Tom Shoso Nakatsukasa

OBITUARY:

Tom Shoso Nakatsukasa, 88, a longtime resident of Gardena and Escondido, passed away on April 8, 2018. He is survived by his wife, Aiko; children Todd (Cyd), Roy (Susan), Grace; and 4 grandchildren. Tom proudly served in the U.S. Marine Corps after being released from Poston Internment Camp and went on to work many years for Hughes Aircraft Company in engineering. After retiring, he built a house in Escondido, CA, where he pursued his retirement hobby of farming and enjoyed tending his 3 acres of longan fruit trees. Private family services to be held.

DAD’S PERSONAL HISTORY:

I was hoping to do a slideshow because I wanted to explain dad’s history along with the photos, but I’m told that the Video Tribute is on a loop and I can’t control the photos. So, I will just tell the history and you can connect the stories to the photos later as they cycle through on the video.

It was good for me to look through all his paperwork to gather this info, and I found out a few interesting things that I didn’t know before. I learned that he took a lot of notes and recorded a lot about his history, so that was helpful. Also, it’s interesting because Roy and I are kind of like that, we take some detailed notes about things.

Tom Shoso Nakatsukasa was born on December 26, 1929 in Redondo Beach, to Hitoshi and Katsumi, whose maiden name was Daimaru, both from Hiroshima. Dad was the 5th of 11 kids, and the 3rd boy. His birth certificate says that his dad was a farmer and his mom was a housewife.

As strawberry farmers, my dad’s family appeared to move a lot. As a kid, my dad went to grammar schools in both Escondido and San Marcos, both in San Diego County. Then when he was 12 years old, in 1942, because of WWII, the whole family was sent off to the Internment Camp. He wrote that they were given 3 weeks notice, and that they could take only 1 or 2 suitcases each. The family lost 80 acres of fruits and vegetables, the farm house, farm equipment, truck, etc.

His Internment Camp was in Poston, AZ. He told us some stories of the hardships in the camp, but also about going for hikes in the desert, doing judo, and other kid stuff. His logs show that in camp, at the age of 13, he started working, driving tractors, doing construction, and


other manual labor jobs to help pay for clothes. He made $16/mo. He also started high school in the camp.

In 1945 the family was released from the camp, and he said they were lucky to find that the Fresno Buddhist Church would take them in. He wrote that they had a 10x10’ area on the basement floor of the church for the family. Then they moved to Selma, and dad finished high school at Fowler Union High School.

At 18, his notes showed that he lived in Santa Cruz, where he was self- employed as a farmer, where he picked fruit, pruned trees, and did odd and end jobs because he couldn’t find full time work. He wrote that he did sharecropping for 3 years, whatever that is. His notes also mentioned how he owned a 1934 Ford Roadster, 1938 Chrysler, 1941 Ford, etc. He must’ve liked cars in his younger years. I remember him talking about building a roadster, maybe that was the Ford.

Then in 1952, when he was 22, he was drafted by the US Marine Corps to fight in the Korean War. He told us stories of boot camp and how he had to carry the biggest and heaviest gun because he was the shortest guy there, but how he would outrun everyone else during training carrying that gun. He said he was lucky that he did well on some aptitude test, because he was sent to Radar School instead going to Korea to fight, where he said lots of his friends were being killed in action. I remember hearing stories of playing softball on a team, and eating large steaks and lots of ice cream. He was based at El Toro Air Station for some of his time. After 2 years, he was honorably discharged. He mentioned that he was still committed to the Marines for another 6 years in the Ready Reserves, so the Marines could call him back to action at any time.

After the Marines, dad started taking night classes at LA City College, while working. In 1956, before he finished college, he started a job at


Hughes Aircraft Company in El Segundo, CA. I’m guessing that his radar experience helped him get into Hughes.

Then, dad told us stories of how a friend showed him some pictures of girls, out of a wallet, and he picked one. In the photos, there’s what I suspect is my dad’s profile picture that he sent to Japan and mom’s photo in a kimono that enticed him to pick her out of the lineup. He then started writing letters back and forth, and then in 1958, at the age of 28, he went to Japan and picked up his penpal. He married Aiko Sato at the American Consulate in Kobe, Japan, and brought her back to live in Redondo Beach.

Dad writes of owning a 1947 Hudson, a 1949 Ford, and a 1956 Mercury. I guess cars were still his thing.

Well, 1 year after getting married, their first kid was born. Dad was 29. I was zero. There’s one photo of him holding me in his outstretched arms, and he appears to be really happy, but then I find out that within 5 months, he signed up to move to Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle. He left Hughes and his wife to be an Air Force Contractor working on the DEW Line, D.E.W. standing for the Distant Early Warning radar system that was for detecting Soviet bombers during the Cold War. It was an 18-month commitment, but all we heard were fun stories of hunting and fishing, and one about a Polar Bear that almost outsmarted him and made a meal out of him.

After he returned from Alaska, he got busy and had 2 more kids, first my brother Roy in 1962 and then my sister Grace in 1963. He then got rehired at Hughes.

Our family of 5 grew up in Gardena, where I remember us living in a 2 bedroom house, and dad making us do manual labor, such as going to a chicken farm on the east side of Gardena to scoop up dry and dusty

chicken manure to bring home as fertilizer for his backyard of trees and vegetables. All the kids helped with manual labor in the yard.

During those years, my dad took us on various family vacations, he would take all us kids motorcycle riding in Gorman, where we’d camp and ride and shoot guns. We’d go to Yosemite, Grand Canyon, etc, which were all good family getaways.

In those years, Dad also did some other things, such as write a book. His book starred each of us kids as fictional characters, but used our real names, and used my cousin Sheryl’s painting as cover art. I see that the book is available on Amazon, but I have no idea if anyone’s ever bought it. And, it seemed like he had a fun time working at Hughes, he told us stories of going to Okinawa and Tanegashima to support some satellite launches. One photo shows him playing in Tanegashima, holding some sugar cane.

Dad retired from Hughes sometime around 1990. He decided that his retirement dream was to have a farm out in the country. Of course, he dragged along my mom, but not until a few years later. From his records, it appears that it took about 4 years for him to buy his 3 acres in Escondido, start clearing the land of brush, by hand with a pick and shovel, and have a contractor grade one part of the property to build his house, all while dad lived in a trailer on the property. There’s a photo of Roy and his friends out in the field taking a break from clearing brush.

In 1994, mom moved to the new house in Escondido. There’s a photo of a U-Haul truck where dad had help loading up and moving from Gardena to his new home. Dad spent the next several years getting the land ready for his trees, he ended up planting 300 Longan fruit trees.

His land was a long and skinny piece of property, so he spent years building a road down the center of the property, partially dirt, partially concrete for those steep slopes, and it was built by hand, by himself, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow. He even had to build a bridge across Ravine #2, that was challenging because the rains would try to wash away the bridge.

Before he bought his pickup, he turned my old 76 Datsun sedan into a pickup (there’s a photo of that car with the dog in the back). There was even a period when he drove around a golf cart.

The 20-something years that my mom and dad spent in Escondido, I believe were good years. Family would visit him over the years, and Grace and her family actually lived with them for a couple years. All us kids would occasionally help harvest some of the fruit, help with weeding, spend some holidays out there, or bring them food from Gardena, which they truly enjoyed.

I never heard mom and dad complain about anything, mom and dad appeared to enjoy their quiet time out on the farm together, and doing all that manual labor. It would’ve been too much work for me, and too secluded, but they seemed happy.

Last year, when taking care of the farm themselves became too difficult, we sold his retirement home and moved mom and dad back this way to Torrance to be closer to family, where we could help take care of them. Again, they didn’t complain, and they were happy to be closer to family and to be taken care of by us kids. It’s too bad dad didn’t last longer after moving back this way.

My dad enjoyed his life, and his family. He lived a full life, and had many stories to share. I’d like to thank all his family and friends for

being a part of his life. And I’d like to encourage all of you to ask others to share their stories with you too.

Thank you.