"HOME"

Auntie Chiyo will be 99-years-old next month, May 2025. She has moved at least 16 times in her life. She had just turned sixteen when she was rounded up with the 9000+ Seattle Japanese and taken by bus to prison at the Puyallup assembly center in May of 1942, during WWII.

We get together to play Shanghai Rummy a couple times a month so I asked her, “Since you could only take what you could carry, what did you carry?” And by the way, Chiyo keeps score and wins a lot of the games.

Looking down and remembering that heart breaking time, Auntie shared, “The hardest part was to give up our dog, Junie! She was a smart and cute Toy Fox Terrier. We took her to a Vet. It was sad!! Otherwise, we didn’t have much anyway so it wasn’t hard to figure out ‘only what I could carry’”.

“Wasn’t it hard to leave your ‘home’ and go live in one room at the Puyallup fair ground in the animal stalls you had to stuff bags with straw for a mattress and use the community outdoor toilets?”

“Well, it wasn’t easy, but we made do! I had my friends!! And I still see some of these friends once a month because the Seattle Nisei 442nd Vets organization in Seattle, volunteers a lunch program for over maybe 60 of us on the first Friday of every month. Seeing friends is the best!”, she commented with her usual enthusiasm smile.

Auntie, you keep saying, “‘Home is ‘where ever I am’ and I made the best of it!’ How could you say that when you were put in prison and discriminated against so much?”

“That’s right, we were made to feel like second or third class citizens, like even after ‘camp’ when we couldn’t buy a house in North Seattle. When the realtors found out we were Japanese they would say, ‘There are no houses available.’. But, everyone was having hard times. There is a Japanese saying: Shikata ga nai, meaning we have to make the best of what is happening! ”

“So Auntie, what would you say to school kids now when we tell them about all these terrible things that happened to all of us that have Japanese heritage?”.

“You know, sometimes we have to go through hard times to appreciate what we have! That’s so important. We never gave up and I’ve had a good life in America where I have the freedom to keep trying!! Home is not a place. WHEREVER I AM WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS IS ‘HOME’!”