Letter: The story of the Japanese spy
I was born and reared in Madera. My father was the postmaster in Madera. When I married my husband, Larry Deaver, we built a house in Dairyland. Now that we’re retired, we moved to the Greenhills gated community in Chowchilla.
I have heard my husband tell this story over the years and thought it might be newsworthy, a part of Madera history.
I enjoy reading your articles every day. I’m going through the same things you are. But of course they are funny stories when you write them. I love it.
Here is the story told by my husband: The Japanese spy
During World War II, as a young boy, my husband, Larry, grew up on the Sayre Ranch in Madera. His father, Clarence Deaver, was the ranch foreman. Clarence was an excellent welder and had made a pony cart for Larry’s pony to pull him around the large ranch.
Larry’s cousins, Guy and Dennis Parker and Gerald and Kenneth Mattox, who lived on the same ranch, would ride with him. They liked to ride down to the tank house to play; it was a mile down the road from the ranch.
One day they all jumped out of the cart and went running up the stairs to play. In the tank house was a Japanese spy with a butcher knife. He chased the boy down the stairs. They were able to jump into the pony-drawn cart and race all the way back to the ranch headquarters.
The men were all out working in the fields and the only adult was a woman, Larry’s aunt Betty Sweeney (Deaver). She was 18 at the time, and married to Charlie Deaver. The rest of the wives were all in town shopping.
When the boys told her about the Japanese spy, she of course didn’t believe them. After much begging, she finally drove them back to the tank house in her 1934 Ford coupe with a rumble seat. When she arrived she got out of the car and climbed to the top of the stairs and there was the Japanese spy with the butcher knife in his hand.
He then chased her down the stairs. However, she was able to hustle it back to the car. She sped into town to the Sheriff’s office and told them what had happened. The Sheriff’s office immediately drove out to the ranch and arrested him.
Now the reason the Japanese spy was there … this was a large ranch, and during the war, the government had placed two or three stashes of explosives in various parts on the ranch.
Years later his aunt came to visit us. I asked her if she remembered the day of the Japanese spy, she said, “I certainly did, and I had received several death threats after that incident.”
Sarah Deaver,
Chowchilla
I just read about this in November’s Reminisce Magazine, Extra edition — I was incredulous and couldn’t believe it was true. I looked further online and found the almost identical story in the Tribune Redline.
I was born in 1940, grew up in Madera from 1951 through 1960, and have relatives still there. Further, my dad’s family has lived in Madera since the early 1920’s. I have never heard anything about such an incident; seems like it would have been really big news and known by many. Further, a spy would not want to be captured, so why would he have waited around for people to return?
I’m curious whether I’m the only one who wasn’t aware of this incident. Is it documented by the sheriff, the historical society, or anybody else?