to NYU. I was like, &quot ; I didn&#039 ; t know that.&quot ; Midori Fujii: Not for long. Sono Fujii: But like maybe, but she definitely left from... And she left camp before Daddy did. She left before he did, which surprised me to read that. But I think he was doing work with the WRA in camp. Midori Fujii: Correct. And I think she graduated from San Jose State. Sono Fujii: Yes. Her diploma is from San Jose State. Emma Saito Lincoln: Okay. So maybe the credits that she received after leaving camp were applied toward her degree at San Jose. Sono Fujii: Right, they transferred. Emma Saito Lincoln: So let&#039 ; s back up a little bit then, to, to Pearl Harbor. And you mentioned Santa Anita and then Heart Mountain. Did her whole family go together? Sono Fujii: Yes. Midori Fujii: Yes. Emma Saito Lincoln: And the Okagaki family, also? Sono Fujii: No. One of the Okaga--Two of the Okagakis, so... Henry was the oldest Okagaki son. He had already, I think he&#039 ; d married and he was a doctor? He was not there. He did not get evacuated. Midori Fujii: Who? Sono Fujii: Henry. Midori Fujii: Henry? Sono Fujii: Henry and Martha. Midori Fujii: Yeah, he was in Wisconsin and somebody else was in Denver. Sono Fujii: That was Guyo , Guyo married Larry Tajiri, who was the... Midori Fujii: Rocky Mountain Shinbun, right? Sono Fujii: No, I thought the Pacific Citizen. Midori Fujii: Pacific. Okay. Sono Fujii: Pacific Citizen. And they, they were in either Salt Lake City or in Denver and I think, I think I have a memory of when they were being transported from Santa Anita to Heart Mountain. They may have seen Guyo and Larry like at the train station or something. Midori Fujii: So the only reas-- every, all the younger Okagakis were, went to Heart Mountain. It was only the, the people that were old enough not to be in San Jose when this happened. Sono Fujii: Right. Midori Fujii: Yeah. Emma Saito Lincoln: Okay. I&#039 ; d like to pick up the thread on incarceration in a little bit. But first, I&#039 ; d, I&#039 ; d like to talk about your father and his story and how he came to the U.S. So, let&#039 ; s start with, what could you tell me about your father&#039 ; s family in Japan? Midori Fujii: You want me to do that? Sono Fujii: You can, sure. Midori Fujii: So our dad was one of five children, and the only boy. Sono Fujii: And the youngest. Midori Fujii: The youngest of five and the only boy. He was born, his dad, he was what, 15 months or two years or something like that when his dad died, leaving a lot of debt. Sono Fujii: Yeah his, his dad had co-signed for debt for some of his workers. His dad owned a... My father described it as a transportation company, but really, it was like a rickshaw company, where you know people... It wasn&#039 ; t a taxi. It was a human taxi. Midori Fujii: So, I think one of the things that&#039 ; s really notable is my, our dad almost never talked about his childhood. It was only when we were like in college, even. And I finally said to my dad, &quot ; You just have to talk to us a little bit. We don&#039 ; t know anything.&quot ; And I think we knew a little from our mom. His childhood was, was extremely difficult. They were extremely poor. So the things that we knew about my dad were like anecdotal. Like, he had malnutrition illnesses when he was a kid. And so we knew he had beriberi, but you know because you&#039 ; re a kid, you&#039 ; re like, okay whatever. Sono Fujii: --said he had tapeworms. Midori Fujii: He had, yeah, parasites, a lot of different things. And we knew, and then as we got older, we knew that some, several of his sisters had died before they really reached adulthood. And so he really didn&#039 ; t talk a lot about some of that history because it was, I think, so difficult. And it, so he was apprenticed... In Japan at that time, public school was only free until, I guess you were in- Sono Fujii: Sixth grade. Like sixth grade. Midori Fujii: Middle school, sixth grade, something like that. And my dad writes in his, in the little letter that, in some of the correspondence that he wrote to us, that, you know he was a bright kid and he was respected in his class. But when he was in sixth grade, he couldn&#039 ; t go forward because he had-- Sono Fujii: His mother couldn&#039 ; t afford to send-- Midori Fujii: His mom couldn&#039 ; t afford to send him. So she apprenticed him to a silk merchant. And I think that was like, he writes about that as being deeply upsetting and feeling, I think very left behind. Sono Fujii: And, and very angry. Midori Fujii: Yeah. So, don&#039 ; t know a lot about those years except that he studied and went-- He didn&#039 ; t go to school, but he studied English and he studied whatever he needed to study to pass the college entrance exams. Sono Fujii: Right so... So I&#039 ; ve found- Midori Fujii: That part you found. Sono Fujii: That part I found. He was apprenticed to a silk merchant in Kyoto in what I think is the Nishijin district, which is known for its weaving. And it was very, very hard work. And he was expected to work like six days a week until 10 o&#039 ; clock at night. And so he became, I don&#039 ; t know how, but he somehow connected with the local Christian Church there and learned that Doshisha University would accept people if you didn&#039 ; t have, you didn&#039 ; t have to have a middle school and high school education diploma to get into, into Doshisha but you needed to learn English. You needed to know English. And so because he had to work until 10 o&#039 ; clock at night, he couldn&#039 ; t, he couldn&#039 ; t go to night school. So he took correspondence classes to learn English. And he told the owner of the store that he was doing this to, to improve the business prospects for the store. I mean he&#039 ; s... So that he could get the owner to support him doing this. But he talks about studying at night with his kimono over his head so that he wouldn&#039 ; t disturb the other apprentices and the other people. And I think he came to understand that there wasn&#039 ; t a lot of future there because it was probably very tightly controlled. I don&#039 ; t know if there was a system of guilds or apprenticeships or... But there wasn&#039 ; t a lot of opportunity. He said you could stay in the same position for years and years and-- Midori Fujii: There wasn&#039 ; t that mobility in Japan in general at that time. Sono Fujii: Right. So he, for him to have gone to, to university was, it took an incredible amount of discipline. Midori Fujii: It also crossed a line with his mother because she&#039 ; s, was a devout Buddhist. And he is now, Christianity was sort of the, sort of path to education at that time in some ways. So, and I think he was just interested in it. Sono Fujii: Right. But she was a very, she was a very devout Buddhist. Midori Fujii: Mm-hmm, absolutely. Sono Fujii: I mean, to the extent of when, when my dad was younger, the French Air Force was helping the Japanese develop their air force. And he got very interested and he would go and he would watch. And I actually did a little research on this and there was like a, an airbase nearby and there still is an airbase, I think near Gifu. And I think his grades slipped. And his mother said to him, &quot ; How can I face your father in paradise?&quot ; It&#039 ; s like, oh. Midori Fujii: Just don&#039 ; t have anything on Catholic guilt huh? Sono Fujii: Just like Catholic guilt, Jewish guilt. Midori Fujii: Buddhist guilt. There you go. Sono Fujii: Buddhist guilt. Emma Saito Lincoln: So it sounds like through sheer determination and discipline, your father as a self-taught man was accepted into Doshisha University. And what did he study there? Do you know? Sono Fujii: It was a Christian Protestant school. That was, I mean, it had a lot of connections with American universities. I mean, I think you were mentioning Amherst and-- Midori Fujii: And Oberlin. Sono Fujii: And Oberlin. And he... He, he did... You were talking about the, the conflict with his mom about going to... This conversion to Christianity. And she, she went and talked to her priest and he, he gave it his blessing. And so his mom was okay with it because I think he said he&#039 ; s, he&#039 ; s you know advancing his education and you know it&#039 ; s to make him a better person. So he came to the United States in-- Midori Fujii: Well, I think there&#039 ; s like, there&#039 ; s another piece in there. So then he was in, he had to do a, what a, I guess what we would call an internship now. And he worked in some of these very extremely impoverished communities in Japan. Sono Fujii: That was the Nishijin Weavers. Midori Fujii: Was that where he worked in that community as a minister? Sono Fujii: Yeah. Midori Fujii: Okay. Sono Fujii: Yeah. Midori Fujii: But he said, so this is in one of his letters, that he became really disillusioned with the church. That, that the church really didn&#039 ; t have the answers of like, you know in the life hereafter. And you just have to like- Sono Fujii: You have to suffer. Midori Fujii: You have to suffer. Sono Fujii: And then you get your reward when you die. Midori Fujii: And he just thought that that was like, that the church had nothing to offer the people who he was trying to minister to. And I think that was one of the reasons he came to the U.S. He thought that by coming to, to the theology school and working on his master&#039 ; s degree in theology, that he would find some answers. So then he did come to the U.S. I think in 1931, Oberlin had an exchange program. I think they still do with some of the, the Japanese universities. I don&#039 ; t know if it&#039 ; s, the Shansi program is there now. I don&#039 ; t know if he was part of that or what it was. But he came to Oberlin and eventually earned his master&#039 ; s degree in divini-- in theology. But never became ordained because in part, he decided that in fact the church, even though he had a master&#039 ; s and was working on a theology degree also did not have a great deal to offer people who were... he was pretty disi--, I think pretty disillusioned. I don&#039 ; t know whether that&#039 ; s the word. Not a fan of that. So he stepped away. Emma Saito Lincoln: So he comes to the, he comes to the U.S., he gets his master&#039 ; s in theology, and then he steps away from, from the church. Where was he living when Pearl Harbor happened? Sono Fujii: So, so there&#039 ; s like from 1934 to 1941 we&#039 ; re talking about. So he&#039 ; s in Oberlin in 1934, and at that time he&#039 ; d already become very, very opposed to the rise of militarism in Japan. And apparently there were a lot of heated discussion groups at Oberlin among some of the Japanese students there. Midori Fujii: Because the Manchurian invasion was in like the-- Sono Fujii: There was Manchurian, the Mukden bridge incident. And I mean, he writes about how he, he had intended, his plan was to return to Japan even though he didn&#039 ; t like what was going on there. But he had to make money to earn his return fare. And so he had worked in New York at restaurants in the summers and he went back to New York and was working there. Midori Fujii: So, so the thing that&#039 ; s... The other thing that sort of fits in here is that he didn&#039 ; t come to the United States as Ryoichi Fujii, right? He came here as Katsu Asano. And I don&#039 ; t know exactly when he, when in that period, but it would&#039 ; ve been in that period. Sono Fujii: Right. Midori Fujii: He decided to change his name and overstay his student visa. Sono Fujii: He also joined the American Communist Party. Midori Fujii: Right. Sono Fujii: Because it was the only-- Midori Fujii: Vocal group? Sono Fujii: Vocal group against Japanese militarism. And I also think that you know his experiences in Japan with the workers, the weavers, really sort of led him more to, more sympathetic to that than unbridled capitalism. So, he&#039 ; s in the American Communist Party in New York, and then he gets to Los Angeles. Midori Fujii: God knows how, right? Sono Fujii: I don&#039 ; t know how. I mean, I&#039 ; m still piecing that together. And I, and he becomes involved with the party there as well. And I&#039 ; m not exactly sure what he&#039 ; s doing there. Is he working in a restaurant? Is he working in Japantown? Where is he living? I don&#039 ; t know. But anyway, he&#039 ; s in Los Angeles when Pearl Harbor happens and he&#039 ; s sent to Santa Anita. Emma Saito Lincoln: So your mother&#039 ; s family and your father all ended up in Santa Anita. Sono Fujii: Right. And that&#039 ; s where they met. Midori Fujii: Actually, I think our dad met our grandmother first. Sono Fujii: Right. Midori Fujii: Because he was teaching American history classes? Sono Fujii: American history, American government. And he, he felt that it was important-- He always, I mean because he was opposed to militarism, he always felt that America was a better solution, was you know, the answer. And he wanted the Issei to understand more about America, American history, and American government. And so he started teaching these classes. But, and this what&#039 ; s so interesting, we still have his books from that era and- Midori Fujii: Books he purchased. Sono Fujii: Books he purchased on American history and on American government. And, and some of them, I mean we, I can tell by the copyright date, the publication date that they would&#039 ; ve been you know pre-war or during that time. And some of them even have his name and his barrack address from like Heart Mountain or Santa Anita. So that makes me happy to know that this would&#039 ; ve been one of his sources. And years later, Henri Mom, Mrs. Okagaki, the kids, she was called Henri Mom for Henry&#039 ; s mom told me that when she was in camp, she would go to my dad&#039 ; s lectures. And she said, &quot ; And we called him sensei.&quot ; It&#039 ; s like, okay. Midori Fujii: So the books are books on Lincoln, Jeffersonian democracy, Thomas Payne. What are the other ones in there at that period? The Federalist Papers. Just a bunch of like really you know classic sort of American history kind of. Emma Saito Lincoln: And he was teaching these classes both at Santa Anita and at- Midori Fujii: At Heart Mountain. Sono Fujii: Right. Midori Fujii: Yeah. Primarily to the Issei. Sono Fujii: Yeah, to the Issei. Emma Saito Lincoln: Now your mother and father met at Santa Anita. Did they kind of strike up with each other right away? Midori Fujii: Did they meet at Santa Anita? Sono Fujii: They must have. Midori Fujii: Well, I don&#039 ; t know. I don&#039 ; t know where exactly they met. Sometime during the war through her mom. Sono Fujii: Through her mom or her dad. Midori Fujii: Yeah. And her mom was like not, not a f- said he&#039 ; s too much older. I think partly because that&#039 ; s her experience. But they liked him. I mean, he was like respectable enough. Sono Fujii: And he was, he was not that much younger than she was. Midori Fujii: Who? Sono Fujii: Daddy was-- Daddy. I mean, Daddy was born in 1905. Grandma was born in like, 19-- 1898, 1897, something like that? So I know that when they wanted to get married, she was a little bit, she was a little concerned because she&#039 ; d been widowed so young and she didn&#039 ; t want that to you know, happen to my mom and have seven kids. Midori Fujii: So I think the other thing in terms of the war, our mom was like devastated by the evacuation and the war. And I think my dad, our dad, not so much. He was like, kind of like, that&#039 ; s what governments do. I don&#039 ; t think he, for a number of reasons, of course, number one, he&#039 ; s not a U.S. citizen. He&#039 ; s not born here. Sono Fujii: He doesn&#039 ; t have family here. Midori Fujii: He doesn&#039 ; t have family here. But also he grew up in, in militaristic Japan, right? Where governments did whatever. And so I don&#039 ; t think, he didn&#039 ; t experience a sense of betrayal that my, our mom and grandfather experienced. It&#039 ; s very different. I mean I think he believed in this country and that kind of thing, but I don&#039 ; t think it undermined him in the same way. I think his, the challenge that he had was not going back to Japan &#039 ; cause he left his mom, her only son, and he never returned. And she died before, you know during the war or shortly thereafter. So you know that sort of, in terms of his history, I would think that&#039 ; s probably the sort of the defining moment is not going back, not taking care of her, not reassuring her. Because he remembers her saying goodbye to him and at the har-- at Yokohama Harbor. And that&#039 ; s like, I think a searing moment for him. And I don&#039 ; t think he, he never recovered from that. Emma Saito Lincoln: Right. Because in the lead up to the war he was in Los Angeles and, and trying to save up money to return to Japan, is... You think? Midori Fujii: Yeah. Sono Fujii: I don&#039 ; t know when he gave up the idea of returning to Japan. I do know that at one point the party asked for his passport and he gave it to them. And I think at that point, that&#039 ; s when he became undocumented, illegal, whatever. And that plus his joining the party were what, was the basis for the, his arrest in 1953. Midori Fujii: So I think he changed his name in LA, right? It wasn&#039 ; t in New York. I don&#039 ; t know. It was one of those like weird things. Like, pick a name and then he picked a name. Didn&#039 ; t seem like it was a real thought through. Right? Sono Fujii: Ryoichi though, I think the name, the name has significance though. It&#039 ; s Ichi is number one. Midori Fujii: Okay. Sono Fujii: So, I&#039 ; m not sure what the kanji are. Midori Fujii: But so he was known as Bob Fujii and I know that was- Sono Fujii: Because I think Ryoichi was just way too hard for Americans to pronounce. Midori Fujii: So like, just call me Bob or Robert or whatever. So it was just one of those, how did that happen? Emma Saito Lincoln: When you were growing up, did you know that your father had changed his name at some point? Sono Fujii: I didn&#039 ; t know until I was in high school. And it was... You&#039 ; d found out earlier. Midori Fujii: I don&#039 ; t think so. Sono Fujii: Mmmmm, I thought you&#039 ; d found out earlier, you&#039 ; d seen some papers or something? Midori Fujii: Yeah, not really. I don&#039 ; t think so. I mean if it was, it&#039 ; s like one of those things that just doesn&#039 ; t register at that age, you&#039 ; re in high school, you just immigration and all that is, it&#039 ; s not front and center in the conversation. But back then, not so much. We knew vaguely kind of about the, the deportation hearings and that kind of thing, but it-- Sono Fujii: I didn&#039 ; t, all I knew was that daddy wasn&#039 ; t working anymore. We were eating a lot of grilled cheese and tomato soup and he was home. Midori Fujii: Right. That&#039 ; s what we knew. Sono Fujii: That&#039 ; s what we knew. Emma Saito Lincoln: And this is after the war? Correct? During your childhood. Sono Fujii: Right. So he&#039 ; s arrested in 1953. And I think it&#039 ; s not until 1956 that the deportation proceedings are finally finished. I mean, they&#039 ; re put behind the, the officer renders his decision and they suspend deportation proceedings. Which is another long story. Midori Fujii: So we&#039 ; ve jumped ahead here. Emma Saito Lincoln: Yeah, let&#039 ; s, let&#039 ; s back up a little bit to when everybody&#039 ; s still in camp. Midori Fujii: Okay. Emma Saito Lincoln: And you mentioned a sense of betrayal that your mother and grandfather felt, and I&#039 ; m wondering if you could expand on that a little bit. What do you know of, of their time in camp and how they felt about it? Sono Fujii: So when they got to, I think this was Heart Mountain. When they got to Heart Mountain, they were a family of nine. So two, two parents, my mother who would&#039 ; ve been 20- Midori Fujii: 22. Sono Fujii: 22, by that time, late, 21, 22. And Yo who would&#039 ; ve been six or seven maybe? Midori Fujii: No, she was born in &#039 ; 37. Sono Fujii: So she would&#039 ; ve been five. In a one bedroom, in a one room. And that just wasn&#039 ; t going to work for my mother. And both, I heard from several, several members of the family that my mom went down and she demanded more space and she got it. I mean, she just wasn&#039 ; t going to put up with it. And she, she got more space for the family. Was still not a lot of space, but my fath- our grandfather had a correspondence with, I think her name was Nancy Cotherine. Midori Fujii: Nancy Cotherine, Nancy Storm? Sono Fujii: He had a correspondence with a friend on the outside. Midori Fujii: Caucasian. Sono Fujii: Caucasian, and I... Midori Fujii: Those, there are a number of letters. Sono Fujii: There are a number of letters which, she gave to my mom and me. She&#039 ; d saved them. And we don&#039 ; t have her side of the correspondence, but we have his correspondence. And she gave it to us in 1972 and we donated it to the Hoover Institute. So that correspondence now is there. Midori Fujii: We might have copies of it here. Sono Fujii: We do, we definitely have copies of it. But he speaks very clearly about his sense of betrayal. And one of his quotes was used in that- Midori Fujii: &quot ; Then they came for...&quot ; Sono Fujii: &quot ; And then they came for me&quot ; , the exhibit that was here. It said, &#039 ; I never thought I&#039 ; d see my children behind barbed wire.&#039 ; And it was like Toshio Kimura. And it was like, &quot ; oh my God&quot ; . And he died. He got his family back and he was dead within a month. Just, killed him. Midori Fujii: So I think that like if I think about our, that family, like the war was devastating. I think that other families have, other people have written about the way in which the, they way in which camp was set up and the, the dining situation and that kind of thing really destroyed the family unit. &#039 ; Cause, and particularly the, the people that would&#039 ; ve been affected by that would&#039 ; ve been our uncles are, who were sort of in that eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 age where they&#039 ; re just old enough to be out and running around. And I think that the boys for probably reasons of that and also some of the prejudice against Asian men, that kind of thing, were really, really impacted by the war in a way that was, I don&#039 ; t think we really understand all that at this point. Sono Fujii: And that, and that their father died. Midori Fujii: And then upon return home, their dad died within a month. So, and so now their mom is like, you know she is a, she&#039 ; s a widow. She&#039 ; s caring for kids, like five kids, right? Or four kids of school age or high school. The older kids would&#039 ; ve been my mom, my, her older, her younger... The oldest three were old enough to be out. But the, the two younger boys and my aunt, particularly, were at home. And they have been, you know they&#039 ; re the ones that came back to the house, and the racism and the prejudice and everything else that occurred, I think, post-war in San Jose and certainly were old enough to have been aware of that right before they were, they were evacuated. You know not old enough to be... I think as like young adults-- my mom was a young adult, more outraged. I think that was my mom&#039 ; s perspective, right? Much more, she was much more angry than she was harmed by that. But I think the younger kids, if you just think about how that, that kids input that at that age, very difficult, and our grand-- I don&#039 ; t know that my grandparents talked that much about it with them. My mom remembers her mother saying on the day they left, &quot ; It&#039 ; s a beautiful day to be leaving home.&quot ; That&#039 ; s all she said. It&#039 ; s like, the place is falling apart and that&#039 ; s sort of that understated you know gaman. Sono Fujii: Yeah, shikata ga nai. Midori Fujii: Yeah, so-- Emma Saito Lincoln: So, that&#039 ; s what she said the day they left their home to go to Santa Anita. Midori Fujii: They left, they left San Jose. That&#039 ; s correct. Sono Fujii: &quot ; It&#039 ; s a beautiful to be taking a journey.&quot ; Midori Fujii: Yeah, so you know that there are things that didn&#039 ; t get processed in the midst of all of that, right? Emma Saito Lincoln: Do you think you saw in your uncles and your aunt the after effects of that, now as, you know as adults, yourselves looking back on what you experienced with them? Midori Fujii: You know, only you can only infer that. Sono Fujii: And, and also you know, we were here. We were in Chicago. They were in, in California. Midori Fujii: But I do think some of-- Sono Fujii: Travel wasn&#039 ; t that easy and certainly we didn&#039 ; t have the money to go to, to California. I mean we saw, there&#039 ; s pictures of mom taking us there when we were like toddlers and then we went in &#039 ; 60 and &#039 ; 63. Midori Fujii: So, I mean I have, I have a real clear opinion about that and I don&#039 ; t feel like, that&#039 ; s personal. That&#039 ; s their story. And I don&#039 ; t feel I can share that, other than to say that I think it profoundly affected them and was negative. The one thing I could say is that my uncle, who never married and was really very private and very much sort of his own person for a long time, he, he had cancer in the end of his life and he finally let some of the wall down. And the, the memories that he has of his childhood and being with his dad are just, you know they&#039 ; re lovely memories. But it&#039 ; s kind of heartbreaking, in the, knowing the entire context of the loss that he experienced and the absolute, I think real absence of acknowledgement of that loss right? Because after the war, everybody comes home and it&#039 ; s a crisis. My grandmother is just trying to survive. And you know he went on to be, I mean he was like stupidly smart. He got a patent for torpedoes or something from UC Berkeley. I mean it&#039 ; s like we went through his stuff after he died and it&#039 ; s like you know he never shared any of it. Sono Fujii: &quot ; Who knew this stuff? Who knew this?