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FK: Some people call you Jerry, some people call you Joe. How did you end up with the name Joe?

GN: How did I get the name "Joe"?

FK: Yeah.

GN: Well, my folks, my folks had a barber shop in Winslow in 1920, and I was born in 1923. When I was about five, I hung around the barber shop a lot. And one of the customers came in, he tapped me on the head and says, "Well, gosh," he says, "you got a little dip in your head." And them days, the comic strip "Joe Palooka" was popular, and there was a character in there named Nobby, bald-headed and he had a dip in his head. So ever since then, they started calling me Joe. That's how I got my nickname Joe. And also, grade school and high school, all my classmates called me Joe. Some of 'em still call me Joe.

FK: You said you were born in 1923. Where were you born?

GN: Right in Winslow, right where the barber shop was.

FK: And barber shop was where?

GN: Well, the building my brother built in 1940 is still there. It's a gift shop now. That location is where I was born.

FK: What can you tell me about your mother and father?

GN: My father, mother and father? They just worked hard.

[Interruption]

FK: What can you tell me about your mother and dad, like where they were from and when they came to the island and things like that?

GN: I think my dad came over in 1900, and he was called back into service in the Russian War in 1904. And it was over in 1906, and he went to Japan, married my mother, and they came to the United States in 1906. And my oldest brother, John, was born right here on the island in 1907. When I was a kid, I can remember how my folks worked hard, no vacations. That was, that was their culture. And I don't know how they started the barber shop in 1920 without any formal education. And money-wise, I don't know. Of course, I was, I was so young then. As far as the family, family operation, I didn't... 'cause I was number eight out of nine kids and I didn't have the responsibilities that my oldest brother had. But til this day, I don't know how my folks ever got started. But they did well, and most of the, most of the customers were, I would say, 99 percent Caucasians.

FK: So did they come straight to Bainbridge Island from Japan?

GN: No, they were in Seattle. And then they wanted hand labor help in Port Blakely Mill, so that's why they came over. That closed down in 1920, yeah, that's, I think that's when it burned down.

FK: So what year did they come over to the island, about?

GN: What year?

FK: Yeah, from Seattle.

GN: Well, my brother was born in 1907 on the island, so I would say around then.

FK: Okay. So where did they live at that time? Did they live at the mill then?

GN: At the mill, I think, I think. I'm not sure, I don't know.

FK: So how did they end up with the property that the family owns now?

GN: Oh, the farm?

FK: Uh-huh.

GN: [Coughs] Excuse me. The story goes, the Sumiyoshi family -- this was 1920s, early 1920s -- and my folks bought it from them. Of course, John was not old enough to... he was an American citizen, but I think you had to be eighteen to sign papers, and I think he, what I hear, Yone Nakao, he was four years older than John, so he signed the papers.

FK: Okay.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.