Mariko “Mars” Hanami died on May 10, 2021 in Hermiston at the age of 100.
She was born on Feb. 25, 1921 to Shoji and Matsumi Ishii Kumasaka in Seattle, Wash.
She attended Olympic View and Lincoln High School, class of 1939. In her growing-up years, she helped in the family greenhouses and garden. As a teenager, she was active with the Green Lake Fieldhouse basketball team and Green Lake softball and basketball teams of the Japanese Courier Leagues.
In 1940, she went to Japan with a group of girls sponsored by the Japanese Baptist Church. They traveled together for three months, and she stayed for a year when her sister, May joined her, and they traveled to scenic spots and visited relatives. They returned to America in February 1941.
She was attending Wilson Business School when the evacuation of all Japanese of the West Coast was ordered. In April 1942, she was incarcerated with her family in the Puyallup Assembly Center (Puyallup Fair Grounds). In August 1942, they were sent to the Minidoka Relocation Center in the desert of south-central Idaho. In September, she went to the Rexburg area of eastern Idaho with her brother, Akira and his family on the work release program to help with the harvest of potatoes and sugar beets.
In the fall of 1943, she went to Chicago and then to Hattiesburg, Miss. to marry Takeshi “Tug” Hanami on Dec. 18, 1943. When he was sent to Europe with the 442nd Combat Team in May 1944, she returned to Chicago and worked at the Edgewater Beach Hotel. Upon Tug’s return and his discharge in November 1945, they went back to the Rexburg area and raised their family. For many years she worked at radio station KRXK, Part Service and Rexburg Floral. She was a member of the community Presbyterian Church.
In 1972, they moved to Caldwell after the children had left to go to college. She was an active member of the VFW Auxiliary, and she and her husband attended many state conventions throughout Idaho. They also attended many Army reunions of the Cannon Company of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Seattle and Hawaii. They traveled throughout the western states to the reunions of the 148th Field Artillery.
In 2005, they moved to Hermiston to be near her daughter, Jan. Mars was busy with her garden, canning, and sharing her produce, dish cloths and scrubbers. She started bowling in the 1960s in Rexburg, and since October 2005 in Hermiston, she had bowled twice a week with seniors until she was 96.
The highlight of her 100th birthday was the visits from the Hermiston Police Department and the Hermiston Fire and Emergency Service Department. They held a soft spot in her heart.
Mariko is survived by her son, Mark Minoru Hanami of Mountain Home, Ark.; daughters, Janice Kiku Hanami of Hermiston and Gail Asa Shenfield (Floyd) of Omaha, Neb.; grandchildren, Heather Hanami, Corpus Christi, Texas, Erika Murchison-Blake (Matthew), Chapel Hill, N.C., Brandon Shenfield, Fort Collins, Colo. and Christie Shenfield, Omaha, Neb.; and great grandson, Amir Makai Murchison-Hanami, Chapel Hill, N.C.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 68 years, Takeshi “Tug” Hanami; son, Jon Y. Hanami; brothers, Akira Kumasaka, Haruo “Ham” Kumasaka and Roland Shozo Kumasaka; and sisters, Mitsuko Furuyama, May Fujioka and Mutsuko Kumasaka.
A private family burial will be held.
Please share memories of Mars with her family at burnsmortuaryhermiston.com.
Burns Mortuary of Hermiston is in care of arrangements.