&quot ; Midori Fujii: He was just really private about it! Sono Fujii: He has a, he has a patent for anti-roll technology. Midori Fujii: You know it&#039 ; s like all this stuff that, and the family is like, &quot ; Well, who knew?&quot ; Right? But I think it was, you know just, I don&#039 ; t know that people felt like they could speak up in that. I think that there was a lot of that there&#039 ; s just too much else going on to have those conversations. So, but I would say that was, you know, we always thought that that was probably what happened, but that was a kind of a window in. But it really took, he was in his eighties when he did some art therapy and somebody said to him, &quot ; We need to work on this. Like, let&#039 ; s, let&#039 ; s do this so you can be more at peace.&quot ; And, and he was able to do that and yeah it&#039 ; s like, that was a gift for him for sure. Yeah. Emma Saito Lincoln: Let&#039 ; s switch back a little bit to your, to your mother, and also let&#039 ; s shift forward into the postwar resettlement period. You were describing how your, your mother, partly due to what age she was when this all happened, was able to be angry about it in a way that her siblings weren&#039 ; t. And I-- Midori Fujii: Angry and vocal. Emma Saito Lincoln: And vocal. Which plays into how history plays out later, correct? Midori Fujii: Yes. Sono Fujii: Yes. Emma Saito Lincoln: Could we talk a little bit about that and your mother&#039 ; s role in, in the redress movement? Sono Fujii: Um, so this would&#039 ; ve been in the... Midori Fujii: 70s. Sono Fujii: 70s and early 80s. I have to admit, I was not, I was not hooked into what really she was doing. Midori Fujii: I don&#039 ; t know how she got connected with William Hohri and that group, but she was. Sono Fujii: But she was and we know she gave testimony at the commission here in Chicago. Midori Fujii: She worked, she worked pretty hard with NCJAR. She has a lot of, like I would just remember a lot of conversations. But it seemed like, I think one of the things probably should comment on is that for a lot of sansei, they never really heard about the evacuation growing up, of the internm-- any of that. That was not a conversation that happened in their families, not so in our family. Sono Fujii: I mean, we definitely knew about it. Midori Fujii: Yeah. Sono Fujii: I mean, and enough so, enough so that I did a lot of research in, in college and in graduate school on it. Midori Fujii: But even as little kids right? So my mom, our mom was like pretty... I don&#039 ; t know. Whatever you, I don&#039 ; t know what word you would use to describe her. Sono Fujii: Vocal. I mean, she didn&#039 ; t- Midori Fujii: Vocal, yeah but-- Sono Fujii: We knew about it. We knew that they had met there. We knew that her father had died. Because that was the only thing that made her cry. Midori Fujii: Right, I think that was the notable thing, as kids. Sono Fujii: That was the only thing that made her cry. Midori Fujii: But every time she talked about it. And she, so she wasn&#039 ; t like a tearful person. You know that was like, a lot of things could happen and there wasn&#039 ; t, she was dry eyed, but not this. So I think that, and you know, as a kid, you flag that as notable. And also didn&#039 ; t realize that other families weren&#039 ; t talking about this. Sono Fujii: Right. I mean and when we, even within her extended family. So when we went to Heart Mountain in 2015 and some of the, the sansei Okagaki were there. And this was like, this was the first time we really spent time with them, just because you know they were there. They were all... We didn&#039 ; t grow up there. And I remember one of the Okagaki cousins saying that he didn&#039 ; t know anything about the evacuation until he was taking piano lessons with June, our aunt. She, she gave piano lessons in the family parlor and you know I guess the Okagakis got sent over there for piano lessons. And um, she said-- he said to, he said to me, he said, &quot ; That&#039 ; s how I learned about it.&quot ; I said, &quot ; Your parents never talked to you about it?&quot ; He said, &quot ; No, I had not a clue.&quot ; I mean these were, Scott is Craigy&#039 ; s son, right? Midori Fujii: Yeah. He&#039 ; s 60, yeah 65. I think the other thing is, when we grew up, so the Japanese, one of the areas that the Japanese resettled was in Hyde Park. right? And there were, I don&#039 ; t think we understood that, that connection as kids. Like that was really part of Resettlers. I think that piece was just, you know there were other, some Japanese in Hyde Park. Not that many, but a fair amount, a number. And um, so that&#039 ; s the, I think, and my, and our dad worked at the Shimpo then at that time, so... Emma Saito Lincoln: So let&#039 ; s talk a little bit more about your growing up years then. And it, it does sound as though you, much more so than some others of your generation, were exposed to this history. Midori Fujii: We were, but we weren&#039 ; t really an integral part of the Japanese community either, which was really odd. So my mom really had stepped away from that in some ways. I don&#039 ; t really understand all of that. Our dad was involved in it, obviously because he was working at the Shimpo. And what-- Sono Fujii: Since there were financial costs for that. Midori Fujii: Yeah, for sure. But he would, you know he was involved with the Japanese community and the faith community more, not as a minister. But, but really was, you know we weren&#039 ; t like sort of an integral part of that. I think one of the things, some of the, our classmates and I, I&#039 ; ve talked with them a little bit about it as like we&#039 ; ve gotten older and they said, &quot ; Oh yeah, we went to Cub Scouts with all the other sansei.&quot ; And I&#039 ; m like, &quot ; Really? You did that? I didn&#039 ; t know that was going on.&quot ; Well obviously- Sono Fujii: Well we wouldn&#039 ; t have gone to Cub Scouts. Midori Fujii: We wouldn&#039 ; t have gone to Cub Scouts. Sono Fujii: There weren&#039 ; t, but there weren&#039 ; t-- we were not aware of nisei or sansei-based social organizations. There was not, as far as we knew, a, a nisei church. Although there obviously were. I think, you know my-- Midori Fujii: We went to the picnics, we went to natsu matsuri. Sono Fujii: We went to those. Midori Fujii: For sure. Yeah. Sono Fujii: And then I also think that there was a, there was a real concerted effort. I mean when you read the, the history, I mean there were, when people left the camps, they were instructed not to be clannish. Not to be... Midori Fujii: To assimilate. Sono Fujii: They were told to assimilate and not to stick with their own kind and they should, they should stay away from... You know like, we didn&#039 ; t-- There were no Japanese language schools here. We weren&#039 ; t taught Japanese. Japanese was spoken if my parents didn&#039 ; t want us to understand. Midori Fujii: There were Japanese schools, but not around us I think. Sono Fujii: I mean maybe there was more so on the north side? But we certainly... And I think that was like a source of friction in their marriage, too. My parents&#039 ; marriage. That he was so involved in the Japanese community and not making a ton of money with the paper. My mom had to go back to work and I think at one point they had to take a, they had to ask one of her brothers for a loan, which I-- Midori Fujii: I think, so the other thing, you know, I guess there are a number of things. One is that because of just their background, we grew... Hyde Park is Hyde Park in Chicago and it&#039 ; s a pretty activist community. So I remember growing up and being real involved, my parents being fairly involved in the civil rights movement and being aware of what was going on in terms of the Chicago school boycotts and that kind of thing. The other thing is that, I had thought this to be the case and then we just read through some of my dad&#039 ; s correspondence, and I think it&#039 ; s fair to say that his, that the paper was his ministry in, in this way, that he, when he was in camp, he really, there was a big move to try and encourage people to leave, to say, &quot ; You don&#039 ; t have to stay here.&quot ; But my dad felt like, people can&#039 ; t come to Chicago without knowing anything. And so he was part of the Resettlers, and I think he was also part of like... he said, &quot ; But a community needs some way of communicating, and, and a paper is, you know, that&#039 ; s the way to do that.&quot ; And so I do think that, so one of his correspondence with somebody that was one of his witnesses for the deportation does allu-- does say that directly. You&#039 ; re working in your community is, that is your ministry. You have done your work, it&#039 ; s just been in a different way than you were originally planning. And I do, I do think that that was really very true. I also think that my dad&#039 ; s sense of where he came from, in terms of, and the guilt he carried for leaving Japan and not going back. His, he did say one time something like, &quot ; I don&#039 ; t ever want to be too comfortable.&quot ; Like, the idea of becoming materially sort of settled. I think that that was really, he was very conflicted about that. My mom wasn&#039 ; t. Our mom wasn&#039 ; t. She grew up in a... she was as Sono said, we&#039 ; re not wealthy but an established family. They had a house. They had some ownership. Sono Fujii: They had a car, yes. Midori Fujii: A car. You know those kinds of things. And so, but after the war, my dad had never had that. They came to Chicago, and I remember we, we lived in a, would&#039 ; ve been kind of what we would call now, like well it was not really quite a one bedroom apartment. It was like a kitchen, dining room, living room altogether and then a little room off the side and a bathroom down the hall. So they didn&#039 ; t.. When we were very young, just, just even bathing and that kind of thing, I mean if you&#039 ; re a kid, you&#039 ; re in the kitchen sink. If you&#039 ; re my mom, you&#039 ; re down the hall. And that was like, I don&#039 ; t think that it bothered my dad in the same way. Right? I mean why would it? He was a single man, then he went to camp. My mom grew-- our mom grew up in a house, and camp was like an outrage to her. But then, you know and then she came to Chicago and married and she&#039 ; s now going down the hall to have to go to the bathroom and have a congregate situation. They moved eventually, like not short after that, to a, a house with, that had a bathroom and a, a full bathroom within the house. But, for us that was not a big deal. But I&#039 ; m sure for her, can&#039 ; t imagine. Sono Fujii: Right they, they, they I mean, part of it was that the post-war housing shortage, right So a lot of these big apartments were split into multiple units. But I think the first two places we lived in were, were apartments that had been split. You know, and it wasn&#039 ; t until 1960- Midori Fujii: &#039 ; 60. Sono Fujii: &#039 ; 60 or so that they had their own bedroom. I mean they slept on the sleeper sofa in the living room and we had the bedroom. And I mean I remember like when it was, when it would be raining and there would be big thunder, you and I would like try to go out there and crawl underneath the sleeper sofa &#039 ; cause we were scared. And she would say, &quot ; Go back to your room.&quot ; Midori Fujii: Right, under the view that if lightning strikes it strikes you first, I guess. (laughs) Sono Fujii: But I mean I also think it was, it was also a sense of, you know, it was a privacy issue. You know? Midori Fujii: Yeah, I think they just, right, it was also like you know pull yourself, it was that like American metho-- thing about kids need to like, sleep in their own beds, that whole mentality, too. It probably was a privacy thing but... Emma Saito Lincoln: What would you say are some of the values that your parents tried to instill in you? Sono Fujii: Honesty, hard work. Midori Fujii: I don&#039 ; t even think it was like talked about. Right? I don&#039 ; t think. I don&#039 ; t really- Sono Fujii: There was nothing, there was nothing, I mean, we didn&#039 ; t go to church. We weren&#039 ; t-- Midori Fujii: Well, we went to church eventually under our own steam, but... Sono Fujii: Right, but we didn&#039 ; t grow up in a congregation where you were told to be a good Christian. Midori Fujii: It&#039 ; s like my daughter said to me one time, she goes, &quot ; We didn&#039 ; t have rules growing up.&quot ; And I said, &quot ; What are you talking about?&quot ; And I said, &quot ; What about share, be kind, you know be honest, like work hard?&quot ; Sono Fujii: I think it was modeled. Midori Fujii: Yeah, and she was like, &quot ; Oh, those rules.&quot ; And I&#039 ; m like, &quot ; Yeah.&quot ; She goes, &quot ; Well, you didn&#039 ; t punish us. We just would never not do that.&quot ; And that&#039 ; s pretty much how I think we grew up. It was like, I think that&#039 ; s in the, I don&#039 ; t know. I mean, I don&#039 ; t remember really being told that. Other than, I think the other thing was like, I think through stories and understanding other people&#039 ; s sacrifice and knowing the family history, there, you know it was kind of a little bit more like, don&#039 ; t put your needs first. Like, think about other people. Think about somebody else&#039 ; s perspective. Don&#039 ; t, and it was never said, don&#039 ; t be selfish. It was, don&#039 ; t ask for something that&#039 ; s going to make somebody else feel bad because they can&#039 ; t give it to you. You know that&#039 ; s certainly a, for me, like a very big thing. Like if you, if we asked our parents for something and they couldn&#039 ; t give it. Like, it only takes once or twice as a kid for you to look at that and say, &quot ; Not going to do that.&quot ; Because they weren&#039 ; t mean about it. They were hurt by it and you just don&#039 ; t go there anymore. And we knew that things were not easy. Sono Fujii: But I don&#039 ; t think we, I don&#039 ; t think we understood how financially challenged or strapped they were. Midori Fujii: No. Sono Fujii: Because we didn&#039 ; t, because that&#039 ; s just what you know. I mean so, I mean I didn&#039 ; t realize until we had, my mother would make a stir fry of hot dogs and cabbage and rice and she made another dish with kidney beans and bacon and celery and-- Midori Fujii: I think that must be camp food or something. But it was like- Sono Fujii: And she would serve it over rice. I mean, I hate kidney beans to this day. Midori Fujii: Yeah, but it was like-- Sono Fujii: But it wasn&#039 ; t, it wasn&#039 ; t until I grew up and realized that, yeah, this is, this is low income food. This is, you know we did not have, I mean, roast beef was rare. We never had roast beef. We had chicken. And of course you couldn&#039 ; t get fish those days. I mean, you could get the blocks of frozen perch filets, but I mean we-- Midori Fujii: Right, I mean, those were the days when stores were only open until 6:00 and not on the weekends right? So that&#039 ; s the other issue. Sono Fujii: Right, I mean the butcher shop, the butcher closed at 6:00 or 5:00, you know. So we-- Midori Fujii: No but I&#039 ; m, it didn&#039 ; t feel like a, a tortured, difficult childhood in that-- Sono Fujii: Yeah, I didn&#039 ; t feel poor. Midori Fujii: Right. Sono Fujii: We had clothes. We shopped at the budget floor at Field&#039 ; s, but I didn&#039 ; t know what budget floor meant. I mean we just, that&#039 ; s where we bought our clothes. Emma Saito Lincoln: Do you, do you think people realize, people in the Japanese community, Japanese American community today, who think about the Chicago Shimpo and, and know of your father&#039 ; s role at the newspaper, do you think they realize that all those years that he was doing this incredibly important work that it wasn&#039 ; t financially lucrative? Sono Fujii: I don&#039 ; t think anybody thought of it that way? And I don&#039 ; t think that the Japanese American community was a, was a wealthy community. Midori Fujii: Yeah, I don&#039 ; t... Sono Fujii: I mean I don&#039 ; t know what the parents did. You know, like I mean I go, one of the, the, so there were a number of families in our neighborhood where the kids were like our age, and there was one family that lived in our building, and I know he was an auto mechanic. But I don&#039 ; t know what the other families, you know like what Fred&#039 ; s or Iris&#039 ; s or David&#039 ; s families or Fred, I don&#039 ; t know what their parents did. I mean, they&#039 ; re, they&#039 ; re parents. Midori Fujii: Yeah, I don&#039 ; t, I think that, as Sono said, I don&#039 ; t think the Japanese community was an affluent community. There were a lot of you know people that were owning a store. It seemed like a very hard working community, in general, right? If you think about Toguri&#039 ; s or any of the ministers that were there. These were not... Sono Fujii: Franklins. Midori Fujii: There were a lot of people that were just serving the community. There was a lot of, sort of that was my sense is a community of mutual support and service and not a lot of affluence. And also I think a lot of the nisei returned to the West Coast as they hit retirement age. I mean the Japanese community in Chicago is like, it&#039 ; s a shrinking community. You know, the issei died and the nisei left. Sono Fujii: Or they, you know they went to the suburbs. Midori Fujii: Yeah, but a lot of them returned to the West Coast. I think that&#039 ; s right, isn&#039 ; t it? Yeah. Emma Saito Lincoln: When you were young and your father was working for the paper, did you tag along? Midori Fujii: Some. Sono Fujii: I don&#039 ; t remember going to the paper a lot. I mean, I remember working there a couple of summers. I can&#039 ; t, was I in like high school? Midori Fujii: So part of the thing was, the paper moved from the, near our house to the north side, so our dad commuted from Hyde Park to where it was like right by Wrigley Field. Sono Fujii: 3744 North Clark. Midori Fujii: North Clark. Right? And so that&#039 ; s a pretty big hike just to like, if you&#039 ; re just going for a field trip, you just don&#039 ; t do that with your kids if you don&#039 ; t have to. Sono Fujii: Right. Midori Fujii: So, I think you did that in high school for work. Sono Fujii: Right, we didn&#039 ; t, we didn&#039 ; t have a car, so my dad would have to take the, the Garfield bus to the, to Garfield Train Station and then catch the B train to Addison and then walk from Addison to the, I mean that&#039 ; s why he was a Cubs fan. Midori Fujii: So it was like a, it&#039 ; s a long commute. Right? So, and he just did that and it was like, mmm, nobody thought anything of it. It&#039 ; s just, go to work, come home. It was like that was it. Emma Saito Lincoln: When you worked there in the summers, what kind of work did you do? Sono Fujii: Basically, I addressed the papers. So I would go, the paper came out what, every two weeks? Midori Fujii: Mmm not originally it was... Sono Fujii: Well, by that time. Midori Fujii: Yeah, I don&#039 ; t know. Sono Fujii: Anyway, I would to have put the, they had these, it was a address, it was a labeling address machine and you would just put the papers through it and the address would come out. But it wasn&#039 ; t you know... Midori Fujii: I think the thing that I remember the most about it is our dad looking for a typesetter. And had like, and he would talk about this one guy that was just so fast and what it was like to be able to find somebody. &#039 ; Cause if you look at what it, it&#039 ; s like, like it&#039 ; s, I mean you ca-- unimaginable to think about setting individual characters and type, like just mind numbing, but that&#039 ; s what they did! And um, Sono Fujii: They had um... Midori Fujii: We didn&#039 ; t have Xerox machines, so if my dad wanted to copy something, he typed it or transcribed it by hand. And it&#039 ; s like, Sono Fujii: And it was all in Japanese. Midori Fujii: Well no. And, but some, like some of the books I, I&#039 ; ve went, I&#039 ; ve gone through some of his stuff and a chapter from a book that he thought was worth keeping, he had typed it out and I&#039 ; m like, God. Sono Fujii: Right. Midori Fujii: But he wanted to keep it so he did. Sono Fujii: Right, and he had special printed paper. So the, the newspaper, I mean you know Japanese is written from right to left, and the columns were horizontal columns, and there was a pre-printed like grid kind of paper where he would write his articles. And each little square, he would put a, a character like a kanji or a hiragana, or katakana in there. And, then he would hand that to the typesetter, and the typesetter, had a, he would just pull the different size and put it all by hand. I mean it&#039 ; s just amazing. So, I mean, I don&#039 ; t know if you want, we&#039 ; ve got photos of it. Emma Saito Lincoln: Yes. I think now would be a great time to share those photos. Sono Fujii: So this is a picture of the, of our dad at the... Midori Fujii: So these, this is all type here. These like different individual pieces of type. Sono Fujii: There were different, and there are different size fonts and, for the same character. Here&#039 ; s another picture of him. That&#039 ; s-- Emma Saito Lincoln: Do you remember him ever talking about purchasing the type? Sono Fujii: There&#039 ; s actually something about that in one of his letters because he had to... Midori Fujii: He had to rent the type or something. Right? Sono Fujii: There was some controversy as to where he was going to get it from. I don&#039 ; t know. I&#039 ; ll look for that, and if you want I&#039 ; ll send it to you. Emma Saito Lincoln: I&#039 ; m just curious if had to, if that was something they had to order all the way from Japan? Midori Fujii: Curate it was like the short answer is like it wasn&#039 ; t easy, and, and, and purchasing the actual printing machine and moving that was like, a big deal. Sono Fujii: There was, I mean I remember that, when growing up, every now and then some guy would drop off these small but really heavy packages. I mean he was a Caucasian guy and this thing would like weigh a ton. I&#039 ; d say, &quot ; What is in that?&quot ; you know, &quot ; Oh, it&#039 ; s type.&quot ; I mean, how do you get, in the United States, kanji? I have no idea. Emma Saito Lincoln: And how do you find a person with the skill to set that type? Midori Fujii: That is the question. Yeah. I think that these people were from Japan. Sono Fujii: I mean there was this b- and I sho- and I don&#039 ; t have it, but I, I can send you it again. I&#039 ; ve got a picture of this big, huge printing press that was in the back, and it was very noisy. Midori Fujii: Yeah, it looks like something you&#039 ; d see at the Museum of Science and Industry. I mean it&#039 ; s like this giant black machine, like industrial strength. I&#039 ; m like, whoa. Emma Saito Lincoln: What did you think of your father&#039 ; s work when you were young? Sono Fujii: It was what he did. Midori Fujii: Well, I think I would say a couple of things. It&#039 ; s what he did but it was really what he did. Meaning, he&#039 ; d go to work, but then he&#039 ; d come home and he&#039 ; d write and he&#039 ; d read. So he didn&#039 ; t, it wasn&#039 ; t just like he came home and then that was it. I mean he played with us, he was around. I mean it wasn&#039 ; t like he was like an absent dad. And he was like very different from a lot of, well it wasn&#039 ; t issei either, right? But he really did like do the dishes, and he helped, he was, he didn&#039 ; t help around the house, he was like part of taking care of us and taking care of laundry and doing a lot of different things. So, very un-, very sort of non-traditional in terms of Japanese of his generation. Right? Sono Fujii: I mean he didn&#039 ; t, he didn&#039 ; t drive a car. He had no interest in driving a car. He was deaf in one ear, so that would&#039 ; ve been an issue. Midori Fujii: But he, but he would-- Sono Fujii: He was somewhat handy around the house. Midori Fujii: I mean, he would repair things and he could cook, and yeah. But, I think he was really working a lot of the time on the weekends. He was reading, he was writing. I mean really, I think of my dad as a scholar. Don&#039 ; t you? Like as an ac- Like if he were like in another time, he&#039 ; d be an academic. I think that, that he was really always studying and reading and trying to stay up to date. Sono Fujii: Right. Midori Fujii: Enough so that, as Sono said, he did hand write his articles. There were times when he had to wrap his wrist because I think he was getting tendonitis and that kind of thing when he was writing a lot. Sono Fujii: And he also, he also, I remember him going out at night. I remember him going out tonight-- at night and doing what, I mean, I didn&#039 ; t know at the time. He would say, &quot ; I have to go talk to a family.&quot ; And, and I&#039 ; m thinking that it was like family counseling, that there were people who were having problems in their family, and they turned to my dad, and he would go and talk to them. And like, he was doing this even when like I was in college. I mean it wasn&#039 ; t an every day thing, but I just remember him having to go out. And I, I remember when my parents separated that that was kept, I mean he originally was going to, wanted to be very open about it, but he told me that someone said to him, &quot ; If your marriage can&#039 ; t succeed, what hope is there for the rest of us?