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Description
An oral history with Sumiye Takeno, a current resident of Denver, Colorado. This interview was conducted for the Japanese American Oral History Project by California State University, Fullerton. The purpose of this interview was to gather information regarding Takeno’s incarceration and resettlement experience during World War II. Specifically, the interview covers her childhood in Florin, California, her experiences in church and sewing school; her experiences as a nurse’s aide at the Manzanar incarceration camp in 1942, detailing camp life, close friends, and recreation; talks about her arranged marriage to her husband, Roy, in 1943 while incarcerated, their engagement party; her Methodist upbringing and faith, her involvement in the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) in the early 1940s; her feelings on “baishakunin” or what is known as arranged marriage; her family’s roles and actions while living at the camp, her attitude and equipment on and about the camp; comments on her relationship between her husband and herself, her husband’s family and their background in Japan, his background living in Fresno, California, size and impact of Roy’s family, and change that emanates when a Japanese woman marries into another family; details the importance that medical practicing had on her family life, her husband’s health and career in the 1960s while writing as a journalist and acting as an organizer for the JACL; she describes her husband’s jobs for such newspapers like the Denver Post and Rocky Jiho; comments on her social circle after the camp in Manzanar, her husband’s local fame as a journalist and for his involvement with JACL; she talks about Roy’s leadership position in JACL and his roles in the organization in the early 1950s, her feeling about all the letters of support she received when Roy passed away; explains her move to Denver with Roy in the late 1940s due to his new job as a journalist at the Rocky Shimpo, her housing situations between the late 1940s and 1950s in Denver; discusses the location of the newspaper office, Rocky Shimpo, the restaurants and stores that surrounded the newspaper office, the location of the JACL office in 1946; she describes the JACL administration with Min Yasui’s leadership in 1946, her feelings about the name change from “Denver JACL” to the Mile High Chapter of the JACL in Denver; discusses her family’s frugal techniques, simple life, and forms of transportation post-war; her feelings on the incarceration and its effects on the Japanese American community on a national level, the impact the camps had on the communities after the war; how suburbanization impacted her family starting in 1952, the general neighborhoods in Denver that had the largest Japanese American populations; the experiences that JACL gave her, the social and legislative activities she participated in, and the change to civil rights activism in JACL in the 1960s; her feelings on the issue of redress for the Japanese Americans who were interned during the war, and her official active role in the organization in 1987; talks briefly about Min Yasui and his civil rights activism, and about James (Jim) Omura’s leadership when he took over the Rocky Shimpo newspaper in 1947; and her description between the Issei and Nisei Japanese Americans. Transcript is found in item: csufccop_jaoh_0047. The Japanese American Oral History Project features oral histories with narrators who talk about their lives, pre and post World War II, but most specifically, about their experience being incarcerated in camps during World War II.
Activism and involvement Community activities--Associations and organizations World War II--Japanese American Citizen League activities World War II--Incarceration camps--Impact of incarceration World War II--Leaving camp--'Resettlement World War II--Military service Religion and churches Reflections on the past Redress and reparations Geographic communities--Colorado World War II--Incarceration camps--Incarcerees World War II--Incarceration camps--Living conditions World War II--Incarceration camps--Social and recreational activities World War II--Incarceration camps--Social relations World War II--Incarceration camps--Weddings World War II--Mass removal ('Evacuation')--Aftermath Activism and involvement--Civil rights Civil Liberties Act of 1988 Geographic communities--California
Place
Florin, California Manzanar, California Denver, Colorado Incarceration Camps--Manzanar
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