A life of love, lessons and loss for 91-year-old EP woman

Eden Prairie resident Saki Tsuchiya has led a full life. From her incarceration in an internment camp as a child to her 60-year marriage that produced a loving family, Saki has experienced her share of pain and joy.

The 91-year-old exudes positivity and a desire to share her story and the lessons she has learned along the way.

Her story begins in Seattle

Born Sakiye Ohno on Oct. 21, 1933, in Seattle, she grew up with her mother, father and nine siblings. Her father, Yosaji, and mother, also named Saki, immigrated in 1919 from Japan to Seattle, where they began their family. Saki was the third youngest of the 10 children.

She remembers attending Bailey Gatzert School, playing with dolls, and playing badminton and hopscotch with her younger siblings and friends in their neighborhood, part of a Japanese immigrant community.

Her father had various jobs as a farmhand, dishwasher and waiter. “It was difficult for my mom to try to prepare meals for this big family with such a meager salary, but she somehow managed,” Saki recalled.

She said one of her brothers would often fish for the family’s supper, and the older siblings helped care for the younger ones.

Family is forcibly relocated during World War II

Saki was 8 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. She recalled that people yelled at her family and other people of Japanese heritage after the attack.

According to Saki, one of her brothers was watching a movie at the cinema when the bombing occurred. When he exited the theater, someone yelled at him, “There’s a Jap! There’s a Jap!” He ran home, terrified.

“It was Japan that bombed Pearl Harbor,” said Saki, “so we were the enemy in their eyes.”

Saki recalled houses belonging to Japanese Americans “were searched, and short-wave radios, cameras, etc. were confiscated. Families were afraid to have any possessions that appeared too Japanese. These things were given away or destroyed.”

About 10 weeks after the bombing, on Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066.

The order authorized the forced removal of all individuals considered a threat to national security from the West Coast to concentration camps called “relocation centers” or “internment camps” further inland, which resulted in the incarceration of about 120,000 Japanese, many of whom were American citizens.

Saki said that after the order, there was a lot of confusion within her Japanese community about what would happen to them. When they finally had to leave their homes, all they could take was what they could carry.

Saki and her family first lived in a temporary camp on the fairgrounds at Puyallup, Washington. They slept on cots in former horse stables, stuffing straw in canvas bags to make mattresses. Saki recalled there was no privacy in the living quarters or the bathrooms. 

They were then transported to the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho, where they stayed for almost three years.

“What a desolate area it was!” Saki remembered. “All we saw was sagebrush, tumbleweed and sand – truly a desert-like area.”

She described the terrible dust storms that would occur. “The wind blew the sand so hard that one could barely see. When the storm was over, there was a layer of sand everywhere.”

Saki’s 12-person family lived in two small rooms within a barracks that was constructed from wooden frames and covered in tar paper. Each room had cots and a potbelly stove.

The camp was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, and armed guards were posted on watch towers. “We were not allowed to leave camp,” Saki said.

Children attended school within the camp, with most teachers being Caucasians willing to work at the camp. Kids would also do crafts, play sports, or play games like kick-the-can.

Saki recalled that for her and the younger children, living in the internment camp “did not impact us like it did my older siblings who had, some of them, graduated from high school.”

Family moves to Minnesota

While imprisoned at Minidoka, Saki’s brother Joe volunteered to join the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), which intercepted and interpreted Japanese communications.

During his service, he was transferred to Minnesota, first to Camp Savage in Savage and then to Fort Snelling in St. Paul.

After the exclusion orders were rescinded in December 1944, Japanese Americans regained their freedom.

“My dad didn’t want to go back to Seattle, because there was nothing there for us,” said Saki.

Three of Saki’s older siblings had joined Joe in the Twin Cities. While Saki, her parents and her younger siblings remained at Minidoka, the older siblings in Minnesota worked and pooled their money to buy a house.

When Saki and her remaining family finally moved in August 1945, they traveled by train from Idaho to the Great Northern Railway station in Minneapolis, then by taxi to the house.

“After living in two rooms, you can imagine how we felt when that taxi cab came in front of this house. A four-bedroom house, a basement and an attic,” recalled Saki. “We were amazed.”

Saki began junior high school in Minneapolis. “My sister and I were the only Japanese at that junior high school,” said Saki. “There was a great deal of curiosity about us, especially our former place of residence.

“It was difficult to try to explain that our family had been in an internment camp in Idaho. They had no clue as to what I meant. It was quite obvious that people in this area were totally unaware of the mass evacuation that had taken place.”

Saki lived across the street from Trinity Lutheran Church. “It turned out that some of my junior high school friends were attending that church, so I started attending the church, too,” she said. “I got involved in a young people’s group called the Luther League.”

At Roosevelt High School, Saki was involved in the Christian Fellowship Club, the a cappella choir, and the National Honor Society.

After high school, she enrolled at the University of Minnesota to become a nurse, thanks to the financial support of her brother Fred.

Saki pursues a life of raising children, helping others

While taking a Japanese language class at the university, Saki met another student named Albert Tsuchiya. “He asked me for a date, and I turned him down,” Saki recollected, “because I didn’t want to do any dating while going to school.”

Five years later, after graduating from college and becoming a registered nurse, Saki attended a Japanese community picnic, where she saw Albert playing volleyball.

According to Saki, after Albert spotted her, “he supposedly sprained his ankle and came out of the game and struck up a conversation.” He again asked her on a date. This time, she said yes.

A matter of months later, they got married at Trinity Lutheran Church and began their life together. Albert worked as an accountant, while Saki continued working as a nurse until she had her first child.

While living in Rochester, they welcomed three children into the world and then added a fourth after moving to Bloomington, where they lived for 23 years.

Some of her happiest memories were when she, Albert, and their children would go to their cabin on Blue Lake in Hubbard County. Saki recalled that Albert “worked very hard cleaning up the weeds on the lake so the kids could swim.” They would fish, canoe, and play board games.

While raising her children, Saki was a frequent volunteer at her kids’ elementary school and her church. After her children grew up, she helped at the Martin Luther Manor adult day center, Meals on Wheels and Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP).

Saki reflects on her life so far

In 2018, Saki and Albert moved to The Waters in Eden Prairie. Soon after, Albert passed away. “That was his last act, to take care of his wife, to get her settled someplace she could continue on,” said Cheral Tsuchiya, Saki’s daughter-in-law.

Saki’s days of working hard are over. What brings her joy now are visits and Zoom calls with her family, along with various activities with her friends at The Waters. “Now I just have fun,” she said.

Saki’s son Brian described his mother as “very giving, very selfless in her actions.”

As a skilled nurse, loving mother and devoted volunteer, Saki Tsuchiya has given much of herself to her community and the people she loves.

When asked what important lessons she has learned during her life, Saki simply stated, “Enjoy life and every day because you never know how many days you have left.”