&quot ; And it was just like, (sigh) so I mean, we never publicized it, but I always had the sense that it was something that we didn&#039 ; t talk openly about. Midori Fujii: Yeah, I di-, I was not aware of it in that way because I think that, the thing that was notable for me is that our parents got along much better once they weren&#039 ; t trying to, sort of, I mean, by then we&#039 ; re, they&#039 ; re... We&#039 ; re also grown, but they were very supportive of each other. I think certainly early in terms of the Resettlers and that kind of thing. And, our mom was ready, if our dad had been deported to go to Japan with him to get settled and then to send for us. It didn&#039 ; t, I think we only learned that indirectly, I think I learned that from my aunt. And then as, when they were both older, they were very supportive of each other, and so I think that always had a sense that family is family. And that was, I think that&#039 ; s a really pretty strong value. Regardless of like their, whatever individual differences they had. So, we had family Christmases, Thanksgivings, that kind of thing after our parents separated. Um... Sono Fujii: There was a, there was a Midori Fujii: It was I think-- Sono Fujii: There was like maybe two years when it was... But I think our mother had a fairly catastrophic... Midori Fujii: She had a car accident and broke her neck actually. Sono Fujii: Car accident, and she broke her neck. I mean this was in 1971 and they&#039 ; d been separated for two years. And my dad and Dori were there like within hours after they found out. My dad was just... devastated by it. I think that really brought them back, brought them together in a way that you know they realized how much they cared for each other in spite of their differences. But, you know, after that we were you know, doing things together and having Christmases together and that kind of stuff again. Emma Saito Lincoln: You mentioned earlier that, that your mother worked? Partly to help ease the financial strain. What kind of work did she do? Midori Fujii: She was a social worker and then she was a therapist. Sono Fujii: She worked at the University of Chicago Libraries for a while too. Midori Fujii: Mhmm. She worked for Public Aid for a while. I think that system just enraged her though, sort of the bias and the &#039 ; no man in the house rule&#039 ; back then. She was disgusted by it, but... And then, and then she went back to school to get a master&#039 ; s degree. Emma Saito Lincoln: And then, and I, I know we, we touched a little bit on redress earlier, but when your mother testified at the CWRIC hearing in Chicago, did you attend? Were you there? Sono Fujii: Mm-mm. Midori Fujii: Mm-mm. I don&#039 ; t even, I just vaguely remember her saying, I&#039 ; m going to go do this. It was like, I&#039 ; m going out to lunch. You know, it was... She&#039 ; d been working on it so hard and, and after a while you just kind of lost track of it. I mean there were... Once in a while she would say, &quot ; Would you read this? or do that, or...&quot ; I think I was a little bit, probably more aware of it than you were at that time. Emma Saito Lincoln: Do you happen to know how she felt about the five minute time limit? Sono Fujii: No. Midori Fujii: No. Sono Fujii: I didn&#039 ; t know there was such a thing. Midori Fujii: Oh yeah, that. Yeah. Emma Saito Lincoln: Have you watched the recording? Midori Fujii: Mm yeah, Catherine got it for us. I had read her testimony, but it&#039 ; s different to see it. Sono Fujii: Yeah. I know, I know my husband has shared it with some of his colleagues and they use it in their classes. At, you know, someone used it when he was teaching up at Lake Forest College. I don&#039 ; t know anymore, but it&#039 ; s out there. Emma Saito Lincoln: How did it feel for you watching? Midori Fujii: To watch it? Oh, that&#039 ; s an interesting, well my, she was much more soft spoken than I remember. I would&#039 ; ve thought, she came after, I forget who it was first, she was ver- a very fiery speaker. But my mom, that was like, it didn&#039 ; t seem not like her, but was much more measured. But she seemed so, relatively in my memory when talking about that, sort of silent but deadly, let&#039 ; s put it that way. Quiet but deadly. My mom could have that ability to do that, so. Emma Saito Lincoln: Do you remember how she felt eventually when the checks were issued and the apology letters were sent out? Or your grandmother, how she felt? Sono Fujii: More about my grandmother. So, my grandmother was one of the named plaintiffs, and there actually was a ceremony in San Jose where the checks were given to some of the older, to the Issei, and my grandmother gave a speech. And the only reason we know so much about it is the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division was John Dunne at the time. And Mr. Dunne had been a partner at the law firm where I worked. And he was in the New York office and I was in the Chicago office. And one of the partners in Chicago knew that he was going to be doing this. And he reached out to Mr. Dunne and told him that my grandmother was going to be there and that you know, I&#039 ; d been working for the law firm for like 20 years. So they had a correspondence and they had an exchange at the, at the ceremony, and that, it was covered in the papers as well. And my grandmother said that the apology was what meant more. She said if they hadn&#039 ; t, if there hadn&#039 ; t been the apology, accepting the money only would&#039 ; ve left her with a funny feeling. She wouldn&#039 ; t have felt right. And I think that&#039 ; s true. I think that the, the apology was what was the most important to them, to the Issei, and to the Japanese community. Because I mean, $20,000 wasn&#039 ; t going to compensate for what happened. Midori Fujii: Yeah, I don&#039 ; t know. I mean, that&#039 ; s a good question. I don&#039 ; t know that my mom felt, our mom felt that much satisfaction. I think she was like, yeah, that&#039 ; s the least that should have been done. Sono Fujii: Right. Midori Fujii: It was the, the bare minimum I don&#039 ; t think she thought... You know &#039 ; cause she was, she really believed in reparations and it, you know it&#039 ; s kind of a negligible amount, and she&#039 ; s pretty clear about that in her testimony so... Emma Saito Lincoln: I think we need to start wrapping up unfortunately, &#039 ; cause I think we could keep talking for quite some time. I think in closing, I&#039 ; d love to know what each of you would like future generations to know about your family&#039 ; s experiences. What would you like them to take away from all of this? Midori Fujii: Well, it&#039 ; s not over. You look at what we&#039 ; re dealing with in this country. It&#039 ; s like you know, all we need to do is look at immigration history. And it&#039 ; s a history of racism and privilege and people being unsure about, clear eyed about what values really matter. So yeah, I mean, the, our current moment couldn&#039 ; t be more clear. I think there&#039 ; s no, there&#039 ; s, it&#039 ; s not a, hopefully not a surprise that the Japanese and the Asi-, the AAIP community and Black Lives Matter, and there&#039 ; s some allyship finally in those communities that I don&#039 ; t think was there previously. So, I guess that&#039 ; s what I have to say. It&#039 ; s like don&#039 ; t get me started. (laughs) Sono Fujii: Yeah, I mean, I think I want our children to know about it and I want our children to understand its importance. We have been to Heart Mountain twice. All of our child- all of my children have been there. Your-- Midori Fujii: One of my two children has been there. Sono Fujii: I want them, I think they understand the importance of it. I think our s- my son moreso. I don&#039 ; t want it to be forgotten. I don&#039 ; t want it to be considered irrelevant. I don&#039 ; t want... To, to move on. Midori Fujii: You know it&#039 ; s understanding origin, or it&#039 ; s like understanding your history, whether it&#039 ; s how this country was founded and, and who was disenfranchised along the way and how communities form and sustain themselves. I mean the J-, you know the Japanese commu- and some of the model minority issues that have sort of divided communities, that&#039 ; s all part of this, I think in terms of... and I think understanding all of that and understanding the pieces of a story, whether it&#039 ; s your own family history, whether it&#039 ; s the nation&#039 ; s history or community&#039 ; s history, like, it you-- in terms of understanding the context of the decisions that we&#039 ; re making today. It isn&#039 ; t just a flash on the news. Right? It&#039 ; s not like this moment in time. There&#039 ; s a whole underpinning to that, and we just need to have a better informed you know voter, I don&#039 ; t know, populace, whatever, I don&#039 ; t know you know, in terms of just understanding. Democracy, is not... You have to work at it. It is not just something that happens at war. People knew what was happening on the West Coast and there were some people that were opposed, but it just went along. Right? And that&#039 ; s, you know, we take so many things for granted that aren&#039 ; t automatic. Emma Saito Lincoln: I think we&#039 ; ll end on that note, what, what democracy takes. Thank you both so much for participating. Sono Fujii: Thank you. Copyright held by the Japanese American Service Committee, Chicago, Illinois. video Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from the Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center. 0 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=FujiiSono_FujiiMidori20210609.xml FujiiSono_FujiiMidori20210609.xml http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/collections/show/1 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/items/browse?tags=Series%3A+Oral+History+Project Alternate Form of Name Fujii, Dori Sort Priority 0900 OHMS Object https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=FujiiSono_FujiiMidori20210609.xml Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Fujii, Sono and Midori (6/9/2021) Description An account of the resource Sisters Sono and Midori "Dori" Fujii were born and raised in Chicago in the 1950s and 60s. Their father was born in Gifu, Japan and their mother, a nisei, was born in San Jose, California. In this interview, they discuss their mother's experiences growing up in the Japanese American community in San Jose, their father's early life in Japan, and their family members' experiences of incarceration and resettlement in Chicago. Their mother was in college at San Jose State University prior to her incarceration at Santa Anita and then Heart Mountain, where she met Sono and Midori’s father, Ryoichi Fujii. The youngest of five children in a family that suffered financially after the death of his father, Ryoichi Fujii had a difficult childhood, taught himself English while apprenticing in a textile business, was accepted to Doshisha University, and eventually moved to the United States to study theology at Oberlin College. At Heart Mountain, he taught American history and government classes to other incarcerees. Following the war, he founded the Chicago Shimpo newspaper while Sono and Dori's mother worked in a number of roles, including as a social worker and a therapist. In sharing the experiences of their family, Sono and Midori want to ensure that younger generations understand the importance of this history and not let it be forgotten. They express that understanding this history is crucial as context for present-day social and political issues. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021-06-09 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video ISHRAB Series: Oral History Project https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/bca833fe0cc283a19b64e132847bd0eb.png d457db2a1871a90e63bcacc9b3a65512 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Japanese Americans--History. Description An account of the resource This collection contains oral history interviews from the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) Legacy Center's holdings. Where available, transcriptions have been included and synced to the recordings to enable full-text searching. Interviews were recorded at various times, some by JASC staff and some by external partners, often supported by grant funding. See the metadata associated with each interview for full details. This digital collection will continue to grow as new interviews are recorded, and as additional pre-existing recordings are received by donation or discovered in the physical archives. The digitization and transcription of many of the recordings in this collection, the recording of interviews between July 2018 and June 2021, and the creation of this publicly accessible digital platform, were funded by a Japanese American Confinements Sites (JACS) grant awarded by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The JASC Legacy Center gratefully acknowledges the financial support received between 2018 and 2021 that enabled this project to succeed. --- This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity National Park Service 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Takada, Anna Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Harano, Ross Interview Keyword Sansei 442nd Regimental Combat Team Military Intelligence Service Fresno Assembly Center Jerome West Side South Side Oakenwald Grammar School Hyde Park High School JACL Junior JACL Navy Pier OHMS Object Text 5.4 3/22/2018 Harano, Ross (3/22/2018) 1:32:25 JASC_US JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection US Untold Stories Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center Recorded, transcribed, and made accessible online with financial support from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program and the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. Sansei 442nd MIS Fresno Assembly Center Jerome West Side South Side Oakenwald Grammar School Hyde Park High School JACL Junior JACL Navy Pier Harano, Ross Takada, Anna video 1:|14(12)|25(8)|34(13)|44(4)|55(3)|67(8)|93(2)|105(7)|114(13)|131(1)|146(13)|155(9)|171(4)|182(5)|193(15)|204(10)|223(14)|239(3)|249(9)|262(12)|277(6)|291(11)|308(13)|325(11)|342(12)|356(9)|365(7)|376(3)|387(7)|397(3)|409(2)|420(8)|429(10)|439(13)|450(16)|462(11)|472(10)|484(6)|492(14)|503(3)|511(11)|524(13)|534(11)|547(8)|558(10)|569(12)|580(2)|594(5)|603(12)|614(7)|627(3)|640(13)|655(2)|668(11)|691(3)|712(12)|724(14)|736(3)|745(3)|756(4)|766(14)|779(2)|791(11)|819(14)|834(1)|848(5)|859(11)|869(11)|879(14)|892(4)|907(3)|915(5)|927(1)|939(1)|950(5)|961(5)|972(13)|984(9)|996(13)|1006(6)|1016(11)|1028(8)|1036(7)|1043(13)|1052(8)|1062(2)|1079(2)|1091(1)|1104(3)|1114(6)|1129(15)|1141(3) 0 https://vimeo.com/274598044/321dd77187 Vimeo video &lt ; iframe src=&quot ; https://player.vimeo.com/video/274598044?h=321dd77187&quot ; width=&quot ; 640&quot ; height=&quot ; 360&quot ; frameborder=&quot ; 0&quot ; allow=&quot ; autoplay ; fullscreen ; picture-in-picture&quot ; allowfullscreen&gt ; &lt ; /iframe&gt ; Ross Harano, a sansei, was born in 1942 at the Fresno Assembly Center in California before being moved with his mother's family to the Jerome incarceration site in Arkansas. His father's family was incarcerated at Poston. Ross shares what he knows of his family's roots in Berkeley, CA and Hanford, CA, the military service of many of his uncles in both the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), and his family's resettlement experience in Illinois. Of particular note are his memories of growing up on the South Side during a time of rapid change in racial demographics and his involvement in the Junior JACL and other civic and community organizations throughout his adult life. Ross emphasizes the importance of individuals knowing and understanding the history of Japanese Americans during World War II, particularly so that we are able to be proactive in our efforts to ensure that nothing similar ever happens again. Anna Takada: This is an interview with Ross Harano as part of the Japanese American Service Committee and Chicago Japanese American Historical Society, oral history project. The interview is being conducted on March 22nd at about 10:45 AM at JASC. Ross Harano is being interviewed by Anna Takada of the Japanese American Service Committee. To start, can you please just state your full name? Ross Harano: Ross Masao Harano. Anna Takada: Okay, and when and where were you born? Ross Harano: I was born September 17th, 1942 in the Fresno Assembly Center in California. Anna Takada: And so since you were, you were born right in the middle of the war, can you tell me a bit about your, your parents, maybe where they were from originally and where they were before Fresno? Ross Harano: My father&#039 ; s family lived in Berkeley. My grandfather was from Fukuoka-ken and came to the United States through Hawaii in 1898. He eventually settled in Berkeley, California. And of course, my grandmother was a picture bride and he went up to Seattle... I&#039 ; m sorry, Portland to get married, ship came in, matched the pictures, and then they got married right then and there. So I have their wedding picture and also their wedding certificate, the same day that she arrived on the ship. And then my mother&#039 ; s family, is from Hiroshima-ken, and they, my grandfather came over in 1898, also through Hawaii, came to the mainland, worked for the Union Pacific and then settled as a sharecropper or a, a farmer in the Fresno area in Hanford, California, just outside of Fresno, both my grandmother on my mother&#039 ; s side, grandma Mayewaki was also a picture bride. During the war when Pearl Harbor hit and evacuation notice came, we evacuated out with my mother&#039 ; s family. My father&#039 ; s family evacuated out from Berkeley and they ended up in Poston. We evacuated out with my mother&#039 ; s family, because her oldest brother was already in the U.S. army. So we evacuated out from Hanford and there went to Fresno Assembly Center. And from there we went to Jerome, Arkansas. I was born in September and we left the assembly center in October to get to Jerome. From Jerome, we stayed there &#039 ; till 1943 and my dad, was able to get a job in Alton, Illinois in a greenhouse. And we stayed there for a year. And then we came to Chicago where he had a job with Bowman Milk. He had some refrigeration background, actually he learned in camp through Harvey Aki, who was a friend of the family in those days. And he was able to get a job at Bowman Milk. So he came to Chicago and ended up living on the west side of Chicago. My mother would tell me that they couldn&#039 ; t get an apartment, any place else because Japanese were not allowed to rent in certain areas. And she could remember going out, looking at apartments and finding out that they couldn&#039 ; t stay there. Some of them wouldn&#039 ; t even interview her. So we lived in basically Humboldt Park, and my mother always talked about that. Anna Takada: Before we get into life in Chicago I do want to ask a couple more things just about the, the war years. So just to, to backtrack a little bit, So your, your family&#039 ; s line of work was... on the West Coast was share cropping you said? Ross Harano: On my, my mother&#039 ; s side-- my father&#039 ; s side, he was a barber in Berkeley on Dwight Way. And my father was one of nine children. So they had a... He was a barber and my grandmother ran a laundry there. So she had nine kids to deliver all the laundry. And they did a lot of the work there. And my grandfather, once again, did barber work, plus a lot of, he was very handy, and did a lot of other things so that plumbing, whatever it needed to be done, he was a very handy man. And then I still remember that we had a family reunion in Berkeley, at the Claremont Hotel many, many years ago. And we had it there, &#039 ; cause my dad said, &quot ; You know, when I was a kid, I used to deliver laundry through the servants, through the back door all the time.&quot ; And he wanted to walk through the front door as someone who rented, who actually stayed there. So we had a big reunion there. We have a family reunion every two years since 1973. Anna Takada: Wow, and I imagine nine, your dad&#039 ; s family had nine kids. You probably have a lot of cousins. Ross Harano: Yes. Some 30 some cousins plus, and my mother&#039 ; s side is one of eight, she&#039 ; s one of eight. On that side, we don&#039 ; t have that many cousins, maybe about a, about a half, a dozen or so. So I have a lot of first cousins. Anna Takada: And do you have any siblings? Ross Harano: Me? Yes. I have three, three kids. They&#039 ; re not kids anymore. My daughter is the oldest and I have two boys. Anna Takada: And how about siblings? Ross Harano: I have one sister. Anna Takada: One sister? Ross Harano: And she lives up in Wisconsin. Anna Takada: Is she older or younger? Ross Harano: Younger, she&#039 ; s my baby sister. Anna Takada: Oh okay. So at the time of the war, when you all went to Fresno, it was just you and your parents when you were born. Ross Harano: Oh, I was born there. Yes. So in World War II, I had seven uncles who served in the army. Four were in the 442 and three were in MIS in, in Japan, along with MacArthur&#039 ; s staff. One of my uncles was wounded at Anzio, my, my mother&#039 ; s younger brother and he was hit by a mortar shell. And he was in the hospital for over a year before he came home. My father&#039 ; s youngest brother, next to the youngest brother was killed rescuing the lost Texas group. So, and then on the MIS side, my uncle, one of my uncles served under MacArthur and was in New Guinea and eventually stayed in Japan to work for the U.S. Army intelligence after the war. Anna Takada: And where, where did your first memories take place? What are you some of your first memories? Ross Harano: My absolute first memory was when I was about three and we had just moved from the West Side. My family, mother&#039 ; s family pooled their resources and bought a house on the south side of Chicago on Oakenwald. And my earliest memory is moving there. And my earliest memory is my grandmother on the back of the truck. When we opened the doors, she was sittin&#039 ; in the back of the truck with all the furniture and everything. And, and I remember that the house was on a corner, on a dead end and that all the, all the lawn, which we eventually made it into, was all filled with wildflowers. That&#039 ; s my earliest recollection. My grandmother had Parkinson&#039 ; s and so she was in a wheelchair since 1939, so... Anna Takada: When you, when you think about that memory, how does, what comes up for you? Like what do you feel when you think about the lawn and just remembering that house? Ross Harano: Well, getting old, I can&#039 ; t remember what I did yesterday, but I remember what I did as a kid. I remember a girl I dated in high school too, all of a sudden, but I grew up as the oldest sansei in the house. My mother was one of four sisters and they all lived with us, and we had like 14 people living in that house. Anna Takada: I&#039 ; m sorry, 14? Ross Harano: 14. My grandma and grandpa had their room. My, my mother&#039 ; s youngest sister had a room. My mother&#039 ; s other sister had a room. We had a room and my mother&#039 ; s other sister had a room. So we had families like crazy in the house. And I remember we&#039 ; d have to eat in shifts almost. And every weekend there seemed to be a poker game going, but it was fun growing up in that household being the only kid I was, my, my next cousin was, is five years younger than I am, four, four and a half years younger than I am. So I was, I was, really had the run of the house and just got spoiled as hell by my aunties. So it was a very happy household for me that I remember and then gradually they all moved back to California. Anna Takada: Your mom&#039 ; s family? Ross Harano: Yes. They all moved back to Cal except my grandparents lived with us until they passed away. So, it was a very happy childhood. I, I had a very happy childhood and our neighborhood was very friendly. We lived on the south side in those days. South side was changing, and we were sort of in between the change, so it was a, but it was a very interesting childhood. Anna Takada: Can you tell me more about how it was changing? Ross Harano: Well, growing up on the south side, Cottage Grove, which is 800 East, was a dividing line and Cottage Grove, because the lake sort of juts out, Cottage Grove is a North and South street. So blacks could not live east of Cottage Grove. And so in 1950, up until 19-, 1954, &#039 ; 53, &#039 ; 54, it was pretty segregated on the south side. And then as the blacks started coming east of Cottage, my neighborhood changed in one summer from white to basically black in one summer. And those days they had what you call block busting, where realtors were able to call up people on the phone and scare the hell out of them. And they could change a neighborhood overnight. And most of my friends were, were, all my friends those days were white, they&#039 ; re primarily German, German background and they all ended up moving down to Oak Lawn, which is nothing but a farmland in those days. So a lot of my friends moved to, moved to Oak Lawn. And if you look at my grammar school pictures, you can see the change was overnight on the South Side. So my friends changed from white to black overnight. Anna Takada: And forgive me for not doing the math in my head, but how old were you then, at that point? Ross Harano: Well, took place in 1953, &#039 ; 54, so I was 12, so that would be seven, eight years old those days, yeah. Anna Takada: And just to clarify, black[block] busting, that were, was it like threats that were made to... or? Ross Harano: Well, it would happen if and South Shore went through the same issues. So what happens is that realtors would come in and they get on the phone. They, they could even make threatening calls on the side, all sorts of crazy things, but they would basically scare the people into moving and that&#039 ; s what they did. And so that&#039 ; s why on the south side, especially in South Shore it changed overnight from Jewish to, to basically middle class blacks and our street was Oakenwald and we didn&#039 ; t have that many apartments on our street. Very few, if any, there&#039 ; s a couple, two flats at the most. So