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Oral history interview with Jim Tsugawa, 2018 July 19

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Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

This oral history interview with Jim Tsugawa was conducted by Sankar Raman and Elizabeth Mehren on July 19, 2018. Amy Tsugawa, Jim Tsugawa’s wife, was also present and contributed at the end of the interview. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. In this interview, Jim Tsugawa discusses his family background and early life in Portland, Oregon. He describes his experience of being incarcerated by the U.S. government, including his family’s detention at the Portland Livestock Pavilion and transfer to the Minidoka War Relocation Camp in Idaho. He also discusses his older brother Henry Tsugawa’s military service during World War II. He talks about his family being sponsored by a reverend for residency in Boise, Idaho, and briefly describes his childhood there. He talks about the family renting a strawberry farm in Ontario, Oregon, and his high school experience in Beaverton, Oregon, particularly his interest in sports. He speaks briefly about attending Lewis & Clark College on a sports scholarship, then discusses his experience in the U.S. Army and being stationed in Zweibrücken, Germany, during the Korean War. He talks about studying at Oregon State University after his discharge, and about earning his degree in dentistry from the University of Oregon Dental School, which is now part of Oregon Health & Science University. He then briefly speaks about his marriage to Amy Goda, now Amy Tsugawa, her family background, and her experience of incarceration by the U.S. government during World War II. He discusses the U.S. political climate at the time of the interview in 2018, particularly the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Mehren and Tsugawa discuss the large Asian populations in California and Hawaii. Tsugawa describes a recent trip to the Minidoka National Historic Site and revisits the topics of his childhood and playing sports. Amy Tsugawa closes the interview by talking about spending her teenage years in postwar Japan.

Dates

  • Creation: 2018 July 19

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Extent

From the Collection: 328 Megabytes (1 online resource (1 audio file (1 hr., 5 min., 9 sec.))) : WAV

Language of Materials

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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