Ruth Suekama survived a lot of things in her 86 years, including the Japanese relocation camp in Arizona and breast cancer, which she survived for decades.
Suekama died at her Denver home Nov. 17 of complications from multiple myeloma.
Suekama, a native of Monrovia, Calif., was 23 when she and her parents and five siblings were shipped off to the relocation camp near Poston, Ariz.
It was there that she met Sam Isamu Suekama, a Nebraska farmer, whom her father, Itsugi Nakai, had chosen as her husband.
“I don’t think my mother met him until he came to the camp, and they got married soon after,” said Ruth Suekama’s son James Suekama of San Francisco.
“They were pretty well matched,” said their daughter, Jane Kano of Denver. “She was high-energy, and he was laid-back.”
They married May 6, 1944, at the camp and left immediately for Denver, where they had lived ever since.
Sam Suekama had not been interned at a camp, his children said.
Ruth Suekama made longtime friends and for years corresponded with many people she knew in the relocation camp.
She was a tireless worker in volunteer activities – especially the Tri-State Buddhist Temple, where she organized the yearly bazaars, called the Cherry Blossom Festivals.
“She really worked hard and loved to be in charge,” Kano said. “I’d help her for two days and be exhausted, and she had worked on it for weeks. We’d have to drag her out of there.”
For a long time the family lived across the street from the downtown temple. Sam Suekama was a carpenter and did home remodeling.
Ruth Suekama first had breast cancer in 1961 and had a breast removed; two years later the second breast was removed.
In addition to her church work, Suekama was active in the Japanese American Citizens League, had served on the Mayor’s Commission for the Aging and had modeled for Breast Cancer Day of Caring. “She wanted to do for others,” said son Don Suekama of Denver.
She was a gardener; made crafts, including small umbrellas out of cigarette wrappers; and loved to go mushroom hunting.
Ruth Emiko Nakai was born Dec. 4, 1919.
In addition to her husband, two sons and daughter, she is survived by another son, Roger Suekama of Chicago, and five grandchildren.
Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
