Densho Digital Archive
Twin Cities JACL Collection
Title: Helen Tanigawa Tsuchiya Interview
Narrator: Helen Tanigawa Tsuchiya
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Bloomington, Minnesota
Date: June 16, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-thelen-01-0020

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MA: And in Minneapolis, it seems like a lot of Japanese moved here after the war.

HT: Yes.

MA: Did you notice the community sort of getting smaller? Did a lot of people return to the West Coast?

HT: They did. They did return to the West Coast. A lot of them. But a lot of them stayed here because of that, camp, the...

MA: The language school?

HT: Yeah, the language school. And then they moved it over to San Francisco, I think, Presidio or whatever it is. And so quite a few were returning to California. We, we didn't because there were no place for us to go. But a lot of them did go back after the, they didn't have that school anymore. And then a lot of 'em didn't, just returned. Some of them weren't remarried and they just left.

MA: What about the community here in Minneapolis, sort of compared with the West Coast communities? Do you notice a difference?

HT: Oh yeah, there's a lot of difference.

MA: What do you...

HT: West Coast is more Japanesey, I think. They have all kinds of get togethers. We have just certain ones that we could do, but it's hard. It's, we used to have Bon Odori, you know Bon Odori, we used to do that when my husband was head of the church here. And then Todd has now taken over since my husband passed away. He was so, now there's they've finally changed the president to something else, but Todd was the president for the longest time. He knew a lot and he just -- I told him he should have been a minister. He said, "No." [Laughs] But it was, I don't know, it was, my husband was really, you know, we had the Normandale College. I don't know, did you go see the Japanese garden? They have a Japanese garden there. Anyway, they have the, they had the Bon Odori there. And we had the Chicago people come and they all had their nihongi on, and we had Bon Odori there. And there are a lot of that we did in those days when we had that little place to go. We had Halloween party and everybody'd dress -- kids were all small then. Now we're all grown. And a lot of them have gone into the Christian, they're not all Buddhists anymore. Our group is, the minister that comes from Chicago, he said that, "You're group is bigger than the Chicago because everybody else have gone out." So, but it's hanging on there. We have a small group, but we have church six times a year and then there are other small gatherings that happens.

MA: When did that, that center that you were talking about, it was like a community center, when did that sort of disappear?

HT: Well, that was quite a while back because that was when Reverend (Kitagawa and Reverend Otani), there were two reverends. That was, I can't even remember, that was a long time ago. That's when we were all young and all the kids were young. Oh, that was a good place to get together. We used to have wedding receptions, all kinds of stuff. In fact, my sister got married there. And it was really nice because they had a stairway upstairs and she walked down the stairway coming down. It was really beautiful. Because whenever we have a funeral or anything we don't have church per se. So we always go to the mortuary, I mean the, where they have the mausoleum or whatever, they have the funeral there.

MA: The cemetery?

HT: Yeah -- not the cemetery. It's called (individual funeral home).

MA: (Individual funeral home)?

HT: Yeah, where we have the gathering there. We just had one last Friday at this place out in Bloomington. And then we meet at the YWCA, our church.

MA: This is your Buddhist church?

HT: Yeah, yeah. We meet and they say, "Oh sure you could meet here." As long as we pay them rent and then... and then one of the head girls, she was a, one of the head person at the Y and she retired, but they said, "That's okay, you could still use it."

MA: How many members does your church have?

HT: We have about thirty-something. It's a small group but we're all together. And then the newer ones come. And then the kids are still learning it. Later on, you just never know. Doesn't matter to me if they want to do whatever they want.

MA: Is there also Japanese Christian church?

HT: I think so, there is. There is, they used to be, when the Isseis were here there used to be one. And then they dissolved because most of them were gone. And then a lot of them, I don't think there's a Japanese one, they go to their individual church. And then when they disbanded, they, they gave all the money to the JACL scholarship. We have a scholarship for my daughter Susan. Doing it for twenty odd years, twenty-nine years. And Sally was the one that started it. She was in Japan and when my daughter died, she said, "We're going to start, you should start it at JACL." I told her that, she didn't know that I started it because of her. Every year we give out scholarship. And they try to pick out a girl that's almost similar to whatever she had. And it's usually musical and smartness and community and all that. So it's really nice. And my doctor that I work for, he used to contribute toward it. And he was always giving me a bonus when he comes back from Arizona because I took care of the office while he was gone for six months that he spent out there. And I said, "Oh this comes in handy." I said, "I could put it to my..." "What?" He said, "This is for you. I'm going to give it." So he's been giving it every year. And then when I retired end of last month, he said, "Helen, as long as I'm living, I'm still going to be contributing to Susie." He knew her. Everybody loved her. Someday... I know you're not Buddhist, so, someday you have to meet David. He's coming in July, but he's speaks everywhere. He, the people from here that was from Hawaii went back to Hawaii and he spoke there and so she sent me a tape.

MA: And this is David...

HT: David Matsumoto.

MA: Matsumoto. Who is...

HT: Yo's son.

MA: And your daughter's...

HT: Ex-husband.

MA: Ex-husband, okay.

HT: And he's married now, and she's just a lovely lady. When he was in Japan he met her there. And, but that little boy is, I think sixteen by now.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.