{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/qb9v11x10z/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Mary Nomura, 3/30/2023"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/497/original/VHM_Aviary_banner.png?1768074560","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["Mary Nomura (b. September 29, 1925) is an orphaned teen survivor of a Japanese internment camp, where she was known as the \"Songbird of Manzanar\"."]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["6/22/22 at 10:30 AM"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}},{"label":{"en":["Preferred Citation"]},"value":{"en":["Name of interviewee, date; The Venice Heritage Museum Oral Histories Project; Venice Heritage Museum, Los Angeles, CA."]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © 2024 Venice Heritage Museum"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MP4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Identifier"]},"value":{"en":["OH_033"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["Venice Beach"]}},{"label":{"en":["Access Ss"]},"value":{"en":["access_public"]}}],"summary":{"en":["Mary Nomura (b. September 29, 1925) is an orphaned teen survivor of a Japanese internment camp, where she was known as the \"Songbird of Manzanar\"."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["Copyright © 2024 Venice Heritage Museum"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Venice Heritage Museum"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/497/original/VHM_Aviary_banner.png?1768074560","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/222/022/small/Mary_Nomura.jpg?1713984452","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/108840/file/222022","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Mary_Nomura.mp4"]},"duration":449.32267,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/222/022/small/Mary_Nomura.jpg?1713984452","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/108840/file/222022/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/108840/file/222022/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-veniceheritagemuseum.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/222/022/original/Mary_Nomura.mp4?1713473012","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":449.32267,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/108840/file/222022","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/108840/file/222022/transcript/67658","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Mary Nomura Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/108840/file/222022/transcript/67658/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"00:00:05:16 - 00:00:08:16\nMy name is Mary Nomura,\n\n00:00:08:21 - 00:00:14:07\nformerly Kageyama,\rand I was born September 29,\n\n00:00:14:09 - 00:00:18:17\n1925, in...\n\n00:00:18:19 - 00:00:19:18\nWhat else can I say,\n\n00:00:19:18 - 00:00:24:06\nbut that I moved from Los Angeles\ras a little child into, to Venice.\n\n00:00:24:07 - 00:00:28:16\nI left Los Angeles when I was about four, four\ror five years old\n\n00:00:28:16 - 00:00:31:02\nand I went, we moved to Venice as a family.\n\n00:00:31:02 - 00:00:34:05\nAnd, and I remember\rstarting second or third\n\n00:00:34:05 - 00:00:37:10\ngrade or fourth grade around that time,\rbecause\n\n00:00:37:10 - 00:00:41:07\nwe had a large family and my little sister\rjust entered kindergarten.\n\n00:00:41:07 - 00:00:44:23\nBut I loved this change\rfrom being in the city of Los Angeles\n\n00:00:44:23 - 00:00:48:15\ninto the country side of Venice,\rI really am...\n\n00:00:48:15 - 00:00:50:19\nI thought that was really great,\ra great move.\n\n00:00:50:19 - 00:00:55:03\nSo, so I welcomed going \rto a smaller town like Venice \n\n00:00:55:03 - 00:00:56:11\nand where just\n\n00:00:56:11 - 00:01:00:03\nI guess it was started a long time ago,\rbut I went there as a newcomer\n\n00:01:00:03 - 00:01:03:07\nand really enjoyed that little country life and\n\n00:01:03:07 - 00:01:09:04\nand, made friends with neighbors\rwhich I didn't have that experience in\n\n00:01:09:04 - 00:01:10:13\nLos Angeles.