it was basically middle class blacks that moved into our neighborhood. So those were my friends from, from seventh grade on, on the south side. So it was an interesting change for us. We went to Kenwood Ellis church, which was on, it was Ellis Community Church in those days, which was part of the evangelical and reform church Reverand Nishimoto, George Nishimoto was there and it was basically a Japanese American church and it was considered an outreach program by the evangelical church. And then eventually about 1953, &#039 ; 54, it merged with another church on 46th and Greenwood called the Kenwood Church. So it became known as the Kenwood Ellis Church and it was fully integrated. It was basically half Japanese and half black. And, and it was a tremendous experience. We had Mahalia Jackson sing there for one, one night and I was an usher all the time. I loved being a usher because I didn&#039 ; t have to sit through the services. I would usher people in, and go outside. Then I was, got stuck in the choir. I was singing all the time. So I had to stay for the whole service all the time, but it was, it was an interesting time to grow up in the south side. There were very few Japanese left and everybody knew us and we were very well protected. We, we felt very safe there. I know I did, and my sister did too. She graduated from, what happens that we went to Oakenwald Grammar School on 40th and Lake Park. And she was in seventh grade when they changed Oakenwald to a junior high program. So she had to go to another school way down further south, the old Gustavo High School. And she went for almost a year from the north, we had moved up to the north side by then. She would take the, the L train all the way down to the south side, to 46th and... 46th and Wabash in that range down there, every day to go to school, grammar school! Can you believe that? I don&#039 ; t know if we&#039 ; d allow that today, but she just, we just felt very safe and comfortable growing up in Chicago. Anna Takada: And you had mentioned earlier on that when your family first arrived in Chicago, there was a lot of difficulty around housing? Ross Harano: Yes. Anna Takada: Can you tell me more about that? Ross Harano: Well, most of the area is... Chicago was a very segregated city, still is. If you ride the subway, you&#039 ; ll notice that when you get on the subway, if you get off at Chinatown, for example, the, the structure, the passengers change from white to black basically. It&#039 ; s a very segregated city, and it always has been. And in terms of our neighborhood changing, it happened very quickly. What was your question again? Anna Takada: You had mentioned that your, your mom had stories about the difficulty in finding housing. Ross Harano: Oh, yeah. There were very few neighborhoods that, that we were able to rent in. Uptown, there were a lot of apartment buildings up here, especially a lot of six flats in this neighborhood, which were converted to tall flats during the war. So there are a lot of apartments available up here. So a lot of, the Nisei were able to live in Uptown. This whole neighborhood, actually between Montrose and Lawrence, Broadway and Clark. There were quite a few Nisei that owned apartment buildings eventually in that, in this area here. Lakeview, east of Ashland, there was a lot of Nisei living there. And on the South side, we lived in Oakwood, which is around 39th and Lake Park all the way down Lake Park to, to about Woodlawn and Hyde Park. So we&#039 ; re limited to certain areas of Chicago that we were able to rent eventually, and even buy. Anna Takada: And, but at first, do you know where your family was, like initially on the west side? Ross Harano: It was on Spalding Avenue in Humboldt Park. It&#039 ; s around North Avenue in that area there. Anna Takada: Okay. And then how long was your family in that house, on Oakenwald? And what was the address there? Ross Harano: It was 4201 South Oakenwald. It was on the corner of 42nd and Oakenwald right across the street from the Kenwood L, that end, dead ended there. There was a big, a lot of tracks there for storage of cars. The Kenwood L ran all the way downtown at one point. You could hop on it and end up going around the Loop. Eventually it only ran from 42nd Street to Indiana, and then eventually it was closed in about 19-, I was in high school when it changed, when they closed it up. So about 1957, &#039 ; 58, it was... stopped running. But the neighborh-- we lived there, and it was pretty residential. And we bought the house, my parents and my grandparents and my aunties all pooled money. I think the building only cost $3,000, a lot of money in those days. And so they pooled their money for the down payment and they were able to buy that house on Oakenwald. There were quite a few other Nisei living in the neighborhood, not on, there&#039 ; s one on Oakenwald, the Takeda&#039 ; s lived there, around the corner. There were quite a few on, west of us on Berkeley. There were quite a few Nisei living in that neighborhood between 43rd and 46th street. Anna Takada: And so you mentioned that Oakenwald, demographically, it was, well, it switched, of course while you were there, but initially it was white and Japanese American? Ross Harano: No, there was only one other Japanese family. The Takeda&#039 ; s were on Oakenwald where we lived, but further south, about 44th, 45th and 46th. There were a lot of apartments. So a lot of the Nisei lived in those apartment buildings. There was quite a few actually, lived in those apartment buildings. Eventually, if you look at some of these old things here, you&#039 ; ll see, there were a lot of apartments for rent owned by Nisei. There was the Matsumoto&#039 ; s owned a building on 42nd and Ellis, a big building. So there were a lot of apartment buildings that were eventually bought by the Nisei or by the Issei actually, they seemed to have more money than the Nisei. Anna Takada: And uh, what about... as far as... Well, you mentioned that your church was also very Japanese American and black, as far as, were there any other businesses or like Japanese American restaurants or grocery stores that you remember? Ross Harano: Well, 43rd street was the main street and there were, there was several Japanese establishments there. There was one, that he was like a, I don&#039 ; t know how to describe it. He, we&#039 ; d go in there and get shaved ice, and he was always, he was always a little drunk I thought, he always smelled like sake, and he had trouble finding the ice block and everything. And then the Yamaji&#039 ; s own O.K. Grocery, which was a Japanese grocery store. And Harold Fujimoto had a grocery store west of Ellis street. So there were several, there was two grocery stores there. There might have been some Sun Cleaners, you know, the Hidaka&#039 ; s had Sun Cleaners. So there might have been a Sun Cleaner there too. Now, 47th street, the same thing. There were some restaurants on 55th street. There are some restaurants owned by Nisei. Anna Takada: And did you, did you go to those businesses with your family? Ross Harano: The grocery stores, for sure. Yes. Yes. The restaurants, they weren&#039 ; t, the restaurants were like counter restaurants, they&#039 ; re almost like... Great food and everything, but a lot of the bachelors, a lot of single folks were eating at those places, we even had a whole family go out to China meshi all the time, so. Anna Takada: And so you mentioned that your family moved to the north side... Ross Harano: Yes. Anna Takada: When was that? Ross Harano: In 1961, the city of Chicago decided that they&#039 ; re going to tear down the whole neighborhood, which they did. From 43rd, all the way down to third, to north, to &#039 ; bout 30... About 40th street. And they tore down all the houses and they built two big projects there. They, and eventually the problem they have with those projects, they were tall buildings, I guess two gangs got involved, one in each building and they were shooting at each other and the buildings were vacant for years. So about 10 years ago, they blew &#039 ; em up. And then they tore down my grammar school, Oakenwald grammar school. That whole area now has been redeveloped into townhouses and everything. So Lake Park and Oakenwald has really changed. There was even a, the tra- tracks that went across the, from the lake that went east towards the stock yards were torn down too. So, that whole area is really becoming gentrified. Anna Takada: But that&#039 ; s... you said that was pretty recently? Ross Harano: Well &#039 ; 61, when they built the projects there, and it didn&#039 ; t really gentrify until just recent years. Anna Takada: Growing up, were you involved in any kind of extracurricular activities as a kid like when you were still in grammar school? Ross Harano: In grammar school, we were pretty active in grammar school. We had a, I was in boys chorus. We had a square dancing group, all sorts of things in school. Outside of school, I wasn&#039 ; t that active in too much. I had all my aunties to take care of me. And I&#039 ; d go to church and that was about it. Not active in anything. My mother wanted me to go to Nihon Gakkou, with Reverend... and I went for a couple Saturdays. And I&#039 ; m in the beginners class. I&#039 ; m like 12, 13, and these kids are like seven or eight. I said, &quot ; Mom, I, I can&#039 ; t take this.&quot ; So I, I dropped out. Anna Takada: And where was that out of? Ross Harano: Pardon? Anna Takada: Was that out of church or... Ross Harano: It was, it was Reverend, Reverend Fukushina [Mukushina] who had his own... they had a school in their apartment on 44th or 45th and Oakenwald. Anna Takada: Okay. And how were, how was your family connected to... was that just something that people knew was an option, was to go to Japanese school? Ross Harano: Yes, I, I guess so. I don&#039 ; t know. My mother also decided I should play the piano, which I didn&#039 ; t want to play the piano. So, anyway. Anna Takada: And would you say that your family... I guess, can you tell me more about what, like maybe the, quote-unquote, Japanese American community was like if that existed or did it feel like a community on the South Side in those days? Ross Harano: Well, I think that, if you remember the Buddhist temple on 53rd, 55th, it was a more closer tied in. The church I belonged to was, was great, but it wasn&#039 ; t... we&#039 ; re all close friends and everything. So I was active in church primarily, very active in the youth program and some sort of delegate to something and all that. But that was about the extent. Our family, my mother&#039 ; s side wasn&#039 ; t too active in too many things. They basically came from an agricultural background, and so we spent a lot of time just together. They really didn&#039 ; t get too involved in too many things. My mother got very active in church and she&#039 ; s very active. When we first got out of camp in Chicago, she got a job working at Hart Schaffner Marx as a seamstress. And she worked there until my sister was born five years later, then she stayed home. And then when my sister started high school, she went back there and got a job, same place, same people hired her, they liked her. And she became a union steward there. And, so we weren&#039 ; t that active in the JA community per se. There was, I know the Resettlers here had the big picnic once on the South Side, on 44th and the lake. I remember going to that, seeing sumo and all that. But otherwise I never really felt Japanese. I think that was part of... I remember being in a program at church talking about that. And in those days, Sansei had this identity issue. Am I Japanese? Am I American? And all these issues. A big discussion was intermarriage in those days. And, and I can remember Reverend Nishimoto saying, &quot ; Wait a while, Ross, you have all those Japanese doll from where your grandparents at the house, your grandparents are still there.&quot ; I said, &quot ; Well gee, you know, we never talked about it.&quot ; I never thought about being Japanese and quite frankly, never crossed my mind I was Japanese. My friends were white, Black and never, they never called me anything. They were all good friends of mine. But when I graduated from Oakenwald Grammar School in January of &#039 ; 56... we had January graduates in those days, I was just turned 13 I think. &#039 ; 56, yeah, 13. And what happened was that we went downtown to the Roosevelt Theater to see a movie. In those days, if you&#039 ; re 12 years old, you get in for kids&#039 ; price. I don&#039 ; t know, maybe a quarter. So I remember going to the ticket taker and I&#039 ; m with all my Black graduate friends who graduated with me and so then... they&#039 ; re lying like crazy to the ticket maker. &quot ; Gee lady, I&#039 ; m only 12. Can&#039 ; t you see how short I am?&quot ; And all this other stuff. So she let me in for a quarter and we sat through the, through the movie and the movie was &quot ; The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell&quot ; , with Rod Steiger, Gary Cooper. Gary Cooper played Gary Mitchell, I don&#039 ; t know if you saw the movie. Well, I&#039 ; m a movie buff. So, Billy Mitchell was, was a, was a forerunner of air power in the United States for the United States Army. In those days, they, they even blew up... they bombed some old battleships to show that air power was there. And he was court martialed because he disobeyed orders about bombing things... about what he was doing. And the prosecutor was Rod Steiger. And during this whole trial, he starts talking about air power and that we have to recognize that we need to deal with it. We need to build aircraft carriers, for example. And so Rod Steiger said, &quot ; Well, you know, we don&#039 ; t really y&#039 ; know... what you did was you weren&#039 ; t obeying orders.&quot ; And then he says, &quot ; Well ...&quot ; they start talking about Pearl Harbor, and he says, &quot ; Yeah, Pearl Harbor could be a target.&quot ; And then Rod Steiger said, &quot ; Well, who would bomb Pearl Harbor?&quot ; And Gary Cooper says, &quot ; The Japanese.&quot ; All my friends looked at me and I said, &quot ; Holy mackerel, I must be Japanese. That was the first time I thought about it.&quot ; And in those days, the TV had those World War II movies that was saying, &quot ; Kill those dirty...&quot ; and everything. So, that was the first time I started thinking about it. I just said, &quot ; Wow, I never thought about it that way before.&quot ; But all my friends looked at me. I remember that. That was about five guys with me at this, at the show. So that was my first recollection or even thought process that I was Japanese. Anna Takada: I&#039 ; m glad you brought that up because I was going to ask when, when that happens or becoming aware of your identity. So you were, you were 12 when that happened. When you were growing up, were you... I know a lot of families didn&#039 ; t talk about the incarceration with one another, but were you aware of, you know, what had happened to your family and where you were coming from or how did that... Ross Harano: No, my family never talked about camp. I think every Sansei here would probably say talking about church camp, you know, summer camp and everything. They never talked about it. I remember seeing pictures of me as a baby in front of the, in camp and I said to myself, &quot ; Man, my folks are really poor. I&#039 ; m sitting on the porch of a tar paper shack.&quot ; So it didn&#039 ; t cross my mind about it. I just assumed that... I didn&#039 ; t think about it. I think about it, but I remember saying to myself, &quot ; Gee, that, they&#039 ; re in a tar paper shack there.&quot ; I didn&#039 ; t think about it at all actually. And in September of 1961, went to a JACL youth conference. It was a joint EDC, MDC convention in Minneapolis. And Mike Masaoka spoke, and it was the first time I heard the whole story. It was really amazing. Most of the other Sansei said, &quot ; Yeah, we didn&#039 ; t think about it. We didn&#039 ; t know about it.&quot ; All of a sudden I realized that with my uncle, my Uncle Chuck who was wounded at Anzio, his whole back was a scar, all the way back and all the way down the back of his legs was just one massive scar. And that sort of hit me, started thinking about that. And then in 1948, we went to a funeral, we went to North Platte, Nebraska. And that was the first time I really got to see all my cousins, that I remember at least. And we got together once before when I was a baby. We went to Poston, when my grandma, grandmother passed away in camp. But didn&#039 ; t think about it. I had a lot of fun with all my cousins and one morning everybody&#039 ; s quiet and I had to be quiet, and we went to a service and it was a funeral. I had no idea what it was, no idea. And then I didn&#039 ; t even know it was a funeral. I wasn&#039 ; t sure what it was. So then after Mike speaking, then I realized that my Uncle John, who was killed in Italy and... I&#039 ; m sorry, in France, rescuing the lost Texas group, was reinterred in North Platte. So he was buried alongside... with my grandma, with my grandmother who was buried at the time there in North Platte. So all these pictures started coming together in my head saying, wow. All of a sudden the light bulb went on about things, about the camp, and about the war, about my uncles. And I remember as a kid, all my uncles had uniforms, they were all coming out of service. And we had a lot of servicemen coming back from Europe stayed at our place. Just quite a few of them actually who would come by and stay with... because I had all my uncles in the 442. So all these pictures came to me and then, so I get back home, I talked to my dad about it and I was really pissed. I said, &quot ; You know, Dad, you know, I would&#039 ; ve picked up a rifle, did anything to fight,&quot ; and everything. And he was like pissed at me saying, &quot ; Hey, you weren&#039 ; t there, kid.&quot ; So it was the first conversation I ever had with my dad about it at least. And my mom, I talked to her about it and, and she just said, &quot ; That&#039 ; s the way it was. Couldn&#039 ; t be helped.&quot ; And so I talked to my grandpa a little bit about it. His English... I understand, I used to understand him. I, I don&#039 ; t know why, but I did. And he... for him, the camp experience was a relief to some ways, but he was a hard worker. But he came back, when he came to Chicago, we worked hard too. He had a job at a greenhouse and then worked as a gardener for the University of Chicago. So it all came together all at once in 1961. And that&#039 ; s when I realized what took place, and I realized as I got more involved in the, in the Japanese community, that our role is to make sure it doesn&#039 ; t happen to anybody else. Anna Takada: And so was that, I mean, had you known that you were born in Fresno or... Ross Harano: You know I didn&#039 ; t... I knew I was born in Fresno, I didn&#039 ; t know why. I mean, it just said &quot ; Fresno&quot ; on my birth certificate. And I remember growing up in grammar, when I was in grammar school, I was trying to change my middle name from Masao to Marshall. I don&#039 ; t know why I said Marshall. I didn&#039 ; t like the Masao. I didn&#039 ; t know what it was. So I remember that. And I remember telling my mother that and she just looked at me. Anyway. But once, I think most Sansei went through the same experience of all of a sudden realizing that you&#039 ; re Japanese. I think the girl&#039 ; s experience it a different way than the guys do. I don&#039 ; t know why, but when my sister thought... my sister&#039 ; s, my sister realized it in a different way. I don&#039 ; t know, maybe from my mom, I don&#039 ; t know. So anyway. Anna Takada: How did you get involved with the JACL conference? How did that happen, that you went in the first place? Ross Harano: I don&#039 ; t know. I, I was still in grammar school and a good friend, my cousin&#039 ; s cousin, Bob Omori, was active in this whole new thing called JACL. And they had just started a youth program called Junior JACL. I think Richard Kaneko was the first president, and Harold Hirai was the second president. And they had these dances, a beauty contest. And so somehow or other I was helping on one of the dances and I, we spent a lot of time. We had to do JACL something, princess of springtime, I don&#039 ; t know what it was. And we got cardboard, and we made these letters, we cut it with the razor blade, wrapped in aluminum foil. And then next thing you know, I got involved in this whole youth program, Junior JACL it&#039 ; s called. And Abe Hagiwara was like my mentor. I got to know him and he got me more, kept getting me more involved. Eventually I was president of the Junior JACL chapter here in Chicago and went on to go to all the conferences. That&#039 ; s why we went to the EDC MDC convention in Minneapolis. Actually, a lot of guys joined Junior JACL because there were girls in every city. I mean, I had a friend who was dating a girl in Cleveland, dating a girl in Milwaukee. And, but so I would go to these different cities and we&#039 ; d have conferences all the time. So we would meet. So I became, I was very active and somehow in &#039 ; 63 I was down the state in Champaign. There was a big conference in Salt Lake City. And so I was asked to go there. And so I went back to Chicago and flew to Salt Lake City. It was &#039 ; 63. I&#039 ; d never flown before. So I flew to Salt Lake City on a 707. And the aisles were bigger, and there were stewardesses in those days. And it&#039 ; s just like in the movie, you know, &quot ; Come Fly With Me&quot ; , whatever it was. These stewardesses, I just kept watching them, they were just so gorgeous. And I&#039 ; m a kid in college at the time. But we went to there and it was the first time we had a whole meeting with the youth and the adults dealing with what to do with the youth program. From there, in 1964, during the summer, there was a JACL convention in Detroit. And I went, and I walked in, I found out I&#039 ; m chair of the convention. I, I chaired the youth meetings. I was asked to do it, so I did that. And from that whole conference we decided, the youth there... there were over a hundred there, almost as many as adults or more. And so we decided that we wanted to have a national youth organization. So then in &#039 ; 65, &#039 ; 65, there was a meeting of all the youth around... the leaders from different, different districts, and they met to organize the Junior JACL National. And then I said, &quot ; I&#039 ; m too old to be chairing it.&quot ; So Paul Tamura of Oregon, I believe, Portland was the first chair. I was too old. I was 22, something like that. And then I became a youth commissioner for the district. And then I think I was chapter chair in &#039 ; 60 something, and just got sucked into it slowly. Anna Takada: So you mentioned part of the, part of why it was interesting and fun to get involved was the social aspect, meeting girls and whatnot. Ross Harano: Oh yeah. Anna Takada: But it seems like you were, you were pretty committed and you kept with it. Do you know what kind of inspired you or motivated you to be so involved? Ross Harano: When I get involved in an organization, I get involved, and I like to see things done, get done. And I dislike going to meetings, that there&#039 ; s nothing happens. I was on the Service Committee board back in 1960 something, the first Sansei. I was on that for less than about a year and I got off, because it wasn&#039 ; t accom-... the meetings were in Japanese and English, that was the first part that I, I just couldn&#039 ; t sit through all that. So somehow or other I seem to be always in a position of chairing something. I, when I do things, I like to make sure it gets done. I like to make sure that the meetings are over at a certain time. And so somehow I&#039 ; m always president of something. I just, I got off my last board about 10 years ago. So I, I just sort of seem to get involved in things and next thing you know I&#039 ; m president of it. Anna Takada: And one other thing I wanted to ask before we can move on to another topic. So JACL has always functioned as a national organization with different chapters in different locations of the country. Can you tell me more about what the Chicago chapter was like in those days and maybe how that compared to other chapters that you saw or worked with? Ross Harano: You have to realize is that, in the Nisei, th-there&#039 ; s different age groups. And the older Nisei in Chicago really had problems with the younger Nisei. They just were two different generations within a generation. So that when the JACL in Chicago changed from Issei to older Nisei... it was never Issei, I&#039 ; m sorry. It was older Nisei to younger Nisei there was a lot of personel... personality issues involved, even between the Service Committee and JACL in those days. Anna Takada: What were some of those tensions or what was... Ross Harano: Just generational tensions. The old timers&#039 ; Nisei group had their own prim and proper view of a lot of things. They ran the organization very, very on a-- Got to realize, JACL in the &#039 ; 50s, was an opportunity for men to meet women. I mean, there&#039 ; s a lot of folks who got married out this thing. So it was really a social networking group for young Nisei. And so the younger Nisei who were single, this was an opport-- this was a method for them to meet their mates. And I guess a lot of folks did that and it was a social organization. So then the issue became, sure, we focused on issues dealing with the evacuation. The JACL dealt with the changing the alien land laws, dealt with the, the so-called war brides, all these issues the JACL dealt with mainly on a national level. On a local level, the chapters were pretty social within themselves, very little outreach, very little participation in the greater social issues of, of this country or the city in particular. So there was a lot of, the younger Nissei felt a little more committed to working outside the community, you know, doing work with the Blacks, doing work with Chinese. And so there was a lot of... not tension, just different goals and directions. So there was a lot of issues. And the same with the JACL and the service committee, the same generational issues developed. And so each group had their own turf and we still do. They still do. Which is great. Then along come the Sansei. I was the first Sansei on the board. And we had our own different issues. And so when I became president, and the first Sansei president, I brought a lot of Sansei on board. But we also had a lot of younger Nisei on the board, on the board. And the older Nisei were... okay. I mean, we dealt with them. There was a lot of conflict there that I can&#039 ; t go into too much detail about it, but there was a lot of conflict for some reason. I think the younger Nisei told the older Nisei off a couple times. I think that&#039 ; s what happened. And so I got involved. I think I was chapter president in &#039 ; 69 maybe. Yeah, &#039 ; 69, &#039 ; 70. And it was, it was very time consuming, very time consuming. And after that, I think I was district governor. Then I was national legislative chairman or something like that. So it, it got to be too much. And so in about mid &#039 ; 70s, I said, you know I&#039 ; m getting, either I plunge all the way in and stay active nationally, go on to become national this, national that. I decided not to, I just said, &quot ; No, I&#039 ; m going to focus here in Chicago more.