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Oral
History T-U
ALFRED
TSUKAMOTO
Alfred, 83,
is a Florin native and his early education was obtained at the
segregated
Florin
Grammar School
. His formal schooling ended after finishing Elk Grove High
School and one semester at Sacramento City College, as he had to
help on the family strawberry and grape farm. After one and
one-half years in
Jerome
,
Arkansas
camp, the family with wife, Mary, and daughter, Marielle, moved
to
Kalamazoo
,
Michigan
, and eventually returned to
Florin
. He was a leader in the Florin JACL, with Redress, Florin
Reunions and the
Methodist
Church
. He was the JACL chapterís third president in 1937 and first
postwar president in 1947. He retired in 1979 after 30 years
with the Army Depot.
MARY
TSUKAMOTO
Mary
Tsukamoto (1915 - 1998) was active to the day of her death at
almost 83. Born of
Okinawa
immigrants, she was known and honored nationwide as educator,
community leader and civil rights activist despite an arthritic
condition. Together with husband, Al, they were active in the
Methodist
Church
and Florin JACL. An elementary school is named in her honor and
her writings, documents and artifacts started the Japanese
American Collection at California State University Sacramento
Library Archives. The book, We the People - A Story of
Internment in
America
, was co-authored with Elizabeth Pinkerton. The
Mary
Tsukamoto
Japanese
Language
Academy
was just recently started.
TOMOYE
TSUKAMOTO
Tomoye
Tsukamoto (90) was the wife of the late Walter Tsukamoto, first
president of the Sacramento JACL Chapter (1934-36) and National
JACL President (1938-39). Her father, Ryosuke Kasai, came to the
United States
in 1898, graduated from high school, and lost everything in the
1906
San Francisco
earthquake. Tomoye was born in 1907 in
Berkeley
, graduated from high school and UC Berkeley. She married Walter
who had graduated from UC Berkeley Boalt Law School in 1930 and
established a law practice in
Sacramento
. The family of five children, all born in
Sacramento
, was forced to evacuate to
Tule
Lake
. Due to the activities of the pro-Japan group and possibility
of great harm, Walter was "secretly rushed out of camp on a
train to
Cincinnati
because of his pro-American and JACL stand" Tomoye and the
children joined him later. She says, "We moved thirteen
times" and the last move was to
Germany
where he died in 1961 with the rank of Colonel on military Judge
Advocate assignment.
LILY UMEDA
Poignant
stories of Japanese Americans like Lily Umeda are a part of
American history. Mrs. Umeda (82) has made the best of difficult
situations she had no control over. She was born in
Sacramento
, and sent to live with relatives in
Wakayama
,
Japan
, where she went through elementary school. Then, she was
brought back to
Hollywood
,
California
, where she attended high school as well as
Girls
High School
in
San Francisco
. At age 19, she took on adult and parent responsibilities after
an arranged marriage to Mike Umeda of
Sacramento
and raised four children. After time in Relocation center, the
family came back to
Florin
. She became a valuable, dedicated
Methodist
Church
member by helping with youth activities, bazaars, and
interpreting and translation work.
UTO UYEYAMA
This is more
of a biography than oral history. Ichiro Nakashima put this
together from a series of his 1992 Seventh Day Adventist
quarterly periodical about Uyeyama. There are six pages of
photos, twenty pages of text and two pages of testimonials from
her children. Content is about two groups--Okinawans and
Japanese; and about
Methodist
Church
and
Seventh
Day
Adventist
Church
. It is about her two daughters from the first marriage and the
eight children from the subsequent Uyeyama marriage. Generally,
an interesting account of the life and struggles of early
Japanese immigrant to "not friendly to Asians"
America
.
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