Densho Digital Archive - Amy Tsugawa Interview (denshovh-tamy-01-0014)

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DF: And if we jump ahead to your teaching career and your experiences?

AT: You know, I was very fortunate. I was offered a job when I graduated from Oregon State. I did student teaching up here in Portland, and I was offered, I graduated in the fall, in the fall of 1962 or '60, '60. And so I was offered a job right away, but it was in an area where another teacher told me I probably would not be very safe. It would not be a very safe school for me to be at. It was across town. And she said, if you have a problem, I said, "But these are little children." She says, "It doesn't matter." She says, "If there is a problem with a little child, they always have older brothers, and so you probably would be better off to just substitute until you could get a better offer," so I did. I waited. I substituted on the west side because that's where we lived. We lived on the west side of Portland, and I substituted up at Ainsworth School up on Vista Hill. And I met the principal there and he liked me, and so I was able to finish out a year for third grade teacher there, and he hired me for the next year which worked out very well for me because the school there, I was Asian, but the people there didn't seem to mind that I was Asian. It was, actually, I was bringing another culture to the children, and they appreciated that. It was, the children were encouraged to learn to study at two years old. In conferences, they were already asking me, now what kind of career will she have unless she learns this and this and this in the second grade, and I'm thinking, but we're not talking career, we're just trying to get her through the second grade. She's just a child, but they were already talking careers. But this is the type of clientele we had up in Ainsworth. And it was, the children called, they couldn't say, they all couldn't say Tsugawa, so they called me Mrs. Cigar whenever they saw me which was fine. I could answer to anything. It was a very easy school to be at. It was very comfortable. I had substituted in other schools before then, and I was not appreciated because I was Asian, and I was told so. But at Ainsworth, it was very easy. All the parents were very, very accommodating, happy to have me, so it was very easy.

DF: What about out in the community, grocery shopping, doing errands?

AT: It wasn't a problem. Actually getting back to teaching, I wanted to apply in Beaverton because that's where my husband had his practice, but they wouldn't have me. They wouldn't hire Asians in Beaverton at that time. It was an area where they wouldn't have an Asian family living in the area in Beaverton at that time. So we lived in Beaverton, but I couldn't teach there. The community was fine. Jim had been raised in Beaverton. He was a very active politically and very active in all the sports at Beaverton High School, so everyone knew him here. He was, his family was from here right in Cedar Mill, so we had no trouble in Beaverton at all other than the fact that I couldn't teach there, and I couldn't live in Cedar Hills. Other than that, everything was wide open to us.

DF: During the time returning or leaving camp, any gestures from people, positive or negative, for the family that you can recall?

AT: You know, I can just recall that we went through Texas on the train, and they were so happy to see us, and they were so gracious to us. This was of course after the 442nd had saved the troops in Europe, and so they were wonderful. We could go into any restaurant and feel very comfortable. We never, I can't remember that we had a problem. When we lived in Stillwater, Oklahoma, when my dad was teaching, I had lots of friends, and there was never a problem about my being Asian. I think perhaps it might have been more of a problem if you lived on the West Coast. But further in, there wasn't a problem. There weren't that many of us there. I think I only had a little prejudice when I lived here because the principal was embarrassed to have me in his car with him. I can remember that someone said something about my sitting with him and he was so embarrassed and I felt so sorry for him because I thought he was a man, a gentleman, an educated man, and he still felt this embarrassment by having an Asian sitting next to him in a car, and that was sad for him. That was his problem.

DF: Do you recall what he said or how he handled it?

AT: He just blushed badly. He just, and I knew it was an embarrassment. And you see, you still, when we first moved here, you have people screaming at you, but that's fine. You just ignore that. That happens. They're ignorant. What do they know and don't worry about it.