<Begin Segment 16>

JT: When you think about... we'll finish up, but I'm thinking about your grandfather. He came here in...

KN: 1899.

JT: 1899. What do you think was in his mind?

KN: Well, I think he knew that, I think the U.S. was a place of opportunity. And where he was at, in Fukuoka, maybe there was something different. And their civilization goes much longer than ours.

JT: Right, and he must have looked forward to a good life ahead because he brought that young bride with him, sixteen years old.

KN: No, she was nineteen. I think she was nineteen, twenty, something like that.

JT: That's good, that's just the beginning of a good long life. I want to thank you for the time you spent with me. Is there anything else you want to say?

KN: I don't want to say anymore.

JT: This is your last chance to give us your wisdom, stories.

KN: Thank you, you're the first one that said that.

JT: Are you glad that we were able to talk like this?

KN: Yes, but I only did it because Jo, you can't back off from her.

JT: Do you think it's important that we were doing this?

KN: Yeah, I guess. I learned things that --

JT: -- card that you put back together, all those things? Those are precious things that you should pass on to your...

KN: Can I take out my dad's work from flower shop to doing, just pushing lawnmowers, but he didn't push lawnmowers only, he made a landscape out of it. He did things with flowers.

JT: And didn't he sign papers having to do with this building?

KN: Yeah, 'cause he was an American, he was American-born. He was one of four guys that signed the name when the transfer of this building to the church.

JT: And why was that?

KN: Because he was an American citizen.

JT: And you had to be an American citizen because they couldn't sell to aliens.

KN: That's right.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.