Sachi (Higuchi) Oka (Poston block 222) was
born in San Francisco in February of 1916, but spent most of her life in
Monterey. She was a member of the
Monterey Kendo Team in the 1930s.
In 1941, she married Kazuo Kaz Oka.
As a young woman, Sachi was employed as housekeeper for the renowned
architect, Julia Morgan. The Oka family
moved to the Fresno area with his widowed mother (Same Oka) and siblings
(Aiko Helen, Hisako, Yoshiye, Giro, Saburo, and Michiko) to escape
evacuation however they were evacuated from Fresno and arrived at the Poston Arizona
concentration camp 2 on July 14, 1942. On
June 6, 1943. Kaz received employment and went to Detroit, Michigan, while
Sachi transferred to Heart Mountain, Wyoming concentration camp.
Upon
their release, they moved briefly to Detroit, Michigan, where her daughter, Patricia was born. Despite the hardship Sachi
endured in the camp, she never spoke of the ordeal to her children when were
young and never expressed any resentment toward the government. She did,
however, always express pride in being a native-born American.
When Sachi returned to Monterey with her
family, she returned to her prior employment for the architect. After her
husband died, Sachi raised her children as a single parent.
Sachi kept a scrapbook of keepsakes and
letters written to her by Ms. Morgan.
Acutely
aware of the historical significance of these documents, four decades following
Ms. Morgan's death Sachi donated nearly all of her collection to Hearst Castle
so that the correspondence could be preserved and properly displayed.
Sachi (Higuchi) Oka died on February 25,
2011. She was preceded in death by her husband, Kaz (1966).
She
is survived by her brother, George Higuchi; daughter, Patricia Hudson; sons,
Stephen and Rodney Oka; and two grandchildren, Christopher and Adam Hudson.
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel on March 2, 2011