\n\n00:01:10:13 - 00:01:13:17\nWhen I lived in Venice\rand when I  first moved to Venice,\n\n00:01:13:17 - 00:01:17:02\nmost of the area, I can’t even say \rhow many percent of the area, \n\n00:01:17:02 - 00:01:23:14\n were run as farms for, by the Japanese\rgrowing produce for the market.\n\n00:01:23:14 - 00:01:27:03\nAnd the one that was behind\rour house was a huge area\n\n00:01:27:05 - 00:01:31:04\nand was run by a Japanese,\ra family called Kamebyashi\n\n00:01:31:06 - 00:01:36:05\nand they grew celery.\rThey knew that we were quite poor\r\n\n00:01:36:05 - 00:01:40:07\nand they said to us,\rwhenever you need something to eat,\n\n00:01:40:09 - 00:01:43:18\njust help yourself on our land and get whatever you want\n\n00:01:43:18 - 00:01:46:09\nand,  I only remember celery \n\n00:01:46:09 - 00:01:50:09\nbut I remember they're nice and fresh and\rand they were very kind to us\n\n00:01:50:09 - 00:01:55:01\nand to this day I see the young man that was there\n\n00:01:55:03 - 00:01:58:15\nat our reunions in Manzanar\rat Las Vegas.\n\n00:01:58:17 - 00:02:00:14\nAnd we've been friends ever since.\n\n00:02:00:14 - 00:02:03:14\nAnd, I'll just never forget the kindness.\n\n00:02:03:15 - 00:02:10:16\nWe moved to Venice and we were there\rfor nine years before the evacuation\n\n00:02:10:17 - 00:02:11:10\ntook hold of it.\n\n00:02:11:10 - 00:02:16:20\nSo 1930’s to about to 1942,\rwe were at that Venice house.\n\n00:02:16:22 - 00:02:19:22\nI remember the, the December 7th,\n\n00:02:19:22 - 00:02:22:22\nwe were listening to the radio\rand we heard that Japan attacked\n\n00:02:22:22 - 00:02:26:00\na United States and we were shocked.\n\n00:02:26:00 - 00:02:29:07\nIt was daytime in the morning,\rI believe,  real early in the morning.\n\n00:02:29:08 - 00:02:33:11\nAnd then we were quite shocked\rand didn't know what to make of it.\n\n00:02:33:13 - 00:02:36:19\nAnd then we went to school\rand then there were all the children\n\n00:02:36:23 - 00:02:42:19\nAnd even the teachers were staring at us,\rlooking at us like we were the enemies.\n\n00:02:42:19 - 00:02:46:01\nAnd that was really hard to digest,\n\n00:02:46:03 - 00:02:50:00\nthat people took a different\rliking or disliking of us.\n\n00:02:50:02 - 00:02:52:09\nthat's, that at that moment.\n\n00:02:52:09 - 00:02:56:18\nWe were the only Japanese people\ron that block, on that street\n\n00:02:56:18 - 00:03:00:09\nand I felt like\n\n00:03:00:11 - 00:03:03:11\nwe were ostracized,\rjust because we were Japanese.\n\n00:03:03:11 - 00:03:07:20\nBut they were never, ever mean to us\rthey just\n\n00:03:07:22 - 00:03:11:17\ndidn't go out of the way to be kind to us, or  friendly.\n\n00:03:11:19 - 00:03:16:19\nWe got news about the evacuation\rthrough the newspapers, through the radio,\n\n00:03:16:21 - 00:03:22:01\nand my brother being the eldest\rin the family, he was our only guardian.\n\n00:03:22:01 - 00:03:25:13\nAnd so he took care of everything\rthat had to be done and ...\n\n00:03:25:16 - 00:03:27:14\nI mean,\n\n00:03:27:14 - 00:03:29:10\nI just,  we just owe him everything\n\n00:03:29:10 - 00:03:34:09\nbecause he was our father figure\rand he was only a teenager.\n\n00:03:34:11 - 00:03:37:05\nAnd yet my brother Frank\n\n00:03:37:05 - 00:03:40:05\nand, and his middle name was Akira.\n\n00:03:40:08 - 00:03:44:04\nAnd so I named my first son after him.\rHe was only 16\n\n00:03:44:04 - 00:03:48:08\nand so he found a job in a nursery,\rwatering the plants.\n\n00:03:48:14 - 00:03:50:14\nAnd that's the few dollars he made,\n\n00:03:50:14 - 00:03:53:19\nhe bought the food for us\rand he paid the rent on our house and\n\n00:03:53:21 - 00:03:59:06\nand kept us going until the evacuation,\rwhich I believe was a godsend for him,\n\n00:03:59:08 - 00:04:03:07\nbecause he didn't have the pay for\r anything else to keep us alive.\n\n00:04:03:09 - 00:04:06:02\nThe evacuation order must have been\n\n00:04:06:02 - 00:04:09:02\nquite earth shattering\rfor my brother and my big sister.\n\n00:04:09:05 - 00:04:14:10\nBut to me, I was just a naive\rlittle little girl and didn't understand\n\n00:04:14:10 - 00:04:18:18\nwhat it was all about. Whatever my brother\rsaid, whatever my big sister said,\n\n00:04:18:19 - 00:04:20:02\nthis is where we're going.