Shizue Iwatsuki (October 15, 1897 – July 7, 1984) was a Japanese American poet who immigrated to the US with her husband and children. She founded the Japanese Women's Society in
Hood River, Oregon, and was the first
Issei woman in Hood River to receive a driver's license. After being released from
Minidoka War Relocation Center
Minidoka National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in the western United States. It commemorates the more than 13,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned at the Minidoka War Relocation Center during the Second World War. following World War II, she returned to Hood River and organized the Japanese Christian Women's Society in 1948 and also served as the president of the Northwest Women's Society. She was named Hood River County's Woman of the Year in 1974 and the Japanese government honored her with the Sixth Class Order of the Precious Crown for her cultural achievements and community service.
One of Iwatsuki's tanka poems was selected by
Emperor Hirohito of Japan as one of ten award winners from 32,000 worldwide submissions. She was the only award winner that did not live in Japan.
Some of Shizue's poetry is displayed in the
Japanese-American Historical Plaza in Portland, Oregon
and is a topic at the Hood River History Museum. Her poetry also appears on boulders along the
Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade. Not unlike most Japanese women of her generation, Shizue rarely complained and showed little emotion. However, her poetry and the memoir she wrote while incarcerated in a
concentration camp, shared the emotional pain and disappointment she felt as an immigrant Japanese woman.
Biography
Iwatsuki was born Shizue Imai in
Okayama, Japan
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture borders Tottori Prefecture to the n ...
, on October 15, 1897. At an early age, her mother enrolled her in cultural art lessons. Shizue graduated from Ashimori Entei Girls' High School where she learned 'practical skills' for homemaking, such as sewing, doll making, and flower arranging.
She married Kamegoro "Charles" Iwatsuki and moved to Hood River, Oregon in 1916.
The couple had three children. Oregon's anti-alien law prohibited Issei from owning and leasing land, causing the family to struggle to make a living growing apples and strawberries.
In 1923 she developed the Japanese Women's Society and focused her efforts on helping people learn English and integrate with the customs in the US, as she was one of the only Issei who could speak, write and read English. In 1926, her and her husband founded Hood River's Japanese Methodist Church. Since she was one of the only local Issei women with a driver's license, she helped many neighbors get around and run errands.
After
Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States president Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. This order authorized the secretary of war to prescribe certain ...
, when her family was forced from their home to the
Pinedale Assembly Center,
Tule Lake, and then
Minidoka concentration camps, she volunteered as a nurse and taught needlework.
The Iwatsuki family was able to return to Hood River in 1945 where she continued volunteering and running the family orchard after her husband was paralyzed from a fall. Iwatsuki earned her Master's Certificate in flower arrangement in 1965 from
Kyoto's Saga School and founded the Hood River Saga School, teaching classes that demonstrated the arts. In 1974, she was recognized by Emperor Hirohito who honored her with the Sixth Class Order of the Precious Crown for her cultural achievements and public service and named Hood River County's Woman of the Year.
Poetry
Iwatsuki began writing in a traditional genre of Japanese poetry called
tanka.
She learned to read and write in English and then changed to a shorter form of poetry, but was still able to convey meaningful messages in her work. Some of her poetry now stands, engraved on granite boulders in the Japanese American Historical Plaza in Portland, Oregon.
The poetry exhibited in the plaza, along the path come from other immigrant poets such as
Lawson Fusao Inada, Masaki Kinoshita, and Hisako Saito.
All the poems on display illustrate the struggles these Japanese Americans experienced throughout their lives, as well as important moments in Japanese American History. Shizue Iwatsuki's poems in the plaza discuss the part of her life she spent in concentration camps. Her emotional works are also on display at the Hood River history museum for people to see, as well as information about her life and contribution to the community.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iwatsuki, Shizue
American women poets
American poets of Asian descent
American writers of Japanese descent
1897 births
1984 deaths
People from Hood River, Oregon
Poets from Oregon
Japanese-American internees
Japanese emigrants to the United States
American women writers of Asian descent
20th-century American poets
20th-century American women writers