A Tribute to Misao Mitsuya
The following feature article appeared in the Enderlin Independent probably during the summer
of 1942. It is a tribute to Misao Mitsuya and the patriotism she displayed in defending her country.
The article's headline is a bit misleading. Although her ancestry was Japanese, Misao Mitsuya
was an American citizen, born in Enderlin, North Dakota.
JAPANESE GIRL’S LETTERS
WARNING TO UNITED STATES
“THE LIFE OF ANY COUNTRY is food and in America it is a good crop of wheat, rye, oats, potatoes vegetables. The reason why Japan, Germany and Italy can hold out so long is that the farming people do not go to the cities and try to get rich the quick way. These countries popularize farming, and people do not go to the cities. If a country does the different way, the difficult problem like England is the result. Really, it takes farms to build a strong nation.” That is the answer to What is Life in America? which Misao Mitsuya, Japanese girl born in Enderlin, N. D. learned after about four years of life in Japan, birthplace of her mother.
A month after she had written the above, to Mrs. J. G. Griffin of Enderlin, N. D. Misao died at about the age of 16.
Letter in Life
The little Japanese girl, who brought Enderlin, N. D., a bit of publicity when Life magazine published her recently a letter written by her, sees beyond her years in her analysis of Japan and the United States.
Her reference to the life of a country was made when she recalled having seen in a magazine sometime when she lived in Enderlin “a whole page painted in a picture where fields of grain were a background and riding on a tractor was a boy of around 14, working under a blistering sun, his golden brown skin exposed to the hot sun. And on the top were these words, The Life of America. At the time the words struck me. Is it? Now I know my answer.” There’s such a prophetic note in the letters from Misao, whom people in Enderlin know as Minnie. She was born in Enderlin where her parents operated a laundry. After her father’s death, her mother decided to move back to Japan. Misao had made a real place for herself at Enderlin and was recognized by her teachers as a child of exceptional brilliance. Her letter to Mrs. Griffin, written Jan. 4, 1941 is filled with inquiries about her classmates at Enderlin. “They are now in second year high and soon will be in third . . . Are my hopes of meeting everybody shattered? I know that as time passes, the rope of friendship becomes thinner.”Brilliant Pupil
Misao was in the eighth grade when she left for Japan. Her letters showed that she was unhappy there, Miss Effie Selvig, one of her teachers says. “She was a brilliant child and she worked hard, with the ultimate aim of being prepared to serve her native country, America, when she could get back here, or attend a mission school and become a missionary.”
Her letters of warning show the keenness of her insight into what she saw going on in Japan. After Misao had left the United States, the Methodist church of Enderlin, in whose Sunday school Misao was a faithful, devoted and regular attendant, sponsored two teas to raise funds to pay for Minnie’s Christian education in Japan. For as soon as she had completed the Japanese grammar school, comprised of the first six grades and which is required by law before anyone can go further with his education there, she was to enroll in a Christian college or school.
The teas were to be held annually. Minnie would have completed the six grades in two years by the end of February, 1941, if she had lived. She was one of the four or five best students in her class.
Approximately $60 was netted and placed in a trust fund by the church for Minnie. The fund has now been turned over to the Women’s Society of Christian Service of the Enderlin Methodist church which has assumed the responsibility of half a scholarship for one Chinese girl in a girl’s school in China.
A plaque presented by the junior class last commencement to the Enderlin school in memory of a former classmate, reads, “Minnie Mitsuya—whose high ideals were an inspiration.”