A prominent Arroyo Grande farmer and World War II veteran who spent part of his teen years in an internment camp has died at age 96.
Haruo Hayashi died Dec. 7 from natural causes.
Hayashi’s family held a funeral shortly after his death, which was attended by around 120 people, according to Alan Hayashi, his second youngest son.
Alan Hayashi described his father as a humble, soft-spoken man with a “selfless work ethic” who was unafraid of standing up for his beliefs and loved large gatherings of family and friends.
“He was a role model for a lot of my family and friends, and pretty much a lot of people that meet him the first time,” Hayashi said. “He was a straightforward guy that was kind of soft-spoken, but when he said something, it was usually on target.”
SLO County farmer survived internment, served in World War II
Born in 1926 to first-generation Japanese immigrants, Haruo Hayashi was 16 when he and his family were sent to the Gila River Relocation Center in Arizona.
The concentration camp was one of 10 built across the United States following the passage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which authorized the detention and imprisonment of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
Prior to World War II, Arroyo Grande historian Jim Gregory said, Japanese Americans made up a “significant part” of Arroyo Grande’s population. In the 1942 class of Arroyo Grande High School, 25 of 58 graduates were of Japanese ancestry.
However, many Japanese American families didn’t return to the area after the internment camps closed, despite efforts by community members such as Vard Loomis, a local rancher and store owner.
“Only about half of the pre-war population came back.,” said Gregory, author of several books on San Luis Obispo County history. “The ones most likely to return were like the Hayashis and the Ikedas and Kobaras, who had bought farmland.”
In 1945, Gregory said Haruo Hayashi enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 18.
He was released from military service just before the end of the war.
Arroyo Grande businessman sat on school board
Hayashi eventually returned to Arroyo Grande, taking over the family farm and starting a family with his wife, Rose, who died in 2015.
According to his second youngest son, Haruo Hayashi experienced prejudice in the years after World War II, but countered these sentiments with positivity.
“They never used these things as excuses,” Alan Hayashi said. “Moving forward, that was one of the things I think was very prevalent with my dad, my uncles and aunts.”
Three of Haruo Hayashi’s five sons — Alan, John and Robert — took over the family business, including Hayashi Vegetable Stand in Oceano, while the other two, Howard and Edwin, are prominent surgeons in SLO County. Robert Hayashi passed away several years ago,
Gregory said Alan Hayashi and his brothers were “instrumental” in starting local Little League and youth basketball programs and developing the Pismo Oceano Vegetable Exchange.
Alan Hayashi said his father “strongly believed” in education, and served on the Lucia Mar Unified School District board as a trustee, advocating for the advancement of sports and the arts.
Haruo Hayashi notably received his diploma from Arroyo Grande High School in 2019 at age 93, graduating alongside his grandson Kobe.
“He felt honored to get (his diploma), but also felt that it was a nice gesture, because he felt like he he received that diploma for a lot of people that didn’t get to,” Alan Hayashi said.
Gregory, who went to school with one of Haruo Hayashi’s sons and taught several of Hayashi’s grandchildren at Arroyo Grande High, called them “just wonderful young people.”
Gregory had similarly high praise for Haruo Hayashi.
“You know, it’s cliche, but (he was) a pillar of the community,” Gregory said.
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