Interviews

1. Life in Davao, Philippines

2. Kindergarten in Davao, Philippines

3. Evacuated to the Jungle

4. Captured by Guerillas after bombing of Pearl Harbor

5. Family was shipped back to Japan after the war

6. Attitudes toward Hikiagesha

7. Move to Los Angeles

8. First Impressions of the US

9. Life in the Philippines

10. Unique Identity from Having Multiple Backgrounds

11. On Nikkei Identity

12. Returning to the Philippines

Uchimura,Sawako Ashizawa

(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.

Life in Davao, Philippines

Father went to Philippines, because it was only available country at that time to go either Brazil or Philippine – he chose Philippine. That was May 1, 1937, and then a year later, I was born in Davao, Philippines. It’s a Mindanao Island.

During that time, there were almost like 20,000 Japanese in that community, and they had very extensive cultural activities that is going on, and place, Davao was prosperous with the production of hemp, like ship’s ropes and the potato sacks were made from hemp. And father, after a while, was apprenticing the – making water tanks and roofs in them – other products – out of sheet metal; it’s a galvanized sheet metal. And when he returned, visiting Japan, he became an owner of a shop in – it started to prosper.

communities migration Philippines

Date: July 12, 2017

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mitsue Watanabe, Yoko Nishimura, Leighton Okada

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Sawako Ashizawa Uchimura was born in Davao, Mindanao, Philippines on March 25, 1938 as the first daughter of Katsujiro and Ura “Mie” Ashizawa. She was 7 years old in 1945 when her family had to leave the Philippines after Japan’s defeat in World War II. Her family lived in Shizuoka for the next 10 years. Later the family received residency status in the United States and arrived in Los Angeles in March 1956. Sawako went to Alhambra High School and later studied at Pasadena City College. She eventually found a generous mentor who helped support her through her education at San Jose State University and became an occupational therapist. Currently she is volunteering at the Sakura Garden (Formerly Keiro Retirement Home). (March 2018)