Densho Digital Archive
Oregon Nikkei Endowment Collection
Title: Rose Niguma Interview
Narrator: Rose Niguma
Interviewer: Margaret Barton Ross
Location:
Date: October, 30, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-nrose_2-01-0001

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MR: This is an interview with Rose Niguma, a Nisei woman, eighty-nine years old at her home in Portland, Oregon, on October 30, 2004. The interviewer is Margaret Barton Ross of the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center's Oral History Project 2004.

RN: You really have to speak louder because the words just run together.

MR: First of all, thank you for having us in your home. We really appreciate that. Can we start out by talking about when and where you were born?

RN: I was born in Hood River, but I left there as soon I was born. My parents came to Portland, so I consider Portland my own hometown.

MR: And what year were you born?

RN: What?

MR: When were you born? What's the date?

RN: April 14, 1915.

MR: Okay. Thank you. Can you tell me why did your family leave Hood River?

RN: Well, my father had to sell his merchandise store to Yasui, see. After that, he didn't have any other option, so I think he worked for an orchard for a while. And then that wasn't his type of work, so he left right away for Portland where my uncle resided, and he and my uncle started the Hood River business from the beginning. But since that happened, my uncle returned to Portland, so my father followed after him, and Portland has more opportunities because it's a larger city. Well, they have very close feeling for Portland because my mother -- when we were allowed out, I told my mother, "Let's go to New York because of my art interest." My mother self-sacrificed, never asked for anything, but she sat down in a chair and told me, "I want to go back to Portland and die there," see. So I decided since she had so many hardship, I will do what she wished. So I came back to Portland and made preparations for her to return and my two brothers from the service.

And among the first one to return from Minidoka on the coast, East Coast, a lot of other young Niseis left earlier. And when I returned to Portland, WRA helped me, War Relocation Authority I think they're called. So I had to have an employment, but I have been trained in the camp and assembly center to become a nursery teacher. Mrs. Hayashi, wife of Reverend Hayashi, is the one who encouraged me to work and study for that because I haven't a very serious, and she found that I'm very conscience. That's how I became a nursery school teacher. And when I went to Minidoka, there was Jean Mori who headed the nursery school in Seattle, so I applied for a position there with some of the other girls there. And Jean Mori noticed that I was truly interested in children not just for the job. She knew that, so she selected me to head the nursery school in Block 39. That was on the end of the camp.

And so I started preparing for the school and the children, but I noticed and I inspected the other half of the recreation building. The floors were slivery. They're full of slivers, unsanded, so it made me angry that they would put our children in such a situation. So I went up to the administration building and met my supervisor. Her name was, I think it was, gee, so many years, Bachelor, something like that. I told her, "How can you allow children to play on slivery floor?" I says, "I want linoleum. I want large ones, and I want it all for the five nursery schools," because I knew the situation would be the same. I got it and so the children could play on it, play on that. And there are other things that I requested because I cared for the children. They ranged from two to almost five years old. Their parents were working in the farms that they initiated there and other jobs that they have around the camp because we were trying to be self-sufficient.

And they, well, I continue being head, head teacher there. And then, they needed a supervisor, so they selected me to be the supervisor of all the five nursery schools there, so I did my utmost to do the best for the children in all of them and saw to it that whatever they needed, they received it. And I had such strong conviction and I look that way that the people, there would accept my request. Well, I was working there for quite a long time. It was almost three years. But on Sundays, Mrs. Hayashi told me to take half of the camp section there to teach Sunday school class for nursery school age up to eight years of age, so I did. This was all voluntary work, so I did. I needed something like that because I was really tired of being incarcerated in there, and I resented it because I'm living this an injustice, living right into it, and I felt it daily. Well, the Sunday school was successful, but I think, teach them through the Bible, but I did tell them about Christ, the Christian values, values that they would need when they get out, when they grow older. I made it very simple and interesting so they would come back on Sunday without the parents bringing them. So they came on Sundays themselves. It was nice to see these young children. And we have the Christmas plays for them, and I told them about the Easter, about Christ's crucifixion and what he had undergone, and some of the children had tears in their eyes when I told them of Christ's suffering. And we have hymns to sing, but I am not known for my singing, so there were three other young women assisting me. And so one of the women had a relative, a young woman who played the piano, so she came and played for the piano for us so that made our singing much better for all of us.

And every Sunday morning, I go there and turn on the potbelly stove. There would be kindling there and coal. So I had a chance to go to Twin Falls, I requested it, so I bought a light colored coat with a fur collar. And I'm sure it was coyote, but I felt, oh my, Sunday, I'm going to Sunday school with my brand new coat. So I went there, and I had to start the stove. When I did, it went, and I checked to see if it was burning. I opened the door and the whole black smoke came upon my coat, so I knew that coat was ruined. And I thought, oh my, and we had no dry cleaning in the camp at all. We had to go out to Twin Falls, and that was a very rare occasion. So I told this to Adelai Issei. He cleaned the recreation hall. That was his job, and he started the warm for the recreation. So when he came, I told him what had happened to me and my coat. He felt very sorry for me. He was a very kind, kindly old gentleman. So he said, "I will volunteer and start the stove for you every Sunday before you come." And he did that, and I felt so grateful to him, and that was one of the nicer experiences I had.

But the camp situation itself was very confining. We could not go out unless we asked permission and, but the people there were not negative at all. They decided that they're since in there, they have to keep themselves occupied. They cannot just idle their time away, so they did all sorts of things. And some of the farmers started a farm out in the sagebrush, cleared the land, and they know exactly how to do and raised the produce for our table which was very nice. We had fresh produce. But their children came to our nursery school because some of the farm workers were quite young. So they brought their children over, and they also wanted their children to have some sort of education. And so we tried our utmost because we knew that these kids were way behind their counterpart outside. So we did our best to keep, make their life interesting and fun; although, there are limitations in camp.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.