NVC Foundation Japanese American Memorial Wall

Tsuchino Koishihara (1881-1964) was born in Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu. “Like all the Issei, mother bore the brunt of the forced encampment,” recounted her youngest son, Sam Kakehashi.

Tsuchino Kakehashi worked as a midwife in Japan. She married Matsutaro Kakehashi, (1867-1939), a ship’s chef, and in 1916 they both immigrated to Seattle where she continued to work as a midwife and help her husband with a dry cleaning business. Their three sons, George, John, and Sam were born in Seattle. Her husband died when the boys were teens. Three years later the family was forced to leave their home and business, to live at Minidoka Internment Camp. She busied herself working as a nurses aide in the camp hospital. After her two older sons volunteered for military service, she learned that it might be possible for her and Sam to leave the camp if a sponsor in the Midwest could be found. A pastor in camp told her of the Reverend Percy Smith, a retired Episcopal missionary who spent time in Japan, who was living in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Reverend Smith was looking for someone to help with housekeeping and childcare. This was a suitable match for Tsuchino. She and Sam settled in Yellow Springs where she lived for the remainder of her years. She spent her years working, attended Episcopal Church in a nearby town every Sunday, and she enjoyed flower arrangements, Her sons said she made the best sushi, ever. Tsuchino Kakehashi returned to visit Japan once, after being gone for 50 years.