Mary Takata “Taishi” Ikuta

Nisei

Mary Takata Ikuta—who went by “Taishi”—was born in Fresno, CA. She is the older sister of Lily Yuriye Matsumoto and Ben Kazuo Matsumoto.

When Executive Order 9066 was issued, Taishi was in her late 20s. She and her siblings were sent to the Santa Anita Assembly Center before being transferred to Jerome. Upon arriving at the assembly center, Taishi and her sister Lily were separated from their brothers. They lived in horse stables in close proximity with other incarcerees, and they used sheets and blankets to separate their living quarters. “When they went to the public latrines, my aunt would hold sheets up or my mom would hold sheets up for my aunt,” says Taishi’s son Paul. “They lived in Seabiscuit’s stall. That was the high point of their experience.”

When the siblings were later transferred to Jerome, they were separated from a brother whom they later discovered was sent to nearby Rohwer. Taishi shared very little about her time in Jerome aside from the fact that she worked as a secretary at a camp medical facility.

After the war, Taishi separated from her first husband and left for Chicago. There, she married her second husband—Paul’s father—who was a doctor and also incarcerated at Jerome. They opened a medical practice together in Little Tokyo and invested in local real estate properties. “Something that was really important to them was owning real estate,” says Taishi’s grand-daughter Kimberly. “My grandfather had some property [prior to the war], but it was taken away from him during the camps. To be able to own property was a sign that they were American.”

When her husband passed away in 1969, Taishi continued to invest in real estate. “It accelerated after my dad passed,” says Paul. “My mom, on her own, was able to negotiate and build with a contractor another couple more. […] She had enough grit to be able to do that.” Throughout the years, Paul helped maintain his parents’ properties. “She had them until her death, and my dad had them for many, many years after,” says Kimberly. “That was a big part of her life.”

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Paul Toshio Ikuta

Sansei

Paul Toshio Ikuta was born in Pasadena, CA. He is the son of Mary Takata “Taishi” Ikuta.

Growing up, Paul says he had only heard about his mother’s incarceration from other family members. When he read about the camps in a college textbook, he began to ask his mother questions. “Somehow she would change the subject or change the topic,” he says. “There were more pressing things that I had on my mind at that point—classes, life issues. So I didn’t really delve into it again. […] If I were a little more adamant, she might have opened up more. That is something that I regret that I did not do.”

Paul’s father passed away when he was in high school, leaving his mother and he to survive on their real estate properties, including a dilapidated apartment complex they had previously bought in Boyle Heights. “When my dad died, there was no real income,” he says. “So I grew up with apartments. I was a sophomore in high school, and I helped build the apartments.” 

Aside from helping with his mother’s properties, Paul also supported her as she grieved her husband’s death. “She was like a ship without a rudder,” he says. His mother immersed herself in religion and real estate, and she remained active in the local medical community by working at the Japanese Hospital of Los Angeles in Boyle Heights. “Many times, [the patients] could not pay money,” he says. “But we did eat really well. [They paid us in] vegetables, fish, chicken—whatever they could do.”

Paul says owning property was important for his family—especially his father, who lost his family’s property in Hawai’i during his incarceration. “After leaving the camps, they wanted to be as secure as possible,” he says. Paul continued to manage his parents’ buildings over the years. “Up until now, I had some properties,” he says. “But I’m divesting myself because the kids don’t want it.”