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TI: I think I read someplace where he also had, like, rental units close by, where you lived?

JN: Yeah, when we were in Waialae, as I said, it was all leased. So he leased a whole area, the whole area being, I'm not sure. But it covered, on Waialae, on those days, it was Oili Road and Waialae. And Waialae had commercial properties, he built commercial properties. There was a store, I remember the barber shop because that's where we went to a barber. And then there was a bakery, and that's one of our neighbors. And then there were a bunch of rental units he built. One of 'em was two stories, I know, There must have been at least eight to ten rental units in the area. Then he had, in the middle of that area, he had this big white house, and we were in the big, white house. And we were the Nakanos and everybody knew who we were. And I remember we had this big living room. But you know, it was big, but we had eleven, eight... two, four... seven.

TI: Yeah, seven, you had seven kids.

JN: So there were eleven people living in there. And big as it was, we had one, two, three, four or five bedrooms. But my parents took one, I slept with them. My sisters took one and my grandparents took the other, and the rest of the kids had to sleep in one room. [Laughs] But I remember the big living room we had. The thing I remember most was this huge, long table he built that was our, that we had dinner on. And I guess lunch, too, but everybody had to report in, that included me. We may be out playing, but then the call would go out to say lunch or dinner, and we were out in the neighborhood playing. And then it was like, "Come on home, time to eat," da-da-da. And we'd be all running home and everything. There'd be eleven of us sitting on that table. And I can't imagine the noise on it, but they were strict. My dad enforced strict rules about eating and not making noise. But my brother tells me stories about him dropping food on me and that kind of stuff just to get me going. There's all kinds of stories they told me, I don't recall, though. But all I recall is that table, and my basic position was right next to my mother because she fed me, I guess. But everybody else had to line up in the table.

TI: And who would do all the cooking for all eleven every meal?

JN: My mother and my grandmother. They did all the cooking for, three times a day, I guess, and they had to wash. And they cooked rice -- we had a special, he built a special building in the back that was made to cook rice. It was a rice cooking place. And so they would go outside, and wood, they used wood as heat to make the, to make the rice. So I remember outside they had this rice cooker kind of thing. So all the rice was cooked out there.

TI: You mentioned some of the carpenters were like family. Did they join you sometimes for meals?

JN: Sometimes, yeah. And then my dad, in this big living room we had, they'd move all the furniture and then they'd put down tables. And, of course, everybody would sit on the floor, but they would have parties all the time. My dad had parties for... I'm not sure who or what occasion, but there were a number of parties there. I'm not sure who did the cooking for that, though, to be honest, because there were a lot of people there. And who took care of the cleaning and everything, I have no idea. But I remember a lot of big parties in that living room.

TI: Describe one of those parties. I mean, I realize you were young, but you probably watched everything and, like can you get a sense of, was it mostly men or were there women there? Was there music? What can you remember?

JN: Most, well, for one thing, we weren't invited, so we were sneaking from the bedroom looking in, kind of thing. Mostly men, I think, is my recollection. I don't recall too many women at all, if any. I seem to recall even my mother and my grandmother going around serving. But there must have been other people serving because there were a lot of people. I don't recall, I don't recall the singing or the noise or anything, but I remember looking in. I just don't recall the specifics of the parties. But they were fun, we had fun watching.

TI: It would just, like, go late into the night? It would just happen, or during the day?

JN: It seemed like most of it was at night -- during the day, it seems like. I don't recall lights going on or off. I'm guessing that it was during the day.

TI: It sounds like an interesting, fun, colorful life during that time.

JN: Yeah, my dad was a colorful guy, I think, basically. As I said, while he was alive, I was always critical of him. It was afterwards...

TI: And your criticism came from, because you thought... where did that criticism come from? What was it about?

JN: My guess is, I looked at him through my mother's eyes, and he was not, he was a playboy, he wouldn't come home. One time, I seem to recall looking out the window and seeing him coming into the house drunk. They would, the contractors in those days were the, they were notorious for having parties at... what do you call those Japanese teahouses? But anyway, they would have -- there's one particularly in Honolulu at that time, I don't think it exists anymore. But he would have parties there, too, and he would go to parties or put parties together. And I remember him coming home once, I remember looking out the bedroom window, him coming home, and he's bringing in one of those women who work there, he was trying to bring her into the house. And I remember being upset because of my mother. But I remember... and I remember him coming home, and as I said, I used to sleep in their room. And he would come home drunk, and my mother would be yelling, screaming, and hitting him with something or the other. And he would duck under the futon and just hide and go to sleep kind of a thing. So yeah, that's the kind of, that's how I looked at him, that he was very, yeah, he was irresponsible kind of a guy. But he knew how to make money. Money he brought in, but as a father he was something less than model of a father.

TI: You described earlier how at meals, everyone had to be there and do this. Was that from your mother or your father that you would all sit together and have those things?

JN: I don't know, I don't know. But it was nice.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.