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MN: -- September 20, 2011, we are at the Centenary United Methodist Church. We will be interviewing Takeshi Nakayama. Tani Ikeda is on the video and I will be interviewing, I'm Martha Nakagawa. So, Tak, what prefecture was your father from?

TN: Wakayama-ken.

MN: So did your father live on Terminal Island like a lot of the Wakayama-ken people?

TN: I don't know. I don't think so. But my grandfather did, and my father's older brother, I think they lived on Terminal Island while they were working on the fishing boats.

MN: So what happened to them while they were working on the fishing boat?

TN: They died. They got killed in a fishing boat accident of some kind, I don't know. Explosion or something, or maybe it just sank.

MN: So then what happened to your father?

TN: So he went to work as a schoolboy for some rich white Americans in L.A. in the Wilshire area. That's just like a houseboy and stuff like that while he went to junior high and high school.

MN: So your father got a high school education, so he was very bilingual.

TN: Yeah, I guess so. Went to junior high and high school in L.A.

MN: Which high school did he graduate from?

TN: Poly High School. It used be in downtown L.A. Polytechnic High School.

MN: So after your father graduated from Polytechnic, what did he do?

TN: I guess he was working for an import/export company called Saji. I'm not sure when he went there, though. I think he went back to Japan for a while. I don't know how many times, once or twice.

MN: He must have doing pretty well, though, if he could go back to Japan once or twice.

TN: I don't know. Enough to go back there, maybe.

MN: Did he get married?

TN: Yeah, he got married in Japan.

MN: So where was your mother born?

TN: She was born in Kyoto but grew up in Wakayama-ken, same village as my father, Wabuka, which is now a part of the city of Kushimoto.

MN: And so when your parents came back, what kind of visa did they come back on?

TN: I think it was a merchant's visa.

MN: So after your father returned on this merchant's visa, did he continue working at Saji?

TN: Yeah.

MN: And Saji, where was that located? Was it in Little Tokyo?

TN: It was just outside Little Tokyo, I think. I'm not sure how far Little Tokyo went in those days. But the store was on Los Angeles Street around Fourth.

MN: So when your mother came over, did she have to work also?

TN: No. They came over together.

MN: And I guess shortly after your mother started to have kids?

TN: Yeah. I was made in Japan and born in L.A.

MN: So where are you? How many children did your parents have all together?

TN: Seven.

MN: And where are you on the hierarchy of the siblings?

TN: Number one.

MN: So once your parents got married, I guess, on the boat here, that's where you were made?

TN: In Japan.

MN: In Japan, really? Okay.

TN: Yeah, that's what they say. "Made in Japan, quality goods." [Laughs]

MN: What year were you born?

TN: 1937.

MN: And where were you born?

TN: Los Angeles. A Japanese hospital in Boyle Heights.

MN: So were all your younger siblings born at the Japanese hospital in Boyle Heights?

TN: No, my three sisters were born in Arkansas, at the concentration camp at Rohwer.

MN: So when you were born, what part of Los Angeles were your family living in?

TN: Around the Pico-Union area. I'm not sure what street or anything... oh, Union Avenue.

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