Courtesy of the Japanese American Legacy Center Archives
When my husband and I were first married, we lived in a building on the 4300 block of North Kenmore owned by Harry and Martha Tanaka. By the time I was pregnant with our first child, we had moved to a drafty second-floor apartment in the Matsunaga building on South Oakenwald. That winter was so cold that all my houseplants froze. On exceptionally cold days, I would linger at the nearby Walgreens, where elderly ladies from our building also took refuge.
We moved to Fred Yamaguchi’s building at 43rd and Ellis when my brother-in-law was called up to serve in the Korean War, and he and his family left for Fort Lewis, Washington. My husband’s parents lived there too. My only friend in the neighborhood was Yuki Ishibashi Mitsueda, who lived a block over on Berkeley. Yuki and I used to walk around the block, pushing our baby buggies.
After a while, we managed to save some money, and Seno Realty found us an affordable house on 65th and Morgan. It was in a transitional area where black people were moving in, and white people were moving out. We created an apartment for my in-laws on the second floor of that small house, but we all had to share the one bathroom on the first floor. It’s strange, but that’s the way we were back then.
—Ruby Izui, former resident
834 E. 47th St.
Bob Ishii, Prop.
Courtesy of the Japanese American Legacy Center Archives
We lived at two addresses: 1237 E. 46th Street and then we moved down the block to 1249 E. 46th Street. I can’t remember why we moved to the second place. I think we lived in the area until I was halfway through the 8th grade (Grade 8B) so we moved away when I was about 12 or 13 years old which would make it around 1955 or 1956.
I went to William Shakespeare Elementary School for a few years (a silly ditty I recall: “Shakespeare, kick in the rear, Happy New Year”). I remember Richard Tani and some others whose names I can’t remember being in my class.
After camp, our family—Dad (Kay), Mom (Lillie), sister Susan, and I—moved to Chicago. We lived at 1368 E. 62nd Street (a really big apartment building complex that doesn’t exist anymore). My grandmother and two uncles also lived in an apartment at this address. We moved to the 46th Street address, I think, when I was in the 5th grade. Pre-war, Mom and Dad lived in Los Angeles. They hurried to get married in April of 1942 so they wouldn’t get sent to separate camps.
They were sent to Camp Amache in Granada, Colorado, where I was born in February 1943 and Susan was born in June 1944.
I don’t recall any problems with resettling since I was just a toddler when we moved to Chicago after the war was over. I do remember that my parents sent us to church (even though they didn’t attend) and my sister and I were picked up in a car every Sunday by a nice hakujin couple so we could attend Sunday School at The Church of the Nazarene. That’s where I learned all the Bible stories and various Bible verses. I’m still in contact with a hakujin friend I made at Walter Scott Elementary School (which is where I also first met Donna Ogura), so I don’t recall any childhood problems with making friends in Chicago.
Our family’s best friends were Henry and Hatsumi Tani (children: Richard, Joyce [my childhood friend], and Jim [we still get together in Las Vegas each year]), and Tom and Sachi Miyata (now retired owners, with brother Mas Miyata, of Piccadilly Garage on 79th Street). I think the Tanis lived just north of where we lived on 46th Street; the Tani kids went to Oakenwald Elementary School and later Hyde Park High School.
The parents of one of my friends (Gladys Kawasaki) owned a small gift shop in the neighborhood, but I can’t recall the name of it. Henry Tani and my father were both carpenters who used their carpentry skills at Chicago Buddhist Church (today’s Buddhist Temple of Chicago). Dad worked at Czerwiec Lumber Company (their motto was, “Just say sir-wick”). I still have one of their wooden yard sticks. I think that’s where Dad met Henry who later worked at Lee Lumber Company. My mom was a housewife during this period.
I remember attending Japanese language school under Reverend Mukushina, and Kenwood-Ellis Community Church when we lived in the area. I also joined the Girl Scout troop from this church. I believe the minister’s name was Reverend Nishimoto. We attended the Resettlers’ Picnic every year (a very nice memory) and we always sat with the Tani and Miyata families. My brothers joined the Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops from Chicago Buddhist Church.
We moved to 7332 S. Dorchester Avenue when I was halfway through 8th grade so my final semester and a half of grade school was spent at James Madison Elementary School, just a half block away at 74th and Dorchester. It was the shortest walk I had to any of my schools!
By 1956, my three brothers (Roy, Steven, and Stanley) had been born so we needed a bigger place. We wound up in a 2-story, 3-bedroom house with a basement and a big backyard (but no garage). My sister and I shared a bedroom in a bunk bed made by my father (of course!) and Roy and Steven shared another bedroom (in a bunk bed) while Stanley slept in a single bed in my parents’ bedroom. He was only 3-years old at that time. We bought the house through Seno Realty Co. I think that Sam Seno was the owner of the realty company. His son, Glenn, was my classmate in high school. I graduated from Madison in January, 1957 and attended Emil G. Hirsch High School at 78th and Ingleside, from which I graduated in January 1961.
—Carolyn Nakamura, former resident
Courtesy of Ross Harano
I was born in the Fresno Assembly Center in 1942, and a month later my family was relocated to Jerome, Arkansas. The Harano Clan lived in Berkeley, CA; however, my parents evacuated with my mother’s family who lived in Hanford. The Harano Clan evacuated to Topaz.
My father was able to get a job working in a greenhouse located in Alton, Illinois and we left Jerome when I was 11 months old.
We remained in Alton until I was two years old when we moved to Chicago and lived on the West Side in Humboldt Park. In 1945, my mother’s family pooled their money and purchased a home on 4201 S. Oakenwald across from the end of the Kenwood elevated line.
My parents, my grandparents, and my mother’s three sisters lived together on Oakenwald. After the war was over, my aunts’ husbands returned from the 442 and MIS. Altogether, we had five families living together. By 1949 all of my aunts’ families returned to California. My parents and grandparents remained until September 1961 when all of the homes on the 4200 block of Oakenwald were torn down to build CHA (Chicago Housing Authority) high rises. Our family moved to Uptown, where we currently reside.
I attended Oakenwald grammar school on Lake Park Avenue from September 1948 until my graduation in 1956. There were still many JA’s attending Oakenwald in 1948, however, by the time I graduated in 1956 there were only two or three JA’s in the entire school.
I remember walking to the Chicago Resettler Committee’s summer picnic in the park at 43rd Street and the Lake.
In 1956, I attended Hyde Park High School at a time when there was still a sizeable JA student body. By the time I graduated in 1960, however, the numbers has substantially decreased.
Our family attended the Ellis Community Church located on the 4500 block of S. Ellis. The minister was George Nishimoto and the denomination was Evangelical and Reformed. Ellis Community Church merged with the Kenwood Church located at 46th and Greenwood. The Kenwood Ellis Church served both JA and African American communities. The Evangelical and Reform Church and the Congregational Church merged in 1957 to form the United Church of Christ.
—Ross Harano, former resident
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© 2015 Erik Matsunaga
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