&quot ; So I started weaning myself away from... and I got active in other groups, human rights groups here in Chicago. And then in 1990 I guess, I was called back in to be president for a couple years. There was a transition going on between a Sansei, and so I was sort of a in between guy again, just to hold, hold the fort until the younger people can come in and take over. Anna Takada: And were those, those positions, was it volunteer or were those paid? Ross Harano: All volunteer. Yeah. Yeah. Anna Takada: I want to take it back just a bit &#039 ; cause I realized we didn&#039 ; t talk about your high school experience and your, your family&#039 ; s move to the North Side. Ross Harano: Well, high school, first of all, grammar school had a very important role in my life. There were very few sansei left, so I really, I really had the advantage of being a sansei at Oakenwald Grammar School. There weren&#039 ; t that many left. I was the only one in my class. When I graduated, the whole class was Black. So I got really special attention from the teachers, which really helped me a lot. For some reason, I was the master of ceremonies at all the programs, so I learned how to do public speaking in grammar school. And then when I went to Hyde Park High School, which was the only integrated high school in the city in those days, most schools because of gerrymandering of districts were either all white or all black. Hyde Park was Black and white. It was very, the only integrated school at that time, which was a great experience for me. And plus I didn&#039 ; t realize this, but all the valedictorians and salutatorians of the grammar schools that fed Hyde Park were put in a special division. I didn&#039 ; t know that. And this was before they had accelerated points and everything like they do now. So, I&#039 ; m in this division with all these bright kids. The parents are professors at the University of Chicago, and we had accelerated classes. I didn&#039 ; t know that. And I came home, I said, &quot ; Ma, y&#039 ; know, high school is really hard,&quot ; because these kids were very bright. And since I was a January graduate, there was only 115 people in my graduating class, so it was a small group. In my division, we kept together and we still keep, we still get together all the time, our group. But it was, um, there were quite a few Sansei&#039 ; s still at Hyde Park when I went there and we all had one table, two tables we&#039 ; d eat at all the time. So that&#039 ; s when I first got to really hang around the, the Sansei group. I really didn&#039 ; t before, except for the church kids, kids at church. And then in my sophomore year, I discovered the North Side. And in those days with all the Sansei being teenagers, there were dances every week almost. The Midwest Temple had a dance and BTC had a dance. The Tri-C had a dance. The Methodist had a dance. Church of Christ had a dance. There were dances all the-- Junior JACL had a dance. So you know, there were dances all the time, so I&#039 ; d come up on the North Side all the time to do all these things up here. My grades in my sophomore year really flattened out. Took me a while to get my average back up. Anna Takada: Because you were being so social? Ross Harano: Yeah, I was having a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun. Anna Takada: Can you tell me more, just a little bit more details about these dances? Was the purpose solely to get young- Ross Harano: Well, because we&#039 ; re so generationally distinct, all of these churches had teenagers, Sansei. And each church formed a youth group and each youth group hosted a dance. That&#039 ; s just sort of the way it was, I guess. And so, as part of their youth program. I came up to the North Side, my first dance was at the Church of Christ Presbyterian which used to be on Sheffield. And it was the Dukes and Duchesses dance and Tonko Doi was the president of it at the time. And I said, &quot ; Wow, these North Side girls are really cute.&quot ; (laughs) So, I stayed active in that and I was president of the Dukes and Duchesses later. I was the only duke and there were five duchesses, so it was a lot of fun. And we&#039 ; d have dances there also. Anna Takada: And what about the setup? Did you have to organize getting snacks or music or decorations? Ross Harano: Yeah, we, we did all that. We had advisors. And in those days I used to smoke, I remember. And I remember being at the Church, Church of Christ and we had a dance and I&#039 ; m in the corner trying to smoke a cigarette. And my cousin, my cousin Helen was at McCormick Seminary because this was a Presbyterian church. So she was an advisor. And so then I&#039 ; m there and all of a sudden I see my cousin walking in, so I had to put out the cigarette and be a good kid. So, but it was fun. It was a fun group to be with, and, but every church had their own dances. Anna Takada: And I know at this time the social clubs were pretty popular. Can you tell me more about those, boys and girls clubs? Ross Harano: Well, they were, every church had a youth program where they could be part of a confirmation process. I mean, Kenwood Ellis, I went to confirmation classes for two years. He said, &quot ; I didn&#039 ; t learn enough my first year.&quot ; Reverand Nishimoto. But every church had a youth program of some sort to keep the kids active in the church. So they would have a youth group that would go to... I remember in our confirmation stuff, we went to different religions. We visited a Jewish synagogue, we went to the Bahai Temple, we went to St. Peter&#039 ; s downtown to Catholic. All these things we did and I&#039 ; m sure every church had their own program like that to keep the youth active in the church. Anna Takada: Well, and what I was referring to is the, the social clubs that kids kind of started organizing. The Ting-a-Lings or the- Ross Harano: Oh yeah. Anna Takada: Can you tell me more about those kinds of clubs? Ross Harano: I wasn&#039 ; t that active in them. There was the Bruins, there was the Vikings. There was all these different clubs. I was never active in any of those. Anna Takada: But were those popular around the time you were in high school? Ross Harano: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was, it was good. I mean, in those days, even the Scouts had a group at the Buddhist temple, BTC. I was an Explorer at the BTC. I only did it because I was on the swim team and I&#039 ; d be a ringer for the swim team representing BTC Explorers. I don&#039 ; t know why they wanted me. I was a lousy swimmer. Anna Takada: Were there any other extracurriculars that you were involved in, in high school? Ross Harano: In high school? Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. Ross Harano: No, towards the end, in high school, I was very active in church and active, beginning to get active in Junior JACL in those days. Yeah. Anna Takada: You mentioned Abe? Ross Harano: Abe Hagiwara? Anna Takada: Yes. And you said that he was kind of like a mentor to you? Ross Harano: Yes. Anna Takada: I&#039 ; m wondering if you could just tell me a little bit more about some of those, the community leaders, I guess, because I think it would be fair to call him one. Ross Harano: Yeah. Abe in particular was a social worker at Olivet Community Center. And he, Olivet was another place where we had a lot of dances. Junior JACL had all our dances there. And that was a meeting place. We had the CNAA there. And Abe was a, very good around young people. Very, very good around young people. He says, &quot ; I don&#039 ; t have any kids. That&#039 ; s why I&#039 ; m so good around young people.&quot ; But he is the one who really mentored me when I was, got active in junior JACL and really helped me to do things and move ahead with things. He was a very interesting man. And actually my son, his name is Michael Abe Harano. I named his middle name is after Abe. And Abe was a very, helped me in terms of just focusing things and not to have so much fun. Anna Takada: So it sounds like he, he had, he played an important role or part in your life then. Ross Harano: He did. And there, and there was quite a few other Nisei who, who were community leaders, who we had a very interesting leadership in our community and they were very conservative, well-respected. We had a very well-respected leadership in our community and they deserved the recognition. They deserved the, the accolades because they really sacrificed a lot of their time and experience, and money for the community and service committee had some tremendous people, Kenji Nakano and others that really played an important role in steering our community in the right direction. Anna Takada: Is that something that you were kind of aware of as a teenager or young person kind of the... Ross Harano: Yeah I, I was very fortunate. I was, as a junior JACL-er I was very fortunate that I got to know all the old time leadership of JACL Doc Yatabe, Mike of course, Masato, all of the so-called old timers. Here in Chicago, Lincoln Shimizu was president here. I got to know them. I used to hang out, I used to drink when I was a kid so I used to hang out with all these guys. And so I really got to know them as individuals and respected the fact that they&#039 ; re, that they were committed in their own way to do what they were doing. They weren&#039 ; t out there for selfish reasons. Anna Takada: Where, so after graduating Hyde Park High, you said you went down, down state? Ross Harano: Somewhere along the way, my grammar school teacher Marge Lerner, eighth grade teacher, said I&#039 ; d make a good engineer. And I believed her. I took all these hard courses you know at Hyde Park, physics, chemistry, mechanical drawing, everything. And then here was Sunnan Kubose, he and I were in the same division all those years, he took typing. Anyway, and so his grades, he was a little higher ranking than me when we graduated. But so, I was at Navy Pier, University of Illinois. I didn&#039 ; t think I&#039 ; d be going to college to tell you the truth. I thought I&#039 ; d be an engineer. I thought I&#039 ; d go to Cal Tech. They&#039 ; d accept me of course. MIT didn&#039 ; t accept me, which was great. My parents couldn&#039 ; t afford it anyway. So, good friend of mine, Bernie Shapiro said, &quot ; Ross, I&#039 ; m going down to Navy Pier.&quot ; I said, &quot ; Why?&quot ; He said, &quot ; I&#039 ; m going to register for college.&quot ; &quot ; Oh really?&quot ; I didn&#039 ; t know it was a college there. So, I went down there with him and turns out University of Illinois had a two year program there at Navy Pier. And tuition was-- 135 bucks a semester. I had a hundred bucks in my pocket. I was working. So then I put a $50 deposit down, came home and told my mother, &quot ; I&#039 ; m going to college mom.&quot ; And so I went to Navy Pier for three years. I changed my major from engineering to, to accounting, then to finance when I went downstate. I stayed at Navy Pier for three years and downstate for two years. And Navy Pier, it was just like being at Hyde Park. All the Sansei there hung out at the same place. We had these three or four tables. We all hung out together. And the guys were great in math and the girls had trouble with math. And in those days, all the sansei girls had to become teachers. There was no other, all of them were in education. So the guys would help them out with their math and the young ladies would help us guys out in terms of rhetoric, 101 and 102 in terms of the English. I have a friend. I just saw him the other day for the first time in years, who was top notch engineering. He couldn&#039 ; t pass rhetoric 101 and probably was a senior still taking rhetoric 101. Finally he had to go someplace else to take it to get credit for it and then he finally graduated as an engineer and I think he worked for either Boeing or, or McDonald Douglas down in St. Louis. But there always was a nucleus Sansei group that we always hung out with. Our sophomore year we all, we learned how to play Pinochle. And at 11 of us, I think eight flunked out and and I came back on probation. I think David Hayano was the only one that came with good grades. And a lot of the guys got drafted right away. Those days if you weren&#039 ; t in college, you were in Vietnam. And so there was a whole, you just had no control over your life. You had to stay in school. So, went to Navy pier for three years, then went downstate to Champaign, went downstate as a senior basically and stayed down there two years, changed my major down there to finance and graduated. Anna Takada: And then did you return to Chicago after college? Ross Harano: Yeah. I summer interned at the CNA at Continental National Assurance, CNA. That summer of &#039 ; 64, I was an intern there. So when I graduated in January of &#039 ; 65, I called them up, &quot ; Hey, I graduated.&quot ; They said, &quot ; Oh you weren&#039 ; t, we thought you were graduating in June.&quot ; &quot ; No, I graduated.&quot ; So they hired me right then and there. So I got a job fresh out of college in the actuarial department. Anna Takada: Do you-- Well, first I&#039 ; ll ask, when you came back to Chicago, where were you living? Did you go back with your parents, or did you find-- Ross Harano: What&#039 ; s that? Anna Takada: Oh, where did you live when you returned to Chicago? Ross Harano: Oh, at my folks&#039 ; place. Anna Takada: Okay. And where were they living at that time? Ross Harano: They lived on Argyle just, just acr-- just between Broadway and Glenwood there. So they lived on Argyle. They had an apartment building. They had five flats, so I moved in. Actually I was living with them. Anna Takada: When, when did they move there? Ross Harano: &#039 ; 61 when they tore down the house. Anna Takada: Oh, okay. Ross Harano: Yeah. So I&#039 ; ve only lived in a couple places in Chicago. Anna Takada: And, you said from, so it was from Argyle that you were commuting to...? Ross Harano: Navy Pier. Anna Takada: To Navy Pier. Okay. Ross Harano: Yeah I started, what happened is I started Navy Pier in January of &#039 ; 60, and then September of &#039 ; 61, we moved up to the north side. So I left the house on the south side, took the L to Navy Pier and took the L north to Argyle and moved in. Anna Takada: Do you know why, why your parents decided to stay in Chicago? Ross Harano: Yes. All of my aunties, their husbands were California based in many ways and they all moved to the Gardena area, and so they all moved back. My dad was more, was always more independent, and he used to say, &quot ; I&#039 ; m not going back to California. Those bastards kicked us out. I ain&#039 ; t going back there.&quot ; That was his attitude. And plus he had a good job. Anna Takada: And where was he at that time, working? Ross Harano: We were, he had bought a vending machine business. We had a vending machine company, and we had all the Coke machines at the B&amp ; K Theaters, the State and Lake McVicker&#039 ; s, all those theaters downtown, and, and several factories we had Coke machines so... So he, he didn&#039 ; t want to move back to California anyway. Anna Takada: Did you have any feelings about it? Ross Harano: Nope. I remember visiting my rela-- my, my aunties and uncles in California. In 1960, we took the train and started in San Francisco, went down to Menlo Park where my aunt lives, ended up in L.A. area in Gardena. And all the-- And California&#039 ; s nice, but I am an urban guy and I&#039 ; ve always lived by the subway, still do. And so I, I couldn&#039 ; t, I don&#039 ; t like the suburban lifestyle. I don&#039 ; t like to have a car. I enjoy being able to walk places and I enjoy the excitement of an urban living. Anna Takada: I meant to ask. So, it was your mom&#039 ; s family that you all, you know, went through camp with and moved to Chicago. And w-where was your dad&#039 ; s family? Ross Harano: My dad&#039 ; s family was all over the place, but primarily they were in North Platte, Nebraska. My uncle Earl, when he graduated from college, was a photographer. And he even came to Chicago a couple of times taking pictures, and he set up an operation in North Platte. His wife, my auntie by marriage is a Motooka who, there are several families in North Platte, Nebraska before the war. The, most of them were farmers. Ben Kuroki, the bombadier, the bomber. North Platte, Nebraska was the icing house for the Union Pacific. So then, the trains would come up from California and then they would fill up the cars from the top with ice. And there were like 600 Issei at one point in N- the North Platte area, working for the Union Pacific. My uncl-- grandfather on my mother&#039 ; s side actually ended up there for a while. And a lot of them, several of them became farmers in the area. So, my uncle had an opportunity and he bought into somehow with a phot-- a photo studio there. And so he stayed there and then my, his older brother ended up coming there and they had a, a flower shop and his younger brother came in. So most of my father&#039 ; s family was in North Platte, Nebraska. Others were in Wooster, Ohio because one of my aunties married a professor there. He&#039 ; s from California, but he got a job in Wooster. And then another aunt lived in Berkeley because her husband was a professor at Berkeley. Another one lived in Salt Lake City, they were never in camp. So the, the Harano clan is a little more spread out, but we&#039 ; ve had a reunion every year, every two years since &#039 ; 73. And so, we just had one last year in July in Orlando. We had like a hundred and some odd folks there. So it&#039 ; s fun to get together every two years and see all the kids grow up. I don&#039 ; t recognize some of these kids, they grow up so fast. The hardest part of these reunions though, I know all my cousins, I know most of my cousins kids, but my cousins&#039 ; kids&#039 ; kids, and all my cousins intermarried, except for one. And so as a result of that, you go the, the reunion and you see these blue eyed blondes running around. My great granddaughter&#039 ; s blue eyed blonde. So it&#039 ; s, so you say this is a Japanese American reunion, but you&#039 ; re saying, &quot ; Where are the Japanese at the reunion?&quot ; So it, but it&#039 ; s a great time, we go over family history, we do quite a bit of oral projects like this. We have quite a few tapes too. Mhmm. Anna Takada: Oh great. I&#039 ; m glad to hear that. Um... So, okay, I-- sorry. Ross Harano: No problem. I wander around, I digress a lot so... Anna Takada: There&#039 ; s um... Well and, yeah-- I uh, I have a few, kind of notes that I&#039 ; ve been taking throughout of things that I just wanted to be sure to ask about, so we might not be in order or make sense-- Ross Harano: Okay, sure. No problem. Anna Takada: - chronologically. But I did want to ask a little bit more about your uncles who served during, during the war. Can you, can you tell me more about, I guess briefly, just maybe a little bit more about their stories, but I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m also curious in hearing about how that was kind of communicated to you as a child or you know... Every family has their family stories that are kind of just there always? Ross Harano: Yeah. There&#039 ; s a bunch of pictures of me on the West Side when we lived there, where all my uncles just got out of service. So for the first time we had all my uncles on my mother&#039 ; s side, and my uncles by marriage all together, except for my uncle Chuck, who was still in the hospital in Europe. And so, I always have these, remember these photographs of my uncles in uniform. And once again, I didn&#039 ; t think too much about it. Then on my mother&#039 ; s side, my... I had three uncles in service in military intelligence. And one of them was by marriage. My mother&#039 ; s oldest brother was in New Guinea, and my mother&#039 ; s other brother was in Tokyo right after the war with MIS. So all these things, I, I sort of knew about the army ; didn&#039 ; t think about anything. My uncle Ben, who was in military intelligence, all of his belongings and military stuff was shipped to us, when he was in-- because he was traveling. And then when he got to Tokyo, a lot of his, a lot of-- everything, before he went to Tokyo, was all sent to us, so we had boxes of all of his stuff, and he was saver. I have all of his notes from MIS, which I&#039 ; m putting together, and it had an exhibit, I&#039 ; m figuring out who I&#039 ; m going to donate them to. They&#039 ; re really good notes, they&#039 ; re, they&#039 ; re interesting. And, and all of his commendations, all of his reports, I have a whole stack of things that I&#039 ; m putting together, and I&#039 ; m working with the Pritzker Museum ; maybe to, to work-- they, they said they&#039 ; re willing to start something with it. So I had all of these things dealing with my, the service of my uncles. And my uncle Roy, who was in the 442, didn&#039 ; t pa-- passed away maybe eight, nine years ago, but I had a lot of discussions with him, because he was there rescuing the lost Texas group, and on the last, one of the last days, his brother, my uncle Johnny, was killed. So then, Roy was going to go up the hill, I guess, and they wouldn&#039 ; t let him. So, he stayed behind and he did, eventually, he got up there, but they, they didn&#039 ; t want him up front, you know &quot ; You just lost your brother.&quot ; So Roy would tell us about this. Anna Takada: About how old were you, do you think, when you were hearing these stories for the first time? Ross Harano: Oh about the specifics of uncle, uncle Johnny was 10, 10 years ago, in that range, yeah. And we did, we started ta-, I started talking to Roy about it, about... maybe longer than that, at one of the reunions. Anna Takada: It kind of sounds to me like, you know you&#039 ; ve, you&#039 ; ve done a bit of work kind of around your family&#039 ; s story and experiences, whether it&#039 ; s talking to folks or recording or just researching, I guess, more generally. Why, why is that something that&#039 ; s important to you? Ross Harano: I&#039 ; m, I&#039 ; m a collector. And I&#039 ; m just going through all my paper, I just gave Ryan some more stuff, I save things. I&#039 ; m also a trivia nut and I&#039 ; m also a movie nut, so I just have a sense of history, I enjoy history, and how things fit together. And, so all these things are important, and plus, we&#039 ; re passing these stories on to my kids, to my grandkids, to my cousins at the reunion. So I think that&#039 ; s important, the history, because the trouble we have today, and we still do, we teach American history from war to war to war ; you know with French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, and we don&#039 ; t teach it from the point of view of... group- immigrants come here, the Irish were the lowest of the low. There was a magazine called Puck, which showed on the cover Chinese, Irish ; the Chinese are good because they work here and go home, the Irish are bad because they stay here and have kids. A-and so we have to understand that ours is a country of immigrants. A group comes in and they work their way up, another group comes in to take those dirty jobs nobody else will, and that&#039 ; s what&#039 ; s going on today. And so, we have to begin to teach this whole immigration. That, you know way back, we used to teach the melting pot theory ; everybody comes in, they assimilate. Ford had a 4th of July thing at his plant, they&#039 ; d have a big cauldron on the stage, people would walk in from one side with their national clothing on whether they&#039 ; re Lithuanian, Polish, whatever it might be, come out the other side wearing the Ford uniform. And, the assimilation process, the melting pot theory was great until probably the late &#039 ; 70s, and then we had a thing called the rise of the unmeltable ethnics, because the trouble with the melting pot theory if you&#039 ; re of a different color, if you speak with an accent, there&#039 ; s something wrong with you, because you&#039 ; re not melted in. You can change your last name, you can do all sorts of things, and people have done that, but if you&#039 ; re of color, have that accent, that story&#039 ; s not told. So that&#039 ; s one of the reasons why people still think... Now, how many times do people ask you &quot ; Where are you from?&quot ; You know? And, sometimes I get pissed and I say, &quot ; Well I, Chicago.&quot ; &quot ; What high school?&quot ; &quot ; Hyde Park.