Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/807/

Interrogation by police (Japanese)

(Japanese) Before the war ended, I was called out to the police station, to the military, along with Mr. Takahashi. Mr. Miyakoshi was already in [the camps?], and Mr. Keizo Ishihara had gone home early. Those two were outside, so we were working. And they called us over, and my goodness, they asked us such appalling questions. They made us stand for five hours, and would ask about anything and everything. They asked about Mr. Simba, about this and that, everything—whatever they asked, we had to answer. So after asking several questions, they would question us where we were getting our funding from. Of course, we answered everything honestly. As for the money from the four business firms, I explained that we received it as a collective donation from all of their employees. It was good that I mentioned that, because otherwise, because liquidações (liquidation) was happening at each firm, they could have asked for the money back. But it helped that I thought about it and explained it that way. So after five hours, they would repeat everything that I said. But in these transcriptions, there would be several things that I never said! “I didn’t say that,” “Yes, you did,” “No, I didn’t”…the argument would go back and forth. In the end, they just got fed up and just erased it. At the end, they wrote some things about the família (family) that raised me, so I said “I never talked about any of that, so please erase it.” So I was able to get that erased, too. In the end, there were pages upon pages that they wrote, which I had to go through and sign. And when I was leaving, they told me that I couldn’t tell anyone about it—“Põe ziper na boca (keep your mouth shut),” they would say.


charity World War II

Date:

Location: Brazil

Contributed by: Caminho da memória - 遥かなるみちのり. São Paulo, Brazil: Comissão de Elaboração da História dos 80 Anos de Imigração Japonesa no Brasil, 1998. VHS.

Interviewee Bio

Margarida Tomi Watanabe (formerly Ikegami)—known as the “Mother of Nikkei Migration”—was born in Kagoshima prefecture in 1900. At the age of 10, after learning that her neighbors were migrating to Brazil, she decided to leave for Brazil as well in hopes of lifting the some of the burden off of her family. Aboard the “Kanagawa Maru,” she arrived in Santos Port in March of 1912, and moved in with her uncle, whom had already been settled in Brazil. There, she was treated like a real daughter, and at 18 she was given the Christened name of Margarida. In 1928, she married Mr. Watanabe, who was the first-ever Japanese certified public accountant.

During World War II, she saw fellow countrymen being arrested and forced into confinement, and although she was in a difficult situation of being seen as an enemy alien, she decided to upstart relief activity. In June 1942, she established the “Catholic Japanese Relief Association.” She continued her social service efforts after the war, and opened the “Ikoi-no sono”, a nursing home for Nikkei elders, which is still in operation to this day. She passed away in 1996 at the age of 95.

In recognition of her contributions to social welfare, she has received several awards including the Yoshikawa Eiji Cultural Award (1992) and the Asahi Social Welfare Award (1993). (June 22, 2007)

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