Life history interview conducted by Mike Dicianna.
September 15, 2015Location: Fujii residence, Portland, Oregon.
Aya Fujii was born in 1927 in Hillsboro, Oregon and grew up with six siblings on her family's farm. In May 1942, she and her family were forcibly relocated from their home as part of the war-era policy of Japanese American internment on the west coast. Fujii ultimately spent nearly all of her high school years in Adrian, Oregon, where her family participated in a field labor program for interned citizens that was administered by the Eastern Oregon Farm Labor Bureau. In fall 1945, just after the conclusion of World War II, Fujii enrolled at Oregon State College, where she majored in Home Economics. She later spent more than thirty years working as a dietician at two Portland-area hospitals. In her interview, Fujii shares her memories of her family background and upbringing; her experience of being interned for over three years; her undergraduate tenure at OSC; and her life and work following college.