&quot ; &quot ; Where were you born?&quot ; &quot ; California.&quot ; &quot ; Where are your parents?&quot ; &quot ; California.&quot ; &quot ; Where are your grandparents?&quot ; &quot ; Japan.&quot ; &quot ; You&#039 ; re Japanese.&quot ; Did you ever ask a white guy that? Do I say, &quot ; Gee, are your parents from? Germany, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, are you Bohemian, are you Polish? What is it?&quot ; You know, we don&#039 ; t ask those questions, but we&#039 ; re always asked that question, &quot ; Where are you from?&quot ; People are curious because our story has never been told. A-and plus, Europe is Europe, it&#039 ; s not Czechoslovakia, it&#039 ; s not France, it&#039 ; s not Romania. Europe is Europe, so you sort of accept that, but Asia is such- different. So then, we&#039 ; re always asked that same question, you know and sometimes I get pissed, sometimes I get, I&#039 ; ll just say well I&#039 ; ll go through this whole routine, you know, and then I ask them where they&#039 ; re from. Sometimes I figure, if they&#039 ; re asking me out of ignorance I&#039 ; ll, I&#039 ; ll educate them, but I think most Asian kids go through this experience. Anna Takada: Did you have, experience that growing up in Chicago? Ross Harano: Sort of. Most people in those days, because there were few Japanese, thought we were Chinese. Most people thought I was, they didn&#039 ; t know there were Japanese here, so they all assumed we were Chinese. Anna Takada: And, we have time for just a couple more questions. So you mentioned that for some time you didn&#039 ; t speak with your parents about the war experience, or the incarceration. How about, how do you feel as far as raising your own children, is this history something that you shared with them? Or... Ross Harano: Oh, yeah, oh yeah. My, my kids are aware of it. You know, when the book &quot ; Nisei&quot ; first came out, by Hosokawa, I made sure that every kid had a copy of it. &quot ; The Bamboo People&quot ; , they all had copies, I made sure they all... I don&#039 ; t know if they ever read &#039 ; em, but they have all this. So, yeah they&#039 ; re well aware of the history ; they&#039 ; re well aware because at the reunions we talked about it, and, so it&#039 ; s part of their history. So, yeah, they&#039 ; re, they&#039 ; re quite aware of it. I think it&#039 ; s important. Especially, how do you, how do you explain to kids... because my grandchildren don&#039 ; t even look Japanese, you know? And so how do you... but they&#039 ; re well aware of their Japanese heritage, all the grandchildren are. I think it&#039 ; s important that they know, because it&#039 ; s sort of, knowledge protects you in some ways. Because to all of a sudden to be walking down the street, all of a sudden they call you a dirty Jap, you know, you just have to be prepared and understand and be aware there&#039 ; s a bunch of jerks out there. Racist jerks. Anna Takada: And, your family, are they, are they in Chicago? And your grandkids? Ross Harano: Yeah. My, my parents had a building on Argyle. And my, we lived there, my sister lived there, my cousin lived there, my grandparents live there, and I got wanderlust and bought a building across the alley on Winnemac. So then, when my daughter was married, and they lived above, they lived across the street at my parents place, and then they had kids and they moved above me on the third floor of our building. So then, I didn&#039 ; t charge them rent for a long time and they bought a house, so they live out in Round Lake, about an hour from us. And then, my youngest son lives upstairs on the third floor and my middle son lives in Texas. I almost disowned him, because he&#039 ; s a Republican, so... Anna Takada: And, just a couple more questions. Having grown up as a sansei in Chicago, and you know, really being here for that critical resettlement period, how would you compare the Japanese American community of the past... let&#039 ; s say, &#039 ; 50s, &#039 ; 60s, and some of those early memories of yours, to what it is today? Ross Harano: Well, in those, when we first got here, there were certain enclaves of Japanese, just by the nature of discrimination. J-Town, in those days, was Clark and Division, and when they built Sandburg Village, all that was torn down. Then there was all these social groups for, for the Nisei, the churches, JACL, the service committee, so there was a nucleus. As the nisei got older and moved out to the suburbs, or whatever it might be, we&#039 ; re really spread out. There really isn&#039 ; t a, a J-Town here. And, as a result of that, we, the only time I see all my sansei friends is at a funeral, or some sort of, something to do with funerals all the time lately. That&#039 ; s, that&#039 ; s when I see all my friends actually, now, at funerals, but we&#039 ; re all spread out. You know so, and because, you find that, growing up... I&#039 ; ll give you an example. Back in 19-, 1970, &#039 ; 71, &#039 ; 72, in that range... Actually, sorry. Back in 1965, Abe Hagiwara said, &quot ; You know, we need to do something with the young adults that are older than junior JACL, so about 22 years old.&quot ; So in &#039 ; 65, we started a thing called Young Japanese Americans, or YJAs. So then we held our first event, it was down in Oldtown, and it was, we went to see a, a blues player who we knew, and we had a little party up there. And what happened was that there was about four guys and about 11 girls that showed up, and I didn&#039 ; t recognize half of these girls. And they were gorgeous. I knew &#039 ; em in grammar school, high school, college, wherever it might be, but they were just older women now, older. And so, out of that YJA group, and there was only four guys in the beginning, I said you&#039 ; ve got to get more guys, get more guys, and out of that group there were 11 marriages. It was fascinating. I, I have an album of all the wedding invitations for all the YJAs that met as a result of this event. We had Dick Tatebe met a girl from Cleveland there, we had somebody from Canada meeting somebody here, all sorts of relationships. And 11 marriages out of that whole thing. So, but it&#039 ; s changed, the fact that there is no hard social center now for the community. Service committee had these dinners, JACL had these dinners, but there is no social, main social gathering. You had the n- picnic and all that, but still, it&#039 ; s a different, it&#039 ; s more of a get together of old, old, old friends I hadn&#039 ; t seen in a long time, it&#039 ; s not an every day, like when you had the Bruins, and all these different clubs. It&#039 ; s not the same way. Anna Takada: Why do you think that is? Is it just geographic? Ross Harano: Well, I can give you an example. There were a bunch of us that used to hang out together and we&#039 ; d say, hey, let&#039 ; s go out and do something. We&#039 ; d all go out and whatever it might be, go bowling, go drinking, whatever it might be, and all of a sudden you have a kid, and they&#039 ; re not as flexible, and then somebody else has a kid. So now you just can&#039 ; t say &quot ; Hey, let&#039 ; s go out to, there&#039 ; s a, there&#039 ; s a theater thing going on, let&#039 ; s go down.&quot ; You can&#039 ; t do that any more, we have kids. So that&#039 ; s what, that&#039 ; s what happened, once you have the kids, then that, that nucleus group sort of breaks up. You still get together, but not on a regular basis. We were getting together, our group of friends were getting together almost every weekend, we were doing, doing something. But it changes. Once you have a kid, things change. And that&#039 ; s happened in the community, so therefore the groups are much more... friendships are not on a daily basis, as before. Anna Takada: Well thank you so much, again, for taking the time to speak. Before we wrap up, are there any last things that you&#039 ; d like to add? Ross Harano: Mainly about Chicago. I, I think Chicago is an unusual place in terms of, of sansei. The sansei on the east coast are much different than the sansei here ; the sansei here are much different than the sansei on the west coast. Sansei on the east coast are totally, totally assimilated all the way through, just in everything they do. The west coast, you know, you don&#039 ; t have to be that assimilated ; here, there&#039 ; s sort of a mixture of assimilation and it&#039 ; s a whole, it&#039 ; s different than the sansei on either coast. I did notice that, but also, the fact that it&#039 ; s such a smaller group that we all seem to know each other somewhere along the way. Especially, when you, you know I was saying I&#039 ; ve been going to a lot of funerals lately, and I get to see folks, I saw someone I haven&#039 ; t seen since high school almost, so. But we still are a community that sort of, does band together when necessary, which we do. Anna Takada: Do you have any hopes for the future of the Japanese American community in Chicago? Ross Harano: I don&#039 ; t know, I, I haven&#039 ; t thought about it. I think the service committee and the other groups, we just need to support them. I think, as, as we go through this whole assimilation process, we have fourth, and fifth, and sixth generation kids who are half, half, half, half, half, half, half... you know what&#039 ; s the future? And this is a question we asked when I was a sansei. You know, well, am I Japanese or am I American? A-and, and then, the, the bottom line of all that whole discussion, we&#039 ; re a visible minority, so even though we&#039 ; re American, but we are Japanese, and people know that. Now, with this whole assimilation, intermarriages, and the kids, how will that, how, how do they fit into all of this? I remember when they did the, the history project for JACL and the Nisei book, there&#039 ; s a picture of this clan in New York City who came to the U.S. early, in the 1860s, I can&#039 ; t remember their names, but they didn&#039 ; t even look Japanese at all, because they were in New York, and they intermarried right off the bat most likely, so, but the family still had the Japanese last name. So it, it&#039 ; s fascinating about, about the next generations and how they fit in, how they feel about it, because don&#039 ; t forget, as a visible minority, our relationship with the United States is dependent upon the United States relationship with Asia. In World War II I was a Jap, in the Korean War I was a chink, in the Vietnam war I was a gook. So, anything goes wrong with China, or whatever, it will affect us as a visible minority. That&#039 ; s one thing that we have to recognize, that, that the tide can change overnight in terms of who we are, and what took place in World War II could happen again, and we just have to make sure it doesn&#039 ; t. Anna Takada: One last question. Ross Harano: Mm-hmm. Anna Takada: How, how can we do that? How can we make sure that nothing like the incarceration or what happened in World War II? Ross Harano: Well, part of the whole, part of the whole redress and reparations made that point. When we first started out you know, we were talking about $40,000 per person dead or alive, and it got down to $20,000 if you were alive on a certain date in &#039 ; 88. But uh-, or &#039 ; 80... &#039 ; 88. So what happened is that certain legislation is taking place, which basically prohibits this, and the Supreme Court rulings were overturned, but still we have to make sure that the issues deal with immigration, and we have to be involved in those issues, and we have to make sure that the whole backlash that&#039 ; s going on against people of color, we have to be on the forefront of telling our story of what happened to us, as part of the whole story of how it can happen again unless Americans are vigilant. Anna Takada: Thank you so much, again. Ross Harano: Sure. Anna Takada: I promise that was the last one. Ross Harano: Okay, no problem. Copyright held by the Japanese American Service Committee, Chicago, Illinois. video Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from the Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center. 0 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=HaranoRoss20180322.xml HaranoRoss20180322.xml http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/collections/show/1 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/items/browse?tags=Series%3A+Untold+Stories Sort Priority 1500 OHMS Object https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=HaranoRoss20180322.xml Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Harano, Ross (3/22/2018) Description An account of the resource Ross Harano, a sansei, was born in 1942 at the Fresno Assembly Center in California before being moved with his mother's family to the Jerome incarceration site in Arkansas. His father's family was incarcerated at Poston. Ross shares what he knows of his family's roots in Berkeley, CA and Hanford, CA, the military service of many of his uncles in both the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), and his family's resettlement experience in Illinois. Of particular note are his memories of growing up on the South Side during a time of rapid change in racial demographics and his involvement in the Junior JACL and other civic and community organizations throughout his adult life. Ross emphasizes the importance of individuals knowing and understanding the history of Japanese Americans during World War II, particularly so that we are able to be proactive in our efforts to ensure that nothing similar ever happens again. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-03-22 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video ISHRAB Series: Untold Stories https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/files/original/ea37546651e1fdcd20c30c764e09d482.png c1a79a87f5c80eec830ff49995af70a4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection Subject The topic of the resource Japanese Americans--History. Description An account of the resource This collection contains oral history interviews from the Japanese American Service Committee (JASC) Legacy Center's holdings. Where available, transcriptions have been included and synced to the recordings to enable full-text searching. Interviews were recorded at various times, some by JASC staff and some by external partners, often supported by grant funding. See the metadata associated with each interview for full details. This digital collection will continue to grow as new interviews are recorded, and as additional pre-existing recordings are received by donation or discovered in the physical archives. The digitization and transcription of many of the recordings in this collection, the recording of interviews between July 2018 and June 2021, and the creation of this publicly accessible digital platform, were funded by a Japanese American Confinements Sites (JACS) grant awarded by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The JASC Legacy Center gratefully acknowledges the financial support received between 2018 and 2021 that enabled this project to succeed. --- This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity National Park Service 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Japanese American Service Committee (Chicago, Ill.). Legacy Center Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Takada, Anna Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Kano, Sachiko Interview Keyword Tule Lake Denson Jerome Heart Mountain West Side North Side Lakeside Church North Shore Church Fourth Presbyterian OHMS Object Text 5.4 7/24/2018 Kano, Sachiko (7/24/2018) 1:36:07 JASC_US JASC Legacy Center Oral History Collection US Untold Stories Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center Recorded, transcribed, and made accessible online with financial support from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program and the Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board. Tule Lake Denson Jerome Heart Mountain West Side North Side Lakeside Church North Shore Church Fourth Presbyterian Kano, Sachiko Takada, Anna video 1:|10(9)|25(2)|31(10)|46(1)|52(8)|64(11)|73(12)|87(9)|97(7)|106(12)|120(4)|132(11)|142(4)|148(4)|168(7)|193(2)|207(4)|220(1)|231(2)|244(14)|257(1)|270(7)|282(3)|291(1)|299(15)|305(14)|322(3)|334(6)|342(4)|349(3)|359(11)|377(1)|392(11)|404(9)|424(3)|445(4)|462(3)|485(13)|502(5)|523(8)|545(6)|555(12)|564(5)|576(8)|599(7)|606(8)|617(10)|632(13)|645(6)|661(3)|666(4)|677(4)|690(2)|708(3)|719(1)|739(14)|747(8)|766(7)|780(3)|795(3)|807(14)|816(5)|832(3)|841(3)|854(6)|868(11)|876(6)|888(8)|899(8)|908(12)|925(7)|938(5)|958(8)|980(4)|993(7)|1001(11)|1014(7)|1032(11)|1051(7)|1065(2)|1078(3)|1092(6)|1122(7)|1132(7)|1142(7)|1152(9)|1160(3)|1175(9)|1186(5)|1195(7)|1216(1)|1233(9)|1241(13)|1248(11)|1258(4)|1271(8) 0 https://vimeo.com/395035722/11a129ab52 Vimeo video &lt ; iframe src=&quot ; https://player.vimeo.com/video/395035722?h=11a129ab52&quot ; width=&quot ; 640&quot ; height=&quot ; 360&quot ; frameborder=&quot ; 0&quot ; allow=&quot ; autoplay ; fullscreen ; picture-in-picture&quot ; allowfullscreen&gt ; &lt ; /iframe&gt ; Sachiko Kano, a nisei born in Sacramento, CA in 1935, shares childhood memories of FBI raids and pervasive fear in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. She describes her family dressing in their best clothes to report to the Sacramento Assembly Center, and recounts her family's movements between incarceration sites at Tule Lake, Denson/Jerome, and Heart Mountain along with other members of their church group. Sachiko recalls her parents' decision to resettle in Chicago at the urging of some church friends who had already left camp and established themselves in the city. She describes her experiences attending school in a West Side, predominantly Italian American neighborhood before moving to the Lakeview neighborhood on the North Side during high school and eventually to Evanston after she married. She reflects upon her life lived in a white world, and wonders if her Japanese heritage might have played a bigger role if her family had been able to stay in Sacramento. Anna Takada: This is an interview with Sachiko Kano as part of the Japanese American Service Committee and Chicago Japanese American Historical Society Oral History project. The interview is being conducted on July 24th, 2018 at JASC in Chicago. Sachiko Kano is being interviewed by Anna Takada of the Japanese American Service Committee. So, as I mentioned to you earlier, sort of the flow of these conversations is, we like to talk about your experiences pre-war, and a little bit of background information about your family, and then learning more about what happened to your family during the war. And then kind of finishing up and focusing on resettlement in Chicago, so why your family chose to come here, and what it was like when you arrived. So, before we get started, can you just state your full name? Sachiko Kano: Sachiko Donao. That&#039 ; s my maiden name, Donao, which is very unusual, they tell us. You know. Kano. Anna Takada: And where and when were you born? Sachiko Kano: I was born in Sacramento, California, 11/1935. Anna Takada: And, to start, can you just tell me a little bit about your parents, where they were from and what brought them to-- Sachiko Kano: My grandfather came because, the story goes in the family that he couldn&#039 ; t join the Russian-Japanese war because he was too short. And he was an adventurer anyway. He went to Hawaii in 1905, and he jumped to Sacramento area after, I understand, a year in Hawaii. And, he was married at that time, and I believe my mother was one years old when he came. And, she&#039 ; s the oldest in the family, of the children. And, he came from Chiba, prefecture of Chiba. And the town near they- he was born and lived was in Ōhara. Anna Takada: And, so does that mean that he met your grandmother in Hawaii? Sachiko Kano: No, they were married before, in Japan. Anna Takada: Okay. Sachiko Kano: My grandfather was unusual man, that he was an adventurer. When he was young, he went up to Manchuria, and you know... Unusual because he was the oldest in the family. And I understand he didn&#039 ; t like school, he used to ditch school all the time. My grandfather was quite a, quite a man, you know? (laughs) Anna Takada: And, so you said that he spent a year in Hawaii before moving to Sacramento? Sachiko Kano: Mhm. He moved to Sacramento because there was a family, it could be our relatives, but they always said friends named Sato. And the father, the father named Sato, I don&#039 ; t know his first name anyway, he was in Sacramento area, I think farming. And then he called in his two sons the Satos. And, the father went back to Japan. My grandfather was actually friends of the father. The, these two men were the sons, so they were younger than my grandfather. And they started farming there. And, I guess they were in a area called Oak Park outside of Sacramento. And then the two brothers bought land, 100 acres as I understand, and then they divided among the people that came from Chiba, you know, Ōhara area. They divided land, 20 acres a piece and my grandfather happened to be one of those that bought it. And that area was called Mayhew. Anna Takada: And so, were these family friends? Is that how he knew the Sato brothers? Sachiko Kano: They could have been cousins, you never know, you know? Anna Takada: So you said your mother was already born by the time they went to-- Sachiko Kano: Yeah, one years old. Well, my mother didn&#039 ; t come &#039 ; till, I don&#039 ; t know, 1920s? They left her in Japan. My grandmother came in 1912. My grandfather came to America in 1905 and she finally came in 1912, left my mother there in Japan. My mother never wanted to go back to Japan. She never talked about her life in Japan because I think it was too harsh. My father wanted to go visit after the war and she didn&#039 ; t want to. So my father never went back to Japan. Anna Takada: And how old was your mother when she came to- Sachiko Kano: 15, as I understand it. My cousin, she&#039 ; s a librarian at, in Edwardsville, Southern Illinois. And her husband is you know, a Caucasian man and he&#039 ; s a big deal at Southern Illinois. He, he&#039 ; s in administration. Last time I heard, he was vice president at Southern Illinois, Edwardsville campus. And she&#039 ; s doing, she was doing the research, and she told me my mother came when she was 15 years old. I knew she came when she was older, but I didn&#039 ; t know the age my mother came. Anna Takada: And, so she joined your grandparents in Sacramento then? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, because immigration was going to... I think she came around 1920 or whatever, I don&#039 ; t know exactly. All I know is my cousin told me she was 15 years old when she came. Anna Takada: And how about your father&#039 ; s family? Sachiko Kano: My father came by himself. He&#039 ; s from Oita-ken. Anna Takada: And can you tell me more about his background and why he came to the U.S.? Sachiko Kano: I, I think he was the only child for a long, long time. And I don&#039 ; t know, he just came. He was, he was 15 years older than my mother. He came in 1912 in Seattle. At that time they didn&#039 ; t have a port in San Francisco, so they all had to come in via Seattle. And he came to Sacramento because he had a cousin, a woman cousin that was married to a Buddhist priest. And I guess they were trying to, I don&#039 ; t know, trying to f-find a, a temple you know, in Sacramento area so... Anna Takada: And what kind of work was he doing, your father? Sachiko Kano: He, I don&#039 ; t know what he was doing, but he went to Utah to tenant farm for a while. Where was... Ogden! He was in Ogden, near Ogden, Utah tenant farming. And then he decided that it was, he wasn&#039 ; t making any money or doing anything profitable. The only area he knew was Sacramento, California, so he came back there. But by that time, his cousin and the husband had gone back to Japan. He started his own business selling goods to farmers. They would order and he would bring it in. That&#039 ; s how he met my grandfather. And I don&#039 ; t know what happened. I guess my grandfather made a good deal (laughs). My father was a really good man you know? He let my mother run the whole show. Anna Takada: And what were your parents names? Sachiko Kano: Saichi Donao, D-O-N-A-O. That&#039 ; s everybody that hears that Donao doesn&#039 ; t think it&#039 ; s Japanese. They&#039 ; re really surprised. Anna Takada: And your father&#039 ; s name? Oh, that&#039 ; s your father&#039 ; s name. And your mother&#039 ; s name? Sachiko Kano: Nobu Yamasaki. Anna Takada: And, so what, what year did they get married? Sachiko Kano: I don&#039 ; t know. I&#039 ; ve got wedding pictures. My father told me after my mother had died that the wedding was, everybody from the countryside came because it was an unusual wedding that they had a Christian wedding, and that was, really unusual in those days. So everybody came to the reception, everybody. I have pictures of that down in the, in the trunk, old trunk I have. Anna Takada: And can you tell me more about their religion, your parents? Sachiko Kano: My mother, m-- I guess my father was Buddhist or Shinto whatever. And my mother was Christian here, became a Christian. My grandmother converted to Christianity first here and then I guess passed it onto my mother when she came. In fact there was, from you know Chiba, there was a man that became a pastor in Sacramento. I can&#039 ; t even think of the name of the man because I used to play with the daughter, you know. I remember her name, Ruth, but I don&#039 ; t remember the last name. Anna Takada: And with, what kind of Christian church was it? Sachiko Kano: Baptist. We, in fact, my parents followed them you know in camp to where the groupies you know, went to. Like we went Tule Lake, the group went to Tule Lake, and the group went to Arkansas, Denson, and to Heart Mountain. But a lot of &#039 ; em came to Chicago too. In fact they were, majority were members of Reverend Oyama&#039 ; s church that&#039 ; s on Devon Avenue, that church. But when I knew it, it was in the middle of the highway. You know, they got the money to help build the, that Devon Church. Anna Takada: And before, before we get into the Devon Church, so your, your father was Buddhist and your mom was Baptist? