Interviewee: Mabel Jingu Enkoji

Relationship to Nikkei gardeners: She was born at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio, Texas.

Date: July 17, 2007

Location: Japanese American National Museum

Brief Summary: Mabel was born at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio, Texas, and speaks about the garden's name changes throughout history.

Transcript:
My name is Mabel Jingu Enkoji. I was born in San Antonio, Texas at the Japanese Tea Garden in 1925. I had six sisters and two brothers, and my mother and father living there. My father developed a tea business and we lived at the tea garden from the early 1900s until the war started in 1942. Well, actually '41, but we were evicted by the city in 1942. It became named as the Chinese Tea Garden from the Japanese Tea Garden during the war and then after the war, the mayor, Cisneros, renamed the garden back to Japanese Tea Garden, and we were invited back for the renaming.

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This interview was conducted as part of the Opening Day activities for the exhibition Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden.