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-01-0002

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RP: Let's talk a little bit about your dad. Can you give us his name?

JN: My father was Jinjiro Nishimura. He was born in 1893, as we try to ascertain his, from his documents. He came when he was fourteen to this country. It's strange how he came, it's really another story that you might not wish me to relate right now, but, well, maybe I should relate it. He was the oldest of three children in Japan, in Shiga-ken, Japan. And my father was not a farmer, it was an agricultural community, we've been back several times, my wife and I. And I say "back," I mean, we visited Japan several times. And they were not farmers but they were like the millers of the community, they took in the rice, and whatever they did with it. And he went into debt, however a merchant can go into debt. And he lost not only his business, his house, everything. As the owner of his house and in the tradition of the Japanese, I believe, to lose a house is tragic because he had nothing to give to my father, his first-born son. So he came to this country before the turn of the century, as many did, I'm sure (to) make money here and go home and reclaim what he had lost. Never happened. He was here about six or seven years as I understand, when my grandmother told my father, age fourteen, who they corresponded with of course, because my grandfather apparently sent money back to the house to his wife and the family that survived for their sustenance. But anyway, my grandmother told my father to (go) and tell him to come home, which he did. [Laughs] And he found him here.

RP: Your grandfather settled here in a farming situation?

JN: No, it's fascinating, you know, it's almost, when I start reading history of the Japanese Americans or the Issei, it's almost sinister. They... I found that the employer, the employment in this country, not, wasn't as harsh as I'm sure it was in Hawaii, but the mining industry and the forest industry hired huge numbers of Japanese Isseis and they went to labor markets... what do you call these? Labor brokers, if you will, and they contracted for three hundred or a thousand men to come to work for their ranch. And they came here, and they lived in camps-like, I mean, they had their housing, and I can't imagine what they must have lived on, the conditions they lived under, but it wasn't, I'm sure it must have been very harsh. But anyway, the company also had what we would call today, the company store. And my father has told me, as he was explaining to us, that my grandfather was like a bookkeeper. And he kept track of all the monies that these workers owed the company that ran these stores or whatever. [Laughs] And I'm sure it must have been tragic. There must be stories about it -- that must be another story of immigration, and I'm sure it's not unique to the Japanese immigration, it must be all ethnic groups was really exploited by whoever brought them here. But that was my grandfather's project here.

RP: Your father came to the United States, your grandfather returned to Japan.

JN: Yes.

RP: And what did your father, did he settle in the Washington, Seattle area?

JN: Yes, he had a fascinating experience. He was fourteen as I said. That brings on... we're Protestants, we're Anglicans, and I often wonder why would my father become an Anglican. And there should be a great story behind that as to why Japanese who have a religion of their own, and a very established and formalized religion, and something that's been there for centuries, why they would convert to Christianity. And I thought in my father's case, as was probably true with many other Isseis, it was probably because it made economic sense to be able to learn the language. I bet he understood that there was a correlation between his ability to speak English and get good employment, other than hacking away at a tree or digging in the coal mines or wherever these people were. And he probably thought working with a family was a way to (...) learn English. And he worked as a domestic, as a houseboy, as I understand. And he was taken in by this family, and he became Christian amongst other things. And my father, as I understand -- well, we have pictures to document some of the things that he led as a young man. I mean, he didn't get married until he was thirty-five or thirty-six. So he lived all those years as a gay bachelor in Seattle. [Laughs] He played a saxophone, he played in a band, a marching band. I mean, it was, it's an incredible story. He also went to school, Broadway High School, so he got some sort of English education. He could read and write the language and of course he was fourteen so I'm sure he was able to learn very, relatively simply. But anyway, that's my dad's side of the story. And I wish I had interviewed him more, as you are, as you are doing me.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.