Linfield Digest/Letters
Thank you for “Forced to leave” (Spring 2019), the story of
Linfield Japanese-American student Mitsue
(Endow) Salador ’45, a U.S. citizen born in Oregon.
After World War II started in 1941, Oregonian
Japanese-Americans, including Salador, and Japanese nationals were incarcerated
in the Portland Assembly Center, a detention camp that had been a livestock
exposition facility. Salador and another Linfield student, Mary Kazuyo Wakai ’43, (photo), were incarcerated at the camp.
Wakai, a brother and parents moved from Japan, where all
were born, to Hawaii in 1921. Five other brothers – all named for U.S.
presidents – were Hawaii born. Her parents founded the United Church of Christ
in Kapa’a, Kauai, in Hawaii, where her father was the first pastor.
Her father died in 1936 and the Wakai family moved to Honolulu, where she graduated from McKinley
High School in 1937. She was a University of Hawaii economics and business
major before transferring to Linfield, where she was a member of Delta Rho
Delta service group.
Due to the war, Salador and Wakai were forced to leave Linfield. Both transferred to William Jewell
College (WJC) in Liberty, Missouri. Before becoming a WJC student, Wakai was
imprisoned in Minidoka Internment Camp, Hunt, Idaho, where she was a Girl Scout
leader and recreation staff member in charge of music. At WJC she was a
sociology major and a Glee Club/Chapel Choir member. Leaving the college, she
was a Chicago regional government secretary. In 1962, she became a naturalized
U.S. citizen. She returned to WJC, graduating in 1965.
Wakai was a welfare caseworker in Liberty with the state of
Missouri Dept. of Public Health & Welfare. Later, she moved back to
Honolulu, where she died in 1975. When named Hawaii’s “Mother of the Year” in 1960,
Wakai’s mother proudly noted her daughter’s government job and sons’
occupations: minister, two dentists, physician, research scientist and bank
supervisor. Some brothers were in mainland internment camps before serving in
the U.S. Army during the war.
I appreciate Mitsue (Endow) Salador and a member of the
Wakai family for reviewing this letter.
– Tim Marsh ’70
