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BN: I'm going to kind of shift subjects for a minute. This may not lead anywhere, but there's this famous photo of you with, I think it's a health fair, carrying the older man. I actually bought that poster, I actually had that hanging on a wall. What's the story behind that?

NN: That was Mr. Nishioka, Nishioka-san, and he was part of the... he was, I guess, a member of the Issei Welfare Rights organization at the JACS office. And Nishioka-san lived out in Boyle Heights, and he had, I guess it was like arthritis of the knees and the hips, where he had a very difficult time walking. And he needed, he had no transportation, and I think public transportation was really hard because his steps were, you can't see my feet right now, but they were taking maybe like five-inch steps. So it was real laborious, and he was, like Isseis look, because of their life, the life that they lived, they looked a lot older than they were. So Mr. Nishioka must have been in his eighties or so, but I ain't even in my prime then, I'm a young stud, right? So he was like a grandpa to me. So I was asked one day by Carol Hatanaka who was working with Reverend Sayama in the Issei Welfare Rights. She was asking me, because I'm working on the floor above at the JACS office, saying, "Nick, would you take one of our members shopping?" Because he shopped at Grand Central Market but he has no transportation. So I said, "Sure." I go to his tenement in Boyle Heights, he lived in an apartment, and I guess the story is that I go to his apartment and I knock, and then he has one of those peep-throughs looking through, and I introduced myself, and, "I'm here to take you shopping?" And he was educated, I think he graduated in the university. So he was educated, so he said, "Just a minute." So when he came out very plainly dressed in a plaid shirt, plaid flannel shirt with, kind of like an old sweater. And he started walking down the hall, and I couldn't follow him, he's walking so slow, so I'm kind of stepping slowly in front of him But we got out to the front, he got to maneuver down some steps to get to my car. And I could tell that he's struggling, so I'm thinking he's asking me, "You want me to carry you?" And he responded, "Oh, thank you." He was real light. So I carried him and put him in the car, and then went to Grand Central Market. Same thing when he got out the car, we had to walk in. "I don't mind, want me to carry you?" "Oh, okay." So we went shopping, and same thing, brought him back. And when we drive back, I think we start talking. So I'm asking him some questions, and I was learning a lot. I even asked him about, might have asked him about, questions about camp and stuff. But he was kind of telling me about how kids used to throw rocks at him and the white kids would call him out of his name and stuff. But the whole time, it's kind of amazing, because I never detected any kind of anger or resentment. I mean, it's kind of like, damn, wish I could be like that. So when I got him back, I says, "You want me to help you take the stuff?" and he said, "No, that's okay," thanked me. So I asked him, "Do you want me to take you, get you next week?" "Okay." So that became a routine. So we developed a relationship.

So I got to know Nishioka-san pretty well, and I think I didn't see him for a few weeks. And I think... no, no, no. What happened was that they had this street fair, and it was put on by Miya Iwataki's committee, the medical committee at the JACS office, and they got all these organizations and young Sansei professionals to set up booths on Weller Street Court. They closed it off for the Isseis to give 'em advice, x-rays, passing out things that they could use. And one of the stations there was a TB clinic. So I picked up Nishioka-san to take him there, and to do the TB test. There were steps, I had to carry him up the steps, and someone took a picture of that, so that's me and Nishioka-san. And the thing is, when he had his test results, it turned out that he had TB. So he was taken to Keiro. And this is when we had Keiro, so we had a hospital so he was at Keiro, and when he was in Keiro, when I saw him, I went there to see him, he's bedridden now, and he asked me if I could go to his apartment and get his radio, his reading material, and he gave me the key. So I went to get it, so when I went into his apartment, it was like a single, one room, I think he had a toilet, but he had one of them beds that you push up against the wall, it comes down, but the bed was down. And I found his radio and I found the books, and then on the bed that was down, that it was made, but underneath the sheet and the blanket, that you give some space and there was a pillow right there, that there were some doll figures. I think there were three, like a little Barbie-sized doll and two little ones on the pillow. And I'm just, what's going on, right? Then anyway, I took back his reading and his listening materials, so the next time I saw Carol at the JACS office, I just kind of mentioned that to her. So I got his stuff, but you know, I saw these dolls and stuff, it was kind of different. So she started almost tearing up, and she kind of explained to me about how when they came, Isseis, they had miscegeny laws, you couldn't marry outside your race kind of thing. So that was basically his family.

BN: Yeah, I remember seeing that poster and just being... because they made it into a poster. Something about it just really captured something that was very powerful. Thanks for sharing that story. During this period also, when you had the first Manzanar pilgrimage, the beginnings of a greater consciousness about camp that leads eventually to the whole redress movement, I'm wondering if that had any impact on you in this time period? Or even later as redress becomes a bigger thing?

NN: It was very important to my parents. And you know, my parents, they didn't participate in the redress testimonies or anything, but they needed that congressional, presidential apology, and I think they framed that letter, and I think that was probably like, to them, more important than the money. But I think they actually went to Japan, they both took a trip to Japan with the redress money. For myself, during that time that I went yearly to the Manzanar pilgrimages, and that was before they became what they are, before what they are right now. But there were so many different weather conditions, I mean, freezing, the wind blowing, nice hot day. It was always on the same day of the month, it was always like opening day of trout season. So we camp out, and as years went by, we used to always take the Yellow Brotherhood membership out there for the pilgrimage, and then we'd camp out, and then it was really good, like a firsthand education. Because I mean otherwise they would have known nothing about the concentration camps and hardships, different ordeals.

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