<Begin Segment 21>

[This transcript has been extensively edited by the narrator.]

SY: And in the meantime, did your mother and brother return to California?

GN: Well, my mother and brother returned, and my mother bought an old '37 Ford, she and my Uncle Peter (drove).

[Interruption]

GN: The Hirasakis had come and there were some other families there. One family had a daughter who had volunteered to be a nurse. She'd gone to University of Minnesota and she left her ice skates. They fit me, so they brought them over for me to wear. And I remember the bull got out of the pen and (charged) my brother and (me). (We) city kids didn't know what to do. So in our ice skates and all, we climbed up to the corn crib and we jumped into the corn crib. The bull crashed the corn crib, but didn't hurt us because it was a pretty well-built corn crib, and we survived. We were not meant to be farmers, and neither were any of my relatives meant to be farmers. Especially not dairymen. They had a dairy and they (also) grew sugar beets.

SY: So your uncle became ill.

GN: He got undulant fever from the (infected) dairy (cows) so he came back with my mother to go to General Hospital (in Los Angeles) where they could really give him the kind of the treatment he needed. There was no place around (Grand Junction) that could treat him.

SY: So they resettled in Los Angeles.

GN: So they drove back.

SY: And your brother stayed with your mother?

GN: Yes, and they moved back into the house that my grandfather built in Highland Park that we had lived in before we were evacuated.

SY: And did your brother end up going to college as well?

GN: My brother went to PCC, (Pasadena City College). After school he worked at City Ford parts department.

SY: So he really started working and designing?

GN: At City Ford he knew all the car parts. He was building hot rods, and I'll show you pictures of the hot rods. He was drag racing hot rods. Ron Kusumi tells it really well. He knows all the details about the cars and he's been my brother's friend for a long, long time.

SY: So he started really just designing these things that he built himself?

GN: Yes, he designed cars himself and he had figured out the drag on it. He's very observant and he has a very good memory. We ate a lot of fish, and he used to catch fish. As I said, we had this little goldfish business, we got five cents for the goldfish. He knew how fish are designed, and there's a term for it. But he watched all these animals and the design of the stingray (shark). You go look at a stingray shark, and you can see how the gills are, and he designed the car, getting the idea from the stingray, (which became the Stingray Corvette).

SY: The aerodynamic.

GN: Yes, the aerodynamics. He's designed the Goodyear blimp, anything that moves. Anything that's innovative. I have a whole bunch of books that I was going to show you (telling) when my brother has been the first (to design many innovative cars). He designed the first SUV and the first Jeep Grand Cherokee, and another man took the credit for it all these years. Then he designed ski clothing. He designed skis, ski mobiles, (and) furniture, too. He designed office files, very innovative. And our own three kids, they had a lot of commercial toys, but we didn't buy them a lot of stuff. They could see potential in any kind of refuse that we had. That's why our house is just full of junk, because all of us could see potential. You could do this and this, I could use this for this and this (for tha). I could recycle this.

SY: So while you were in school at University of Redlands, your mother and brother lived in Highland Park.

GN: Yes, and my mother got a job. She worked for a Christmas tree company.

SY: So did they have a hard time getting back?

GN: No, because they were all of our old neighbors that were very indignant that (we forcibly) had to go away. They were all still there.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.