<Begin Segment 9>

[This transcript has been extensively edited by the narrator.]

SY: We were talking about your grandfather being taken by the FBI. And he ended up in nine different places you said, but do you know...

GN: Nine different places. Well, I think a total of nine places.

[Interruption]

SY: So this journal that he kept, I assume it's all in Japanese?

GN: It's in Japanese.

SY: So it would be valuable to translate it I would think.

GN: It would be (but the Journal is missing and has not been seen since my aunt's death. She was the keeper of the Journal).

[Interruption]

SY: So do you know where he eventually ended up? Was he just taken from place to place?

[Interruption]

GN: He ended up, before they sent him to Manzanar, in (Santa Fe), New Mexico. And my son lives in (Santa Fe), New Mexico, and so I wanted to know more about this place. I always thought that it was something like Manzanar, but it wasn't. One of my son's friends is an attorney. She and her husband are attorneys. And she was walking her dog up behind her house up on this mesa. And on top of this mesa -- I have pictures of that, too, I can show you -- is this huge granite boulder. And on the granite boulder (on a plaque) it said how many men were incarcerated, many of whom had (sons) and grandsons, citizens, fighting for the United States while their fathers and grandfathers were incarcerated in these camps. And they mention the MIS and the 442nd and it was dated. She was curious about this. She's Chinese American and her husband's Caucasian, but they were both very interested. She had not experienced evacuation or even heard about it because of growing up in Maine. So (my son) said, "Well, my mother's coming to town in a few days, so you could ask her." Anyway, Yosh and I would not have been able to find it. So we met her near her home at a shopping center landmark, and then we followed her car. And (we) went to this very obscure place, I know we could never have found that. We took the car up and went up to a dirt road and went to the top of this mesa, and that's where it is. (Narr. note: This historic marker is in Santa Fe's Frank S. Ortiz Park.)

SY: Is it a plaque, like a monument?

GN: It's a granite boulder, this big plaque is embedded into this granite boulder. I have a photograph of that, I'll show you.

SY: And this is in Santa Fe?

GN: Santa Fe, New Mexico, and that's where he was last interned. A goodly number of men were in there. In fact, I met the state historian. I've had two interviews with him and the assistant state historian. They're all PhDs but they're very, very interested. Now they have built the new Santa Fe museum right in the heart of... Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico, a beautiful state museum. [Interruption] And I gave him a Xerox copy of all these records of Daijiro and all that about my grandfather's (family history). And he says that's probably the most complete (family) record they'll have of any prisoner that ended up there in Santa Fe. So anyway, I'm thinking that I will donate some things to that museum there. (Narr. note: I gave a painting symbolizing Santa Fe incarceration.)

And then I did a painting when I came back. From the top of that hill, (we had our son's friend's) dog and her little boy who was the same age as our grandson, (our) grandson's friend, could look across the whole Santa Fe Valley. On the other side of this (valley on the side of the mountain), I could see my son's house, because he has a turquoise roof. I thought, "My grandfather was right in view of Joel's house." My grandfather was a very curious person, and he was always interested in traveling to new places and seeing new things and writing about them. I'm the same way. So anyway, I wrote this little tribute to my grandfather (and painted a picture in honor of my Grandfather Watanabe). Yosh and I had a show, and it's called "Beyond the Barbed Wire (2 Visions)." We had it at the Shannon Center (of Whittier College). (Narr. note: The Santa Fe History Museum is having a symposium April 21 & 22, 2012, on the Santa Fe internment and using my art and considering for their collection.)

SY: An art show.

GN: At Whittier College, and we had (about sixty of) the images. When I was incarcerated I could just barely see the Alabama Hills, and I wanted to see the Alabama Hills. So anyway, that's what the whole show was ("Beyond the Barbed Wire.") Yosh loves rocks, so he did a whole series on the Alabama Hills, and they're very fascinating. Right up against those majestic mountains. Manzanar was the best camp of all because my grandmother said when (she) got there, "Well, we have to live in these terrible little shacks and (endure) a lot of things that are terrible, but we do have this beautiful scenery and we have this good water." We really did have good water.

SY: Let's go back to that because we haven't talked about what happened to you.

GN: So anyway, my grandfather went there, to (Camp Livingston), Louisiana, and finally ended up in Santa Fe. Then finally he came to Manzanar (12/14/1943) just about the time Manzanar was going to close.

SY: And that's where you and your mother and your brother were, right?

GN: My mother and my brother and I had left, and my two aunts had left. My grandmother was the only one there when my grandfather finally came. So it was just the two of them.

SY: They were reunited then. Did she know at all where he had been or where he was during that time you were at Manzanar?

GN: Well, he was able to write letters. He found out where we were and then we were able to write letters.

SY: To write letters back and forth.

GN: Write letters back and forth.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.