Spent four years at Northwestern University getting even more radicalized. Went to lots of protests, including the big anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C. Volunteered with a group to get DDT banned. Met future husband #1 who actually had gone to Stuyvesant. Worked part-time in the physics lab, geology department, and waitressing. Education was a cool and easy degree so that’s what I did – BS in Secondary Ed and English Lit. Really disliked my student teaching experience and swore I’d never be a teacher. Kept that promise. Graduated in ’71 and moved to Oregon with husband in a 1965 Chrysler Newport.
Bought a small house and learned a lot about home repair and gardening. Worked at canneries and a turkey factory. Took a test for an engineering aide job with the State of Oregon and got hired as one of the first women to work in a field construction office. Worked on survey crews, tested materials, did calcs, contract payments,project inspection, etc. This started my sometime interrupted career with ODOT for the next 35 years. Got laid off and enjoyed being on unemployment because I was pregnant. 8 lb 9 oz boy named Evan born in June 1977. Decided to leave first husband and get a different degree. Took baby and went to Oregon State as a computer science major. Also took calculus and Japanese. Met second husband. Algerian graduate student in mathematics. Didn’t like this degree track either. Opened a small vegetarian restaurant/espresso place with second husband. 80 hour workweeks not good. Went back to ODOT in Newport, Oregon as an engineering technician, then transferred to Portland. Decided husband #2 wasn’t working out, especially when his three brothers moved in. Culture and religion gap too large. Moved out, bought my own house, and decided my taste in men was flawed.
Worked on great bridge, freeway, and light rail projects. Got promoted a couple of times. Met husband #3 – a keeper. Almost married 32 years. Civil engineer, funny, even-tempered. Likes smart women. Spent several years with a Quaker silent meeting and was socially and politically active. In 1992 got tired of ODOT and started a two year stint with Young Audiences of Oregon, doing a Japanese dance and culture program with my mom who had moved from NYC with my dad a few years prior. Also worked part-time at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry as a science educator. Did two or three plays a year with regional theater companies. Found I had a dramatic flair for tragic Irish women. Also worked with a Latino theater group as a tragic Latina. The flood of 1996 shut down the museum so I went back to ODOT.
My construction experience and connections really worked out. Worked for HNTB Engineering, HDR Engineering, and the City of Portland. Took my State retirement at 56. Continued working part-time for ODOT, overseeing and helping local agencies with their federal aid projects. At 65 decided to officially retire from going to paid employment. Gained a grandson in 2011. Alden is blond, blue-eyed, left-handed. My husband and I took care of him two or three days a week until he went to daycare. Then he was at our house every Monday. My son’s Legos came out of deep storage, we gardened, ate homemade yogurt popsicles, and did other grandma and grandpa stuff. He is now in a kindergarten Chinese immersion program so we see him a lot less.
Retirement is good. I do a small work out five days a week and walk about 2.5 miles a day. Spend a lot of time with my parents, who are 93 and 90 – doctors, shopping, errands. Spring, summer, and fall mostly revolve around the yard. We’ve got a third of an acre with apples, figs, plums, persimmons, chestnuts, and a big garden. Grow many herbs, assortment of vegetables, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. A far cry from the cold water flat on Columbus Avenue and the south Bronx project I lived in until I was seven. From December through mid-April I volunteer with AARP as a tax counselor, doing people’s taxes. Summer brings Japanese dance classes for the Obon festival in August. Around Halloween, a friend of mine and I teach Japanese dance at Kumoricon (a manga/anime convention). This year we even have a paid gig to teach once a week at an arts camp. Have been elected precinct committeeperson. The precinct is heavily democratic which makes things a lot easier. Went to the recent Women’s March but missed the “Show us Your Taxes” march since I was (ironically) doing taxes that day.
The other bio info I sent is about my “Brief but Democratic Life”. Those are the values I live by. I plan on being active and engaged as long as I can. I’ve also sent in last year’s holiday letter. It’s a little toned down
Update:
Retirement is good. Spend a lot of time with my mother who is 98 and in assisted living – doctors, shopping, errands. Spring, summer, and fall mostly revolve around the yard. We’ve got a third of an acre with apples, figs, plums, persimmons, chestnuts, and a big garden. Grow many herbs, assortment of vegetables, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. A far cry from the cold water flat on Columbus Avenue and the south Bronx project I lived in until I was seven. From December through mid-April I volunteer with AARP as a tax counselor, doing people’s taxes. Summer brings Japanese dance classes for the Obon festival in August. Around Halloween, a friend of mine and I teach Japanese dance at Kumoricon (a manga/anime convention). Have again been elected precinct committeeperson. The precinct is heavily democratic which makes things a lot easier.
Last December a woman in Oakland, who created a documentary about Japanese arts in the internment camps, contacted me. She wanted to make another documentary, this time about my mother, her career, and the props that were made in an internment camp. I helped with videos, photos, etc. Two students from New York and one from Portland, Oregon were also interviewed. There’s a video of me dancing with my mother from 30 years ago. I also explain the items from the internment camps and that they were being donated to the Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah. This aired live in March and is now archived. If you’re interested, the link is: https://archive.org/details/sahomi-tachibana
In April, went to the Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah, and the Topaz site. Did an impromptu explanation of the props I brought to donate to the museum. The museum is exceptional. Went to the Topaz site and saw where my mother and the rest of the family were interned during WW II. Parts of the garden my grandfather built are still visible. It was a moving experience and gave me a real feel for the history behind the injustice.
We’re planning a trip to Klamath Falls, Oregon and hope to visit nearby Tule Lake Relocation Center in California soon. My mother and her family were interned there prior to Topaz. I’ve lived in Oregon over 50 years and have never been to Klamath Falls! Must be time.
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