Dr. Donald Hata returns yearly to honor his late wife, and former Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Nadine Hata, at the Cherry Blossom Festival by sharing their stories and remembering her legacy.

“Twenty years later, when her name comes up in casual conversation with people who knew or worked with her, there was this tremendous respect and reverence for all she did for the college,” Dean of Humanities Scott Kushigemachi said in his speech at the Cherry Blossom Festival on Tuesday, March 17.

Nadine and Donald Hata spent their lives teaching and uplifting students as educators and activists.

Nadine started at El Camino College in 1970 as a history professor. Over a decade later, she assumed the role of VP of Academic Affairs while Donald taught history at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

In Nadine’s long-standing culture at ECC, she and her husband arranged for the donation of the five cherry blossom trees, with the first Cherry Blossom Festival taking place in 2000. Five years later, Nadine passed away after a long fight against breast cancer.

What she left behind was her legacy and her supportive husband.

NIKKEI – To be of Japanese origin

Donald was born in March 1939, six months before World War II broke out.

When Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which forced the removal of any persons who might be deemed a “threat.”

As a result, of the 275,000 Japanese who came to the mainland United States and Hawaii, 45% of them were forcibly relocated to “assembly centers,” according to the National Archives.

Donald remembered those times.

His mother, Terada Hata, and his father, Teruo Hata, sold their small grocery store and tried to sell their things before they would be relocated. For two weeks, they listed their furniture for sale to neighbors, and for two weeks, they were ignored.

The day they left home, the Hatas drove off to the street corner when his dad stopped the car. Donald and his mother sat inside the car and watched as his father’s face faltered.

They followed his gaze, watching as their neighbors looted their house. That’s when Donald saw his father cry.

“That was my first memory of what would be happening to us in World War II,” Donald said.

They fled to the Central Valley, where they could stay with relatives.

The Hatas stayed outside, in a chicken coop, because the main house was packed with other fleeing relatives who had arrived before them.

CHONAN – Eldest Son

Donald became estranged from his family in high school.

His mother died on the first day of his senior year in high school. Within a week, he decided to leave home and never looked back.

Donald was homeless for the rest of his last year of high school.

“I blamed my father for never having supported my mom enough,” Donald said.

His father was the eldest son, a chonan, which meant he was given all the priorities, Donald said, and it meant he would take the family inheritance.

That is why a lot of second-born or third-born children usually leave their home countries, ECC Japanese Language professor Nina Yoshida said.

“’Don’t marry a chonan because he’s so spoiled and self-centered, he will never think about supporting his wife, and that’s how I saw my father,” Donald said.

When Donald saw his mother die, he “blew up.”

“You don’t even realize how self-centered and cowardly you are,” he said to his father.

To make a living during the year of homelessness, Donald picked up odd jobs delivering newspapers and, at times, became a courier for all sorts of shady people.

“It’s interesting how I survived,” Donald said.

He used the gym shower rooms at school to maintain his hygiene.

Donald became invested in civil rights because he was so disgusted by the old cultural values of his heritage.

RONIN – Lone Warriors

Donald, who was from Boyle Heights, and Nadine, who was from Hawaii, met while in Japan for the Ford Foundation Overseas Fellowship in 1965.

“We could have been Martians and Saturians,” Donald said, “because Japanese-Americans from Hawaii and Japanese-Americans from the mainland are very different.”

They instantly disliked each other, he said. The two held each other to their stereotypes. It took getting to know each other over months and an encouraging professor who played a role as cupid for their matchmaking.

“I told [Nadine] I didn’t ever want to get married because of my terrible situation with my family,” Donald said. But, he told her, if they ever got married, they were going to be equals, two lone warriors—ronin.

Two ronin who found each other.

Twenty-one years after losing his wife, Dr. Donald Hata praises the environment Nadine created on campus, like for example her constant pushing her students to advocating and the cherry blossom trees whose donation plaque bears her name.

Donald shares prints of his watercolor paintings which depict scenes from Japanese assembly centers from during and after the war. When he is not painting, he writes haikus and tends to the flowers and vegetables in his garden.

To Kelsey Lino, an El Camino College graduate and counselor of nearly two decades, Nadine Hata’s spirit lives on.

“Professor [Donald] Hata, he always reminds folks of who she was and her strength,” she said. “It gives me hope that true love exists.”