Where were you born? Is that where you grew up? What did your parents do in the way of work? Do you have siblings?
I was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1942. Father graduated from Texas A&M and had done work related to cotton business and import/export of agriculture between the U.S. and Japan. For a short time, Mother was a physical therapist having studied at Japan campus of the Bouv'e-Boston School of Physical Education, but she married young and stayed at home thereafter as most of the women of her era did. I have a brother and a sister in Japan.
My aunt, Alice Ruth Ramseyer, made a reference to your grandfather's story. Can you explain that? Did you grow up around extended family members?
My grandfather came to San Francisco for the first time in 1890 sent by the Japanese government as a consultant to Japanese immigrant farmers to the US. Alice and Bob (Ramseyer) thought it's almost like the story of "Grandfather's Journey" by Allen Say. So they asked me to tell our family history to one of the classes at the ILR.
For 20 years, between 1890 and 1910, he was active in trying to make a bridge between the two countries. In 1908, he made a trip to Japan to meet politicians and influential people not to accept 1907's "Gentleman's Agreement" presented by the U.S. government which prohibited Japanese in Hawaii to travel to the mainland, because he believed it was one-sided and would lead up to more discrimination against Japanese. However, most of these leaders didn't understand its urgency and were not interested.
To make the matter worse, in 1908, California submitted to the state Congress the law prohibiting Japanese to own a land in California. (After the interruptions by President Roosevelt and President Taft, President Wilson failed to do so, and finally in 1924, "Japanese Exclusion Act" was enacted.)
Grandfather, disappointed by his two loving countries, saw the discrimination to Japanese become worsen year by year, sent his family back to Japan in 1910, and disappeared for seven years into the midst of Mexican revolution to help the oppressed.
When he came back to Japan in 1917, he became busy giving lectures and writing books as an expert on Japan-America affairs. He firmly believed that the two countries would never fight against each other in the war. His view in the earlier years were reasonable and fair.
However, after the war broke in 1939, perhaps because of the confusion of feeling betrayed again, he seemed to have become blindly patriotic, encouraging young people to stand up and fight for the country. Though to my father at Texas A&M, he wrote not to come home but to go to the East Coast and stay there till the war would be over.
(My father, rebellious to his father, chose to come back and joined the Japanese Army, rather than to be interned at relocation camps which was what Japanese Americans were compelled to do, but realized immediately that he made a big mistake manipulated by the propaganda of Japanese government calling for overseas young men to come home and fight for their mother country.)
When I was a child, my family lived in the same house with my paternal grandparents. I only remember that he was always at his desk reading as if obsessed with printed letters. There is no way of knowing what went through his mind in his latest years; did he regret that he was responsible in sending innocent young men to the war to die? Did he ever want to go back and see America once more, like Allen Say's grandfather?
Tell me about your childhood -- your school years, activities (like music, sports, etc.). What kind of school did you attend? How did those schools differ from schools in this area? Did you learn English as a child? Do today's Japanese schools include English as part of the curriculum even in elementary school?
I think my earlier school years might have been almost as same as around here in old days; more freedom and more time to play than children of today.
I started studying English at 7th grade, but I grew up hearing it around home. Also I spent my early childhood in China speaking Chinese fluently (according to my mother), so I might have had an early start of learning foreign language than other children. Now they have a new system of teaching English from elementary school.
Did you go to college? If so, where did you go and what did you study? What led you there? What did you do once you completed school (i.e., jobs)?
I studied English Literature and Teaching English as a Foreign Language at a university in Tokyo affiliated with methodist. it was supposed to be one of the good places to study English.
I started teaching at a high school, but I already knew my husband then and marriage was my first priority, which I regretted years later that I could have waited for a while!
How, when and where did you meet your husband and get married? I know you have children and grandchildren; tell me about them (where they live, what they do, etc.)
I met him at a student organization called International Student Association where representatives from colleges and universities all over Japan meet and plan a student conference every summer, inviting students from overseas. We were 20 years old when we met and married right after graduation (told you it was too soon!).
We have two daughters; the older one in Chicago with a son, and the younger one in Columbus with two sons. They both graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University. After we learned the value of the Midwestern culture, we urged our daughters to transfer from bigger universities in bigger cities: from Tokyo to IWU, and from University of California at Santa Cruz to IWU. They spent their first semesters being homesick to big cities and cried a lot, but soon they met their future husbands.
Did you come to the U.S. before or after marriage? Have you and your husband traveled or moved around a lot because of his work? Where all have you lived?
We came to the U.S. after marriage; to Long Beach at first in 1975, back to Japan in 1979, then to Irvine in 1985, back to Japan 1991, and finally to Bluffton in 1998.
When did you first come to Bluffton and why did you decide to live here rather than one of the bigger cities nearby?
