Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nakano Interview (denshovh-nhenry-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

RP: So as a kid growing up, you had a few hobbies?

HN: Well, my major hobby was with my brother. We used to build model airplanes and we used to fly 'em.

RP: Were these the...

HN: Motor, gasoline driven.

RP: Oh, you did gasoline powered.

HN: Yeah, gasoline powered model airplanes.

RP: What types of planes, what kind of models?

HN: Oh, different kinds. Either the German Fokker triplane or the German Fokker biplanes and the American... which one did they have? I remember the SPAD, the British SPAD. I'm trying to think of the American plane.

KP: The Jenning or something like that...

HN: I don't remember the American.

KP: You didn't see too much action with those. These were balsa wood and paper?

HN: Yeah, Uh-huh.

KP: Lacquered paper and...

HN: Afterwards though we build B-51s, the, following war, you know. But when we were kids we built only the Germans and the English planes. American planes weren't very well --

RP: Developed yet.

HN: -- developed at that point.

RP: Where did you fly your planes?

HN: Ohm we used to go to the playgrounds and down to the schools in the summer times in the, in the fields, and fly 'em.

KP: Were they free flight planes or line control?

HN: Both. But mostly free flights. My brother didn't believe in lines. He believed more in free flights. So sometimes they'd fly a couple of miles away. We had to go chase 'em. [Laughs]

RP: [Laughs] So you did this with your brother George?

HN: Yeah.

RP: And you were also into stamp collecting, too.

HN: Yeah, we were stamp collectors, my brother and I were both stamp collectors. We did that. And also money collectors. We'd collect coins, bills, and I still have some of those today. But I've been giving 'em away to my grandchildren. 'Cause I can't take 'em with me so I gave 'em, gave away all my collections. I started a new quarter collection that are these new quarters. It just ended this year, you know. I had a whole book of 'em with, with commemorative stamps during the year with a story on each one, with the Denver and Philadelphia mints, two different quarters. And I gave that to my grandson.

RP: Do you remember the, the oldest coin that you had collected?

HN: Yeah, I had a 1905 Indian head penny. And I don't know where that is now. I don't know what happened to it. That was before the war. I don't think we were allowed to take those to camp. I must have lost it somewhere.