Densho Digital Archive - George Iseri Interview (denshovh-igeorge

<Begin Segment 23>

AC: Looking back on all your experiences your entire life, what kind of lessons have you learned about living here in America?

GI: Well, I don't know how I would compare it with let's say Japan, but I'll tell you, I think I mentioned this before when we were just having conversation, but I'm a little different guy when it comes to, some people say I'm a success. Well, maybe I got a good family and all. I got no money, but I like things, you know. I've always driven a new car up until a few years ago. Now I drive one, four or five years maybe. In fact, I think it's probably my last car now. But I always, when I bought a new car, I never had one paid for for about twenty, thirty years, but I always wanted a new car. I could, when the new car hits the floor from about 1950 until about 1965, '70, '75, I could hardly wait 'til the new car hits the floor, showroom. And if they had, somebody at the dealer had the one I wanted, well, I told them I want that car. I wonder how the economy would have paid for it. I work like hell and pay for it. I want this and that, pay for it. Buy a piece of property, if I do this or that, yeah, I can do this or that property. I can rent it, sell it, whatever. I didn't have the money then. I made it after I got myself into debt. I doubt there's that kind of a life is available anyplace else and where you would, might have the chance to gamble like that. In America, there's a lot of things we can do if we're capable of it, but you got to be careful. You don't want to cut your throat. And I've cut my throat a couple of times, made bad investments a couple times. I've taught my kids this, look, they might have a car for sale, a piece of property for sale, Dad, I can't get the price for it. I keep telling them, sell it for what you can get for it, move on the way, keep those dollars moving. You can have some good days. I haven't been able to get them going. But if you make a bad deal, forget it. Just do the best you can and forget it and go on to the next deal. The average deals have been fair for me, so, well, we own this property, free and clear, and there's a few hundred thousand dollars in it, and I can use this property here for things like this that don't make me any money so to speak. Maybe it is, I don't know, but you see what I mean. I wanted to do this for the community. In fact, building this apartment, I still have in mind I hope that I can help the Nikkei, I have already some elderly have lived here. But there are some people today who can't afford to go to the two thousand dollars a month assisted care. There's hardly any of us who can afford to go to the nursing home at four to five thousand dollars a month. I want to help them by having something here. If they belong to the Methodist church, it's just one block away. One block away here is the Buddhist church, and we can have activities here. Some of the things like the Nikkei have done in Portland especially in Seattle to help the Nikkei, we're going to have them, people who didn't end up, a lot of the Nisei farmers, they retire on the farm or become widows or widows on the farm, even moved out because of they're getting up in age. They come and build a two hundred thousand dollar home. [Laughs] But when I say two hundred thousand dollar home, that's a half a million dollar home in Portland. So there haven't been the need like I think that there will be, and I'm hoping that, because I live in this country, because of the opportunities, I'll be able to help somebody else. I don't know.

AC: If your dad were here right now and he's just listened to our conversation --

GI: What?

AC: If your dad were here right now and he's listened to our entire conversation, learned about your life, your kids, your grandkids, what do you think he'd say?

GI: You know, I'll tell you what Dad told me one time, I don't remember if any of the other siblings were there or not. He said he would really like to help in the Buddhist church. He said, "I hope at least one of you will end up and help your church, help them." You know, I never forgot that, but he didn't have to tell me that because I've been active in the church from the word go, not so much during the war because our older children, because we didn't have a Buddhist temple, they went to the Christian church which welcomed them. Another thing that I have a tape somewhere where Dad, I had a regular appliance store here right after the war and among the things I had is the factory name was the Wilcox-Gay Recording Machine. It was a disc recorder, and it cut the grooves in, and I made a lot of recordings that I haven't played back for years now, but I played one back, and I put it on tape. I hope I can find it, and then Dad said, I guess he meant for this to be, to go to my relatives in Japan, and I don't think I ever sent a copy, but this is at least fifty years ago. He said, "One regret that I have is that I wasn't able to do anything for my kids," and I didn't hear that until after Dad was gone. I didn't pay any attention to it. But Dad I think wanted to, he wished he could like some of the other Isseis make lots of money on the farm or something and have, maybe buy us a home or I don't know what he had in mind. But you know, what our parents gave us, you can't put a dollar sign on it, no way can you put a dollar sign on it. What they taught us is... here's the thing is I take that Dad today would say, he'd looked around here and he look at the Buddhist temple because that's what he was talking about. He was real active in the Buddhist temple. And what I'm thinking about doing, when I told my mother what I planned to do, she gave me her twenty thousand dollars. She said, "George, you're going to do that, you use it. For whatever you think, you use it." My mother got to live here before she died. I think they might say, "Well, yoyate kureta," you know, "you did all right." I'm not a wealthy guy, but I got things that I couldn't buy for money.

