Mary Matsuda Gruenewald ( Matsuda; January 23, 1925 – February 11, 2021) was an American writer. She is best known for her

autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. Bec ...

''Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps'', which details her own experiences as a Japanese American in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

internment camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

Biography

Early life

Mary Matsuda was born in 1925 in

Vashon Island, Washington Vashon is a census-designated place (CDP) in King County, Washington, United States. It covers an island alternately called Vashon Island or Vashon–Maury Island, the largest island in Puget Sound south of Admiralty Inlet. The population was 10,6 ...

to Heisuke and Mitsuno Matsuda, Japanese immigrants and farmers. She and her brother grew up in the small community of

Vashon Island Vashon is a census-designated place (CDP) in King County, Washington, United States. It covers an island alternately called Vashon Island or Vashon–Maury Island, the largest island in Puget Sound south of Admiralty Inlet. The population was 10, ...

under idyllic circumstances. Her family owned a strawberry farm and attended a local Methodist congregation.

Internment experience

Upon learning about the

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

in December 1941, her family destroyed their Japanese possessions. In May 1942, following the signing of Executive Order 9066, she and her family were forced from their home and placed in a series of camps, starting with Pinedale Assembly Center and progressing through

Tule Lake Tule Lake ( ) is an intermittent lake covering an area of , long and across, in northeastern Siskiyou County and northwestern Modoc County in California, along the border with Oregon. Geography Tule Lake is fed by the Lost River. The eleva ...

and Heart Mountain. She graduated from high school during camp. In September 1944, after transferring her parents to Minidoka to be closer to friends from Washington state, she left to join the Cadet Nurse Corps in

Clinton, Iowa Clinton is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,469 as of 2020. Clinton, along with DeWitt (also located in Clinton County), was named in honor of the sixth governor of New York, DeWitt C ...

Postwar life

After the war, Gruenewald lived in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and worked in the nursing field. She met and married Charles Gruenewald, a minister, in 1951. By 1970, she had become the nurse manager of the Emergency Room of the Group Health Cooperative Hospital in Seattle. During the post-war years, she was initially reticent to discuss or write stories about her wartime experiences. However, in 1999, she decided to write down her experiences, primarily so that her children would know the details of her experience. These were published in 2005 as ''Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps''. Gruenewald was 80 years old at the time.

Later years

In 2017, she received a diploma from Vashon Island High School, which she had attended prior to being interned.

Death

Gruenewald died from non-COVID related pneumonia on February 11, 2021, aged 96.

List of works

* ''Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps'' (2005) * ''Becoming Mama-San: 80 Years of Wisdom'' (2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gruenewald, Mary Matsuda 1925 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American memoirists Japanese-American internees American writers of Japanese descent 20th-century American women writers American autobiographers American women memoirists People from Vashon, Washington American women nurses 21st-century American women American women writers of Asian descent Deaths from pneumonia in Washington (state)