Interviews

1. Always drawing

2. Larry designing chairs in the camp

3. Larry’s fishing skill

4. Mother’s reaction to Larry's daredevil racing

5. Larry and President Clinton

6. Corvette Hall of Fame

Nakamura,Grace Aiko

Sister of automotive designer Larry Shinoda

Corvette Hall of Fame

And Larry had a theory, that no Corvette should ever be viewed under artificial lights during daylight hours and so the light is specially designed that during daylight hours only natural light hits the Corvette.

And his sculpture figure, and this is a funny Larry story, is made out of fiberglass and he told the sculptress, I can’t recollect her name right now, "Hey, how about putting on a little more hair and making him a little skinnier." And this figure that they made of him, when the museum first opened, they had him getting out of a very shiny Corvette, waving.

Now, and I got a picture of that, because when I went to Manzanar one time just to visit, I met this young couple in a rented car, a beat up rented car, at the gates of Manzanar and he said, "Might I have known anyone in this camp that I might know?" And so I said, "Well, I was in this camp but I’m not anybody of any notoriety. But you might have heard of Larry Shinoda and the Corvette that he designed." He said, "Oh yes, I do know of Larry Shinoda and I do know of Corvettes."

Little did I know, he was a Corvette owner and little did I know that he was the vice-president of Sun Computers and that’s when Sun Computers was a big computer outfit. But he asked for my name and address and lo and behold, the following Christmas he sends me pictures of my brother climbing out of the Corvette. He had gone down on is corporate jet and taken pictures at the opening of the Corvette Museum climbing out of the car.

Then in subsequent years, well I guess he said he went down the following year, and Larry, the sculpture wasn’t there. They don’t know what happened to him. And they told him that he was in the closet, so that was very dismaying.

But when we went for the opening of the Hall of Fame, there was Larry. And there was a huge showroom and Larry sitting at a desk and he’s looking over all the Corvettes that he's designed.

automobiles Chevrolet automobile Corvette automobile halls of fame Larry Shinoda motor vehicles museums sports cars

Date: September 9, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Grace Aiko (Shinoda) Nakamura was 15 years old when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. On May 16, 1942, her family of seven boarded a train at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and was sent to the Manzanar concentration camp in California.

In Manzanar, Grace’s younger brother Larry designed for his mother and grandmother two chairs made from recycled wooden toilet crates—complete with arm rests and reclining backs. They became a camp “sensation” attracting many admiring spectators. Larry later became a world-renowned designer whose designs for the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray and the Boss 429 Mustang remain highly admired.

In spring of 1944 Grace, Larry and their mother left Manzanar on a bus and moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. The Quakers American Friends Service Japanese American Student Relocation Project awarded Grace a scholarship to the University of Redlands and she became the first Japanese American college student to return to California, graduating with Honors. The day after graduating, she started a teaching career in the Pasadena School District--the first Japanese American hired. She eventually earned two Masters Degrees and continued a career in education and fine arts. She is married to Yosh Nakamura, a college professor of art, and has three children. (September 2012)