When my husband retired from Mazda Motors at 55, he was offered a job to come here at DTR, and we gladly took it because it's near where our children lived. Also, I was very much interested in coming to the Midwest because someone I met in California told me I should go and live in the Midwest to really know America.
Who was the first person you met in Bluffton? What were your early impressions of neighbors, people you met on the street? What do you most enjoy about living here? Any dislikes or things that you miss?
Our postmaster of course, then Mary Emma Triplett, Libby Hostetler, and our neighbors, Ann and Don Leader.
It was summer and I saw children on bikes going home from the swimming pool with their beach towels flying like a superman. It was like watching an old family movie. I loved it.
We were amused by worldwide names such as Sydney, Versailles, Athens, Milan, Cairo, Lima, Toledo, Dunkirk, Alger, etc. It took a while to figure out they were talking about Ohio. However, we were dismayed by the traffic lights hanging from ropes swaying in the wind. It was a lonesome sight, so we're glad about the recent renovation.
I like the steady and unhurried rhythm of life here where people are taking time to care for others. We lived in California longer than 10 years, but we hardly made what we can call "friends", and here we met many who're already dear to us. (I recently lost my mother at the age of 92. When I came back home, I was overwhelmed by warm and kind words by many cards, emails and phone calls.)
It may not be a characteristic of only older generations. When I was teaching Japanese to some students at UCI (University of California at Irvine) , even these young students who seemed to be enjoying parties complained of loneliness, saying it is not easy to meet real friends.
How did you meet Bluffton residents Alice Ruth and Bob Ramseyer (longtime missionaries in Japan)? Were you surprised to find someone locally who'd spent such a long time in Japan?
My next door neighbors when we came were Ken and Rhody Hartman who knew the Ramseyers, and they introduced us.
As it happened, we had lived in the same city of Hiroshima and Alice remembered we talked over the phone. It was embarrassing because I was administrative assistant at an international school there and I was not always nice to people. So my lesson is to be kind to everyone you encounter because you never know where you'll get connected to your old acquaintances!
You were a member of the Barberettes, the local women's singing group. How did you get involved in that? Did you grow up around music and/or singing? Do you play an instrument?
I knew the leader, Jayne McGarrity when she moved to our neighborhood, and she invited me to the group. There is no audition so I jumped in. I enjoy the Barberettes even if reading music and lyrics in English simultaneously is sometimes difficult, especially with bifocals.
I played a violin, but it is long time ago. I started to play mountain dulcimer at the ILR and realized nothing is easy when it comes to learning something new.
Tell me about your interests. What do you enjoy doing (i.e., hobbies, reading, gardening, sports/exercise)?
I'm a boring person with no particular passion for anything, but I do enjoy nature around here: big sky, O'Keefe-like clouds, open fields, farmland, flowers, trees, small animals, birds etc. Coming from Tokyo, Bluffton is like a summer resort. Our current interest is turkey vultures. We're fascinated by the beauty of them soaring in the sky, and try to go near their roosting trees every evening. I also enjoy music, books, exercise and volunteering.
I hear you are a good cook and are part of a group of women teaching a Japanese cooking course through the Bluffton University Institute for Learning in Retirement. What are the students learning to cook?
I am NOT a good cook, but am rather good at organizing, so I asked four Japanese wives of DTR to come to teach how to make California rolls.
What have you learned during your years of living in a small town? Do you prefer small town living to large cities or vice versa?
We're in an ideal situation where we can visit large cities but come home to a small town where we are not invisible even though we're not natives.
When your grandchildren come to visit, what do they like to do here? How/what do you teach them that keeps their Japanese history "alive"?
They look forward to strawberry picking, riding scooters on the street and town festivals. They used to have their photo taken with Bluffton's Santa.
Their parents take them to Japan as often as possible. Also they attend(ed) Japanese nursery schools in Chicago or in Dublin before switching to regular kindergarten. We try to speak in Japanese so they'll become used to the sounds and we offer Japanese children's books.
In our family, we share the same feeling as Allen Say wrote in "Grandfather's Journey":
The moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other. But it is not a feeling of loss. It is a feeling of gain.
Do you enjoy traveling in the U.S. or other countries? If so, what are some of the places you've visited? When you go on vacation, where do you like to go?
We enjoy traveling in the U.S. as much as to overseas. Our family friends from Japan have gone on driving trips all over America, and it's something we look forward to. My husband was in an export division of Mazda Motors before and he's visited most of European countries. So we started going together to where he he hasn't been or liked best.
Is there a chance you might retire in Bluffton or do you expect to move elsewhere eventually? Where might you be in 10 years?
We hope we can live in Bluffton as long as our children are in the Midwest.
