Densho Digital Archive - George Kiyo Wakatsuki Interview (denshovh-wgeorge-01-0016)

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AL: Tell me the story of how you guys left camp.

GW: Well, it wasn't like the movie where we got in this jalopy and Dad drives off. But we did have, I don't know where he got it from, maybe he went to Lone Pine. But he got this Nash sedan, I think it was about a 1938 Nash sedan, and it had a gearshift on the dashboard. And must have been a twelve-cylinder, and we drove from there to Long Beach. I don't think it was packed with stuff all over, but the only thing I remember is we left camp and we ended up in Long Beach.

AL: How many of your family went to Seabrook?

GW: It was Lillian, Martha and her husband, Ray, Bill, Tomi, Bill's wife and son. Did I say Lillian? Yeah, I think that's it that went to Seabrook. And Lillian used to tell us about the story, they're working out in the field picking vegetables and here were these Italian prisoners of war right beside them picking vegetables, trying to make out with all the girls. [Laughs]

AL: Yeah, that's interesting. When did they, your family, did any of them stay in New Jersey or did they all come back west?

GW: Eventually they all came back west. Bill stayed the longest because he had the best job, so he stayed the longest. In fact, I guess he was considered an expert on refrigeration and freezing, and next job he came out, he went to Los Angeles and he became a, he set up the freezing plant for Carl's Jr.'s hamburgers. So he set up their plant to make their patties, freezer patties.

AL: How long did your father live after the war? You talked a little bit about him in San Jose and strawberries and his stroke, how long did he live?

GW: Let's see. I got out of the service in 1956, '57, I went and started work in July, and so it must have been... '58, '59, he must have died in '60, early sixties.

AL: And what did he die of?

GW: Cancer. He had cancer of the esophagus. He was sick for quite a while, but he didn't show too much signs of it, but he didn't become bedridden until maybe four or five weeks before he died.

AL: Did he ever recover from his losses, you know, during the war or during camp?

GW: As far as monetary-wise, no. But my father was like a dreamer. He wanted to, when we got out of camp, we lived in Long Beach, he became... well, he became an influence of, he knew a lot of people who wanted to start businesses and stuff, so he wanted to, he was talking about setting up a park, home park. Like he visualized shopping centers and stuff, and he wanted to build a home, homes for Japanese residents who came after camp. But he used to talk about it a lot. And he used to go to canneries and get tuna, they call it... I forgot what the name of it. Well, anyway, they make this katsuo they call it in Japanese, it's made of detritus tuna, parts of the tuna, they dry it and then they, it's almost hard as a brick, you can hit it. And you scrape it and you get the flakes and that's what you make your tuna, what they call dashi or soup. He had a plan of setting up a plant to do that. And he started, at least he started to get the tuna and started to smoke and dry it, but there's no plant, he's doing it in the backyard. Then he was getting abalone from Mexico, and he was drying it and slicing it, making this dried abalone, but he was doing it in the house and drying it outside in the yard. He wanted to start a plant for doing that, but it didn't work out.

AL: When you were there in April, we went out to Block 28 where you guys moved after 16. What was it like to go there and see the rocks that he placed there?

GW: Well, you know, Block 28 I don't have too good memories of, for some reason. Because when we moved from Block 16, all my friends are gone now, they didn't move to the same block as I did. Like I talked to Sam, and he moved to Block 22 and I moved to Block 28. So now we parted, we don't have friends close to us. And only thing I remember is we were so close to the pear orchards that I would go out and pick these pears, green pears, wrap 'em up in newspaper and we'd put it in cartons and put it underneath the house and wait for them to ripen. That's the only thing I remember of Block 28.

AL: Did you have a basement?

GW: Not per se as a basement, it's just that you could get underneath the house. Some people actually dug holes and made a basement, but I don't recall us digging a hole, but I don't remember digging a hole.

AL: So when you lived in 28, you were right next to the Children's Village orphanage. Did you have any consciousness of that being there or of the kids?

GW: No, this is what I'm saying, I don't remember much about 28 at all. Only thing I remember is this orchard that we were able to get pear from.

AL: What about your mom's life after the war?

GW: Mom after the war, she had it harder because Dad wasn't the breadwinner anymore. So she had to go out and work, so she worked at the cannery. And so she was, became the moneymaker, but then my other brothers and sisters of that age went out and tried to get work, so that supported the family. Jeanne and I were the only ones that couldn't contribute because we were too young, we were going to school. But Lillian, Ray, they found jobs and were able to support the family.

AL: How long did your mom live?

GW: You know, I can't even remember what year she died. But she must have lived at least eight, maybe ten years or longer than Dad. But she would live with my sisters, she would change homes, she would live sometimes in Oxnard for a while with my sister Lillian.