Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1607/

Support from Nikkei (Japanese)

(Japanese) We the gardeners owe a lot to Nikkei, Nisei, or Issei who helped us with everything. When I saw an Asian person, I assumed he was Nikkei. It was like that. People like them told me a lot of things, like how they struggled in the past and I learned a lot from them. They helped me with all kindness and I’m truly grateful for them.


California generations immigrants immigration Issei Japan Los Angeles migration postwar Shin-Issei United States World War II

Date: August 4, 2015

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mitsue Watanabe

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

In 1969, he arrived in America for the first time. He lived in Los Angeles for a year and a half, traveled to various places around the world for about six months and went back to Japan. As he was deeply inspired by the life in a foreign country, however, he decided to go back and moved to America with a tourist visa. He had a job as a helper for gardeners for about two years at first, and then started working on his own. With an official visa, he got a foot in the restaurant industry. He currently runs a Japanese-style drinking place and diner, Honda-Ya, a restaurant chain in Los Angeles and Orange County, California. (August 2018)

Edward Toru Horikiri
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Horikiri,Edward Toru

Birthplace

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

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Iwao Takamoto
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Takamoto,Iwao

Return to Los Angeles

Japanese American animator for Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera (1925-2007)

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Edward Toru Horikiri
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Horikiri,Edward Toru

Working in America

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

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Edward Toru Horikiri
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Horikiri,Edward Toru

Struggles with English (Japanese)

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

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Toshiaki Toyoshima
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Toyoshima,Toshiaki

Becoming a member of nikkei community (Japanese)

(b. 1949) Sushi chef. Owner of Sushi Gen restaurant in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.

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Robert T. Fujioka
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Fujioka,Robert T.

Great grandfather working in Hawaii

(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Great grandfather Asato was a sumo wrestler

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Grandfather loved to tell her stories of her great-grandfather Arakaki

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Parents leaving Peru to move to California

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Monica Teisher
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Teisher,Monica

Grandfather migrating to Colombia

(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States

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Edward Toru Horikiri
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Horikiri,Edward Toru

My father’s venture into the hotel business (Japanese)

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

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Masato Ninomiya
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Ninomiya,Masato

What made your parents decide to move to Brazil?

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

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Vince Ota
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Ota,Vince

Moving to and living in Japan

Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan

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Kazuo Funai
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Funai,Kazuo

Company in Tokyo burned down (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman

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James Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,James

Family interrelations between mother and father

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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