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Description
Nisei female, born on January 17, 1915 in San Francisco, California. She became an outstanding educator about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Her family moved to Florin to farm strawberries and grapes. Mary attended a segregated grammar school for Japanese students, but in 1929 entered integrated Elk Grove High School. A high school teacher mentored her in English and public speaking and got her a scholarship to College of the Pacific. There, Mary was advised not to go into education and was told ""nobody will hire you in America.� Mary married Al Tsukamoto in 1936 and daughter Marielle was born in 1937. After enactment of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, a national Japanese American Citizens League meeting was held in San Francisco and Al attended. It was conceded that evacuation was inevitable, thus Japanese must comply to show respect and loyalty to the United States. The Wartime Civilian Control Administration (WCCA) was formed and headed by Colonel Karl Bedetsen to implement evacuation. The Japanese American Citizens League appointed Mary as the liaison between WCCA and Florin Japanese American Citizens League. Upon receipt of instructions from WCCA, Mary and volunteers mimeographed newsletters and held meetings to inform the Japanese American community. Her role was suspect by some who felt she was a government agent. Al arranged to have his friend Bob Fletcher manage the Tsukumoto farm during Internment as well as the Nitta and Okamoto farms adjacent to Al�s. Thus the three farms were saved for the families upon their return in 1945. In the spring of 1942, when Mary was twenty-four, the Tsukamotos went first to Fresno Assembly Center, then to Jerome, Arkansas. Mary describes the loyalty questionnaire and resultant crisis in March 1943. The family went to Kalamazoo, Michigan to work in a bakery. After returning to Florin, Mary got an emergency teaching credential in 1949, earned a Bachelor of Arts at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) and taught in Elk Grove elementary schools. She retired in 1976 at age fifty-one. An elementary school is named in her honor.Throughout her teaching career Mary had not referred to internment history. This silence was broken after becoming director of Jan Kenpo Gakko, a Japanese cultural school for young children. Japanese American parents wanted their children to learn about internment, which grandparents and great grandparents found too painful to tell. Mary saw that some children suspected their family members may have been guilty of crimes against America. She set about correcting these views and prepared a curriculum about internment to tell the �real� story. Mary also provided artifacts, documents, and photographs about internment to the Smithsonian Institution on the occasion of its celebration and exhibit in Washington, D.C. Mary�s internment curriculum for the Elk Grove School District waspresented to fifth graders for over twenty years. Mry was active in the redress movement of the 1970s through 1988 and testified as a witness for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. See the appendix in the bound copy for educational activities which Mary generated to inform the public about constitutional rights and violations, the effects of racism and threats to justice. Also referenced are Mary�s activities in the Japanese American Citizens League, United Methodist Church and publication of the book, �We the People� co-authored by Mary and Elizabeth Pinkerton.
California State University, Sacramento California Revealed is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
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