And you know, I took care of my wife and I took care of my mother. She got hurt. Thirteen months before she died, she fell off a doctor's, as she got off a doctor's examining table, she collapsed. My brother was standing right next to her, doctor was there, nurse there, so it's just one of those things. She, her leg is weak, collapsed, and broke her hip. Thirteen months, I never, never dreamt that I ever see her in pain like she was, and that was tough now I'm telling you. Taking care of her was tough. The toughest part was to see her suffer. We took care of her the last thirteen months. My brother helped me. And that's, to me, a lot of guys tell me, before she got hurt, I'd take her to church every Sunday just two of us in service the last few years of her life. The guys say, "George, you're doing a lot for your mother." I said, "That's my mother. I got to take care of her. There's no ifs ands or buts." We took care of her the last thirteen months all the way. And taking care of somebody, if somebody knew what I as a man did for my mother a hundred years, hundred three years old, I think about it and I wonder how in the heck could I have done it, but I didn't worry about that. I had to take care of Mother. Dad wasn't here no more. When Dad died, my mother said, we told her, "Well, Mom, thanks a lot for taking care of Dad." She said, "Well, I had to take care of Dad." This is also after she had a colon cancer. We thought it was fatal, but she lived through it for forty years afterward. "What would you guys have done, you kids have done if I died? I had to take care of Dad." So anyway, I think most of them would say we had a bunch of good kids and all. You guys did all right. I don't think they would mention the story that we didn't leave you a lot of money. And they needed, I feel sorry for people who inherent a lot of money. So I had to tell my kids I'm going spend your inheritance. Well, I can't spend the businesses, right? So they got that. But the rest of it, I'm going to spend it. I'm going to leave you a lot of cash. The heck of it is, what do we do when we think about going to a nursing home for five years at five thousand dollars a month. There's none left. And you know, I've been worrying about that. My mind is changing a little. If I spend all the kids' inheritance, give the kids the businesses and there's nothing left, you kids don't have to worry. I paid taxes all my life. You kids are paying taxes. We'll let whoever's going to take care of us take care of us. Why should I try to leave half a million dollars to take care of, maybe I might go to the nursing home. I think that's what I paid taxes for. If it comes to that, the government want to take care of me, I'm not going to worry about it. I don't want the kids to worry about it, no shame. As long as I could stay independent, I am. I don't want a handout for something not nothing.

AC: Is there anything that we've talked about, that we haven't covered that you'd like to go and talk about?

GI: Oh, there's so much. I think that I might sound like a broken record to a lot of people that I've known through my life, but you know, it's a sad thing and I realize that now, today. I'm eighty-four, my wife is about the same age, and we don't need any help yet. We're able to take care of ourselves. But the day that we need help might be tomorrow, who knows? If we die quick, well, so be it. That's our own. But there's so much we can do, the young people can do for the elderly people that I hope, I just hope they don't forget that somebody raised them from being a baby until adulthood, and we should do the natural thing and help the elderly people or anybody else that need help. And I'm just, next week I think it is where I do very little of the job, but we have a Helping the Hope program which delivers food all over the valley here to people who maybe are in a need. We hope they're the ones that need are getting it. But I take a couple of hours to help with that and all. But I hope that the Nikkeis, all the Asian people won't forget what our background is. All of us Asian people are, was been the history is the youngers take care of the elderly, and it's changing so much. I'd like to hope that the younger people will look after the older folks. There's so much more to tell. But right off the cuff, I've covered pretty much.

AC: Thank you. Thank you for taking so much time with us and telling us your story. I really appreciate it.