Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1150/

Making Sushi and Enjoying Life (Japanese)

(Japanese) My grandfather was an oil painting artist in Japan. As I make sushi, I wonder if I might have inherited his artistic sense of color. When I’m making sushi it’s interesting, but also really thrilling. I enjoy making sushi, anticipating how the end result will look.


food Japanese food sushi United States

Date: September 10, 2009

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Izumi Tanaka

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Born 1962 in Tokyo. Moved to America in 1981. Initially worked in a San Diego restaurant making sushi and helping in the kitchen. Moved to the East Coast in 1987 after receiving notice of a job opening in New York. He then moved to Connecticut in 1990 to support a friend opening a new restaurant. He became opened his own restaurant in 1997, and as his business grew, it became the top-rated restaurant in the New England area by ZAGAT. In 2006, he decided to return to Los Angeles for his wife in child, and started a sushi catering business while also working as a sushi chef for other restaurants. He has also taken the grand prize at several sushi competitions. In 2008 he opened “Toshi Sushi” in Little Tokyo. (December 2009)

Naganuma,Jimmy

First meal at Crystal City

(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City