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MN: Okay. Today is Tuesday, November 29, 2011. We are at the Centenary United Methodist Church. We're gonna be interviewing Mo Nishida. We have Ann Kaneko on the camera, and I will be interviewing, my name is Martha Nakagawa. So, Mo, let's start with your grandfather on your father's side. What prefecture is he from?

Mo N: He's from Kumamoto.

MN: Can you share with us a little bit about your paternal grandfather's background, like where did he land when he came to the U.S. and what did he do?

Mo N: Okay. Well, he was the last of three sons. He left Japan because his father had left the property that they had to his two older brothers, and so he bailed out and headed for Seattle. And he worked in Seattle as a lumberjack. Then his brother, I don't know if it was the younger brother, the brother right above him or the niisan, but one of 'em died, so he was called back from Japan and told that he had some property there. So they brought him back, and then they got him married. They stayed long enough to have three children, and he decided that he wanted to get the hell out of there and come back to the U.S. So he talked, he tried to talk his wife into coming back with him. And when he left the U.S., we're not sure if he went to Hawaii and then to Seattle, 'cause a lot of the guys in those days, right, went to Hawaii, 'cause it's easier to get to Hawaii. I think they had, still had kind of an indentured system there. Anyhow, so he came back, got married and had three kids, and then took off again and tried to talk his wife into leaving with him. Now the story she tells is that she didn't see any reason in the world why she was gonna leave Japan, the security of Japan, when they had a house and land. And she didn't think it was a good idea to leave. But he insisted that she come over and he made arrangements to have my grandmother, his wife, and my dad, the oldest son, to come over. About that time, his daughter gets sick, and my grandmother then opts out to stay in Japan to take care of her.

So my dad makes the journey by himself. And he's about fourteen, he's just finished the compulsory grades in Japan, I guess eighth grade in Japan. And yeah, the sucker crosses the Pacific all by himself which is kind a heavy duty trip. And then he comes over and he lands in Seattle, and he's supposed to be, his dad is supposed to pick him up, but something happens on the way over which also happens to be the very last boat of Japan to cross the international date line. So technically it's the last boat that you could come from Japan to the United States on.

MN: Now why, why couldn't any Japanese immigration come over after that?

Mo N: Okay, yeah. This is international stuff, right, between the United States and Asia, but the Chinese Exclusion Act that they passed in eighteen-something is rolled over to encompass the Japanese. So by 1924, they get enough support in the country to do the exclusion act that it covers all the Asian triangles and particularly aimed at the Japanese. But it also excluded Koreans, the Indians, Filipinos at that time. So, yeah, he crosses over, last boat over. In fact, when we tried to get him his citizenship, when he got his citizenship, that was one of the hard things that we had to do is track down the boat and when it crossed over and all those kind of things. So it was a little bit of a hassle, but all the information's there, so he got it. So he comes over, and for some reason, I guess a storm or something, the boat arrives a day or two late. So his father, my grandfather, is coming down from the Mt. Rainier area of, around Spokane. Not Spokane, but around Seattle, and he's a lumberjack. So you can't just up and take off, right? Especially in those days. So he comes down, he misses 'em, so he can't get back to Seattle for about another month. So my dad is stuck on, where they keep the immigrants, right? Immigrant youth. So it was like a, I guess like Angel Island in San Francisco. It was some island out there where you can't get off and you're under quarantine. So he's stuck there for about a month. He doesn't share too much, he didn't share too much with me about how it was there. I can imagine him being stuck over in a strange country, and not having, you know, supposed to meet his dad and his doesn't show up. But eventually my grandfather shows up. And they go back, he takes him to Mt. Rainier, my dad works as a lumberjack until they make connections and he becomes a houseboy in Seattle.

MN: And then from Seattle they went down to Los Angeles, right?

Mo N: Yes.

MN: Do you know why they came down to Los Angeles?

Mo N: Yeah... no, I don't. I think it was economic in the sense that the lumberjack trade probably was pretty tough. And my father, being a young man, I think, to be able to work alongside his dad, probably, didn't work out. So I think they opted out to come down south to check out the opportunities and stuff like that, and particularly I think the gardening and things like that, 'cause that's what they got into, and they worked together while my grandfather was here. And my grandfather goes back to Japan when his daughter is sick again and they're afraid she's gonna die, so he goes back. And '24, so this is probably the early '30s, right, they come down here, and then he goes back to Japan to take care of his daughter or to see his daughter before she passes.

MN: Now going back to the Seattle and then coming down to Los Angeles, your father didn't come down by land, he came down by boat, right?

Mo N: Right, right. They had a ferry... ferry or a transportation from Seattle to Los Angeles in those days. And so my dad was saying that my grandfather came ahead of him, and then he came later, he came by boat. I guess my grandfather came by train or something, went down. Maybe he went by boat, I don't recall his saying how he came down. But, yeah, he came over, down by boat, and he said he was on board with a whole bunch of Filipinos. And he said they treated him real good and they all had fun together, so it may have been that conflict arising over there in Asia, but it didn't seem to affect, at least at that time, his relationship with the Filipino brothers.

MN: And then they came down to Los Angeles and then you said they did some gardening?

Mo N: Uh-huh.

MN: Who were your father and grandfather's clients?

Mo N: Well, I think the main guy that they worked for was... I can't remember the name. I remember we had this trouble the last time, too. But...

MN: But were they hakujin?

Mo N: No, they were Japanese. This guy was the richest Buddhahead in L.A. at that time. Was one of the richest. In fact, he owned the Taul Building in First Street here before the war. And, yeah, he was a high roller. He had a couple daughters and a son, and two, I think the girls were some of the first college graduates here, I think they graduated from UCLA. Yeah, and then the son I guess was pretty young. But in those days, if you picked up a tax bill, then it got passed on to your kid. It didn't die with you if you passed away. So the son got stuck with that bill, so he could never go into business himself or else they would have took everything away from him. I don't know why I can't remember that name.

MN: I know, we did have that problem, and I should have looked it up. Because I think I know who you're talking about. It wasn't the Kusayanagis?

Mo N: No.

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