This is the story of Joe Watanabe who was my grandfather. I interviewed my grandma about the large diploma that's sitting in her house on the side of the wall. My grandpa was born near Seattle, Washington to parents who were both vegetable farmers. He grew up in a community where there were many farmers and lots of farming land in the surrounding area. When he was in Junior High School WW2 began and Japanese Americans on the west coast were put into camps. He actually graduated high school in the internment camp and when the war ended he went to Sacramento where he went to Sacramento College. After Sacramento College he moved to LA and went to UCLA. He graduated from UCLA with a BA chemistry degree and then he worked as a chemist. He realized he didn't like the work as much as he thought since he was more interested in medicine so he went to USC. At USC he studied at the pharmacy school and graduated early in 1960 with a doctoral pharmacy degree. During that time at USC he married my grandma. At the time my grandma was working at a supermarket in Los Angeles. After receiving his diploma he worked at Kaiser located in West Los Angeles. 

– Michael Adachi

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant