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Chizuko Tamaye was born on July 3, 1924 in Seattle, WA. During her early childhood, she spent several years in Japan, before her family moved to Bellevue. They later moved to Kirkland, and Chizuko started junior high in Redmond.
She remembers high school fondly, and was an active member of several student groups and extra curriculars. However, she recalls feeling different from her peers in the days following Pearl Harbor.
“They felt a lot of sympathy and saying, 'We know it isn't you or your family.' And that helped, but not all that much because you still felt different. And not only different, but you felt like you really stood out. And, which is funny to say because we stood out anyway, way back...”
--- Chizuko (Tamaye) Norton, Densho Interview
Redmond High School Honor Society, 1942
Kauru (right) and Chizuko Tamaye (left)
Redmond High School Chorus, 1942
Following Executive Order 9066, Chizuko, her older sister, and parents were incarcerated at "Pinedale Assembly Center." She remembers her friends and classmates coming to the train station to say goodbye. Her diploma, yearbook, some class photographs, and a tassel were mailed to her in incarceration.
Her family was moved to Tule Lake, where they were compelled to complete a "loyalty questionnaire". This controversial and confusing questionnaire asked recipients, among other things, to renounce any allegiance to the "Japanese emperor or any other foreign government, power or organization".
"...my parents decided that they would not sign. And their decision was that, 'You allow us to become U.S. citizens and then we will.' But as my father said, he refused to become a person without a country, even if that other country did do this horrible war act on the United States..."
--- Chizuko (Tamaye) Norton, Densho Interview
"An evacuee family spends a quiet evening in their barracks. The decoration of this apartment is quite typical and shows the homemade furniture, shelves, bookcases and other furniture."
Photo, National Parks Service
Department of the Interior. War Relocation Authority.
2/16/1944-6/30/1946
Photographer: Stewart, Francis Leroy
"Tule Lake, Calif. Apr. 1942. Main street of Tule Lake, south of the Oregon border, near which town will be established a War Relocation Authority center for evacuees of Japanese ancestry who will be sent there for the duration of the war."
Photo, 1942, Library of Congress (www.loc.gov/item/2021650546)
War Relocation Authority.
Photographer: Albers, Clem.
Her mother passed away during incarceration, but after being released, Chizuko’s family moved back to Seattle. Chizuko attended University of Washington for social work (BASW ’49, MSW ’51). She married Thomas Norton, who became a professor in the University’s Department of Urban Planning. During her long career, Chizuko helped found and lead the Separation and Loss Services at Virginia Mason Medical Center. Chizuko (Tamaye) Norton passed away in 2013.
Chizuko (Tamaye) Norton recorded an oral history with Densho, an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans to promote equity and justice today.
This interview details childhood, her time in incarceration, and life after World War II. View the recording by clicking the button below.
This interview is available Courtesy of Densho.
In addition to archives held by the Redmond Historical Society, this summary was put together with the help of public records and the oral history recorded April 27, 1998. This interview is available courtesy of Densho at https://ddr.densho.org/narrators/76/.
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