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Interview with Tei Endow, 1986 January 21-February 8

 Item
Identifier: SR 979

Scope and Contents

Audio recording of interview with Tei Endow (1900-1992), with abridged English transcript (35 pages). Endow immigrated to the United States from Japan with her husband, Shohei Endow, in 1918. They farmed in Odell, south of Hood River, Oregon, and had four children. Endow discusses her early life in Shimizu, Japan, her marriage to Shohei Endow in 1917, and adjusting to life in the Hood River Valley. She talks about raising four children and about daily life working on a farm. She describes her experiences after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and her experiences of forced removal and incarceration during World War II. She discusses the train journey to the Pinedale Assembly Center in Fresno, California; living conditions at the Tule Lake incarceration camp in California; and her family's experiences working on a sugar beet farm in Montana and an apple orchard in Idaho in order to leave the camp. She discusses her return to the Hood River Valley after the end of the war in 1945, and closes the interview by reflecting on her experiences as a first-generation Japanese American woman.

Dates

  • Creation: 1986 January 21-February 8

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Extent

8 audiocassettes (7 hr., 40 min., 49 sec.)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Japanese

From the Collection: English

Repository Details

Part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library Repository

Contact:
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Portland OR 97205 United States
5033065204
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