Mary Tamura, a U.S. Army Cadet Corps nurse during World War II, celebrated her 102nd birthday on June 21 at Faith United Methodist Church in Torrance.
Born Mary Izumi in 1924 on Terminal Island, she attended San Pedro High School. When World War II began, her father was taken by the FBI and the Japanese Americans on the island were ordered to pack one suitcase and evacuate within 48 hours. The island’s Japanese fishing village was later razed.
The beloved piano Tamura had saved up to buy was sold for $5. She was sad to hear she could never qualify to achieve her dream of becoming a public school teacher.
The family was sent to live in a horse stall at Santa Anita Race Track before moving to Gila River, a War Relocation Authority camp in Arizona. She helped her pregnant sister endure cold walks in the snow to clean diapers. She was thrilled to meet First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt when she visited the camp.
Tamura wanted to help others and patriotically serve her country, so she left the camp to enlist in the Army Cadet Nurse Corps program in 1943 at Rochester, Minn. She became a registered nurse at Mayo Clinic in 1947.
She got a $15-a-week stipend and worked a second job in the kitchen to pay for stockings. One of the patients she met was author and disability rights advocate Helen Keller.
In 1989, Tamura retired after working 47 years in hospitals in New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, and UCLA Harbor General.
From left: Mary Tamura is pictured with her daughter Barbara and Rev. Allison Mark (left) of Faith United Methodist Church.
Her late husband Robert was a pre-Olympic track star at Leuzinger High School and a proud Army veteran who served in the Military Intelligence Service during World War II. He graduated from Los Angeles Art Center School of Design and retired as an art director at Mattel.
Tamura has two children, David and Barbara, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She assisted students and cleaned the classroom when her daughter was a teacher in a South Central Los Angeles public school.
Tamura enjoys traveling, going to church, meeting people, reading, gardening, daily dog-walking, drinking tea, and eating sweets.
She was one of three centenarians honored last year at Go For Broke National Education Center’s Evening of Aloha gala. Tamura represented the nearly 500 Japanese American women who served in the Women’s Army Corps, Army Nurse Corps, and Cadet Nurse Corps.
On June 22, Tamura’s birthday, a celebration was held at her home in Torrance with cake from King’s Hawaiian Bakery.