Tei Dacus Obituary

Tei Dacus
August 10, 1923 - September 17, 2020
San Jose
Tei Yajima Dacus, 97, passed away on September 17, 2020 in San Jose, from complications after a brief illness. Tei's remarkable life began on August 10, 1923 in Tokyo, Japan, as the eldest child of Tsutomu and Fumiko Yajima. Growing up with an interest in Western culture and ideas, she majored in English literature at Jissen Women's College, graduating early when the Pacific War forced her school to shut down. She started her first job at 19, teaching English at Koga High School in Ibaraki, reluctantly leaving after just one year due to family concerns about being separated as the war intensified.
After their house burned to the ground during the fierce firebombing of Tokyo, Tei's family evacuated to the Japan Sea town of Mikuni. When the war ended, she was hired by the Mikuni office of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps as a translator, returning to Tokyo after several years to work at the Stars and Stripes Newspaper, and then as a Japanese culture teacher at Narimasu Elementary School in Grant Heights, a US military dependent housing complex. That introduction to the American education system and the experience of teaching alongside American teachers was the turning point in Tei's life, which led her across the Pacific, the only female aboard the freighter Nikkei Maru to attend Oklahoma College for Women in 1953. In her application to the college, Tei wrote, "More than anything else, I wish to go to the States to experience the feeling of freedom and happiness; to learn as much as possible; and to reach a full understanding of American democracy by living with it. After returning to Japan, I will use my experience gained in the United States to teach the next generation of Japan a new and brighter way of life."
Although she intended to return to Japan after one year, she received a scholarship from the University of Oklahoma at Norman, went on to earn a Master's in Education, and met and married fellow student Hayes Dacus, a returning Korean War veteran and OU Asian Studies major. For the next twenty years, Tei lived the life of an army officer's wife moving the family from posting to posting, and holding everything together at home by herself when Hayes served tours of duty in Vietnam and Korea. At each new location, whether on U.S. military bases in Japan or Stateside, Tei was also a working mom, teaching in Monterey, Sagamihara, Yokohama, Tokyo, and Baltimore.
In 1971, Hayes was on his final Korea assignment, and the family waited in Salinas, which became their permanent home after Hayes retired. Tei embraced the chance to stay in one area long enough to make a lasting impact and to be a real part of a community. She began teaching full-time at Bardin Elementary School, where her work also included serving as a liaison between the school and the Japanese immigrant flower grower families whose children attended Bardin. Through Tei's efforts, the parents learned the ins and outs of the American school system and became actively involved in the school community. In 1977, Tei led a large delegation of Alisal district teachers on a study tour of Japan that included a stay in Kushikino, the hometown of many of the Bardin Japanese families. She was a founding member and first program chair of the Salinas-Kushikino Sister City Association, now in its fourth decade.
After retiring from Bardin School, Tei started the first Japanese language class in Monterey County at Alisal High School. In a 1987 letter to the California State Department of Education, she wrote, "The first year of the program is complete and the future looks promising". Today, Japanese is taught at all five Salinas public high schools as well as Monterey High School. In 2015, Tei was recognized by the California State Assembly for her leadership and dedication to education and for "positively impacting the lives of thousands of students in Monterey County'.

Tei continued to make an impact well into her eighties, including at CSU Monterey Bay, Salinas Hikari no Gakko, the Sister City Association, and as a deacon at Lincoln Avenue Presbyterian Church. She was the community's "go to" person for kamishibai story presentations, origami workshops, sushi demonstrations, and speech contest judging. To her adoring grandkids, she was also the "world's coolest grandma", who could do everything, including juggle beanbags and magically whip up huge platters of chicken katsu and gyoza. Shortly after losing Hayes in 2010, she boldly embraced a new life at 87 when she moved closer to family in San Jose, excited about living within walking distance of a Japanese market, the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, and her new church, Wesley United Methodist.
Tei was a model of optimism, strength, and grace, and we will miss her tremendously. She is survived by daughter Ann Jordan (Peter) of San Jose, son Stephen Dacus (Jennifer) of Napa, grandchildren Allison Sugahara (Derek Thomas), Jeffrey Sugahara, Danielle Dacus, Alex Dacus, Nicole Dacus, and Molly Jordan. A private family service will be held next month, and a celebration of Tei's life is planned for later in 2021, when larger gatherings are possible. If you would like to be notified when details become available, please send a message to [email protected].
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Wasshoi Foundation, which honors Tei's legacy. https://www.wasshoi.foundation/tei-dacus-legacy

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Published by Monterey Herald Obits on Sep. 25, 2020.