Oral history interviews with Nadyne Yoneko Dozono [Sound Recording 11]

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SR976_T06S1

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Oral history interviews with Nadyne Yoneko Dozono [Sound Recording 11]

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  • 1998-01-29 (Creation)

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Audiocassette; 00:30:50

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Biographical history

Nadyne Yoneko Dozono, nee Yoneko Niguma, was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1915. Her family arranged for her to go to Japan in 1931, when she was a teenager, to obtain a two-year education in Japanese culture. In 1934, while still in Japan, she and Asazo Dozono were married, and they later had three children. She lived in Japan during World War II and considered herself a Japanese citizen. After the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States in 1945, she worked with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, which studied the effects of radiation poisoning among the survivors. She returned to the United States with her oldest child in 1953, with Asazo Dozono and the other children following shortly after. In the U.S., she continued working as an interpreter for the Japanese Ancestral League, as well as occasionally for the FBI. She was active in the Veleda Nisei Women's Club and often spoke in public schools about Japanese culture. She died in 2013.

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Tape 6, Side 1. This oral history interview with Nadyne Yoneko Dozono was conducted by Clark Hansen at Dozono’s home in Portland, Oregon, from January 23 to February 5, 1998. The interview was recorded as part of the Japanese American Oral History Project, which was conducted by the Oregon Historical Society to preserve the stories of Japanese Americans in Oregon. The interview was conducted in seven sessions. In the third interview session, conducted on January 29, 1998, Dozono continues discussing the family members she met and lived with in Japan, and her experiences adjusting to life there. She describes the house she lived in, her daily life, and learning Japanese customs. She talks about sewing traditional Japanese clothing, performing the Japanese tea ceremony, and the nuances of the Japanese language. She also describes the town she lived in, Seki Machi in Gifu prefecture, as well as Tokyo. She talks about Japanese festivals, plays, and holidays. She speaks at length about her arranged marriage to Asazo Dozono in 1934. She talks about Asazo Dozono’s career and about raising children, including her first child’s death during an epidemic. She closes the session by describing life in Japan during World War II and explains that she was not well-informed about world events at the time.

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Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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  • eng

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