Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Harvey Watanabe Interview
Narrator: Harvey Watanabe
Interviewer: Stacy Sakamoto
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: November 4, 1996
Densho ID: denshovh-wharvey-01-0026

<Begin Segment 26>

SS: When did you eventually get home to Edith? Now, you're the mess officer on this third boat.

HW: Yeah, we sailed out of Tokyo Bay, and the two ships that I missed, took the northern route, close to Aleutians, and our captain decided to go south, because it was wintertime. The weather wasn't good. So we pulled into Tacoma ahead of the other two ships. The other two ships lost some lives aboard the ship, because of the severe storm and some of the returning GIs got killed aboard that ship. Yeah, I was fortunate.

SS: What was it like? The ship pulls in. Was she there dockside?

HW: No, no, no. No, we came into Tacoma and from there we were put on trains and I had asked to be released not from where I, back to where I was put into the army, but back to where I wanna go now. So they sent me to Wisconsin. I was released there and then put on a bus and went to Minneapolis, where she was.

SS: Can you remember seeing her there?

HW: Minneapolis? Oh yeah, she came to meet the, she came to meet the train. Middle of winter, and she had her fur coat on. This is the fur coat that I bought. [Laughs] I don't think she has it any more, but yeah, yeah.

SS: What did you two do then? You... had you intended on settling in the Midwest there?

HW: Well, we were going to stay there, because she and her sister were living together in an apartment and so then, they and us, we got together and bought a house in Minneapolis.

SS: Sounds like you intended on putting roots down there.

HW: Well, at the time, we couldn't find a better place, because I didn't like the weather, but I couldn't find a better place. Because there was no roots. Our families weren't settled anywhere, you know. So that's what we did. But then a house is a house. And it's an investment if you do it right. So we came out all right. But we moved out first, and then, then her sister and her husband moved out. Actually sold the house and moved out later.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.