Zentsuchi
Kintsuchi was born in Yamaguchi-ken in Japan in 1875. Heemigrated to the U.S. in 1903. In 1917 he returned from a trip to Japan during which he had married his wife, Tatsu. Kintsuchiheld a variety of jobs. By 1927 he had settled in Santa Barbara. He did some farming and worked on the estates of whitefamilies for whom he created and maintained Japanese gardens. Before World War II, Kintsuchi created a magnificent garden for Charles and Ellamae Storrier Stearns of Pasadena. This project was nearly completed when the war intervened.
Prior to the war, the growing power of Japan, Germany, and Italy resulted in reactions by the U.S. government to ensure internal security. One such reaction was to conduct surveillance of Japanese, German, and Italian communities in the U.S. and to create of lists of individuals who might be arrested at the outbreak of hostilities. In Japanese communities, the Japanese Association was the most powerful organization. It thereforeattracted significant government attention. In May 1941, a secret FBI report included the Central Japanese Association of Los Angeles and its branches, one of which was in Santa Barbara. Among the names identified were the Santa BarbaraAssociation’s 17 officials, one of whom was Kintsuchi Fujii.
At the start of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt issued three Presidential Proclamations based on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Proclamation 2525 allowed the government to arrest and imprison Japanese immigrant leaders. In February1942, the FBI conducted a mass arrest of Japanese in Santa Barbara County. Kintsuchi Fujii and other officials of the Santa Barbara Japanese Association were among the 265 individualswho were apprehended.
The arrested Japanese were initially taken to the Santa Barbara County Jail. From there they were sent to the Tuna Canyon Detention Station in Tujunga or the San Pedro Detention Station. But because of limited space at these facilities, a temporary Tuna Canyon substation was created at the Armyinternment camp in Griffith Park near downtown Los Angeles. Griffith Park was a maximum security facility enclosed by a double row of 10 foot fences capped with barbed wire. Army soldiers guarded the outside of the camp and Border Patrol officers guarded the inside. Seventy-six Japanese, including Kintsuchi Fujii, were transferred to Griffith Park. Their stay was very brief. The next day, arrangements were made to send these individuals, along with hundreds of other Japanese, to the Ft Lincoln detention camp in Bismarck, North Dakota. This transfer was expedited because the Army wanted arrested Japanese removed from the West Coast as soon as possible.
At Fort Lincoln, Kintsuchi had an administrative hearing in May1942 to determine his future disposition. The hearing board recommended his release rather than permanent internment. Kintsuchi was fortunate because most Japanese detainees did not receive favorable hearing board verdicts.
But Kintsuchi Fujii’s problems were not over. While he was in government custody, President Franklin Roosevelt had issued Executive Order 9066 in February 1942. This Order led to the incarceration of all persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. In April 1942, Tatsu Fujii and her two children wereremoved from their Santa Barbara home and sent to the Tulare detention center. After Kintsuchi left Ft Lincoln in July 1942, he rejoined his family at Tulare. Four months later, the entire family was transferred to the Gila River War RelocationAuthority camp in Arizona. It was not until after the end of World War II, in October 1945, that Kintsuchi and Tatsu were finally able to return to Santa Barbara.
Kintsuchi Fujii passed away in 1957. Decades later his masterpiece, the Storrier Stearns Garden, was restored. In 2005 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Written by Dr. Russell Endo