\n\n00:04:20:02 - 00:04:23:02\nAnd to me,\rI honestly felt it was a vacation\n\n00:04:23:04 - 00:04:25:01\nthat we get to go in a bus someplace\n\n00:04:25:01 - 00:04:26:09\nI wonder where we get to go\n\n00:04:26:09 - 00:04:30:06\nand I was kind of like, oh well,\rwe get to have, go on a trip.\n\n00:04:30:08 - 00:04:34:08\nI didn't had any idea of what it was,\rwhat it meant to be\n\n00:04:34:09 - 00:04:38:06\nAnd I was 16\rand I was really, really very naive.\n\n00:04:38:11 - 00:04:42:04\nWe were told that we should take warm\rclothing and wear boots\n\n00:04:42:06 - 00:04:47:12\nand rough, rough clothing because \rit was going to be out in the desert.\n\n00:04:47:14 - 00:04:52:00\nA bus that took us in a really\r old beat up bus that everyone\n\n00:04:52:02 - 00:04:55:21\nmet right now, they are\rhave that little monument there for\n\n00:04:55:23 - 00:04:57:06\nthat's for the people gathered.\n\n00:04:57:06 - 00:05:01:10\nSo we went there with our duffel bag\ror suitcases or, or whatever\n\n00:05:01:10 - 00:05:06:07\nand even some people had a little, little\rpuppy or something stuck in their sweaters\n\n00:05:06:09 - 00:05:10:12\nand, and they weren’t supposed\rto take animals, but some were able to.\n\n00:05:10:14 - 00:05:15:03\nAnd that's how we made that trip from Venice to\n\n00:05:15:05 - 00:05:16:23\nManzanar, which is about,\n\n00:05:16:23 - 00:05:19:15\nI think it was about five or six or more hours.\n\n00:05:19:15 - 00:05:23:21\nIt was a very boring, hot, terrible ride.\n\n00:05:23:23 - 00:05:27:23\nWell, when I was a little girl,\rmy mother was a music teacher\n\n00:05:27:23 - 00:05:32:07\nand she was teaching the men\rto sing Japanese style\n\n00:05:32:09 - 00:05:35:21\nnarrative opera.  \rThis one other singer\n\n00:05:35:21 - 00:05:40:05\nwould sing all the parts,\rwhether it be man, woman or child,\n\n00:05:40:07 - 00:05:43:23\nand narrate the story and sing the parts,\rall the songs in it.\n\n00:05:44:01 - 00:05:47:14\nAnd my sister Mae and I\rwould be sitting behind, behind the door,\n\n00:05:47:19 - 00:05:53:17\nlistening and by listening every single day\rthat my mother was teaching these men\n\n00:05:53:19 - 00:05:54:17\nwe learned it.\n\n00:05:54:17 - 00:05:59:22\nWe memorized it.  As I grew up,\rI kept singing no matter what kind of song\n\n00:05:59:22 - 00:06:04:19\nit was, whether it be humming an opera\rto the humming of classical music,\n\n00:06:04:21 - 00:06:09:03\nwhich my mother always had,\rclassical music on the old victrola’s\n\n00:06:09:06 - 00:06:12:07\nand then I went to camp.\rAnd then they asked me\n\n00:06:12:07 - 00:06:17:20\nto sing at some kind of initiation\rfor all the faculty members of the\n\n00:06:17:22 - 00:06:22:05\nJapanese that were in the camp,\rI sang a song in and the music teacher\n\n00:06:22:05 - 00:06:23:23\nthere was so impressed,\n\n00:06:23:23 - 00:06:28:10\nhe took me under his wings\rand he used to leave the camp on weekends\n\n00:06:28:10 - 00:06:31:11\nwhen he didn't have classes, buy me sheet music\n\n00:06:31:11 - 00:06:34:12\nso I could learn all the latest songs\rand he would encourage me\n\n00:06:34:12 - 00:06:37:12\nto sing all these new songs\rblues and swingers and all that,\n\n00:06:37:18 - 00:06:43:04\nand accompany me with anything\rthat was happening in camp whether it be   \n\n00:06:43:06 - 00:06:45:12\na school program, a camp program.\n\n00:06:45:12 - 00:06:50:14\nI even sang at weddings and funerals\rand so since then\n\n00:06:50:14 - 00:06:53:14\nthey start calling me\rthe Songbird of Manzanar\n\n00:06:53:18 - 00:06:56:18\nand I don't know\rwho gave me that sobriquet.\n\n00:06:56:18 - 00:06:59:20\nIt must have been the teacher.\rI don't know.\n\n00:07:00:02 - 00:07:02:10\nBut ever since then\n\n00:07:02:10 - 00:07:03:20\nthat's what they've been calling me.\n\n00:07:03:20 - 00:07:09:11\nBut I call myself  Dirty Bird of Manzanar, \ror the Old Crow, at my age.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://veniceheritagemuseum.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2416/collection_resources/108840/file/222022#t=0.0,449.32267"}]}]}]}