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BN: Okay, so it's May 9, 2023. I get the day right, I often get the year wrong. And we're at the home of Nick Nagatani in Culver City. My name is Brian Niiya and I'll be doing the interview, and Yuka -- I forgot your last name, sorry -- Murakami will be doing the videography. Off to a good start. So anyway, yeah, let's start, as we often do, with your parents. So I wanted to start by asking you a bit about your dad and just what you know about his early life and taking us into his wartime camp experience.

NN: Let's see. My father, he's the third son of my paternal grandparents, Ryoichi and Ayame Nagatani.

[Interruption]

BN: Can you start with what his name was?

NN: My father's name was Lee John Shuzo Nagatani, and the reason why he has Lee John, because he was born on the birth certificate as Lee, and as a young infant, I guess he had pneumonia or some type of, like, serious birth disease or illness, and fortunately, he passed through that. And my baachan, her name was Ayame, that she said that, "Lee's not a good name," so she renamed him John. So he always was John Lee, but on his birth certificate, it's Lee. His Japanese name is Shuzo and he's the third son of my paternal grandparents Ayame and Ryoichi Nagatani. And they were sharecroppers in Central Cal. And in terms of their standard of living at the time, that I would say that they were below poverty level in the sense that the home that my father grew up in, they were sharecroppers. I guess they worked hard enough to impress one of the local growers in the current county, in the King County, like Central California area, where they gave him an area where I think it was some type of tree growth, they cleared it out to set up a home. And inside this home, there was no running water or electricity, and the outside bathing area consisted of, like, a fire pit with a big tub where they'd warm up the water. I guess my father being the last, he liked to be the last to get into the tub. But anyway, that's kind of like my dad's upbringing. He was a good athlete, in high school he was voted the outstanding athlete of his class. He was a very, very hard worker, and I think like all my uncles and my pop and my jiichan, they would pick in the summertime, whatever seasonal pickers, and I think my dad was such a good worker that I think at the age of twelve, that my baachan would tell my grandfather that, "What are doing giving him cigarettes? He's twelve years old." And my jiichan's attitude was, well, "He works like a man so he could smoke."

My grandmother, she was a mail order bride. It was arranged, and it was like one of those situations where she was unaware of how old my jiichan was, because I think he was in his thirties, and she was in her early teens, but it worked out. I never got to meet my jiichan because they were relocated, they were incarcerated in Jerome, Arkansas. And when he was in camp he had some type of, sounds like a stomach attack, appendicitis or whatever it was, and he passed in camp. I think my father, at that time, was living in Chicago because he took the, I'm going to use the word "advantage," of the program that they were releasing the prisoners to contribute to the American war workforce. So as long as you have a sponsor and you have to work back east, so he found employment back east, so he went back to his father's service at that time. When finally, my parents didn't talk too much about their camp experience, which is not unusual for Niseis to talk about it to our generation, but when I was able to talk to him about certain things, I asked him, "Do you think your dad would have, didn't have to die, if he had adequate medical attention, service?" And he said, "Yes." So anyway, my father met my mom --

BN: Before we get there, I want to just go back a little bit. What high school did he graduate from?

NN: He graduated from Hanford High School.

BN: His two older brothers as well?

NN: Yes.

BN: Then what happened to them in camp? Did they also leave early?

NN: You know, they stayed with the family, and my uncle Ray is the middle son, and my uncle Roy, who's like the chonan, that they stayed with the family. I think my pop was the only one that went back east to work.

BN: Then what happened to the family home or farm after they went to camp?

NN: Well, they really didn't own anything.

BN: Right, sure.

NN: Yeah, they didn't own anything, but after camp, they went back to the same area and they settled in Hanford, California, and it was my baachan, I think the street was something like Ninth Ave or so, and it's more built up now where it's like of like a town city. But back in the '50s or the '40s when they were settled, I'd say it was more like a five light, stoplight kind of little town. And my grandmother lived on Ninth Ave and my uncle Roy lived right next to her, and my uncle Ray lived across the street. So they were still like a family unit.

BN: And then they farmed also after the war?

NN: No, no. My uncle Roy, the oldest son, became a butcher, and my uncle Ray, he eventually opened up like Ace Motors, like a little car shop, motor repair thing.

BN: And I know we'll come back to them in a little bit, because you stay with them later, right? But we'll get to that. One other thing I wanted to ask about your dad is, I thought was interesting, you may not even know this, but when people, when the Japanese Americans first went to camp, there was a census form called Form 26 that they had to fill out. It was largely for occupational purposes, but for your dad, it listed as potential occupations, athlete, sports instructors and sports officials, and secondly musicians and teachers and music. So you talked a little bit about him being an athlete, but was he also coaching or doing any of that, and then I was also curious about the music thing.

NN: [Laughs] That's new to me. I heard him whistle a couple times. I don't think he played an instrument.

BN: Interesting.

NN: But he liked to listen to music. I mean, he had, I think at that the time, he had a collection of Herb Alpert, the trumpet...

BN: Yeah, right.

NN: And I didn't know about athlete instructor like a coach. I actually thought it was something like carpentry. That's good to know.

BN: He must have told them he could do those things.

NN: But you know what, he would have been, in my opinion, a lousy coach. Because he was a perfectionist, and I guess because of his upbringing, he would expect you to be focused and locked in, and most of us aren't that way. Of course the few times he tried to coach me, it didn't work out well. [Laughs]

BN: We will get to that later, too, as, of course, you became a coach.

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