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Letters From 1942 Unearth a Tantalizing Mystery for 2004 History Students

THERE ARE CERTAIN DISCOVERIES that quite literally cause a history buff to tremble. This was one of them.

In February, Seattle Pacific junior and history major Katie Stalley stumbled upon two yellowed letters found in Seattle Pacific University�s archives by student employee Adrienne Thun. More than just everyday correspondence, the aging pages brought to light a mystery — one Stalley says she was determined to solve.

�It was like stepping back in time,� she says of the letters, one from Seattle Pacific College student Toshiko Senda �42 and the other from former SPC President C. Hoyt Watson.

Senda�s words were cheerful but urgent, and Stalley read them with increasing amazement. �Dear President Watson, when I left SPC you asked about my coming back for Commencement exercises,� wrote Senda. �The Headquarters� Office has told me that if I have someone be my custodian while I am gone and also have someone come and get me I will have an easier time getting out … Another thing, too, will you please arrange about my cap and gown?�

Under normal circumstances, Senda�s plea might not sound so extraordinary. But it was five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and she was Japanese-American. �Leaving SPC� meant being incarcerated at a camp in Puyallup, Washington, for Japanese-American citizens.

�President Watson recognized the urgency of her message,� says Stalley. Written two days later, his letter on behalf of Senda to the camp manager read, �By vote of our faculty, she is being graduated … We are very anxious for Miss Senda to be present to receive her diploma and degree.� He goes on to say that he has arranged for another student to pick her up from camp.

�We had these two beautiful letters from 1942, but we didn�t have all the evidence to know what actually happened,� relates Stalley. So she looped in her roommate, SPU junior Kirstin Shomura, and the other eight members of the history club Histeria!, and in her spare time led a massive research project to solve the mystery.

The students were able to locate Senda�s husband, Kay Takeoka, a dentist living in Alameda, California. But the discovery was bittersweet; they learned that Senda died in 2001 after a long battle with Alzheimer�s disease.

While their friends spent Spring Break relaxing, Stalley and Shomura flew to California, where they interviewed Takeoka and learned more about Senda�s life: her graduate education at Columbia University, her years of teaching children at a small Christian school in California and her love of singing in the church choir.

Takeoka even brought out Senda�s 1942 SPC yearbook. �Just by reading her yearbook, you can see how well-liked she was,� says Shomura, noting that Senda was a member of several campus clubs, as well as student government.

From there, Stalley contacted Senda�s younger sister, Miyoko McCoy, who said she remembered her sister leaving camp in time for Commencement. �Of course, it was very rewarding to hear that,� says Stalley. �But in my mind, I�m still a little skeptical, because I don�t know the whole story. Toshiko isn�t here to tell me, and Will Hunter �41, the student who was supposed to pick her up from camp, has passed away.�

So in some ways, the story remains a mystery — one Stalley hopes won�t be forgotten. She wants to help create an on-campus memorial for Senda and other Japanese-American students sent to internment camps during World War II.

�When we began digging, we discovered so many connections to Toshiko�s life, and I know there are more out there,� says Stalley, who urges Response readers with ties to Senda�s story, or stories of their own related to the Japanese-American internment during World War II, to contact her. �It�s such an important piece of history, and it reminds us that this is a campus that stands for justice, peace and love.�

Even though delayed by more than 60 years, Senda relays that same message in her 1942 letter to her Seattle Pacific friends, then and now. �May the Lord�s richest blessing and guidance be upon you and yours for the remainder of the quarter and always,� she writes. �Most sincerely yours, Toshiko Senda.�

— BY SARAH JIO



Editor�s Note: For full transcripts of the 1942 letters of Toshiko Senda and President C. Hoyt Watson, click here. Readers may write or email Katie Stalley c/o Response.