Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1604/

Permanent residency for 10,000 dollars (Japanese)

(Japanese) There were a lot of elderly Nisei, many of whom were gardeners. I started working as a gardener too, or helping them at first and then set up for myself and I was like, maybe I can continue as a gardener and have a pretty good life here, making my American dream come true. So, I worked hard for a year and a half, nearly two years, but my legal status was not stable, as I had a tourist visa and I had to do something about it. Then I learned that a $10,000 investment would get me a visa. I found real estate worth $10,000, a small restaurant, and bought it with all equipment left inside and I was able to get a green card in about a year and a half. That led me to get my foot in the restaurant industry and for me, things worked out well.


Date: August 4, 2015

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mitsue Watanabe

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

Interviewee Bio

In 1969, he arrived in America for the first time. He lived in Los Angeles for a year and a half, traveled to various places around the world for about six months and went back to Japan. As he was deeply inspired by the life in a foreign country, however, he decided to go back and moved to America with a tourist visa. He had a job as a helper for gardeners for about two years at first, and then started working on his own. With an official visa, he got a foot in the restaurant industry. He currently runs a Japanese-style drinking place and diner, Honda-Ya, a restaurant chain in Los Angeles and Orange County, California. (August 2018)