Archive Record
Images
Additional Images [2]
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2015.8.1 |
Object Name |
Letter |
Accession number |
2015.8 |
Scope & Content |
Handwritten letter from Ida (Nakamura) Hiromura, a schoolgirl, to her former classmates at Parkrose High School. The letter describes the first months of Ida after Pearl Harbor: having to leave school, the evacuation, temporary re-housing, and leaving Portland to go to Minidoka. The letter expresses how Ida missed her friends and her school and how heartbroken she was with the events surrounding her. |
Collection |
Patricia Gilman |
Date |
9/14/1942 |
Notes |
Excerpt from an interview: What was your sister like? "She was very thoughtful person, she wasn't boisterous, she was a very even tempered, very caring person. I know she really loved her classmates, she was really influenced by how nice they were, she went to parkrose high school until the war started?" We went to Gresham to live in a friend's home. She had to leave before the end of her junior year ? We were really surprised when the letters showed up, because she wrote them to the entire class. Donna, her mother was the class secretary treasure, and she had kept them "She kept the letter because she loved Ida's handwriting." Pat is Ida's daughter. Pat Gillman donated the letters Lily was 10 when she was interned First letter was connected two years ago, then she found the second letter this year. We told her we were going to donate it to the legacy center, and it's not something you come along every day. Pat is looking for the pin. Class pin: The pin is a shield with a chain and says class of 1942, they donated the money to buy her the pin and sent it to her I do remember her wearing the pin. We were still in camp until1945, we moved to Utah, in 1952, they left Chicago. Frannie Kondo, my brothers were in Chicago, they came out in 1944 or early 1945, to stay with my brothers, then they went to the army She met her husband in Chicago, he was in the service too, and they married in 1946. She was 21 when she married, she had two children. My father decided to move back to Portland?We had three brothers and my mom and dad in Utah, so they also (Ida and her husband) packed up and moved to Portland in 1952. We all settled in Portland, we were all living together fora few months I went to high school in Utah. born in 1925. Your sister had an extremely strong connection with her friends from her school?which is revealed through her letters. Did she often talk about the letters she was sending and receiving with you? She was very traumatized to have to leave all of her friends?of course she made friends there very easily, and she graduated class of 1943 in camp. It was very traumatic for her?she made friends very easily?she wasn't very talkative, but always very friendly and smiley. i always remember her as being very even tempered and not getting angry, she was active in sports, and i dont remember what her grades were in school, but the teachers all liked her and the students all liked her. Did you often communicate with friends or classmates via letters as well? I was in third or fourth grade, I had pen pals in Michigain. That went on until I went into high school.I did have pen pals when I was in camp. Do you remember much from when you were in camp? The first shock i had was that there were so many japanese people, because my school was mostly Caucasians. It was only at a picnic that i had seen more a few japanese families. i was at the age when i should have learned how to do things around the house, and I didn't have to do any of those things, because we were in camp Trip to California: i was working for a phone company, my friend wanted to move to California, and asked if I wanted to move with her, so I told my dad I wanted to go to art school, but i didn't endup going to art school,i met my husband here and got married a year later I could just imagine my sister writing them, she was very thoughtful. When we were kids, we had to study handwriting, my brothers and I?we all have the same handwriting. My kids, I can barely read what they write, they're not bad, it's legible, but it's not something that they emphasize anymore. my youngest brother became a doctor, so he has typical doctor's handwriting She worked as a secretary in Chicago. A lot of the girls worked as secretaries. Her husband was from portland, I don't know if she knew him. She was a classmate of her husband's brother. Harry Nakamura, younger brother lives in Portland. Hiromiras live in Portland. Stays with her niece. Harry H and Betty |
People |
Lily Uyetake Hiromura, Ida (Nakamura) |
Search Terms |
school incarceration letter evacuation Parkrose High School Portland Assembly Center Yakima Valley Minidoka |
Source |
Gilman, Pat |
Subjects |
Correspondence - Personal Education - School Evacuation Internment Camps, U.S. - Portland Assembly Center Internment Camps, U.S. - Minidoka, Hunt, Idaho |