Interviewee: John Kabashima

Relationship to Nikkei gardeners: His father owned Sunnyview Nursery in Crenshaw. John is now the horticulture advisor for the University of California.

Date: July 17, 2007

Location: Japanese American National Museum

Brief Description: John explains how his father broke into the gardening industry and started his retail nursery, Sunnyview Nursery.

Transcription
My name is John Kabashima. And, I actually grew up in the Crenshaw district, in the Jefferson area, and my family actually came back to California from Rowher, Arkansas in 1950. And my father had grown up in Venice, worked with Venice salary, and graduated from USC before the war, and when he came back, he had four kids with him that he didn’t have when he left. So, instead of pursuing his career in law or a diplomatic core, he decided he better do something to feed the family, so he actually started gardening. He actually started a retail nursery in the Crenshaw district. Sunnyview Nursery.

See part 2 and part 3 of this article.
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This interview was conducted as part of the Opening Day activities for the exhibition Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden.