George Bracey Gillow

Terry,

I could not find anything on the Maple Leaf Dairy. I found a few things on the Benton Dairy.  I will check with some local historians and see if they have anything.

The Benton family had a Dairy in Escondido and one south of Nester. 

One item is of Grover Maple's obituary that mentions the Benton Dairy.

Thanks for the picture of Graydeon at the Few Acres Dairy.  I will send it to Bud Wilson.  I am sure he knew your relative.

George Bracey Gillow

Terry,

You asked about my interest in history.  My entire career was as an electronics/computer engineer and manager.

For the first 10 years of my career I worked for NCR Computer Division in Rancho Bernado.  I got interested in the history of NCR.  Two early employees of NCR were Charles Kettering and Thomas Watson. Thomas Watson left NCR and founded IBM.  Charles Kettering was an inventor.  He left NCR and founded the Dayton Engineering Laboratory Corporation also know as DELCO. There he invented the self starter for the automobile which replaced the crank.  Then Kettering went on to be the head of research at GM.

This got me generally interested in the history of technology. I am also interested in US history particulaily in political history. 

I was appointed to the City of Chula Vista's Historical Sites Board in 1975.  That got me interested in local history.  

In retirement history has been a hobby.  I have made presentations to clubs on local history and on technology such as on Kettering and on "Women in Technology." 

I recently did a history of our neighborhood.  Part of that was interesting people who lived here. There are a number of Japaneese-American familes who were involved in farming.  Two former residents, Joe Owashi and Fred Hatashita, owned tomato and celery farms.  Their relatives still live here.  A while back I sent the relatives the picture of your mom as Celery Queen.  They loved the picture and forwarded it to many of their friends and relatives--neat.

Kay Kozuye Ochi

Thanks, George and Terry, for sharing this local and family history. Just wanted to let George know that Fred Hatashita is still around and my younger sister Carolyn (HHS '67) is related to Fred (and Joe) through marriage. She and I plan to interview Fred about his family's farming in the South Bay and San Diego County. Have I previously shared that there is a bronze plaque dedicated to Japanese American Farmers on the southwest corner of Broadway and Palomar? Stay well Everyone! - Kay

George Bracey Gillow

Kay,

I spoke to Fred Hatashita Sr. a few months ago.  He has an amazing knowledge of the history of our neighborhood and also of the South Bay area.

This is a slide from the my document on the history of interesting people who lived in our neighborhood.  

Jerry Olivas, EdD

Hey George, Thanks for the history lessons about Chula Vista. I was wondering what happened to the Chula Vista area Japanese farmers during WWII. I know all Japanese were put into detention camps (prisons really), however not sure if they returned to where they lived, farmed, and owned property after WWII—and if they got all their property back (or some sort of compensation). Maybe some did and some didn’t. Also, kind of an odd question here, but I believe many Japanese are/were Buddhist. Just wondering if there were any old Buddhist Temples in the South Bay—or marked location where there might have been a Temple. Perhaps there is some sort of plaque or something recognizing the Japanese in the South Bay; but I never have seen anything. Just continuing to stay curious. Jerry

Terry Lee Maple

George: When I was on the faculty at Emory University in Atlanta, one of my students won a prestigious Watson Fellowship to study in Europe. Watson was a generous benefactor. I was recruited to Georgia Tech in 1978, a fine engineering school. At Tech I became proficient in computer technology and taught many engineering students who took my course on Psychology and Environmental Design. Go Yellow Jackets! 

George Bracey Gillow

Jerry,

The Japanese-Americans from the South Bay were mostly sent to the Poston Internment/Relocation camp.

Joe Owashi and his wife Alyce were first sent to the temporary camp at the Santa Anita Racetrack. Living conditions at Santa Anita were difficult. Families lived in abandoned horse stalls. After about 200 days at Santa Anita, they were transferred to the Poston 3 Camp in Arizona.

They lived at Block 330-12-8 at Poston.

During the war many citizens here in Chula Vista took care of their Japanese-American friends homes and even farms.  So, they could return to their homes after the war. However, many lost their property, businesses and farms. It was particularly bad for Japanese-American fishermen in the LA Harbor area. They lost expensive boats and fishing nets.

A good book about the Japanese Americans in the South Bay is South Bay Monogatari: Tales of the South Bay Nikkei Community by Donald H. Estes. It is available on Amazon and Abebooks.com.

