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Tough life at boarding house (Japanese)

(Japanese) There was a boarding house. It was cheap. People like helpers of gardeners were staying there. And when I came home the place was seized by this group of people from this school and they told me to join them in phony gambling. Losers were told to sing, and if they refused, an ash tray would be thrown at them. I didn’t know there was a thing like that, something I experienced at the boarding house in America. I lived in a small room, which was about 1.5 tatami-mat size (about 2.5 square meters). I believe I was paying 100 dollars – maybe it was about 80 dollars, with breakfast and lunch bento included. I was there for about two months, but I couldn’t stand it and left.


agriculture gardeners gardening generations immigrants immigration Issei Japan 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)

Sawako Ashizawa Uchimura
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Uchimura,Sawako Ashizawa

Life in Davao, Philippines

(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.

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Harunori Oda
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Oda,Harunori

Gardening to nursery

(1927-2016) Shin-Issei businessman

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Isao Taoka
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Taoka,Isao

Carrying on the Legacy in the Colony of Paraguay (Japanese)

(b. 1943) Paraguayan Ambassador to Japan

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Harunori Oda
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Oda,Harunori

Next phase

(1927-2016) Shin-Issei businessman

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Sawako Ashizawa Uchimura
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Uchimura,Sawako Ashizawa

First Impressions of the US

(b. 1938) Philipines-born hikiagesha who later migrated to the United States.

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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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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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Barbara Kawakami
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Kawakami,Barbara

Going back to Hawaii

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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