Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nakano Interview (denshovh-nhenry-01-0029)

<Begin Segment 29>

RP: Your, you said that your dad died in 1946?

HN: Yes.

RP: So it was shortly after...

HN: After getting out of camp, right.

RP: Gettin' out of camp.

HN: Right.

RP: Can you share with us the circumstances that were surrounding his passing?

HN: Well, he just, he had high blood pressure. And after he got out of camp, he barely started to work and then he had a heart attack. 'Cause he got out in something like November? October? September, October, November or something like that. Then he settled in east L.A. 'cause had a lot of friends still there, lived there.

RP: What did he start doing for, for work?

HN: Well, he actually didn't work. You know, he couldn't find work and didn't work. But... my youngest sister was, went to Roosevelt High School. And my mother worked just as a house maid, cleaning house and washing clothes to earn a little bit of money. But my dad couldn't work, he had high blood pressure. Then he had a heart attack and he died within a few months of getting out of camp.

RP: Was he being treated at all during the time --

HN: In camp?

RP: -- he was in camp?

HN: No, not at all. Not that I know of that I can remember, no.

RP: Yeah. How about your brother, George, was he --

HN: He could.

RP: -- was he drafted?

HN: Oh, no. He got married in camp, and he moved to Cleveland, right from camp, before the war was over. He relocated to Cleveland, Ohio.

RP: And did he ever serve --

HN: And the draft never caught up to him.

RP: Oh. Who did he marry in camp?

HN: Toki Yamahiro, who worked in the hospital. Yeah, he met her there.

RP: And they, they relocated to Cleveland. Did they return to California eventually?

HN: They returned to California, back in what, '47 I think it was, yeah. '47. He started a flower shop right down in Japanese town, called Nisei Florists. So he did floral arranging and floral business until he passed away. He was involved in that business.

RP: And your younger sister, you said she re-attended Roosevelt High and then --

HN: Yeah.

RP: -- what did she go on to do?

HN: Oh she ended up working at a department store and then she got married and had eight kids, no, nine kids, one passed away... my youngest sister.

RP: And your other brother?

HN: What's that?

RP: You had, you just had one other brother, was it?

HN: One brother, yes. And he, he had four kids, two girls and two boys. And I got married and I forget what year, what year it was now. [Laughs] Well, whatever it was, I had two step-daughters. My wife had two daughters from... and I had adopted 'em and I had one son. And so now I have seven grandchildren. So...