My father’s business in America (Japanese)

My father’s business in America (Japanese) School life in Japan (Japanese) Identity (Japanese) The horror of Hiroshima after the atomic bombing (Japanese) Feelings upon listening to the imperial rescript (Japanese) Returning to America after the war (Japanese) Enlisting in the U.S. Army (Japanese) Working tirelessly after the war (Japanese) What I wanted to pass down to my children (Japanese) Father owned a café in Minot, North Dakota Japanese in Minot Didn’t speak Japanese until moving to Japan Being enlisted into the Japanese Army Wasn’t told he was being trained for kamikaze bombing Experiences in Hiroshima after the A-bomb Reaction to the Emperor’s surrender Worked for the occupation force in Japan after the war Fitting back into American life Speaking about his wife Comparing basic training of US and Japanese Armies Helping youth in the community

Transcripts available in the following languages:

(Japanese) My father’s… My father’s business. Well, it was this restaurant called “U.S. Café,” and it was actually a European food restaurant. There were no such things [back then] as Japanese restaurants, as we have nowadays… (laughs). It was open 24 hours a day. I heard from other people that around the time of World War I…actually, after the war, there was a boom in customers and business was thriving. There were some funny stories—like once they were so busy that the cash register was overflowing with cash, so they had to bring over an empty beer box to toss the money into. Well, that’s how busy they really were. But thereafter, the boom slowly went, you know, down, down, down… By the time I left America, apparently the business wasn’t making much at all. That’s probably why my mother made the decision to return to Japan then. Yes.

Date: June 17, 2008
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

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