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TI: So let's go back a little bit about your father and his business. So growing up, I was reading some of the background materials, he was a pretty successful general contractor.

JN: I would say yes. As I said, well, for one thing, I went through, I was sent to Mid-Pacific, which is a boarding school. In fact, one of these days, later on I'll tell you about why I ended up in Mid-Pacific. But anyway, I went through Mid-Pacific, which is a boarding, private boarding school. I went up to University, I went to University of Hawaii two years, University of Illinois another two years, graduated there, and then went to... I don't think you'll find too many, but I went to three different law schools. I went to University of Illinois first year, I went to Northwestern for a semester, took a break, went into the army for two years, and then I went to, I finished at UCLA. So I got my law degree from UCLA after three different law schools.

TI: And so your father was able to help pay for all of this.

JN: He paid for the whole thing. [Laughs] I can't believe it. And I never, never occurred to me who's paying for this, and I never thanked him. Never thanked him. And then it occurred to me -- as a matter of fact, I was studying for the bar exam when I got the call that my dad passed away from a heart attack. I never... and to this day, that's my, probably my greatest regret, is not telling him. I mean, he was a character, but I never thanked him. In fact, I was... I looked at him through the eyes of my mother, I think, so I was always strict. After my mother died, I bossed him around, I told him, "Don't do this, don't do that." I remember lecturing him on his driving, telling him, "Don't drive too fast, you're too close to the car." I'm, like, twelve, thirteen years old. That was terrible. But I do recall all of that. But that was my father, he was a character.

TI: So let's talk about his business and how he accumulated some of his money. What did he do?

JN: He was a general contractor. And as far as I know, mostly he built homes in those days. And I know he built some commercial buildings because there were one or two on King Street that we used to point out and say, "My old man built that," like a three-story building there and that kind of stuff. But he, basically, he built homes all over. And I know he built home in Kahala and all over. So whatever he did, he knew what he was doing. And at home, I always remember trucks. We had trucks, we had lumber all over the place, we had saw machines. And our yard, we had a huge yard that we had nothing but... in those days, they were both home and business for him. And he had a number -- he had at least... there were like four or five workers, carpenters who worked for him. Like they were, I can't remember their names, but they were like family because they worked for my dad for so long.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.