She Was Known as Ultimate Multitasker, and Helped Community Thrive
When she died on Aug. 19, 2011, Dorothy Aiko Shimizu was surrounded by more than 40 loving family members and friends, taking turns at her bedside. She was 82, a pillar of Enmanji Buddhist Temple and greater Sebastopol.
During her adult life, Dorothy Shimizu was the ultimate, hard-working multitasker. She raised her family, ran her own business, and helped both Enmanji and her community thrive.
She didn’t just teach Dharma School, she taught older Dharma School students how they could teach Dharma School. She didn’t just volunteer to supply a dish for a fundraiser, she chaired the fundraiser. A great cook, she didn’t just bring delicious food, she taught cooking classes for the temple and the local community. All the while, she lived the spiritual insights learned from her parents.
Dorothy Shimizu was born on May 16, 1929, to Harry Otani and Elaine (Yoshioka) in Watsonville, California. The couple had met while working at Schofield Barracks, the U.S. Army installation, in Oahu, married on Feb. 23, 1928, and moved from Hawaii to the mainland.
From her father, she learned to treat all people kindly and with respect, a lesson she lived, and one she passed on to her children.
“One of the things she always used to say is that we all need to be accepting of people,” said Julene Leach, her eldest daughter. “Whether Buddhist, Christian or Jewish doesn’t matter, we all need to get along.”
From her father, she also learned how to cook. Cooking for big groups was one of his jobs at a nearby ranch, and he did most of the cooking for his family. He insisted she learn how to figure quantities, telling her, "You're the oldest girl and you'll do most of the cooking.” He also told her she’d need a big stainless-steel bowl “because you’ll use it.”
Shimizu was 12 when the family was forcibly uprooted in 1942 during World War II, as a result of Executive Order 9066. In a 2003 interview with the Sonoma County Japanese American Citizens League, she recalled her family had to sell most everything, leaving them in an empty, unfurnished house. Every morning, their neighbors, the Feathersons, would leave fresh milk in a jar on the fence.
The Otani family left on her birthday. Their German neighbor baked her a cake and gave it to her before the family left on a flatbed truck, and took a local train to get to Merced. Armed guards escorted them, along with thousands of other Japanese Americans, onto a train with all the shades drawn. No one said where they were going.
Once the family settled in their seats, the family shared the cake — on a shuttered train racing to an unknown destination.
When the train finally stopped — after traveling more than 1,350 miles — they found themselves at the desolate Amache mass detention camp in Colorado.
In the 2003 interview, Shimizu focused on the positives of camp, like bus trips outside the barbed wire fences, Girl Scout meetings, and the kindness of the Quaker teachers who eventually took over classroom duties at the camp.
Some positive things were happening in Sebastopol at the same time. While the Otani family was interned, neighbors protected their property, made sure the garlic and carrots were harvested and sold, and rented the property for the Otanis. On their return, the farm and house were still theirs and in good order.
Meanwhile, the historic Enmanji temple — which was once displayed at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair — became the target of arson during World War II. Vandals fire-bombed the Hondo, burning part of the interior, but not the structure. The temple also became the target of drive-by shootings.
In response, the local United Church of Christ’s youth group decided to stand guard at the temple to prevent further attacks. They knew Enmanji was important to their Japanese American friends, and felt, as Americans, it was wrong to target a church of another person’s religious beliefs.
The youths guarded the temple for three months until emotions in the community cooled.
Dorothy Otani and her future husband, Martin Shimizu, grew up together at Enmanji. They were married on Feb. 19, 1955. Both Dorothy and Martin Shimizu held leadership positions at Enmanji and in the community.
“When your parents participate a lot, you kind of fall into their positions,” Leach said. “Mom did a lot of Fujinkai business and Daddy was president many times, maybe five, and they were frequent chairs of things.”
After high school, Shimizu expanded her cooking skills and learned how to be a seamstress. Leach recalled that her mother took beautician and sewing classes. In order to pay for them, she worked for an administrator at the Presidio in San Francisco and learned from the housekeeper how to make hors d’oeuvres.
“She liked to make things pretty,” Leach said. “She would tell us ‘You eat with your eyes,’ so plating was important. She also said that ‘American pretty is different from Japanese pretty.’”
At Enmanji, Shimizu met with the ministers’ wives to learn how to prepare shojin ryori, or vegetarian temple cooking.
After finishing her classes, Shimizu worked in various beauty shops and took up sewing. Martin Shimizu built an additional room to the family home and Dorothy Shimizu used it for 40 years as Dorothy’s Beauty Bar, catering to the local community.
“How did Mom do this?” Leach said. “Work during the day, and at night, she cleaned and made dinner and lunch.”
Shimizu still found time to tirelessly work on behalf of Enmanji and the community. Leach remembered how her mother made delicious food out of so little when times were lean.
“She could take one pork chop and a head of cabbage and feed a family of seven,” Leach said. There were five siblings in all, three brothers, Leach, and a younger sister.
Throughout their lives, Shimizu and her husband would always welcome visitors and guests to Enmanji. In tributes after her passing, many people recollected how she always made people feel at home, like family.
Thanks to Julene Leach for contributing to this article.
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