Here is a video on the Poston Camp:

Kay Kozuye Ochi

Hi George, Jerry, thank you both for your interest in this topic. My mom and dad (all my relatives) were forced to go to Poston, AZ during WWII. San Diego JAs were in Poston Camp III . . . and they (my parents and almost 82,500 survivors) received a formal apology signed by President Ronald Reagan and modest compensation of $20,000 each after the 1988 Civil Liberties Act was passed by Congress and signed by Reagan. I spent most of th 1980's and 1990's decades working on the reparations campaign and the distribution of the apology and restitution with an all-volunteer group Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress. So, all of this is very personal to me. The government's 1981Commission that studied the wartime incarceration reported that the root causes were "race prejudice, wartime hysteria and the failure of political leadership." If you are further interested in this dark chapter in U.S. History, it's terrific that there are now a ton of books, articles, youtubes, etc on the topic. I put a program together in February - Day of Remembrance - that's available on youtube: search words- Day of Remembrance, Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego. And, yes. The Buddhist Temple of San Diego remains on Market Street (near 30th). It's 95 years old.  - Kay

Bruce Wilson

Kay: It seems that greatness was not spread uniformly amongst the Greatest Generation. The Nagasaki/Hiroshima debate continues to this day.

https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/debate-over-bomb-annotated-bibliography

Jerry Olivas, EdD

Hi Kay,

Thank you for sharing that. I am wondering about something, and if this fits into the confidential category, please send me a private message. Did your parents ever discuss with you, when you were younger (perhaps during your Hilltop days), anything about their time in Poston, or in general, what occurred during WWII when they were interned. I kind of feel like I and many others in CV, were raised in a rather narrow-minded community. I don’t remember learning anything about Japanese interment in High School. History lessons, in general, seem to be painted with all positives, especially when it came to race and how great everything was in America and how wonderful America’s are. (Side note here, I didn’t pay too much attention in class and my GPA was 2.0 at best during High School, so maybe I was just not paying attention.) It wasn’t until after High School that I started to become more aware of the past in the US. But I don’t think much was being taught in CV during the 50s and 60s with respect to critical race theory, that is, not learning much at all about different races, cultures, and classes as they relate to discrimination, prejudice, and inequality.  

Ciao, Jerry

P.S. Wow, great work with the Japanese community. See, Hilltop High graduates can make, and have made, a difference!

Kay Kozuye Ochi

Jerry, thanks for your sensitivity about confidentiality, but I'm an open book.  My parents (like most JA parents) did not talk about their wartime experience at all. They were too busy working hard to resettle (find jobs, raise kids) and there is the shame element of being targeted as the enemy and incarcerated. They endured the indiginities of communal bathrooms, showers, four families in one barrack - no privacy. The majority of the JA community felt that they needed to stay under the radar in order to return to "civilization" after the war. The hardships of resettlement (finding housing, hostile communities, etc.) left little time or inclination to talk about that bitter past. I learned nothing about Camp in school. I'm guessing there may have been a couple of paragraphs in our history book. I learned about incarceration in 1981 - at the federal commission hearing in Los Angeles. I attended and heard the tesimony of folks who looked like my parents and grandparents . . .it was like a gut punch to learn how they were treated. (BTW, those LA testimonies are online at vcmedia.org/speakout- if you can check it out.) More later. - Kay

Gary William Baldwin

My trip to Manzanar left me in tears.

John Carleton Cowherd

Kay and Jerry:  Talking about the internment camps reminds me of a time in school.  I think it was a Jr High School class, probably Social Studies.  The teacher mentioned the camps during the lecture, and asked Jerry Hanano if his parents were in the camps.  He was strangely silent, so the teacher moved on.  I can only guess that Jerry either didn't know, or was embarrassed about it.  I don't remember the camps coming up at any other time at school, but as Jerry says, I was not a stellar student.

Brian Belchers

Kay

There was a recent PBS program on Japanese Americans who had chosen to evacuate California rather than go to internment camp during WWII. Apparently, they were given 72 hours to decide whether to evacuate and would receive no help whatsoever from the government. I think a smallish number (3000?) chose to evacuate. The program consisted of interviews with children whose parents decided to evacuate. They were treated appallingly in all states other than Colorado where the governor welcomed them. The children went to local schools and were harassed horribly by other school children. 

After the war, about 2/3 returned to California. I had never heard of the evacuation program before. Apparently there was much discussion among the JA after the war as to whether the internees or the evacuees had been better off. Do you know whether the evacuees were included in the reparation program?

Brian Belchers

Bruce Wilson

... less is known about the thousands of “ethnic Germans” who were also detained, as well as smaller numbers of Italians and Italian Americans. [particularly how many thousands]

The precedent was set during the First World War when laws dating back to the 18th Century were used to authorize the detention of anyone considered to be an “enemy alien” and therefore a possible threat to security and the war effort.

The Government set up four camps. The main ones were located in Hot Springs, CA and at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia. These camps were referred to as DOJ (Department of Justice) Camps.

Those interned included not only German nationals but also those of recent German descent. As they were now considered to be enemy aliens, many had their homes and property seized by the Government.

Bruce Wilson

"NO NUKES FOR YOU" [SICK [SIC]]

-The Soup Nazi

Fire bombing of Dresden, during World War II, Allied bombing raids on February 13–15, 1945, that almost completely destroyed the German city of Dresden. The raids became a symbol of the “terror bombing” campaign against Germany, which was one of the most controversial Allied actions of the war.

Bruce Wilson

Proclamation 2527 and the Internment of Italian Americans

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/proclamation-2527-internment-italian-americans#

Bruce Wilson

NO FINLANDERS WERE DETAINED AS FAR AS I CAN TELL FROM LIMITED RESEARCH.

Jim Hawes

Kay,

Thank you for your posts on the California Internment history. It has started some great conversations. My father was a US Navy veteran that had spent most of his 30 years service in the Pacific. He initially went to Samoa in 1920. He was in Pearl Harbor (USS Pennsylvania) until just hours before the attack. He was assigned to merchant marine fleets (Navy Communications), and was on 3 different ships that were sunk. I only mention this because growing up we had many friends that were from all Asian cultures. I never heard my father say a single negative thing about Japan or the Japanese people. I suspect this was not the norm, but I now realize how lucky I was.

Recently, my wife found a missing relative (thank you Ancestry.com) that was born in Hawaii to a Japanese mother. In doing some research, it seems like Hawaii didn't have the same programs as the mainland. One relative born in 1926 (Kazumi Oshita) registered for the draft when he turned 18 and joined the Army later that same year. He attended high school in Hawaii. I'm not saying it was an easy childhood during those years, just that maybe things were different for those living in Hawaii?  I did find the name of one relative from Hawaii that had moved to the mainland (California) and may have been placed in a camp, but was unable to confirm.

Again,

Thank you for your post and your Youtube link. I will share it with other family members.

Cheers, Jim

PS: Just curious if you were able to reach Jerry Hanano?

Kay Kozuye Ochi

For someone who has had little to contribute to this blog, I will gladly respond: Jerry, history for the most part is written by those in charge - the "victors" as it were. J. Edgar Hoover told Roosevelt that the Japanese on the West Coast were not a problem; Roosevelt yielded to the powerful agro-business and unions in CA to get rid of the Japanese who were an economic threat. That plus racism = incarceration. They even took children out of orphanages and stuck them at Manzanar. How much of a threat can little orphans be? It's the blood line. Gary Baldwin: your reaction to visiting Manzanar reflects your compassion, humanity. Thank you. John Cowherd: If a teacher asked me about "Camp", I would have reacted the same way as Jerry H. And each year on Dec. 7, I dreaded going to school because of the looks and stares. A huge challenge is to get people to differentiate between Japanese in Japan (the wartime enemy) and Japanese Americans. . . to accept each person by the content of their character. Brian Belchers: Hi, Brian. I'm so appreciative of your comments, too. The "voluntary evacuees" were not included in the Civil Liberties Act - I'm guessing that in 1984-5 when the legislation was written, not much was known about these folks.  Life in Utah (interior states) was about survival (folks lived in basements and barns), so to be excluded from the CLA added insult to injury. I worked with the NCRR through the 1990's and lobbied the DOJ for their inclusion to no avail. Ultimately, lawsuits were filed and prevailed. So, 4,400 of these folks received the apology and reparations. Bruce: thanks for the link on Italian Americans. Good info. Yes, Italian and German Americans were incarcerated at Crystal City, TX (a DOJ camp) alongside JAs and Japanese Latin Americans. Yes, the U.S. brought over 2,300 Japanese up from South America to use in the POW exchange. That's another amazing story. Jim Hawes: Your father was a very good man. thanks for sharing his story, his kindness. Another wartime contradiction: Japanese in Hawaii were not incarcerated enmasse, like mainland JAs. Why? the economy of the Islands would suffer tremendously without this group. Elders, leaders in Hawaii were imprisoned at Sand Island, Honouliuli, etc. They, too, received reparations after more lobbying in the 1990s. ALL LANCERS, feel free to ask questions. I've spent the 2nd half of my life learning about JA history. You can direct messge me, if we've taken up too much space on this ;-D - Kay

George Bracey Gillow

During World War II, law-abiding Japanese-American citizens were herded into remote internment camps, losing their jobs, businesses and social standing, while an all-Japanese-American division fought heroically in Europe. – Tom Brokaw

George Bracey Gillow

There were Gold Star families living in internment camps during WWII.

Families living in Poston, Manzanar and others received the fateful telegram.

Soldiers served with great distinction in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Below are Japanese Soldiers who served in WWII.

George Bracey Gillow

Here is a good YouTube presentation on early photographs of KFMB TV8.

Weatherman Joe Marciano was praised for his ability to write backwards on the glass weather board. However, years later I heard Bob Dale say that the TV cameras, in those days, could flip an image.  I think that is correct since I doubt Joe was left handed. 

I suggest you watch this on a full view on YouTube.

Kay Kozuye Ochi

Thanks, George, for sharing about the 100/442 RCT, Japanese American soldiers, a segregated combat team. Their heroism was driven by the need to prove that they were "All American" even though their parents were incarcerated by the government. The 442 is the most highly decorated military unit (for its size) in all of U.S. military history. When they returned home from Europe, President Truman fastened the Presidential Unit banner to their regimental colors and said that not only did they fight the enemy, but they fought prejudice - and won.  Last year, I read a great book on this topic: Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown. Brown took a very deep dive into the European campaigns fought by the 442 and how they earned the respect of those who know.

Kay Kozuye Ochi

San Diego was home to about a dozen of the 442 veterans. The last two San Diego 442 vets passed just last year: Mas Tsuida (my sister's father-in-law) at 101 years of age and Frank M. Wada, Sr. (one month shy of 100).