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, you know when they came to... Anna Takada: And so when you were raised-- Sachiko Kano: We were raised Protestant, Baptist, so I still go to the church. Anna Takada: Mhm, and do you have any siblings or did you have any siblings? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, I have two of &#039 ; em. Two older ones. Anna Takada: And do you know what years they were born? Sachiko Kano: The oldest was born 1928, October, I think one of the holidays in October. We don&#039 ; t celebrate anymore. (laughs) Anna Takada: And what is their name? Sachiko Kano: Chizuko. But they always called Chiz. But I always called her Nee-san, and I used to get so mad because people used to call her other names. I used to get mad and say, &quot ; Her name is Nee-san!&quot ; Anna Takada: And how about the middle sibling? Sachiko Kano: Yuri Anna Takada: And w-- Sachiko Kano: Irani. Anna Takada: And what year was she born? Sachiko Kano: &#039 ; 30, on Valentine&#039 ; s Day. Anna Takada: And then you were born five years later in &#039 ; 35? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anna Takada: And can you, so you would&#039 ; ve been young when your family entered camp? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. I remember some parts, but not-- Like crazy things I remember. Like... the FBI going house to house, I still remember that. I don&#039 ; t know why. And rumors were going around, and you know people were getting scared. And I used to listen to all kinds of Japanese records. I don&#039 ; t know if you know Naniwabushi? Anna Takada: Mhmm. Sachiko Kano: I used to listen to that and like it. Well, they, they broke every Japanese records and everything. You know, people were afraid that they, whatever they had, maybe the FBI would think that they were subversive or something, so... Anna Takada: Who was breaking the records? Or who-- Sachiko Kano: We were. You know, the parents were. Anything Japanese they would try to get rid of you know. Rumors were going around that you know, &quot ; This was bad and that was bad.&quot ; So people would destroy everything. Anna Takada: And do you have, so do you ha-- you remember this as a, experiencing it as a child? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. See, things like that, I remember, some things you know? Anna Takada: How about the December 7th, 1941? Do you remember? Sachiko Kano: Well we were at a movie theater. My mother ran a business and my father had his own business. So this man, he was a friend of my parents and he used to help them out by taking us places like on Sunday. And we were at a movie. We didn&#039 ; t know what happened, anything happened. Just came home from the movies as usual you know? He took the three of us you know to the movies so my father and mother could have some rest. Anna Takada: And, you mentioned your, your mother had a business, what business was that? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, she ran a rooming house and we lived there too. She took care of these single Japanese men. You know, they were farm workers. And when the harvest season would, would end, then they would come and stay at the hotel. She had Mexican helpers. And then my father had his own business. He had a liquor store, he bottled, he bought wine in barrels and then he bottled his own wine and he put his own label on the wine. They were surprised at how little the store was, but he sold so much they thought it was a way, way bigger operation, but he did everything himself. Anna Takada: So at some point, your father switched businesses-- Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: --from selling farm supplies. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Actually my mother was a good business woman. She looked so meek and you know, but she was the power in the family really. She always used to say, Papa was, but no, it was her. She ran the whole family. Anna Takada: And so financially, with your family, it sounds like- Sachiko Kano: We were pretty well off you know? My father revealed later that you know, they took the money out of the bank and my mother hid the money in corset. She sewed, sewed pockets in the inside of the corset and that&#039 ; s where they hid the money on her. Anna Takada: So was that after the evacuation orders, they withdrew? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, yeah, yeah because didn&#039 ; t know what was going to happen. My grandparents were in an area called Mayhew, and that was country, inaka in those days. So they went to different camp than we did. They stayed in one camp until we called them into, you know... Anna Takada: Which camp were they- Sachiko Kano: Poston, Arizona. Anna Takada: So, unless you have any other memories of kind of those pre-evacuation orders, I&#039 ; d love to-- Sachiko Kano: I remember us being taken to, I don&#039 ; t know, maybe a Japanese, the Japanese Buddhist temple or anything to get shots. That&#039 ; s what I remember. And then I remember going, you know to the first assembly camp in Sacramento. I remember my mother and father bought us these small purses that looked like footballs you know, and we were dressed in our, I guess practically best clothes you know, waiting for, I guess a bus or something to take us to the first camp. Anna Takada: Do you know why your mom dressed you up? Sachiko Kano: Well, I don&#039 ; t know! (laughs) But we were all dressed up though, and you know. I guess we didn&#039 ; t want to look like bums or something. Most Japanese dressed to go, you know, to camp. Anna Takada: So, can you tell me more about, so you were sent to an assembly center? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Then we went to Tule Lake. Anna Takada: And do you have any sense or idea of how, about how long you were in each location? Sachiko Kano: We were in Tule Lake until they decided that the dissidents would come to the camp. And the ones that signed the loyalty oath &quot ; No&quot ; , then they shoved us to Denson. Yeah I r-- in Tule Lake, when we first got there, I, I got really sick, you know? I had kidney disease and they didn&#039 ; t know what to do, you know? So I was incapacitated for one or two years in Tule Lake. Anna Takada: Was there a medical facility there? Sachiko Kano: Makeshift in the beginning. Oh, I had nephritis. That&#039 ; s a kidney disease. And there was no medicine or anything you just had to-- At that time, you know, there was no medicine, and at that time as I recall if I walked, I would blow up, you know? So, they couldn&#039 ; t do anything. But my grandmother in Arizona, she had heard that watermelon was good, so she would cook it and send it to the, you know, our family, you know in Tule Lake. They stayed at Poston through the whole you know, whole... My uncles were, one uncle was drafted before the war, so he was in the army already. And he was stationed most of the time in Australia. He was trained, I guess, in Minnesota in the, what, Translation Department or whatever... So he was stationed in, in Australia. My other uncle went to camp. But he would go in and out of camp. He would go work you know, and then when he felt that the draft letter... I shouldn&#039 ; t say, (laughs) but the draft letter would be coming to where he was working, he would quit or you know, it would be off season. So he would come back to camp and live there for a while. And then when he felt that the draft letter would come, he would go find another job outside of camp. (laughs) Anna Takada: Do you know the ages of your uncles at that time? Sachiko Kano: Nope. Anna Takada: At least of draft age. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: Mhmm. Do you, what are some of your memories of Tule Lake? Sachiko Kano: I remember one memory that they said a young kid drowned in the river around there. So everybody from camp went out there to look for the young man. I guess he died drowning in the... I don&#039 ; t remember too much about camp life. Maybe I just put it out of my mind. But, you know, there were things that you didn&#039 ; t realize was going on in camp, you know? Anna Takada: But you realized later, or? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Yeah. Like the No-No boys, you know? Anna Takada: Not realizing... Sachiko Kano: Yeah. We knew that troublemakers or dissidents were coming to the camp, that&#039 ; s why we had to move, but... And then there was quite a ruckus about the you know whether you, you&#039 ; re loyal to the United States, or you&#039 ; re loyal to Japan. Yeah, there were quite a bit of discussion, we knew. And one of my father&#039 ; s friends, he was single, his wife was back in Japan. She never came to the United States. But, he was here to work. And he was a single man. He was a really good friend of my father&#039 ; s. In fact, he used to be the one to take care of us, you know, so my mother and father could have rest. And he said to my father, &quot ; I&#039 ; m surprised, you, you know, you didn&#039 ; t sign &quot ; No&quot ; you know for the...&quot ; Because he signed, &quot ; Yes&quot ; , he was going to go back to Japan. Well, he had no family here, so he said, &quot ; No&quot ; , he&#039 ; s not dis-- he&#039 ; s disloyal. And, actually a lot of them didn&#039 ; t understand, you know? A lot of the Isseis I think, and a lot of them were single men too, so... Oh, I know, I forgot their name, but they had a business right next to my father&#039 ; s, and I was a lonely kid. There wasn&#039 ; t kids my age around. So, I used to go running into their barber shop every day and sit there, and they would pretend to cut my hair. And they were really good friends. They were like you know, my grandparents. Anna Takada: Where was that? Sachiko Kano: In Sacramento. And they, they sent their sons back to Japan. I guess because, I don&#039 ; t know, they didn&#039 ; t have time to help raise them you know? The, the parents were barbers, both of them, in the shop. So, they sent their sons back to Japan and they knew that the sons were in the military army in Japan. So they decided this is the way to go back to Japan after the war. So they signed, you know, Non-loyal. So they stayed in Tule Lake. And that single man I was talking about, he stayed in Tule Lake. We moved on with the church group to Denson, Arkansas. Anna Takada: And before we get into that move, you mentioned that you were ill in camp. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: Were you, what were you doing at the time as a, as a young kid? Were you going to school or... Sachiko Kano: No, just going to start school. Anna Takada: And um-- Sachiko Kano: Well, at that time, they were just setting up the camp health, healthcare you know. Funny things I remember though, people are really resourceful because in, they had a huge laundry room with all these big tubs and everything. Someone was making tofu and selling tofu. Anna Takada: In camp? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: And, so it sounds like there was still a, a church presence in the camp. Sachiko Kano: Oh, yeah. Anna Takada: Can you tell me more about that? Sachiko Kano: Oh, I remember the name of the ma-- of the minister. Igarashi, Igarashi. He, as I understand, came from the area of you know, Chiba, Ōhara area I think, you know the area. And he completely changed he was, as they said later, that he was a big drunk. And I don&#039 ; t know, he came here and converted to Christianity, and he went to seminary and he became a minister. Anna Takada: But he was in Tule Lake? Sachiko Kano: And he led the church, you know, in camp. Anna Takada: So was there like an actual church building in Tule Lake? Sachiko Kano: I don&#039 ; t remember. I think they borrowed, you know one of the camp, and converted to a church. There was a huge, I think this was Easter in Tule Lake, Easter Sunday. It was a huge Christian gathering. And I think that&#039 ; s where my mother and father were baptized, as I recall. I was just a kid. So that&#039 ; s a memory I have. Anna Takada: In Tule Lake? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: And so it sounds like there was a sizable congregation there in camp. Sachiko Kano: Yeah, yeah. Anna Takada: And so then, you said that, kind of with members of the congregation you moved to... Sachiko Kano: Yeah, we moved as a group you know, to these places. Anna Takada: So where, where did you go next? Sachiko Kano: Denson, Arkansas. That&#039 ; s where my mother and father met up with Reverend Oyama. He, he was the pastor of you know, the Devon Church. He was the original pastor of Devon Church. He ministered to two camps, Denson and, I can&#039 ; t remember the twin camp. It was close by. Anna Takada: And, so was this, was this Rohwer? Sachiko Kano: Pardon? Anna Takada: Was the camp Rohwer? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Yeah. It was Rohwer. Yeah. Anna Takada: And so I&#039 ; m thinking, if your family left Tule Lake around the time that they converted it to a maximum security-- Sachiko Kano: Yeah, yeah. Anna Takada: So I believe that was in &#039 ; 43. Sachiko Kano: I guess. Anna Takada: And then, so at that point you would&#039 ; ve been eight years old, you think? Sachiko Kano: Maybe, I don&#039 ; t remember. Anna Takada: Or, no I&#039 ; m s-- yeah. Eight years old. So you were still pretty young when you were moving around. Sachiko Kano: Oh yeah. Anna Takada: --in camp. Sachiko Kano: I remember when they moved us, to camp, to camp. I remember I don&#039 ; t, maybe we were going to Arkansas, I don&#039 ; t remember. Maybe we were going to Heart Mountain. Every time we came near a town, they would stop the trains and make us close all the shades and everything, and we would go you know. I remember that. I thought, &quot ; Strange, they make us pull the shades&quot ; you know? Anna Takada: And do you have any specific memories about Rohwer? Sachiko Kano: You mean Denson. Anna Takada: Denson? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Rohwer was the twin, you know, next door. Anna Takada: So the camp was Denson? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: Okay. Sachiko Kano: Rohwer was the next one over. I mentioned that because Reverend Oyama used to take care of the two camps. Anna Takada: Oh, okay. So Denson, that was also called Jerome? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, Jerome. Yeah. I guess that&#039 ; s the official name, huh? Jerome? Anna Takada: I think that&#039 ; s more commonly known. But... Sachiko Kano: I couldn&#039 ; t think of Jerome. Now I know that&#039 ; s Jerome. Yeah. Anna Takada: And were you, so at that point, were you going to school? Sachiko Kano: I don&#039 ; t even remember. Yeah, I think I was. But I don&#039 ; t remember school at all in the camps. I went, I know. But... Anna Takada: What are some of the memories that stick out to you about Arkansas? It must have been different. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. All I remember is hot. And we used to play out all the time. I used to play with this minister&#039 ; s daughter. She was a lot older than me, but we didn&#039 ; t have other people to play with, so. Her name was Ruth. I remember her first name, Ruth. Anna Takada: And do you know how long you were there? Sachiko Kano: I don&#039 ; t know, maybe about a year or so. Then we went to Heart Mountain. The contrast was really something else, because it was so cold in Heart Mountain. That&#039 ; s all I remember about Heart Mountain, was it was really, really cold. Anna Takada: Must have been a shock, especially living in Sacramento-- Sachiko Kano: Yeah, hot, really. Anna Takada: And then from the swamps. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: So, do you know what the reason was for that move to Heart Mountain? Sachiko Kano: They were closing Jerome. Anna Takada: So, okay. And was that another move that you did with the Baptist church? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Yeah. And the group. Anna Takada: And was this the same people that came from Tule Lake as well? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: So a number of... Sachiko Kano: Yeah, came from Sacramento. Majority of the people that my mother and father joined, you know, they were from Sacramento. Anna Takada: Do you know if there were other members that were kind of picked up along the way who joined? So maybe- Sachiko Kano: No. Anna Takada: Okay. So this was mostly Sacramento... Sachiko Kano: People. Anna Takada: And then, do you know how long you were in Heart Mountain? Sachiko Kano: Till practically the end of the war. Because my father was pretty old at that time. And he felt that he couldn&#039 ; t handle things, until they, oh until our friends from Sacramento, they came out real early. They had two sons. Actually four sons. Two sons became ministers in the Presbyterian church. And they were prominent in the Japanese area, not in Sacramento area, but in the Los Angeles area. Their name was Toriumi. And they came to Chicago, so... They urged us to come. Finally, my father said, &quot ; Well, yeah.&quot ; We had to get out. So we came to Chicago because of them, you know urging us. And we couldn&#039 ; t go back to California anyway. Anna Takada: Why, why was that? Sachiko Kano: The war was still going on, and they still restricted you know people, Japanese people from going back to the West Coast. So we came because of the Toriumi family. They had four sons. Two were, one was younger than my middle sister, and they had three other, other older sons. There was a son named Den Toriumi. He was, actually took care of the, you know parents. He was in Chicago here. Anna Takada: He, he was in Chicago? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. The parents died in Chicago. They were prominent in that Presbyterian church by Wrigley Field. Anna Takada: And do you know why the Toriumi family chose to come to Chicago? As opposed to somewhere else? Sachiko Kano: Like Seabrook? A lot of them went to Seabrook. I don&#039 ; t know, maybe because there were jobs here. She was a sewing, she was my mother&#039 ; s sewing teacher in California, in Sacramento. So that&#039 ; s how you know, my mother and father came to know this Toriumi family. Yeah, we stayed with them, maybe, I don&#039 ; t know, when we first came to Chicago we, we stayed with them on Jackson Boulevard. On the West Side. Anna Takada: Um, do you, would you happen to know the cross street-- Sachiko Kano: No. Anna Takada: Or how far west? Sachiko Kano: I know the son, the youngest son, he was still school age. So he went to Skinner at that time. I understand there&#039 ; s two Skinners, but at that time there was one Skinner. Anna Takada: And would you happen to remember taking the trip from Heart Mountain to Chicago? Sachiko Kano: No. Anna Takada: That&#039 ; s a, that&#039 ; s a long trip. Sachiko Kano: No. Just trains, I know. Anna Takada: And how about when you first arrived to Chicago? Do you remember having any first impressions, or... Sachiko Kano: I don&#039 ; t know, it was big. And my father and mother were trying to get housing. At that time in Chicago, it was hard to get housing. So, I think, as I recall, we lived couple of weeks on the... We couldn&#039 ; t stay with that family you know long time. So, they desperately found housing on the South Side. I think we stayed couple of weeks on the South Side of Chicago, and don&#039 ; t ask me where, you know. And then we moved to the... Somehow my parents found housing on the West Side, Italian neighborhood of Chicago. We lived on Flournoy Street. The building is not there, but we were next to Notre Dame Church. On I think Harrison Street, it is. Yeah. It&#039 ; s still there. Notre Dame Church is still there. The building that we lived in was torn down shortly after we moved to the North, North Side. And my grandparents, they finally came out of camp. And it was only my aunts, my two aunts and my grandfather and my grandmother. And they found housing across, maybe a block across from us in the Italian neighborhood. They lived in a small, two story building owned by a Italian family, you know. Anna Takada: And so was that your mom&#039 ; s family? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: And remind me which camp they were in. Sachiko Kano: Poston. But I don&#039 ; t know which number. I don&#039 ; t remember that. Poston. That whole family&#039 ; s gone now. My aunt just died couple of years ago, you know. She was never married. Anna Takada: And when you, so you mentioned that your parents had a lot of difficulty in finding housing. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. In those days it was really hard to find housing. So we moved to the West Side there, you know. Anna Takada: And do you know why it was such a challenge? Sachiko Kano: Well, they weren&#039 ; t building, you know. It was just difficult at that time. Housing wasn&#039 ; t being built because of the war, and you know. Anna Takada: And, do you have any memories of what these different apartments that you were staying in were like? Sachiko Kano: What do you mean? Anna Takada: Like, can you describe the, the buildings? Your first homes in Chicago? Sachiko Kano: All I remember is it was a stone building on Jackson Street. Jackson Boulevard, I guess, not Street. And then it was just a flat where we lived you know, I think, maybe &#039 ; 45 to-, maybe five years we lived there. It was a building full of Mexicans. And I happened to... We thought I was to go to the school a block away called McLaren. I don&#039 ; t think it&#039 ; s there anymore. But I was out of district so I had to walk all the way to Jackson. Anna Takada: Was it much farther? Sachiko Kano: Jackson Element... Oh yeah, way further. So, and we, yeah, I went to elementary school there and then I went to Lakeview High School up north, you know. Anna Takada: Can you tell me more about what your school was like? Sachiko Kano: You mean Jackson? Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. Because that was the first school you went to in Chicago. Sachiko Kano: It was-- Yeah. It was, majority were... We were right in the heart of... It was on Carpenter Street, South Carpenter Street. I guess it&#039 ; s still there. But majority was Italian kids and a sprinkling of Mexican people, kids you know. I grew up and my best friend, as I recall, was a Jewish girl. She lived, I don&#039 ; t re--, a very Orthodox Jewish girl, Jewish family. And I was, one of the memories I remember was I went to her house and her mother was throwing all the meat that they were going to eat in buckets of water, washing it. I never saw that before! Yeah they were really kosher, because I would invite her to my house and she wouldn&#039 ; t eat anything because we weren&#039 ; t kosher. But I remember eighth grade when we were you know, we used to be able to go to, I don&#039 ; t know how old would I have been? 12, 13? 12, 13, 14, somewhere around there. Anyway, we would go downtown Grant Park and we&#039 ; d come home around 11 o&#039 ; clock by ourselves you know. Yeah, the parents, our parents would let us go out that late and come home from downtown. Yeah. We didn&#039 ; t have cars or anything, so I remember that. Anna Takada: So how were you getting around? Sachiko Kano: Public transportation, we were getting around. Yeah. Anna Takada: And when you came to Chicago, did you have an okay time making new friends at school and... Sachiko Kano: Yeah, I guess so, but I was unusual, I guess. But they didn&#039 ; t think too much of it, you know. But they never included me in, you know, really participating in groups or, you know, I was a outside man. Anna Takada: And was that, do you think that was because-- Sachiko Kano: But they always threw me in, when there were activities, group activities, they always threw me in with the Mexicans, the Spanish group, not the Italian group, but always the Spanish group. Anna Takada: And was that because of your identity, that... Sachiko Kano: I don&#039 ; t, I have no idea. Probably, you know the Italian group were so intermeshed together that you know... Anna Takada: And it sounds like that they were the majority. Sachiko Kano: Yeah, yeah. Anna Takada: Did you ever experience any kind of prejudice or discrimination as a kid? Sachiko Kano: Maybe I did, but I didn&#039 ; t realize it. You know, probably discrimination would be because I would always be grouped with the Mexican people, not with the Italian people. Anna Takada: And did you participate in any activities outside of school or, or was-- Sachiko Kano: We just went to... I used to walk all the way to Ashland Boulevard, and I don&#039 ; t remember, maybe it was Harrison. Anyway, I used to have to walk to Sunday school myself. My mother made me go to Sunday school. It was a Methodist church, St. Paul Methodist. It&#039 ; s not there anymore. My uncle, they got married at that church. They&#039 ; re lifelong Methodists, anyway. I don&#039 ; t know why, but my uncle was a Methodist. That part, I don&#039 ; t know why they were Methodist, but they were. Anna Takada: Were you going there only for Sunday school or was your family attending a different church? Sachiko Kano: Sunday school only. My, you know, uncles, they were active at Saint, and my aunts, they were active at St. Paul. Anna Takada: And how about your parents? Sachiko Kano: At that time, the Japanese churches were so far away, they didn&#039 ; t really go. Or if they did, they went to Fourth Presbyterian Church in downtown where they had a Japanese group going. Anna Takada: Do you know anything else about Fourth Presbyterian? Sachiko Kano: No. Anna Takada: Or anything about-- Sachiko Kano: No, that they, they were kind enough to, you know let the Japanese come and have service there, you know. Anna Takada: And how about the other, the Japanese churches that were too far, which churches were those? Sachiko Kano: Reverend Oyama&#039 ; s Church. They were in the middle of, what is that highway, now? The Kennedy, I think? Yeah, they were in the middle there. They were bought out by, you know, so they could build the highway, and they moved to Devon, which was considered oh, so far away, you know, at that time. And, later, we knew that Reverend Kuzuhara, they had a church there. We only found out because we, we lived around the corner from where that Lakeside Church was, then we joined them. Anna Takada: And where was that located? Sachiko Kano: On Sheffield and Wellington. Anna Takada: So that was around, you must have moved-- (intercom speaker in background) Sachiko Kano: Yeah, go ahead. Anna Takada: So you must have moved, then, if that was around the corner? