At the time of the interview, Mary Yayoi Shigeta Tipton was 88 years old. Over the course of two hours, Mary speaks about her experiences growing up as well as her life right now. Mrs. Tipton was born in Canada and lived there up until her teen years when she and her family boarded the last ship to leave Canada for Japan in 1940 in order to reunite with her older sister who had never lived in Canada with them, on the eve of World War II. After the war, Mrs. Tipton met and married her husband while still in Japan, and they later relocated to the United States. Mrs. Tipton now resides in Sugar Land, Texas. In the interview, she discusses her childhood in Canada, her life in Japan during the war, her postwar experience as a translator, her married life in the US, and her current life as a mother and grandmother here in Texas. She also shares her experiences of adjusting to life in Japan as a Canadian citizen and her views on the effects of the war on Japanese citizens, as well as on Japanese Canadians and Japanese Americans.
View interview transcript PDF — Full interview materials on Rice Digital Scholarship