by Lisa Washio-Collette My Japanese father, Kintaro Washio, was born in Walnut Grove, California, on May 2, 1925. When he was a child, he and his family returned to Japan. However, when my dad turned 16, he and his older brother Zentaro returned to the United States in order to avoid conscription in Japan’s war with China. U.S. birthright citizenship may have saved their lives. On February 19, 1942, when my dad had only been in the U.S. for eight months, President Franklin D.