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: If that was by. So-- Sachiko Kano: Yeah, yeah, that&#039 ; s not... My building&#039 ; s not, my father&#039 ; s building is not there. In fact, they closed up Wilton at that area. The Illinois Masonic took over part of Wilton Street. But take your phone call or whatever. Anna Takada: Oh, that&#039 ; s okay. That wasn&#039 ; t for me. Sachiko Kano: Oh, okay. Anna Takada: That was just, we were just interrupted, that&#039 ; s all. And, so what was, so you mentioned the building on Wilton. So I guess we can talk about what your parents did when they arrived to Chicago, for work? Sachiko Kano: My father, I don&#039 ; t know what he did for work in the beginning. I don&#039 ; t know if he worked. I think he worked part of the time, you know, Curtiss Candy Company. So many Japanese worked at Curtiss Can-- Candy Company. And they had a farm, too, out maybe, in Arlington Heights. We thought it was country, that a lot of the Japanese lived there and worked there and processed chickens and things like that. You know why I know? My uncle&#039 ; s wife&#039 ; s family were there. They lived, it was practically all Japanese in this one building. And, and they were processing poultry, I think, in the, on the grounds. They lived on the grounds and they were processing, you know? Anna Takada: Outside of Chicago? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, that&#039 ; s suburban area, now, you would consider. But we thought it was out in the really boondocks, you know! Anna Takada: And-- Sachiko Kano: A lot of them worked there. (Intercom speaker in background). Anna Takada: I&#039 ; m sorry. Actually, just one moment. I&#039 ; m going to... Sachiko Kano: Yeah, take it. I&#039 ; m in no hurry. Anna Takada: Okay, so we were talking about work. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: In, in the city. Sachiko Kano: That&#039 ; s where a lot of, not a lot, but Japanese were there processing chickens and then, the women and... you know. My grandfather used to work for, I don&#039 ; t remember the name of the company or anything, they used to separate magazine pages, put them together for magazines, like Look and, you know, Life Magazine. A lot of the old Japanese worked there. I guess they were good with their hands, you know fast, so they used to work. My grandfather would, this was the first time he had ever worked in a factory or anything. He was always on the farm being independent. I have to laugh because he worked there long enough to get some social security, and my grandmother got some, too. She didn&#039 ; t work, but you know, she got his part of his money, I guess, until she died. Anna Takada: And you mentioned your father working at Curtiss Candy Company? Sachiko Kano: I think he did. Anna Takada: Do you know what kind of, what some of the jobs were, there? Sachiko Kano: No, I just, a lot of Japanese worked at Curtiss Candy because of Harry Maeda. Anna Takada: Who was that? Sachiko Kano: Harry Maeda was from Sacramento and, I don&#039 ; t know if he was a lawyer or something, but he worked for Curtiss, recruiting, you know Japanese people from camp, and you know, a lot of the older ones, to work at Curtiss Candy Company. That was a popular place for Japanese to work. Another popular place was called McClurg, they used to, these companies, I guess you&#039 ; re not familiar with, huh? McClurg, Japanese worked there, quite a few. They, they were like, you know, they would pack things up and you know, sell dishes and all kinds of things, knick knacks, everything. And the Japanese workers, I guess, would pack them and fill the orders and everything. And the ladies, you know, the ones that sold, like my mother, they worked at this, I don&#039 ; t know the company&#039 ; s name, everybody referred to them as Sherman Sherman, and they would make children&#039 ; s clothes. The ones that wanted--, as I got the impression, the ones that wanted to work as sewers, they started at Sherman&#039 ; s, you know. Anna Takada: And it sounds like your mother found work, as well? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, she worked at Sherman&#039 ; s. A lot of the Japanese ladies worked there. My aunt, one of my aunts, she worked there, I think, as a finisher, you know. Not doing sewing like my mother, but you know, I guess inspecting and I don&#039 ; t know, cut off threads and things like that. Anna Takada: And you mentioned, in an earlier conversation we&#039 ; ve had, that your father bought some property? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, they bought property, you know the Wilton house they did, three story apartment building. Anna Takada: And which neighborhood is that in? Sachiko Kano: Lakeview. And Lakeside Church was right around the corner from us. Lakeside Church was Sheffield and Wellington. Sheffield and Wellington. Anna Takada: And do you know why your father chose to buy a property up there? Sachiko Kano: Well, Japanese were moving up there and it was a good neighborhood, Lakeview area. Anna Takada: Do you know why, why Japanese Americans were moving to that area, in particular, or why moving, in general? Sachiko Kano: I think it was convenient, too, you know. From, for work and everything, close to downtown. I know once Japanese used to work for, women used to work for RCA. They were near Tribune Tower or something, at one time. My mother&#039 ; s good friend from Sacramento worked there, Mrs. Mendel. Yeah, she w- she was a widow and she had to, her husband died early in Sacramento, and she had, I think, three kids she had, she had to support. And I think at that time, she worked at a cannery in California. She was here, she came here and I know she worked for RCA, you know? Anna Takada: Were there other families that you knew from Sacramento that also came to Chicago? Sachiko Kano: Oh yeah. They were all by Reverend Oyama&#039 ; s church. I don&#039 ; t know why the majority went to Reverend Oyama&#039 ; s church up in, I don&#039 ; t know. But now, you know, I hear, the Japanese congregation is not there anymore. Anna Takada: You mean members or Japanese American members are no longer... Sachiko Kano: Japanese American, they still do English, you know worship. In fact, American man is leading that group, but it&#039 ; s really a mixture, now, you know. Anna Takada: Mhmm, and just going back to your family&#039 ; s move to Lakeview, you had mentioned that was also, you started attending Lakeview High School? Sachiko Kano: Mhmm. I was just outside of the Waller, at that time. Lincoln Park was called Waller High School. Anna Takada: Can you tell me more about your personal experiences, you know as a young teenager moving to a different part of the city, going to a new school? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, it was, that population, in, at Lakeview, was mostly, at one time there was Swedish, they had, when we first moved to that area, there were quite a few Swedish businesses on Belmont near where we lived. And then later, I, I guess it changed into a German neighborhood. And then, while I was living there, there used to be quite a few Spanish businesses, but no Spanish living in that area, but they had businesses on Belmont Avenue. Anna Takada: And how about the Japanese American population? You mentioned that-- Sachiko Kano: Yeah, but at Lakeview, I only knew one girl. Her name was... I remember her last name, but I can&#039 ; t remember her first name. Morioka. But if there were Japanese, there were only about, I don&#039 ; t know, I think a lot of the Japanese might have gone to Waller High School, you know, south of us. But at Lakeview, we didn&#039 ; t have hardly any Japanese people there. In fact, not even Oriental people. Anna Takada: And did you, did you know other Japanese Americans your age, maybe, outside of? Sachiko Kano: No, no. Anna Takada: No? Sachiko Kano: No, because there wasn&#039 ; t. Well, our age group, I guess there wasn&#039 ; t a population of kids, you know? Especially in the Japanese group. Like, you know when my sisters grew up, they had clubs and everything going, you know? But not in my generation, no. Anna Takada: So your sisters, were they a part of any Girls clubs? Sachiko Kano: Oh, not Girls Scout, just plain girls group, you know Anna Takada: Were they involved in any of those groups? Sachiko Kano: I gu-- Yeah, I guess they participated quite a bit. I don&#039 ; t know. They, they were older than me, so they had their own group going. I know there was a big bunch of Japanese, you know kids growing up. In fact, my two sisters graduated from, what is that school? McKinley High School. It&#039 ; s famous for having Walt Disney graduate from there. But that was the high school they went to, was McKinley High School. They both graduated from there. Anna Takada: So you, they, you&#039 ; re saying that they were, there were a lot more-- Sachiko Kano: Oh, there were quite a few, yeah. Anna Takada: Japanese Americans their age. Sachiko Kano: Mhmm. I had brought a picture along. The thing is, we never identified anything, but you know there are groups, group pictures, I thought, maybe, you&#039 ; d like to see. Anna Takada: Oh yeah, thank you for bringing those. Sachiko Kano: If I can find it in my purse, I have all kinds of junk in there. (laughs) Anna Takada: So what year did you graduate from Lakeview High School? Sachiko Kano: &#039 ; 54 or &#039 ; 5-? No, &#039 ; 55. &#039 ; 55. Anna Takada: And did you participate in any activities outside of school? Sachiko Kano: No, they... Well, they were exclusive, you know what I mean? We weren&#039 ; t the kind of people they wanted. Anna Takada: Why is that? Sachiko Kano: I don&#039 ; t know. Because we were rare species or whatever, you know? Anna Takada: And, but you were still going to church. Was that your only outside of school activity? Sachiko Kano: No, I used to, we used go out, you know groups of friends and everything. But the only contact I had with-- Anna Takada: (Sneeze) Excuse me. Sachiko Kano: Yeah, only contact I had with Japanese is church. That&#039 ; s the only contact I ever had with a group. You know, no Japanese around. Anna Takada: And I meant to ask you earlier-- Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: But growing up, were you speaking Japanese with your parents? Sachiko Kano: I spoke Japanese until I went to preschool or kindergarten in Sacramento. Anna Takada: And, when you, by the time you moved to Chicago, were you still speaking Japanese? Sachiko Kano: We would speak English, and my mother and father would speak Japanese interspersed with English, you know how it goes. Anna Takada: And, in these, these early days of moving to Chicago, you&#039 ; ve mentioned there was you know, a Japanese American community here. There were people working at Curtiss Candy Company and all of these different places, and, and some of the churches you&#039 ; ve mentioned. Were there, do you remember any, any other areas where there were maybe a number of Japanese American families living? Or, you know where there-- Sachiko Kano: They started coming, I guess, from the South side. They, there was a sizable Japanese community. In fact, they had a Christian church, you know, all Japanese, on the South side. I don&#039 ; t remember the name of the church. And then that broke up when the minister went back to California. But I don&#039 ; t know, we&#039 ; ve always been scattered around. You know, pockets here, pockets there, you know? Anna Takada: Do you remember any other of these pockets, like you say, in the other areas in the city? Sachiko Kano: Well eventually, I don&#039 ; t know, a lot of them migrated into the Lakeview area, and then after that some went to Uptown like my aunts when they, like my aunt when she first got married, they moved in fact near Aragon? What was the street? Lawrence and... up the street from Aragon. I don&#039 ; t remember-- Anna Takada: Bryn Mawr? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Something like that. There were Japanese there before people went into Edgewater. I think the Japanese from Lakeview moved into the Edgewater area, you know, where there&#039 ; s that North Shore, North Shore Church where I belonged to. Anna Takada: And in these areas, were there businesses or restaurants, or anything like that, that you remember? Grocery stores? Sachiko Kano: All I remember is that you know, in the Lakeview, edge of Lakeview, I would call it edge, but near Wrigley Field, you know that, I can&#039 ; t think of the name of the place. Anna Takada: Toguri? Sachiko Kano: Yeah Toguri, but no, just a plain grocery store. It was so popular. I can&#039 ; t think of the name. Anna Takada: Star Market? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, Star Market. Yeah. We used to go there all the time and my father used to know the young men that you know, ran the place, owned the place. They were from Sacramento. Anna Takada: Do you recall their name? Sachiko Kano: I think one of them was Hatanaga? Anna Takada: And- Sachiko Kano: You know why I know that name? Because I guess they lived in Evanston because my son went to high school with the Hatanaga boy. Anna Takada: Do you-- And so did your family go there often for groceries? Sachiko Kano: Oh yeah. When we lived in that area, yeah. Anna Takada: What, what was, what did they sell? Or, or can you describe the-- Sachiko Kano: Everything. Anything Japanese. I mean, grocery wise, they were the most popular, you know. There was York, that&#039 ; s a good friend of my, you know, grandfather&#039 ; s family, York. And I don&#039 ; t remember the other ones, but York was in business for a long time. Anna Takada: That was another... Sachiko Kano: Japanese store. Anna Takada: And do you remember where that was located? Sachiko Kano: Originally it was around Division Street, you know, around Clark and Division. Somewhere around there. It was run by a sister and brother. And then everybody was happy that we had Star Market, you know? That, that was really popular. Anna Takada: Could you-- This is kind of a strange question, but would you be able to describe what Star Market looked like? Or was it a large grocery store? Sachiko Kano: No, it wasn&#039 ; t that large, but they had everything Japanese you know you would want. When we, we, when you wanted to, like my mother always used to cook you know, New Year&#039 ; s everything, you know, traditional. They went to Star Market you know? Or else, before Star Market, they used to have York deliver stuff, you know. Anna Takada: And so how long was your family in Lakeview? Sachiko Kano: My, &#039 ; 6-, 196-... My mother died in 1965, so maybe 6-- I think &#039 ; 66 or &#039 ; 68 or something like that. Anna Takada: And where did you move to? Sachiko Kano: Oh, we were the first ones to move to Evanston. I was married by then and I had three kids by then. So... Anna Takada: Well, where in Evanston? Sachiko Kano: Still where I live, Northwest Evanston. Anna Takada: And so what year were you married? Sachiko Kano: &#039 ; 5-- Let&#039 ; s see, &#039 ; 5-, &#039 ; 58, yeah. Anna Takada: Where did you meet your husband? Sachiko Kano: In school. Anna Takada: College, or...? Sachiko Kano: Yeah, college, mhmm. Anna Takada: And where did you go to college? Sachiko Kano: Elmhurst, that&#039 ; s the, as far as I could get from out of the house. My mother wouldn&#039 ; t let me go further than that. She said that&#039 ; s too far away. Anna Takada: And-- Sachiko Kano: He&#039 ; s from the old country. He was a student there. Anna Takada: In Elmhurst? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: And what did you study? Sachiko Kano: Sociology. Anna Takada: Was there anything in particular that made you interested in sociology or how did you... Sachiko Kano: Well, there was a professor that really, you know, was really good. In fact, he was, he was at the college for years and years and years. And he would tell us stories about when they accepted Japanese students at Elmhurst, they were afraid that something would happen to the Japanese students. So since he was Dean of the college at that time, he would accompany the Japanese students to go into downtown Elmhurst so nothing would happen to them. Anna Takada: So it sounds like he had an, an impact on you and what you wanted to study. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Yeah. Sociology and Religion. Anna Takada: And another thing I wanted to ask about was, you mentioned that a, a number of people in Chicago, or, or some people moved back to California or the West Coast. Sachiko Kano: A wholesale bunch. At one time we had, they say over 20,000 in population. And when it was permissible for Japanese to go back to California, a lot of them went back. In fact, my sister married a man and he went back to California. They lived in Gardena area. My oldest sister, they lived in the Gardena area because his family went back to California. They moved back. Anna Takada: Do you know why your family chose to stay in Chicago? Sachiko Kano: Because my uncles didn&#039 ; t-- My mother, I know she was, she looked meek and everything, but she was really the strong person in the family and she decided we&#039 ; re gonna stay here because my uncles didn&#039 ; t want to go back to California. They didn&#039 ; t want to do any more farm work. &#039 ; Cause it was hard work and besides my grandfather, he always went, disappeared, went fishing or just did something else, you know, so they would be responsible for the work. So they didn&#039 ; t want to go back to Sacramento area. My grandfather was the only one that abandoned land. I mean the land that he had, you know? The others all went back you know? In fact, one of the Sato-- Original ones that bought the land, he donated his land, most of his land to create a Baptist church in Sacramento. It&#039 ; s now Sacramento town, it&#039 ; s not country anymore. So yeah, the Sato family had nine children a piece. Anna Takada: Wow. So we have a few minutes left. One thing I would want, I want to ask is, when you think about the Japanese American community from those early resettlement days and, and you think about it now, what do you think are some of the... what has changed or how would you describe them? How would you compare them, I guess? Sachiko Kano: What do you mean? Anna Takada: Like um... Sachiko Kano: The Isseis to present, right? Anna Takada: No, I guess I mean more like the population of Japanese Americans in Chicago kind of in the &#039 ; 40s, you know, how did that look compared to today? Sachiko Kano: There is no Japanese community now. When people ask &quot ; What are you?&quot ; I get mad so I say, &quot ; I&#039 ; m made in the USA.&quot ; But then later I&#039 ; ll say I&#039 ; m Japanese and they&#039 ; re so surprised. &quot ; Japanese?&quot ; Or like I don&#039 ; t know antiquity or something. People used to think of Japanese, but now they don&#039 ; t. We&#039 ; ve, we&#039 ; re a disappearing, you know, ethnic group. People don&#039 ; t think about Japanese anymore. Like, you know you say-- the thing that really comes right into their minds when they ask you what you are. They say, &quot ; Are you Chinese? Are you Korean?&quot ; You know? Anna Takada: Do you think that&#039 ; s-- Sachiko Kano: But, never comes into their mind, that Japanese. Anna Takada: But you think, so it sounds like you&#039 ; re saying that visibility maybe is a little bit different, like back then people-- Sachiko Kano: Yeah, yeah. They would mention Japanese, but now not a word, you know? And they&#039 ; re so surprised when you say Japanese. Why are they so-- I know in my family, the only one married to a nihonjin, Japanese, is my niece in California. All the rest, my cousins and my children are all married to, you know, white people, mostly English and German. Anna Takada: And what is the ethnicity of your husband? Sachiko Kano: Japanese. Well, he&#039 ; s, he was the only one here so... Of his family, so... Anna Takada: And was he in camp as well or...? Sachiko Kano: No, no. Anna Takada: He was here before the war? Sachiko Kano: Yeah. No, after the war, way after. He came here for schooling. Anna Takada: From where? Sachiko Kano: Japan. Anna Takada: Okay. Sachiko Kano: So we are a disappearing group. So my son said, &quot ; You should, you should tell your story!&quot ; His wife is, I think, English and German. And I&#039 ; ve talked to her aunt and they said they were part of Amish group. She, the family, her mother&#039 ; s side is based in Iowa, you know, or the Amish area. And the father&#039 ; s side is Illinois. Anna Takada: And-- Sachiko Kano: She was, until last year, she was a one star general in the Air Force. She&#039 ; s a nurse, you know? Anna Takada: Well we have time for... Well we should be wrapping up. Sachiko Kano: Yeah. Anna Takada: I... Sachiko Kano: Time for what? (laughs) Anna Takada: (laughs) Before we wrap up our conversation, do you think that there&#039 ; s, there are any ways that your childhood experience of the war and going to camp and then moving to Chicago, in what ways, if any, has that kind of shaped who you are as a person or, or impacted your life? Sachiko Kano: The only world I always knew was white world, not Japanese world, you know? Once in a while it would come when you have festivals or something like that, but not, you know, we&#039 ; ve always lived in the white world. Always my friends and my close friends are all white people. So, I don&#039 ; t-- maybe if we stayed in Sacramento area, we would have more of a impact of, you know, oriental culture or Japanese culture. But here, you know, that has been wiped out. The only group was this service committee. My father always supported the service committee, but you know, there aren&#039 ; t many groups to join. I, I joined the Baptist church group at you know, North Shore because my husband wanted to join the Japanese speaking group and I just went along with him to make sure that this was the group that he would like to stay with, you know? And they adopted me. Reverend Nambu said, after I attended a year, &quot ; I think you should join our church.&quot ; I said, &quot ; Okay.&quot ; Anna Takada: And one thing I like to ask before closing with people is if you could leave any kind of message or legacy behind for your kids and maybe grandkids, what kind of thing would you want to leave with them or help them know? Sachiko Kano: I would like to ask that they explore more of the Japanese heritage that they have. My granddaughter, the 18 year old, she&#039 ; s very interested, you know? But we live in an area that&#039 ; s so remote from you know, Japanese culture mostly up where they live. They live in Wilmette and the high school that she went to is New Trier. There&#039 ; s hardly any Japanese there. And she&#039 ; s been in contact with, lot of Taiwanese kids and mostly Taiwanese kids, you know. Anna Takada: Yeah. And is there anything else that you would like to add or that I might have missed in this conversation? Sachiko Kano: No. I don&#039 ; t know if I gave you information or not, but, thanks. Anna Takada: Well thank you so much again for coming in and taking the time to speak with me. Sachiko Kano: Yeah, I hope it does some good, you know. Anna Takada: Thank you. Sachiko Kano: Yeah b-- Copyright held by the Japanese American Service Committee, Chicago, Illinois. video Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from the Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center. 0 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=KanoSachiko20180724.xml KanoSachiko20180724.xml http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/collections/show/1 http://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/omeka/items/browse?tags=Series%3A+Untold+Stories Sort Priority 2900 OHMS Object https://digitalcollections.jasc-chicago.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=KanoSachiko20180724.xml Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kano, Sachiko (7/24/2018) Description An account of the resource Sachiko Kano, a nisei born in Sacramento, CA in 1935, shares childhood memories of FBI raids and pervasive fear in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. She describes her family dressing in their best clothes to report to the Sacramento Assembly Center, and recounts her family's movements between incarceration sites at Tule Lake, Denson/Jerome, and Heart Mountain along with other members of their church group. Sachiko recalls her parents' decision to resettle in Chicago at the urging of some church friends who had already left camp and established themselves in the city. She describes her experiences attending school in a West Side, predominantly Italian American neighborhood before moving to the Lakeview neighborhood on the North Side during high school and eventually to Evanston after she married. She reflects upon her life lived in a white world, and wonders if her Japanese heritage might have played a bigger role if her family had been able to stay in Sacramento. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-07-24 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video ISHRAB Series: Untold Stories