Making History Personal: One Woman's Experience with Japanese Internment

September 10, 2009

Written by Trish Nguyen, Community Engagement Center Student Assistant

This year’s One Book featured When the Emperor was Divine, by Julie Otsuka. In her novel, the author illustrates a fictional family’s experience, based loosely on the experiences of her own family, during the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans. The 2009-2010 One Book program offers a variety of civic learning events throughout the academic year, with a focus on Japanese American interment and culture.

On September 10, 2009, Sacramento native Marielle Tsukamoto came to Sacramento State to share her personal experience of being interned. Ms. Tsukamoto was born in Sacramento, California on April 7, 1937. At the age of five, her family was forced to leave their home and relocated to an internment camp in Jerome, Arkansas. Marielle Tsukamoto is an educator and administrator for the Elk Grove School District.

During her presentation, Marielle Tsukamoto stated that Executive order 9066 signed by President Roosevelt imprisoned the majority of Japanese men as suspected spies for the Japanese government, and relocated 120,000 Japanese Americans. Of the 120,000 Japanese Americans, half were children under age 18, and many were natural born residents of the United States; though Marielle’s own grandfather had lived in the United States as a permanent resident for decades, he was denied the ability to become a U.S. citizen. Women had to become strong emotionally to support their children and make the best of the situation. The conditions of the internment camps were substandard, and the families were guarded like prisoners. Some Japanese families were able to trust a neighbor to tend and pay the dues on their farm and property while they were in the camps. This was not the case for all Japanese families, for most returned home to nothing and had to start rebuilding their lives over again. Marielle Tsukamoto also noted that the internment was only one example in history where an ethnic group was exploited and rejected from society.

Related News:
Japanese internment camp experience spoken, By Brittany Bottini, The State Hornet, 9/9/09.

last updated:10/20/2009