Densho Digital Archive - John Nakada Interview (denshovh-njohn-01-0005)

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RP: In 1924 your mother and father decided to move back to Okinawa. Do you know why?

JN: Well, I guess my father made enough money so wanted to retire in Japan and so that's why they moved back. And that's when they changed to Christianity.

RP: And do you know why they chose to become Christians? Were they originally Buddhist?

JN: They were Buddhists there and I guess when they were in America here they joined a church that's called a Japanese Holiness Church and it was Christian and so they became Christians then. And then when they went back to Japan and so all the way up to five children they all had Japanese first names. And another reason when they went back to Japan my mother tried to convert the Japanese to Christianity and they wouldn't accept it, see. And then all the kids, they were Japanese and they looked Japanese but they didn't speak the native languages like the Japanese did so the kids in Japan had prejudice against them and they had fights and everything. And says, "Oh, you're not Japanese, you're American, you can't speak Japanese the way you're supposed to," and all this and they got into fights and this kind of stuff. And I still remember my oldest brother, he was like (six or seven) years old then and he said, oh, I hated Okinawa because I had to get in fights and they didn't like me and all this kind of business.

RP: So that worked into the decision to come back to America?

JN: No, two reasons I think they told me that my mother got pregnant and she wanted all the children to be born in America and second, the kids couldn't get along with the kids there in school. And third, she wanted all the kids to be born in America and so my father went along with it and it's kind of the way it was.

RP: 1924 is a very important year in Japanese American history because 1924 is when that immigration act was passed that kind of shut the door to any additional immigration of Japanese into America. So it sounds like they got in just before that door closed.

JN: Yeah, I think so.

RP: Because you know, whenever you see that date, that's it, you know, a lot of people came back to America from Japan.

JN: I don't know any part of that history but I know this is what happened to them. They came back and had the rest of the family, total of twelve. [Laughs]