<Begin Segment 6>

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

SY: So back to Little Tokyo, so your mother was...

GN: My mother and aunt were at the YWCA, and my mother went up to that camp at Asilomar. They went to Union Church, and I have pictures of her in the Union Church (young people's) group and all the doctors and all the important people (in Little Tokyo) went to Union Church. She met and married my father at Union Church in Los Angeles. Although my grandfather built a church in the north where later on he started the world-famous (San Lorenzo) Salon brand Roses, he started that business up there. He built a church up there, too.

SY: And this is in San Jose?

GN: No, that's after the shoyu business. We left off at the shoyu business, and he went back to...

SY: Martinez.

GN: No, no, he didn't go back there. He looked for more property and he bought property. By that time he had children who were American citizens and he bought the property in their names.

SY: And where was that?

GN: San Lorenzo, (California)

SY: Oh, San Lorenzo, it's a town in Northern California.

GN: Northern California.

SY: And he started a nursery.

GN: A very successful nursery. And it was successful until they started importing flowers from South America. But that church that he built there is thriving. It's a huge megalithic church, and it has two and three services. It has all kinds of nationalities that come there, and they have a really great ministry there.

SY: So did it start as a Japanese congregation?

GN: Yes, it started as a Japanese, but now I was talking to my cousin who still goes to that church.

SY: And do you know the name of it?

GN: They called it the San Lorenzo Christian Church.

SY: And he built it, but he wasn't necessarily the minister.

GN: No, no, he built it.

SY: He built it.

GN: And they've had ministers. So then for health reasons, the climate's warmer down here, he came and (built) a house here in Southern California, and then he (built) another church in West Los Angeles, and that church is still flourishing also.

SY: And that church is called?

GN: (West Los Angeles) Holiness Church.

SY: Oh, right. And then one in West L.A. is called?

GN: That's the one called West L.A. Holiness Church.

SY: So he came down here and did the same thing (he) did in San Lorenzo?

GN: And I have the picture of the (West L.A. Church)... I have the picture of the minister, Reverend Kuzuhara, the first minister, and his poem. I have it in another (album). (Reverend Kuzuhara was there) with the church (until he died).

SY: So when they moved to Southern California, they settled in the West L.A. area.

GN: No, they settled in the area where I grew up, Highland Park (Hermon area). Because my father died when I was six and my brother was three, and my mother felt that we should live close to his parents. It was a rural area in those days. We had the hills to play in. And she just thought it would be a better environment, because she was a widow and her folks still lived in East L.A. and she wanted to get us out of that environment. We were really the only Japanese family living in (the Hermon) area.

SY: And your family then consisted of you and...

GN: My brother.

SY: So it was just the two of you.

GN: And my mother.

SY: And your mother.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.