Anita Sachiko Powell

Sachiko Honda was born in April 1942 to immigrant parents in unusual circumstances—in Los Angeles General Hospital while her father, sister and three brothers were encamped in Santa Anita Race Track horse stalls. The government was holding them and other Japanese—citizens and immigrants—for transport to World War II internment camps. Her start earned her the nickname Anita. Following Sachi’s birth, the Hondas and others were shipped by train to the camp in Jerome, Ark.

Toward the war’s end, with interned ethnic Japanese being released to live in mid-America, the Hondas became farm laborers in Colorado. Her mother, Tsuyo, carried Sachi on her back as she, Sachi’s father and oldest brother worked in the fields while Sachi’s three older siblings spent their days in the car.

Eventually the family returned to post-war Southern California, where their father worked as a gardener and mother managed the home on an uncle’s farm in Huntington Beach. Tsuyo died at age 42 in 1951 when the children were young, whereupon 12-year-old sister Janice (Katsuko) took over housework and Sachi helped. Sachi inherited the “women’s work” when Janice married and moved. At 20 years old, Sachi’s turn came. She married William Powell Jr. and raised daughters Robyn and Cindy, and a son, William the IIIrd in Torrance, CA.

After her children were grown, Sachi returned to school to earn a B.A. in Accounting at Cal State Dominguez Hills. She was thrilled to welcome her daughter-in-law Kirsti and took much joy in her two grandchildren Amanda and Liam. She enjoyed homemaking, gardening, knitting, cooking, as well as following current events and the stock market. She spent many years volunteering as a docent at the Torrance Courthouse.

Sachi is survived by her three children Robyn Christina, William Payne and Cynthia Marie, her daughter-in-law Kirsti Lys, grandchildren Amanda and Liam and her sister Janice Mead.

Funeral Mass will be at St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, 25511 Eshelman Avenue, Lomita, CA, 90717 (310-326-3364) on Monday, February 12, 2018 at 11:00 a.m.