Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nishi Interview I (denshovh-nhenry

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HN: 'Course, Dad wasn't around when we, actually were relocated because he was interned the night the war broke out.

RP: Can you tell us a little bit about that?

HN: Well...

RP: That night.

HN: That night, yeah, that he was, he was taken... I guess the FBI officers just rounded these people up and were, were interned or whatever you want to call it.

RP: Were you there when they showed up?

HN: Yeah, yeah.

RP: What was that like?

HN: Well, it was, I mean, it was, it wasn't something like they were, I mean, they were not mean or... they were just doing something, a job that they had to do and were very polite. It was just carried out very, like it should have been. I mean, you know, it was nothing... of course, it was a very unpleasant situation, but that's something that had to be carried out. And the people that, the officers that came by, they were very polite. They just explained what had to be done, and...

RP: Do you have any thoughts about why your father was picked up? Was it because of his connections with the Buddhist church or did he have other connections with Japanese associations?

HN: The, Dad was involved in a lot of... he had the Nurseryman's, Japanese Nurseryman's Association, the Buddhist church, the Chamber of, Japanese Chamber of Commerce. And a lot of times, you know, he was, he was president of some of these associations. The terms were maybe one or two years, but at some, at one point I think he was president of the Japanese Nurseryman's Association at one time. I think he was, I think he also had, had to do something with, with the Japanese schools, probably as a member because we were students there. And so these were all people that, they were suspected because of their, they were known as, as the leaders of different organizations.

RP: Where was he sent to?

HN: What's that?

RP: Where was did he go to?

HN: The prison in Terminal Island.

RP: And then was he transferred from there to another camp?

HN: Fort Missoula, Montana. But he was released because... well, one of the reasons why he, he was released fairly early because he did have a lot of, lot of friends that, that vouched for him. And these were prominent people. Especially the people that were, people from Veteran's Administration. The, the head of the administration here in west L.A., I think his name was, was Colonel Brigham. And there was a captain, well, there was a captain, major, there was... I can't remember the names of them, but they all, they all wrote letters saying that, that they would vouch for our dad. So I think it really helped a lot that he was released fairly early, back to Manzanar.

RP: So with your father gone, did your mom have to assume responsibilities for... or did you take responsibility for...

HN: Well, my mom, myself, my older sister...

RP: Specifically the nursery, what...

HN: Yeah.

RP: How did you come to the decision to...

HN: We asked, well, we, I mean, we had, I guess it was at that time it was like almost 20 acres of nursery stock. It was pretty hard to dispose of all of a sudden. So we had, we went to the Veterans Administration... "We're just gonna leave it, would you take it over? We'll donate it to you." And they said, "Yeah, we'll be glad to accept it." So actually it turned out as a donation to the Veteran's Administration, nursery stock.

RP: Are there still, are there trees out there today that are, were...

HN: Yeah, some of the trees that, the natural trees that were used for landscaping that... when you come off the 405 on the off-ramp to Wilshire Boulevard going west, that whole area right there was where our nursery was. So the island surrounding that particular interchange, the trees that were there were trees that were left from, from the nursery.

RP: Did your father, even though he was in Missoula, did he have any say in the decision to dispose of the...

HN: No.

RP: It was between...

HN: No, we just, we just, yeah, no, we, we had to just, we had to decide what to do.

RP: Pretty soon, too.

HN: Yeah. Yeah. We had to decide what to do.