<Begin Segment 4>

RP: So your dad also had a little bit of knowledge of the United States through his travels.

MT: Well, yes. He strived to be self-educated. He read a lot, and he did writing.

RP: So he taught himself English?

MT: He taught himself to write and he did a lot of reading. So as I remember him, and so he was self-taught in a lot of ways. He's always wanted to become, back to America once he had been here. And when the naturalization law was passed, he was one of the first who went down to get naturalized, and he was naturalized the year after the law was passed and all the irregularities were cleared out, he went down and became a naturalized citizen.

RP: I'm sure he would have done that sooner if the law allowed him to.

MT: Oh, yes. Yes, I'm sure he would have.

RP: It sounds like he was very much bent on being, thinking and living as an American.

MT: Yeah. His reason for coming back was basically to be established, where other people came to make some wealth and go back home.

RP: Go back. Yeah, I think one of the proofs of that was the fact that he brought his wife over to settle and raise a family here.

MT: Yeah.

RP: So were you, as a teenager growing up in Sawtelle, were you active in the Methodist church there?

MT: Yes. We attended the West Los Angeles Methodist Church.

RP: On Purdue Street. It's on Purdue Street now.

MT: Purdue Street, right. And I participated in the young people's program there.

RP: Were you involved in leadership activities?

MT: Well, very minimal, not that great at the time. But later on I became active. But Mary you met, she's also from West Los Angeles. And we were, well, I guess you'd call it teenage sweethearts and we went to Uni High. She was a year younger than I, and she graduated from Emerson junior high school and then went to Uni High. And she came also to Manzanar. Her family was evacuated to Manzanar.

RP: What was her maiden name?

MT: Takemura.

RP: Takemura?

MT: Yeah.

RP: T-A-K-E...

MT: M-U-R-A.

RP: ...M-U-R-A.

MT: Yes.

RP: She wasn't related to a gentleman by the name of Kango Takemura?

MT: No, not that I know of.

RP: He was an artist in the camp.

MT: Saburo, her father's name was Saburo Takemura, and he had one of the original gardens here at Manzanar. There was a driftwood, a gazebo and driftwood furniture, and he just picked up and put together. He was a very creative man.

RP: Did he do that in front of his barrack?

MT: That's right.

RP: Oh, was his first name George?

MT: George.

RP: Oh, yes, we have pictures of his garden.

MT: Yes, right, George was his English name, or he went by George. Saburo was his Japanese name.

RP: He was recognized as a very extraordinary landscape artist.

MT: Yes, right. I think he was very skillful in that way.

RP: And that's what he did for a profession?

MT: He was a flower grower. He grew flowers to the market. And his mother, Mary's mother and Mr. Takemura ran a flower shop in Wilshire Boulevard, and that's how he was always into that kind of flower work or raising flowers, growing flowers.

RP: And where was his growing area? Did he have hothouses?

MT: No, he had rented acreage, and also areas around what they lived off of Wilshire.

RP: Did he have a special, some flower growers specialized in certain things like mums or gladiolas?

MT: Oh, gladiolas was his favorite. He grew gladiolas, was one of his major flowers.

RP: Yeah, that was an amazing landscape he put together during the camp.

MT: Yeah. Oh, Mary will be glad to hear that because we often look for it, seeing that, and say, "That looks like your dad's work." We see something, even in this Remembering Manzanar, you know, "Well, that looks something like your dad's work." But we had a show in Portland, Gaman...

RP: The Art of Gaman?

MT: The Art of Gaman, and there was a DVD that accompanied that. And when you go to the art exhibit, they ran this off, so we were there looking through. And this one looked like a gazebo, and Mary said, "That's Dad, that's my father." It went by so fast, I said, "Well, it probably was." Because it was uniquely... no one did that other than Mr. Takemura.

RP: Oh, he had a great style.

MT: Is that right? Oh, she'll be glad to hear that.

RP: I will tell her that.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.