Densho Digital Archive - Rose Tanaka Interview (denshovh-trose

<Begin Segment 19>

AL: What was unique about Block 30? Was that the Florin and Elk Grove?

RT: Florin, Elk Grove group, uh-huh. They were country people, and I have a good friend, a lifelong friend who was in that block, and I still see her. She was the widow of Roy Takeno.

AL: So, yeah, you were talking about that the other day. She would have a been a little bit older than you, right?

RT: Yes. When I was getting ready to leave camp... no, it was in May of 1944 that she and Roy were married in camp, and again, it was an arranged marriage. And Roy being a journalist, and was well-educated, he was about, close to ten years older than she. So she was about twenty-two, or twenty-one or twenty-two. And they were married in camp and I remember that she looked beautiful.

AL: She still does.

RT: Oh, yes, she had a beautiful, white wedding gown and everything. And she and Roy moved to Denver. A month later, I was out of camp, and I came to Denver, and so she and Roy, I saw her in Denver shortly afterwards and we stayed in touch all these years.

AL: Do you know her brother is here?

RT: Yes, I was reading that list and I saw that George, Sei, that's what his Japanese name is, Sei, S-E-I, Sei. And he's younger, and Leo, I think, was maybe a year younger, or possibly in my class. Do you know if Leo was a '44 graduate or '45? Well, but anyhow, I saw on the list that they're both going to be here. I hadn't seen Leo at all.

AL: Yeah, I've only met George. Roy was the editor of the Free Press. Did you know him very well?

RT: Who?

AL: Roy, her husband Roy? During the camp years, did you know him well?

RT: I didn't know him. He was just a name, and I think he was highly respected because he was the editor of the Free Press, so he, you know, had a good reputation.

AL: Did anyone consider him an inu?

RT: Hmm?

AL: Did anyone consider him an inu for...

RT: No, no. I don't think so. His job was to go around and collect news, and he was up around the hospital with everything. So Sumi tells me about their so-called courtship, when someone recommended that she marry him, I mean, the go-between recommended... she wanted to go to a nursing school, and had, I think she had gotten in touch with Ohio Wesleyan or one of the schools in the Midwest to go to school as a nursing student. And when she told her father that, he said, "No, we have other plans for you." So then he told her that she was being considered to be the wife of Roy Takeno, and she was quite surprised. She was sort of a country girl, too, so she knew his reputation. So when they met, and she felt like she couldn't say no, she decided, yes, she gave up her nursing career and marry Roy, and she did and came out to Colorado and spent the rest of her life there.

AL: Did she work at the hospital?

RT: She may have worked at the hospital, I think, as a nurse aide.

AL: You said that your sister had worked at the hospital.

RT: My sister worked at the hospital. My husband's sisters, two of them, worked at the hospital. So that was where they got to know each other.

AL: Did your sister work at the hospital during the riot? Was she working there in '42?

RT: I think she was. No, was it '42 was the riot? She must have been, I don't know. Yeah, because she was there. And she was, I'd have to question her about it to find out.

AL: Well, you know, if she or your brother or anybody are ever willing to talk -- you know, we don't have to do interviews only here, we can do interviews in L.A., because we're always trying to get, even from the same family, people have different perspectives and stuff. So if she's ever willing to talk -- this is my little commercial.

RT: She lives in La Feria, Texas, that's a little ways away.

AL: Maybe we can talk to her on the phone. So she worked at the hospital. What about other people in your family? Did your parents work in camp, your brother?

RT: Yes, my brother Henry, who was a diesel mechanic, worked as a, worked on the farm equipment, keeping the motors running. In fact, in Ansel Adams' book, he is shown taking care of, tinkering with the motor, and it has a full facial picture of him in the book. Let's see. My other brother, Katsuma was working out in the fields, and my father was also allowed to work out in the fields. So they worked out in the farm.

AL: Do you know how much money they made?

RT: I think... I shouldn't say. Probably sixteen dollars a month, that was the experienced workers. Professionals were nineteen or something like that.

AL: Did your mom work?

RT: No, she never worked.

AL: How did she spend her time?

RT: I guess enjoying her leisure. [Laughs] No, I can't remember exactly much what she did, just socialized with the other women, did the laundry, and she had her sewing machine so she could sew, and that kind of thing, just household duties.

AL: How did she do the laundry?

RT: There was one building in the middle of the block that was for laundry facilities, and it was all hand laundry, of course, the washtubs. And I'll never forget my father, he makes an impression on me. The Japanese men are so separated in their work, I mean, they don't do "women's work." But my father, because he had worked in the laundry when as a young man, he would go in and help women do their laundry, because they were scrubbing sheets and all that sort of thing. And I just remember one incident where he was in there, and he was the only male in there, and he was going around asking the women if they would like to have their sheets wrung out, because he had big strong hands and everything. [Laughs] And I thought, hey, how come he's the only guy here doing that? None of the other men are doing that. They were playing games like go, the go game and different... you know about the go games?