Densho Digital Archive
Preserving California's Japantowns Collection
Title: Louie Watanabe Interview
Narrator: Louie Watanabe
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Jill Shiraki (secondary)
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: December 8, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-wlouie-01-0002

<Begin Segment 2>

TI: So let's talk about your father first. What was your father's name and where did he come from?

LW: Well, my father's (name was Yosaburo Watanabe, born in Kusahira, Amagua, Aichi-ken, Japan).

TI: Now, where is that located? I'm not sure where that...

LW: Nagoya. Close to Nagoya. Because I've never been to Japan, so I really don't recall. But it's close to Nagoya, they say.

TI: And your father's name?

LW: Is Yosaburo. And my mother's name is Etsu, and both is, the last name is Watanabe, but I don't know how that came out. No relation at the time when they got married.

TI: And going back to your father's family, do you know what kind of work they did in Japan?

LW: In Japan, that I don't recall.

TI: And how about your mother's?

LW: Mother's, I don't recall. Because I know, I was too young to know those things, yeah.

TI: Do you know about when your father came to the United States from Japan?

LW: No, I don't even remember those, what year it was.

TI: Or how about how your mother and father met.

LW: I really, really don't... I think it's more like a fixed marriage, because they live in the same area like, you know... you know how the Japanese people (...). So somebody probably, in the family, probably arranged marriage.

TI: So how about the story about how did they come to Walnut Grove? Do you know where they started from and how they got here?

LW: That, I don't recall anything like that. But I know it's that group from Aichi-ken in Japan, seemed like they all came into part of Walnut Grove. And most of Aichi-ken members, mostly I think it was the businesspeople, you know, Hiroshima and those people, it's a businesspeople.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.