Marii Hasegawa: oral history with Waldo H. Heinrichs and Molly Graham

Item Information

Title:
Marii Hasegawa: oral history with Waldo H. Heinrichs and Molly Graham
Description:
From a series of oral histories with residents and employees of the Loomis Village Retirement Community, South Hadley, Mass., regarding their lives and experience in a retirement community. Peace activist who had been interned during the Second World War as a Japanese American at Tanforan and Topaz Internment Camps: (00:01:05) How Japanese Americans were chosen to go to the camp, segregation helped facilitate the relocation; fear post-Pearl Harbor. (00:03:42) Relocation authority arrested people without letting family know where others were; women left isolated and banks shut down; took leaders away leaving no one to represent the Nisei; father pro-American and left alone at first. (00:07:50) Uncertainty over future went on for months; racial hostility toward Japanese increasing. (00:09:30) Learns about plans to relocate Japanese from west coast; husband's search for a farm beyond the exclusion zone, but found they were not welcome to find orders for evacuation. (00:12:35) Evacuation came in stages; problems in dealing with that number of internees; Marii sent from Berkeley to race track outside San Francisco and did best to keep children in line. (00:14:42) Given two weeks to prepare to move and told they could take what they could carry in two hands; organization of the camp; each family assigned to one or more horse stalls fitted with straw mattresses with no privacy; some families were separated, but not Hasegawa's, except for older sister who had gone to Japan to study Japanese culture more thoroughly, communicating with her during the war only through postcards through the Red Cross. (00:21:45) As renters, they did not lose property, but sold furniture and car after a year, the furniture like a yard sale, though some had it stolen by neighbors promising to keep it; Hasegawa relatively fortunate. (00:24:50) Brought record player and sewing machine with her; wish she had taken hotplate and coffee pot. (00:26:28) Put on train to Tanforan race track for months, then move to Topaz (Utah) in autumn 1942. (00:29:12) Food; were not to be given anything better than the soldiers, so were fed Vienna sausages, given $3 per month clothing allowance, etc.; fenced in with guard towers at all four corners in the midst of a desert area; no one tried to escape because they would stand out. (00:31:15) One man smuggled a dog in and sneaked out, and could not get dog back in, so shot the dog "trying to escape." Could spend allowance through mail order from Montgomery Wards, etc., and got bonus of clothing left by CCC. (00:32:59) Hasegawa spent days teaching embroidery and home economics to keep girls busy; had to make do with rationing like they did on the outside. (00:35:10) Mood inside camp, very little interest in the war, one group was sure that Japan would win and the internees would be reinstated (mostly in Tule Lake), but no effort was made to see what side the internees were on, assuming they were all pro-Japan; questionnaire sent around in second year asking about loyalty and willingness to fight for US: a "stupid kind on questionnaire" which many Issei responded by saying they would not fight; families split over the issues. (00:37:55) Administration entirely by white Americans under War Relocation Authority with Council of internees designated to negotiate, but they could only do what was possible. (00:39:31) After army began to accept soldiers from the camps and sent overseas, most of whom could hardly speak Japanese or had ever been there; two brothers in law had be trained to speak Japanese. (00:41:54) Adapting Japanese culture to life in camps; holidays; families were split and gangs were formed, skipped school, so family system was broken up in camps so that when they finally left camp, the older people who did not speak English well discovered their neighbors had pillaged them and leases were torn up, and were given only $25 by government to resettle. (00:45:17) Births and deaths registered at camp. (00:46:29) Some loosening of strict prison life toward end of the war and some latitude to leave camps; had to have a job to leave camp. (00:48:50) Fearful upon leaving camp with concern about reception and loss of work skills. (00:50:28) Hasegawa approached about becoming American equivalent of Tokyo Rose; "anything to get out of camp;" applied for job and was hired, so she quit her job in Ohio and was preparing to move, but they canceled the program. (00:52:27) Memories of camp triggered by some of the songs of the time and food. (00:55:33) Describing a camp to a child who knew nothing of them: like Girl Scout camp in living conditions, explain that people think they are enemies at different times and they get over it, but until they do, they can do terrible things; not easy to get past old grievances and religion interferes with it; in US few have heard about the camps and what was involved. (00:57:54) Hasegawa's life different because she spoke both languages well, but she was able to carry on a lot of her work in dietetics and nutrition in camp, just as she would have outside of camps; camp did make her a complete believer and worker for peace, freedom, and justice; leading her to work for organizations when she left camps to become member of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, a non-religious organization that she joined in 1947; she was always a different kind of person, not a typical Japanese woman. (01:02:10) Did not keep a diary during internment and sorry she did not; did get news while in camp and made their own magazines with no censorship. (01:03:05) Married an internee whom she met outside of camp while he was studying at Kenyon College with assistance of Nisei Relocation Committee.
Interviewee:
Hasegawa, Marii
Interviewer:
Heinrichs, Waldo H.
Interviewer:
Graham, Molly
Date:
June 18, 2010
Format:
Audio recordings (nonmusical)
Genre:
Oral histories (document genres)
Location:
Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Collection (local):
Loomis Communities Records
Series:
Series 5. Oral Histories
Subjects:
World War, 1939-1945
Japanese-Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945
Japanese-Americans--Social conditions--California
Peace movements
Retirement communities--Massachusetts
Central Utah Relocation Center
Tanforan Assembly Center (San Bruno, Calif.)
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Loomis Village Retirement Community
Places:
California
Massachusetts
Extent:
1 audio recording ; 01:08:17
Link to Item:
https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums685-o001-i012
Terms of Use:
Requests to publish, redistribute, or replicate this material should be addressed to Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries.
Contact host institution for more information.
Place of origin:
South Hadley (Mass.)
Language:
English
Identifier:
mums685-o001-i012