This article was submitted by Trisha Sakamoto, with a little help from her grandfather Gene Art Chin. Trisha is a business administration student at Chapman College. Gene Chin was formerly president of the Gom Benn Scholarship Fund.
My grandfather, Gene Art Chin (AKA “Uncle Art”), was born probably in 1928 in War Hen Li, one of several villages in the Gom Benn area. He lived there with his mother, younger brother, Gin Gen, and younger sister, Kam Fong.
During these years, most of China was poor and people led challenging lives. Although poverty was the norm in most Chinese families, my grandfather’s family owned a small business in the city that allowed them to earn a little more money than the many households. Consequently, his family was able to afford a housekeeper and a good education for him. Unlike those who started school at the ages of 11 or 12, my grandfather began at the age of 7. This was immensely rare, as some families could not even enroll their children in school or had to stall their child’s education in order to save up for tuition.
When Gene Art was 12, his mother urged him to leave China to escape the war with the Japanese, find a better life in America, and eventually bring the rest of his family to the U.S.
In the early 1940s, my grandfather immigrated to the U.S. in search of a better life. There, he would meet his relatives who had already immigrated years prior. Being the eldest son, the responsibility fell to him to leave his mother and siblings behind and travel to America with distant relatives. He departed on a ship from Hong Kong, which took 20 days to reach its destination. Like all immigrants at the time, he was required to undergo a series of interrogations as part of the processing procedures in the United States. My grandfather braved through this long affair at Terminal Island near San Pedro. While some people stayed on Terminal Island for six months to a year, his uncle fortunately knew lawyers who had connections. He was released within a week.
In the U.S., he lived with his aunt, uncle and 10 cousins. At this time, his uncle’s co-worker’s son had finished earning his engineering degree at UC Berkeley, inspiring my grandfather to graduate from a good school and also become an engineer. But, growing up in America during WWII was difficult. Often, he was mistaken as Japanese, who were discriminated against at the time. Due to this, the Caucasian kids in his neighborhood would throw rocks at him and his friends, and other Chinese neighbors he knew. To prevent this misidentification, he wore signs or buttons that read “I am Chinese.”
A few years after graduating from Belmont High School in Los Angeles, my grandfather was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. In the Army, he worked as an interpreter in the IPW (Interrogation of Prisoners of War) in the Intelligence Unit of the 24th and 40th Divisions. IPW units were used in Korea to obtain information from Chinese prisoners of war. Since Gom Benn is in southeastern China, my grandfather could only speak Cantonese so could not effectively communicate with the majority of POWs who spoke Mandarin. Instead, he translated important documents and plotted where the enemy’s position was on a map. Additionally, he would sometimes go to the front lines to intercept enemy radio communications for intelligence communication. There, a Korean colleague would transcribe messages into Chinese, and my grandfather would translate it into English.
The conditions at the front lines were much worse than the back. The troops in the front lines slept in small bunkers that fit one to two people and often suffered from frostbite due to Korea’s extremely cold climate. Behind the front lines, where my grandfather was stationed, soldiers lived in bigger tents that housed three to four people. They did not have to fight and had more free time. During this time, they played sports with their friends and other interpreters. These friendships really underscored the good memories my grandfather had from the war. His family has recently located one of his good friends after not seeing him for almost 70 years!
Finally, my grandfather was discharged after 21 months of service. After the war, he graduated from USC with an engineering degree in 1959 with the help of the G.I Bill, which paid for his education. He later worked for the City of Los Angeles and did civil structural work. One of his favorite projects was the 182th Street Bridge over the Dominguez Channel. He used prestressed concrete for easy construction and reduced cost, after taking a class at UCLA taught by T.Y. Lin, who pioneered this new technology. My grandfather retired from the City of Los Angeles in 1987.
He married his girlfriend Alma Chee on March 20, 1953, and had four children, Ronald, Colleen, Darlene and Marlene. In 1968, almost 30 years after his immigration, he was finally able to sponsor the rest of his family from China to come to the States. This included his mother and his brother, Gin Gen’s, family of six — they lived with my grandfather’s family for several months (thirteen people total in the house). He was very happy that they assimilated into American society quickly.
My grandfather was a charter member in the Eastside Monterey Park Optimist Club, which was established in the late 1970s, where he was active in conducting service projects aimed at providing a helping hand to youth. He also served as the fourth President of the club.
After my grandfather retired, he picked up watercolor painting as a hobby. He also volunteered for 15 years with a few of his retired friends to teach algebra to fifth and sixth grade students. His students were able to win the County Championship during that time.
His extended family now includes son-in-laws Colin and Gregg, and four grandchildren — Keri, Trisha (me), Aaron, and Trenton — who help my grandfather and grandmother with things around the house, their taxes, and questions my grandfather has as he continues to learn more and more about using his iPhone and iPad.
My grandfather is passionate about preserving the history and culture of Gom Benn. Above all, he emphasizes the importance of compassion and empathy to encourage those around him to always help others. He believes in faith, and the idea that one should always treat others as one would want to be treated.
Alma died February 2021.
