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

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RP: Henry, you returned back to west Los Angeles after Japan?

HN: Yeah.

RP: And you mentioned earlier, you know, that your dad's house was still there to move back into.

HN: They were living in it, yeah.

RP: Uh-huh. And what was your dad doing after he came out of camp? Did he start a nursery again or...

HN: He started, as more as a hobby, he was raising bonsais. And it kind of turned into a little business where he actually sold some. And then he did some landscaping, too.

RP: And where did you settle?

HN: When I came back, I went to work for a nursery as a salesman.

RP: Which nursery?

HN: What's that?

RP: Which nursery?

HN: Frank's Nursery.

RP: Frank's. And that was, was that on Wiltshire?

HN: Yeah. It's on Wiltshire.

RP: Uh-huh. Is it still around?

HN: It's now Armstrong.

RP: Oh, is it Armstrong?

HN: Yeah.

RP: Is it the one on Wiltshire and...

HN: Centinela.

RP: Centinela.

HN: Yeah.

RP: Okay. How long did you work for them?

HN: I worked there about five years.

RP: Uh-huh.

HN: We did a real good... well, they had the flower business and the nursery. It was a big nursery. Frank's Nursery was from Oakland. They had a big nursery in Oakland. And they opened up this nursery here, which Mr. Goka bought. I worked with Mr. Goka for about five years.

RP: So did you experience any difficulties in resettling yourself in the area?

HN: Back here?

RP: Yeah.

HN: No, no.

RP: How about the rest of the family? Did they also drift back to this area? The sisters who had gone to school and college?

HN: When they came back, when they came back, they came back real early, right after the war. But they came back because, well, they wanted to come back, of course, but they had a family that was willing to house them and get them started. Because they were were gonna continue school. But this family turned out to be really, really helpful. And that was... I don't... do you, do you remember Karl's Shoes?

RP: Karl's Shoes... I don't know. That doesn't... bells aren't going off.

HN: There was a chain of shoes.

RP: Karl's shoe stores?

HN: Yeah.

RP: That's startin' to sound more familiar.

HN: I think the son, the son married, was it Debbie Reynolds or... something like that, yeah. And then the other... and another daughter, her name was, I think it was Sarah or something. Anyway, they practically adopted Mary and Midori.

RP: So they did housework for the family and then continued to go to school?

HN: Yeah, yeah.

RP: They adopted them.

HN: They did, they were treated like adopted. And they were, they were really... so when Dad and Mom came back, too, of course they had a home, but whatever help they needed, they were willing to do whatever. But they, you know, Dad had the home and he still had some money which the lawyer didn't take. [Laughs]

RP: Yeah.