<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Let's go back, so we were just kind of finishing up with, you were with Bob Finch or his law firm. So what happened there? You talked about these funny projects, that he was more interested in politics. So how long did you stay there?

JN: I'm not sure. A year, two years, maybe? But I remember they also had an office down in Inglewood, that's where the main office was. That's where he had his partners there. And his partners were, they were basically just lawyers. I remember one of his partners came in one day, I don't know how long I was there, but he looked at me and he says, "What the hell are you still doing here?" kind of thing. Yeah, he was nasty. And I felt like, "Wow, this SOB." And I talked to Finch, he said, "Yeah, yeah." So I said, "I'm leaving," basically. And the two people I joined, at that time I knew two guys.

TI: But going back to that incident, so when the guy said that, why are you still there, referring to you because of your race and saying, "What's a Japanese American still..."

JN: He didn't say that, but that was clearly... I mean, he was just saying, "What are you still doing here?" basically, but for me, it was pretty damn clear that as an Asian, I had no business in a white law firm. I said, the hell with it.

TI: Okay. So you're now talking about these two other guys you were talking about?

JN: Yeah. Art Katayama and... oh, gee, I just saw him the other day.

TI: Jim Mori?

JN: Jun, J-U-N.

TI: Jun Mori.

JN: I just saw them not too long ago. But anyway, Jun and Art were in practice together, and I remember -- and they were down at, I forget the name of the...

TI: Was it Crenshaw?

JN: Crenshaw. And then I went to, I joined them. We were basically, at the beginning, just independent, then we became partners and everything. I was more interested in Jun's background because he was a graduate of Waseda and also of SC Law School. And his English was, he spoke English so well, it was incredible. No accent. And his Japanese was no accent. I think he just had a good command of languages. And he was, he was bright. So he was the guy I was more into. Art was more, he wasn't that bright, and he was, well, he was a nice guy, I liked him. Jun was a little more... he was always aware of everybody else. That's what made him such a great public relations guy. He was good. He got, ultimately, the reason I wanted to join up with him was to get into this international law thing and represent Japanese companies. And my god, he got Sumitomo Bank, Mitsui, I mean, he got some big clients. So we... and that's where we were practicing law, in Crenshaw, and then we moved when Kajima built that building in J-town, so we moved there. I forgot when that was.

TI: And that's that building on First and...

JN: San Pedro.

TI: San Pedro.

JN: But after a while, I guess my kids were two and a half, three years old, maybe a year and a half to three years old. I had two girls, and I decided I wanted them to grow up in Hawaii like I did, a member of a plurality.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.