Kunikazu Sasaki or Kuni as everyone new him as.... was a gentleman with quiet dignity. In his youth he worked the oyster beds in Willapa Bay, Washington. He retired in Richmond, California as a precision machinist. He was also a US Army veteran of WWII,..... A distinguished 442 combat leader.... Staff Sergeant of K Company, Infantry Regiment. He had been a fighter.... He came out as a survivor ...

Kuni(my dad) was born February 1st, 1920 in Seattle, Washington. His name...Ku ni, ku in Japanese, meaning the number 9, represented the 9th year of the Emperor Taisho. ni the number 2... the second month, February. Kazu means first born. He was born the 9th year of the Emperor Taisho, in the second month of February. Kunikazu..first born in America. His Issei parents Gumbei and Hana came to Seattle from Hiroshima in September 1919. They eventually had 11 children. 7 boys and 4 daughters. Kuni, Bob, Koke, Timo, Fumio, John, Sumi, Teruko, Haruko, May and George.

They moved from Seattle to the rural area of Kent, Washington. Kuni went to a one room grammer school. He walked to school. On his walks he could see the snow capped Mt Rainer in the distance. Some how he got a good education. He learned his English grammar and his math well. To his final days he'd work word puzzles and kept an Almanac and other reference books by his side. He worked on his father's farm planting vegetables and even raising chickens and he cared for his other 10 siblings. He survived the 1939 influenza epidemic but two of his younger sisters Haruko and May did not. Then there were 8. Life went on. As a youth my dad displayed mechanical ingenuity. He could repair the old model T pick up truck. Always willing to offer a ride to his family and friends. "Where do you want to go?". "OK, get in".

After completing high school he and a buddy knew someone who worked in South Bend, Washington raising oysters in Willapa Bay. They took a trip out there in 1938 at the age of 18 and started working as oystermen. Living in the bunk house. Hard work. Seasonal work. High tide. Low tide. Sloshing through the smelly muddy bay. Planting little oyster seedlings from Japan. Get the motor on the dredge started. If it didn't start. He'd fix it. Don't fall off the side in your waders, you could drown you know. Get the crane over the side. Dragging up bushels of oysters. 5 cents a bushel. $2.50 each now. The New Washington Cannery is still there today. Anyone can go up there to visit it. Things were going well for him. On weekends he'd drive back to Kent to check in with his parents and his siblings. Then back to the cannery. Life was good.

December 7th, 1941. Pearl Harbor. Now what? There is a curfew....and.... north of South Bend in Bay Center there is a military check point on the other side of the bridge. "let's see your ID". Why? What did we do? "where's your ID?" He even got a visit by the military while ready to go out onto the bay to work. They ask him, "are you to taking gasoline out into the bay to refuel enemy submarines? His answer, "It's too shallow!". Things like this never seemed to bother him. He could recognize the absurdity of the situation as it was happening. Eventually he joined his family back in Kent. They were then uprooted and by train traveled to Pinedale Assembly Center, in Fresno County. From there they were all sent to Tule Lake detention center. It was for their own protection they said. Wonderful accommodations too. dusty, windy, cold, too hot. lousy food, no shoyu(soy sauce), bathrooms, showers, had to walk... outside.... down the road, no privacy, no fun. This was for their own protection? huh?...why are the guns aimed inward at them? After about 4 months of being confined he applied for a work furlough and went with his brother Bob and a couple other buddies to Ogden, Utah to work in the sugar beets fields. 100 pounds sack he could sling around. No problem. May 1944..oh big problem. He was drafted into the Army. His family had already been moved from Tule Lake to the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah.

Off to Camp Shelby, Mississippi for basic training. He did have a good eye and could shoot pretty good. Kind of like Sergeant York or Chuck Connors, the rifleman. What did his discharge papers say, He was a staff sergeant of K company, 442 Infantry Regiment. an expert at firing an M1 rifle and a Browning automatic. Well, he ship out on the Queen Mary with 100s of other service men. It took 5 or 6 days. Pretty fast. Staying ahead of any enemy submarines. That's all I really knew about my dads military experience over seas because he never really talked that much about it. All I know is that he survived. I am glad for that.

He was discharged in July of 1946. He eventually came back to the oyster beds. His parents after being released from Topaz in 1945 ended up in Richmond, California in a housing project. Grandma and grandpa with their 8 kids in a two bedroom apartment....hhhmmm? From a little farm in Kent, Washington with a view of Mt Rainier to a two bedroom apartment with a view of the local busline. Things weren't quite the same. Dad's father was now almost 70 years old and having to start his whole life all over again. Not going to happen.

Well, my father did meet my mother, Kiyoko JoAnn Nakagawa, during his brief stay at Tule Lake relocation camp in 1942. He actually became good friends with her brother, Bill Nakagawa of I company. So my father began courting her and he eventually married her in 1949 at the Fresno Buddhist church. Life was great. Romantic and wonderful. He brought her back up to Washington. In 1950 my mom was pregnant with her first child, Susan Ann, but Susan Ann did not survive. June 24th, 1951 11:57pm who should be born, "Me". I guess life was good. They had their first son, Michael William Tsunao Sasaki. Then she was expecting again. July 6th 1953 she entered the South Bend hospital to deliver. Another son is born, Warren Dean Sasaki but this time she did not survive the birth process. She was only 28 years old. well, if he had his way he probably would of followed her in that other world but he had to stay in this world to raise the two boys she just gave him.

He decided to move his two boys from Washington to Richmond, CA where his parents and siblings were living. Dad went to Berkeley night school and became a presicion machinist. He carried on. Liked he'd say it get's easier but it doesn't go away. After retirement he began riding my old bike. Up until 3 years ago dad rode the bicycle almost 12 miles a day for excercise and to be with friends. He said to me, my odometer has 25,000 miles on it. I said, geez that is the circumference of the earth. Dad, you circled the earth! Well, his spirit does circle the earth. He still is a survivor. He survives in all who knew him. He is still lovingly caring for my brother, Warren and me and still touching the hearts of his brothers and sisters; John, Sumi, Terry, George. Now there are 4.