Densho Digital Archive - John Wakamatsu Interview (denshovh-wjohn-01-0001)

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RP: This is an oral history with John Wakamatsu for the Manzanar National Historic Site. We're at his aunt's residence, same residence as the last two interviews. This is June 9, 2009, same interviewer, Richard Potashin, and same videographer, Kirk Peterson. And John's going to be sharing some of his stories of his father's experiences in the 442nd as well as occasional visits to Manzanar War Relocation Center. John, can I go ahead and, and document this?

JW: Yes. Thank you. No problem.

RP: Okay, thank you. Why don't you, can you give us a little maybe background on your father, coming from your perspective as a son? Maybe, maybe a little bit about his early life and leading up to his being drafted into the military.

JW: Yes, my father --

RP: What kind of guy was he?

JW: -- yeah, my father was a very outspoken person and he relayed information to myself and my other brothers, two brothers and a sister, about growing up in Los Angeles and about wartime experiences and experiences after World War II, and in such great detail. And I believe that we have some of his genes because we have pretty good memories and I believe that it's done for a reason. I'm currently the president of the 100th/442nd Veterans Association of Los Angeles, and I help out the veterans of World War II. And half of those veterans were in, from the mainland United States and many of them were from internment camps.

My father was born on May 28, 1918. And he was actually born in a small little hotel which is right across from Ninth Street Market and it still stands. It's on San Pedro Street and he said they, I guess they used midwives in those days. So he actually showed us the actual location where he was born. And then the little house was on Tenth Street where they lived and it was torn down a number of years ago and they made a parking lot. So my father actually showed us where he was actually born. And maybe at, maybe the other, my other aunties were born there 'cause they were, used a midwife. And I thought that's kind of interesting when I can actually drive by there today and show people where the hotel... it's still standing. And so...

RP: Your father went to Japan at a young age of, I think, four years old.

JW: Right. Yeah. He went to Japan and according to my auntie, since he was only four years old, he was the only one that went with my grandmother. And my father remembered that and he told us that he went on this, a ship, and the captain of the ship was very nice to my father. They went on first class and my auntie told me it was like Canada-maru. That was the name of the boat. It took about thirty days to go to Japan. And the captain liked him because he had a small son and it kind of reminded him of his son. So my father said it was kind of nice. My auntie said they used to fish off the back of the boat. When they got to Japan, my father met his grandmother and he did bad things like, you know, they had these little statues for gods and he would roll the little heads off the, off the hillside and he was kind of a bad kid. And they knew that he wasn't from Japan but it's hard to understand because he's a little four-year-old kid running around and doing bad things. He actually went up and saw Japanese military officers on the train and he wanted to know what their sword looked like and no, no Japanese kid would ever do that because they're scared of the military. But my grandfather, my father went up and asked the senior officer and he showed him the sword. And the other officer didn't like that but the way the Japanese military is set up, if the senior whatever he does, you can't question that. So my dad was on the train and it was funny that he actually asked the officer to show him his sword. So my father was a real interesting person.

My auntie said that they spent one year in Japan and they went all over Japan. My grandmother, my great-grandmother loved hot springs and I thought it was kind of interesting, but my father relayed information that he was so small that I found that it's amazing. But when you're a little kid and you spend one year in a foreign country, even though he was a dual citizen, it's kind of an experience. My auntie said that they were kind of jealous because they had to go to school. So, none of them went. My grandfather stayed here and so that was kind of interesting. And when my grandmother came back from Japan after being there for one year, my auntie told me that she got scared and she ran under the bed. My father was able to see his grandmother. But I believe the grandfather had already passed away.

And the interesting thing about my, my father's experience in Japan was that he got to see other family members and he saw, he told me that my, my grandfather's older brother was a, drank a lot of sake and so apparently the two older Wakamatsu brothers -- 'cause my grandfather was kind of in the middle of a large family -- they owned land and they owned timber and they drank and they didn't do, they should have cut the weeds down. They had a fire in the area and they burned down 10,000 trees. So, that's, that kind of thing happened so my grandfather wasn't very happy with his older brothers because they just didn't take care of the land. And he came, when he came to America, I'm sure they, he must have helped the family out in Japan.