Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: James Nishimura Interview
Narrator: James Nishimura
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: November 7, 2007
Densho ID: denshovh-njames-01-0015

<Begin Segment 15>

RP: So in discussing your relocation, did the entire family leave as a unit for Philadelphia?

JN: No, I went with Father Kitagawa first and that was in, I think, in April or whatever it was. And the following September, my parents and the rest of the three children came.

RP: What was it like traveling out of camp to a place you had never been before, Philadelphia? At least you were with the reverend, you're not traveling alone.

JN: Oh no, yes, it was fun.

RP: Another adventure?

JN: Yeah, it was a good adventure. Went by train. We stopped, I remember, in Chicago where there was a large Japanese community from St. Peters, our church in Seattle. We were well-received there, and had dinners with the Taharas and the Ishibashis, and the Kaseguma family was there. Well, they were in Wisconsin, but I remember one of the daughters must have been there. So it was very festive if you will. Then we continued on to Philadelphia. And in Philadelphia I lived with the Tamura family -- well, it was the Collins family. Arthur Collins was a big industrialist, he was president of a steel company and he had former evacuees from Seattle, the Tamuras, man and wife and three kids living there at their house, helping as domestics, I guess. And the Collins' were good Episcopalians. They took in another Episcopalian waif... me. [Laughs] And I don't know what the arrangement was, isn't that terrible? We were sort of shuttled around, not being told what was happening, or if it was, I didn't think too much about it.

But another unbelievable event in my life happened. I always talk about events that change (one's) life dramatically. And one of the most dramatic changes in my life happened when I met the Cushmore family. They were Quakers that lived in Bucks County where the Collins' lived. The Collins' lived in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. And I hate to admit it, I was like fourteen, but I smoked. Can you imagine? That was a sophistication from Eden, Idaho. [Laughs]

RP: That's where you learned how to smoke.

JN: That's where I learned how to smoke. But anyway, I was walking to the grocery store from the Collins' house to get cigarettes, or whatever, I like to change the story and tell 'em that I was getting milk or something, and the story gets better, but I know it was cigarettes. And I'm walking back and this car stops and honks, and this lady says, "You want a ride?" I said, "Why not?" so I told her where I'm going. And I would never, of course, do such a thing today, or would I, I would caution my children and grandchildren, anybody, not to get into a stranger's... But I jumped in the car and she took me to the Collins' house. And the next day, Mrs. Cushmore, that was Mrs. Cushmore, calls up Mrs. Collins and they confirm with Mrs. Tamura that they want this little boy, this Japanese, this Oriental -- well, she knew I was Japanese by this time because I told her -- to come live with them down the street. This was in Southampton, Pennsylvania. And I obediently went down to Southampton to live with the Cushmores, and they were a Quaker family. And it was an unbelievable experience, they were just like, I became like a son. Indeed, I'm going to visit their daughter in a place called Etna, California, right after here, that's where we're going. And they became very much a part of my life, and they took me in as a family member. I swear, it's like a second family to me. And very influential. Well, anyway...

RP: Then your family...

JN: Oh, and then in September, my family came.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.