Mary Kageyama Nomura (born September 29, 1925) is an American singer of

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

descent who was relocated and incarcerated for her ancestry at the

Manzanar Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one ...

concentration camp during World War II and became known as The songbird of Manzanar.

Early life

Mary Kageyama was one of five children of carpenter Tomitaro Kageyama and his wife, dance teacher Machi Kageyama, immigrants from Japan who lived in Los Angeles. She learned Japanese opera music from her mother, and performed at the

Koyasan Buddhist Temple , also known as Koyasan Buddhist Temple, is a Japanese Buddhist temple in the Little Tokyo district of Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1912, it is one of the oldest existing Buddhist temples in the North American mainla ...

as a four-year-old, but both her parents died by the time she was eight. She was raised by her older brother and sister, both teenagers at the time, who left their high school to keep the family together rather than letting the other children get sent to an orphanage. She formed a singing group with two of her siblings, "the Kageyama Trio", and at age 12 became the only child performer in a pre-war

Japanese-American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

musical group for servicemen. She went to Venice High School.

Manzanar

After the signing of Executive Order 9066, the family was taken to

in 1942, when Kageyama was 16. There, she graduated from Manzanar High School in 1943, and worked as a receptionist and clerk. She continued her music under the mentorship of Manzanar's musical director

Lou Frizzell Lou Frizzell (June 10, 1919 – June 17, 1979) was an American actor and music director who worked on Broadway productions, television shows and films. He was perhaps best known for playing Dusty Rhodes in the American western television seri ...

, who accompanied her while she sang at camp musical performances and recorded two songs. She also sang at the weddings and funerals held at the camp. It was during this period that she became known as the "Songbird of Manzanar".

Later life

After the war, Kageyama married Shiro (Shi) Nomura. Nomura had seen her perform at a Nisei festival before the war, but they first met at the camp. She continued singing, primarily at concentration camp reunions. Later in life, she jokingly gave herself the name "the Old Crow of Manzanar". In 2016, actor Cody Edison produced a short documentary film about her, ''Songbird of Manzanar''. Nomura's daughter Lisa, son-in-law Gerald Ishibashi, and their children are all musical performers. Granddaughter

Brittany Ishibashi Brittany Mariko Ishibashi (born November 2, 1980) is a Japanese-American actress. She has had starring television roles on '' Political Animals'', '' Supernatural'' and '' Runaways''. Ishibashi has had roles in films such as '' Teenage Mutant N ...

is a television and film actress, and another granddaughter, Brooke Ishibashi, has performed professionally as an actor and singer in a lead role in the play ''Cambodian Rock Band''.

References

External links

Mary Nomura interview
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection {{DEFAULTSORT:Nomura, Mary 1925 births Living people 20th-century American singers Japanese-American internees Japanese-American culture in Los Angeles Singers from Los Angeles American women musicians of Japanese descent 20th-century American women singers