Densho Digital Archive - George Kikuta Interview (denshovh-kgeorge

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RP: This is a continuing interview with George Kikuta. And George, we were talking about your return to the United States and resettling in the Boyle Heights area. Were there other community organizations base around church or whatever that your family established connections with in the Boyle Heights or Little Tokyo area?

GK: Uh-huh.

RP: Tell us about that.

GK: Yes, my parents are from Fukushima area, and they have quite a few families from Fukushima area settled in this area. So they have a Fukushima kenjinkai, the prefecture, they have summer picnic, they get together and all that, events among Fukushima people. So that's the family thing, but us kids, we were looking for girls. [Interruption] So my friend said, "Hey, let's go to Christian church in Little Tokyo to look for girls. So Little Tokyo was a focal point for many Japanese, particularly those who recently arrived. [Interruption] Back then, they used to call people like us from Japan "FOBs," "Fresh Off the Boat." [Laughs] So we FOBs got basically, used Little Tokyo as a hangout place. They had food, they had books, and they used to have two movie theaters. So they had a lot to do there. And I had my part-time job there to do dishwashing at that time while I was going to college. So that place was spent, other than my own home, I spent most of my time there. And they had a Christian church called Union Church, still there. And had both English and Japanese services, so we went to Japanese service section, and that's where I met my wife.

RP: You did?

GK: And so it worked out pretty good.

RP: Found a gal there.

GK: Right.

RP: And what was, first of all, what was her name?

GK: My wife's name? Keiko.

RP: Keiko? And what was her, can you give us a little brief sketch of her background in Japan and what brought her to the United States?

GK: You know, she had a very interesting background. The Union church's founding member was her grandfather. But she was born and raised in Japan, because her mother came here with the father when she was young, like ten years old. So she was raised here. And meantime, my wife's father was an exchange student at USC. And on the side, he was doing a newspaper reporter job. And he was interviewing my wife's mother because she was a famous singer in the community.

RP: Little Tokyo?

GK: Interviewing in Little Tokyo area. So that's how they got how we got to know. And before, I guess, when he graduated, he went back to Japan and started business. That's where my wife was born. So she was born in Japan and educated there. Came here in the early '60s to attend her, one of her sisters' weddings, and she was attending the church that was founded by her grandfather. She's a third generation Christian in Japan, which is very --

RP: That's rare.

GK: -- rare. And most other Japanese are "supposed" to be Buddhist, right? [Laughs] Okay. So I was attending church, and we got to know. Her mother got real concerned because I was not extraordinarily good student, I was spending time doing dishwashing and playing around. So she said, "Okay, we'll take Keiko back to Japan and keep you separated." So they went back, after the wedding they went back, and we communicated through letters. Back then, the telephone between U.S. and Japan was so expensive, we have to decide what time, which date, what time we would call and communicate. And we'd talk about five minutes, and pay a lot of money for that.

RP: That was your way of keeping in touch, though.

GK: Right. But...

RP: So how did you, how did you coax her back here?

GK: After, after a while, her mother wanted to live close to two other sisters here, in the United States. So reluctantly, she sold the property and moved here, so we got together.

RP: By that time you had --

GK: By the time, yeah, we were getting very close, just communicating via mail, love letters. [Laughs]

RP: And so you, where were you going to college?

GK: Where?

RP: Yeah, where did you go to college?

GK: I graduated from California State University here in Los Angeles.

RP: Los Angeles.

GK: Right. I initially started engineering, and switched to accounting. And that was a good move.

RP: I'm very intrigued about your story about Little Tokyo kind of being a bridge between Japanese and American culture for you, a place that was kind of, still be sort of entrenched in what you had left in Japan, but also an emerging Americanness in you. And so it kind of satisfied both, both those worlds that you had experienced, or were experiencing. It would be a comfortable, very safe place to be?

GK: It was very safe back then, and they, like, they had, they still have Nisei Week festivity coming up soon, in August. Back then, many people from Fresno, all the farmers up in the central valley area, they came, took entire family here, stayed at the hotel, and attended the one week event. So it's a big, big thing, and I think many neighboring Japanese Americans, on the weekend they came to Little Tokyo and did all the Japanese food shopping. So it was a very vibrant community. Now, unfortunately, it's kind of dying.

RP: A lot of condominium projects.

GK: Right. And I understand most of the new business owners, restaurants and the retail, not Japanese, maybe Koreans and Chinese, other Asian people are moving into that community, which is good. Our bank is Pacific Commerce Bank.

RP: There's a branch there?

GK: Yes, it's the headquarters. And we initially started as a Japanese American bank, now it's a pan-Asian bank. Most of the staff are all mixed, and we have CEO is American, Caucasian, we have Korean group, Chinese group, and a Japanese group, obviously. That city, that section is becoming a multiracial Asian community.