Mary Tsukamoto

Mary Tsuruko Tsukamoto (1915–1998) was a Japanese-American teacher, community activist and civil rights activist. Tsukamoto, a teacher of Elk Grove Unified School District in California for 26 years, was an educator with passion to teach children how to learn from experience. A women of Japanese descent, she worked for Japanese American civil liberties, playing a pivotal role in the grassroots effort that led to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. She also worked with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, adamant on developing an exhibit on internment. She died in 1998 after almost a lifetime of dedication to civil rights and education. In March 2006, she was one of the ten women recognized as a National Women's History Month honoree.

Early life

Mary Tsukamoto was born on January 17, 1915 in San Francisco, California. She was the second of five children born to immigrant parents from Okinawa, Japan. As a first generation Japanese American, Mary grew up with family values deeply rooted in Japanese culture. When she was 10 years old, she moved to Florin, California with her family. Here, her family grew various types of fruit on a field, despite restrictions that prevented Japanese-born people from owning the land in which they worked. She attended the segregated Florin Grammar School in her youth, and later attended College of the Pacific in Stockton, California.

Life in Japanese internment camps

In 1942, at the start of World War II, Mary was sent with her husband and young daughter from Florin to an internment camp near Jerome, Arkansas.^[1] Mary, like the other internees, had lost her liberty, property, and livelihood as a result of living in the restrictive camps. Although this period was difficult, she came out of it with life experiences worth sharing. After 3 years of restricted freedom, she was finally able to return home to California in 1945. In 1983, she began to use her experiences from the Japanese internment camp to teach schoolchildren about this pivotal period in American history through her work in the Time of Remembrance Program. Her daughter, Marielle Tsukamoto, describes this work of her mother’s as a way to “tie this story to the Constitution. It’s every citizen’s responsibility to make sure our own civil rights and someone else’s rights are not denied.”^{[citation needed]}

Dedication to education

Upon Mary Tsukamoto’s return from Japanese Internment camps in 1945, she found herself enthralled in an atmosphere still consumed by racial prejudices and negativity towards Japanese Americans. With her perseverance, strength, and determination, she pursued a career in teaching at the Elk Grove School District, thus becoming one of the first Japanese-American teachers. She worked at Elk Grove for 26 years, proving herself to be faculty member with a passion for education. She then devoted herself to working with schools by bringing students of all ethnicities together. She started the Time of Remembrance Program, which she organized as a way to bring Elk Grove students into contact with former internees. The students were able to listen to the stories of Japanese Internment camp victims, look at photographs and artifacts from internment camps, as well as learn what it means to be an American citizen. Mary Tsukamoto created this curriculum as a way to shed light on the discrimination that the Japanese endured during World War II and share it with her students to enrich their knowledge of American history.

Dedication to civil rights liberties

Mary Tsukamoto’s growing discontent over the treatment of Japanese Americans in World War II played a major role in her quest for redress. She argued that the U.S. government must make amends for holding Japanese Americans in internment camps, therefore, restitution must be paid. However, although her work was drawing people’s attention, she did not stop in her quest for justice. She then wrote about her experiences in the book “We the People: A Story of Internment in America.” Mary continued her activism and persistency in providing information about internment camps in World War II by developing an exhibit on internment at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. Her many accomplishments stemmed from her desire to do things for a cause, not just for herself. Her daughter, Marielle, claims that one of her mothers proudest moments came in 1988, when the U.S government apologized for the internment of Japanese Americans and granted each detainee $20,000. Mary, clearly victorious in her fight for justice, proved herself to be a woman of courage. Mary Tsukamoto lived by the motto that “never again” should citizens lose their fundamental rights like they did in 1942. She worked tirelessly for justice among all citizens as the memories from her internment camp days remained engrained in her mind as she grew older.

Death and legacy

Mary Tsukamoto led a passionate life dedicated to service and education in her community. In 1992, the Mary Tsukamoto school opened, further honoring Mary’s dedication to education. Years after her death in 1998, she continues to touch lives. In 2006, about 6,500 fifth graders studied the curriculum she developed more than twenty years ago, in 1983. Also, in March 2006, she was one of the ten women recognized as a National Women’s History Month honoree. Her legacy continues to live on not only through her work as an advocate for civil rights and liberties, but also through education.

References

• National Women's History Project. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. <http://nwhp.org/whm/tsukamoto_bio.php>
• "OralhistoryTU." Florin JACL. Web. 7 Oct. 2011. <http://www.florinjacl.com/oralhistorytu.htm>.
• "Painful childhood memory: Daughter keeps mother's legacy alive with Web site." Sacramento Bee [Sacramento, CA] 6 Dec. 2007. General OneFile. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.
• "Time of Remembrance: About." Elk Grove Unified School District. Web. 6 Oct. 2011. <http://egusd.net/tor/about.html>.
• "Voice from the past: Elk Grove teacher honored as historical figure." Sacramento Bee [Sacramento, CA] 16 Mar. 2006. General OneFile. Web. 16 Oct. 2011.

1. ^ "National Archives: Tsuruko M Tsukamoto". http://aad.archives.gov/aad/display-partial-records.jsp?s=623&dt=2003&tf=F&bc=%2Csl%2Cfd&q=Tsuruko+Tsukamoto&btnSearch=Search&as_alq=&as_anq=&as_epq=&as_woq=. Retrieved 2011-10-23. 

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Name	Tsukamoto, Mary
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Date of birth	1915
Place of birth
Date of death	1998
Place of death