Taul Watanabe, Who Crashed Barriers To Japanese Americans

Ships sliding into Puget Sound, students at the University of Washington, cannery workers, have all been affected by the life of Taul Watanabe, who filled his 75 years with superlatives.

He broke new ground in trade with Japan, crashed barriers in business and government that had been shut to Japanese Americans, went from poverty to wealth and power.

"He wasn't afraid to tackle any challenges," said his daughter Laani Gazeley. "There aren't too many people who are able to go out and do all those things. We felt very fortunate, blessed to have a dad like that."

Mr. Watanabe, 75, died Dec. 28 after a long struggle against cancer. He was born Dec. 21, 1919, in Salem.

He was president of his senior class in high school and would continue to be a leader wherever he landed.

Mr. Watanabe helped put himself through Willamette University partly by working as a cannery worker, and in 1938, at 19, he was one of three organizers of the Japanese Alaska Cannery Workers Union.

He entered Willamette's law school shortly before the United States entered World War II. In 1941, when the government began placing Japanese Americans into internment camps, Mr. Watanabe was taken to a camp in Puyallup. He immediately began working to get himself freed.

With the help of Willamette's president he was able to get an exemption and was allowed to continue his legal studies at the University of Denver.

Later he worked for a short time as a lawyer in Denver before moving to Los Angeles, where he honed a talent for putting together business deals and played a role in the development of the Little Tokyo section of the city.

Mr. Watanabe also met his future wife, the daughter of a prominent Japanese-American physician.

Over the next decade he became a significant force in Southern California, buying and developing property in Los Angeles and Orange counties, becoming a bank president and moving into government for the first time as a member of the Gardena Planning Commission.

Always a champion of the U.S. political and economic systems, he also was a master of those systems. He become a Democratic national committeeman and a friend and supporter of California Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty.

Yorty appointed Mr. Watanabe to the city Harbor Commission. As president of the commission, he negotiated the first container-ship agreement between the United States and Japan.

Toward the end of the 1960s, he decided it was time for a change. His daughter Laani said her father began "looking at California. He wanted to make sure his children had good schooling and safety." So he moved the family to Bellevue in 1969.

"He was always a Northwesterner at heart, and I don't think he ever forgot that," his daughter said.

In stories from that time, Mr. Watanabe is quoted as saying he wanted to retire. But if anything, his activities stepped up: first as a consultant to the Port of Seattle, Peoples Bank and Burlington Northern, eventually as a Burlington vice president.

Mr. Watanabe was a major source of money for Dixy Lee Ray's campaign for governor in 1976. She named him to the University of Washington board of regents after her election and made him chairman of the state Economic Council and of the state Personnel Board.

He is credited with bringing Japanese business to the Northwest in a big way and helping establish business relations with China, where he traveled with Ray for talks with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.

Shortly before his death, he gave $1 million to Willamette. In 1992, during his 15-year fight with cancer, he helped organize the Japanese-American Chamber of Commerce.

UW President William Gerberding remembers him, not so much as a political and business mover and shaker but as someone it was fun to be around.

"He was a friend and a friend of the university. Taul was a high-spirited man, a mischievous man with a twinkle in his eye, somewhat controversial. I always enjoyed Taul."

Mr. Watanabe is survived by his wife, Sachiko Watanabe of Bellevue; his sons Brett and Guy of Bellevue; his daughters Laani Gazeley of Bellevue and Leslie of Rancho Mirage, Calif.; his sister, Hoshi Yamada of Manassas, Va.; his brother, Shig of Denver; and five grandchildren: Taul and Chelsey Gazeley, and Jill, Sarah and Kelly Watanabe, all of Bellevue.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests remembrances in Taul Watanabe's name to the charity of the donor's choice.