Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1604/

Permanent residency for 10,000 dollars (Japanese)

(Japanese) There were a lot of elderly Nisei, many of whom were gardeners. I started working as a gardener too, or helping them at first and then set up for myself and I was like, maybe I can continue as a gardener and have a pretty good life here, making my American dream come true. So, I worked hard for a year and a half, nearly two years, but my legal status was not stable, as I had a tourist visa and I had to do something about it. Then I learned that a $10,000 investment would get me a visa. I found real estate worth $10,000, a small restaurant, and bought it with all equipment left inside and I was able to get a green card in about a year and a half. That led me to get my foot in the restaurant industry and for me, things worked out well.


agriculture business economics gardeners gardening generations immigrants immigration Issei Japan management migration permanent residents postwar restaurants 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)