Kinichi Watanabe

KINICHI WATANABE
Family # 3705
Camp: Manzanar, CA (Address: 27-7-1) and Tule Lake, CA

My father came to the United States in 1920 at the age of 16. He worked as a farm worker in Utah and California. My mother was born in Long Beach, CA, but she grew up in Japan. At the age of 18, she returned to the United States as a picture bride for my father.

They settled down as flower-growers in the Shadow Hills area of Roscoe (Sun Valley), CA. I was born in 1934. From 1940 until the start of the war, we lived and worked on leased property in Pacoima.

They had a few weeks to pack for the move. The house that my parents had built was sold to the property owner and the flower shop was lost. Furnishings, car, farm equipment, and other items were sold at very low prices to scaven­gers, who were aware of the situation.

On a rainy day in April of 1942, the property owner took our fam­ily of five to Burbank. There we boarded bus­es to go to Manzanar Relocation Center.

Our assigned family number was 3705. The youngest of the three sons died in camp in 1942 and another son was born in 1944.

The camp was windy and dusty and it seemed to me that it was windy every Sunday.

We first lived in Block 13, but we had to move in order to locate the fire station there. We then moved to Block 28, but we had to move again to house the hospital recovery patients. We then ended up in Block 27, which had many later arrivals from the Stockton area.

I don’t remember too much about school. I was in grades one, two, and three. It was no picnic for my parents, but I remember having lots of fun and making new friends.

In 1944, we went to Camp Tule Lake. This was a camp for those planning to go to Japan at the con­clusion of the war.

Because of hardships in Japan, we stayed in the USA and returned to San Fernando Valley. And after a couple of years, we were able to move back into the same property in Pacoima.

I returned to Haddon Avenue School as a fourth grader, and when the word “Jap” came up in class, the teacher would politely correct it by saying “Japanese.” But for a while, I felt like a person without a country and that I needed to behave like a visitor.

I graduated from San Fernando High School and from UCLA. After 41 years as an aerospace engi­neer, I am now retired.

Wind and Dust
This wind and dust I have to bear
How hard it blows I do not care.
But when the wind begins to blow –
My morale is pretty low.
I know that I can see it through
Because others have to bear it too.
So I will bear it with the rest
And hope the outcome is the best.
– George Nishimura, age 16 (Manzanar, 1943)

Read this to learn more about the demographics of each of the ten facilities administered by the War Relocation Authority.

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