Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1605/

Longing for a life abroad and getting a chef’s license (Japanese)

(Japanese) When I was in college, I was working part-time mostly in the food business, like at a bento store. In order to get a chef's license I needed to get approval from the head of the store there and he gave me his signature. With that, I passed the test and got my license. So I had it with me. I got my license simply because I thought I could get on a cargo ship or a cargo-passenger ship for free and cross the ocean, with my license. But that didn’t happen and when I got here, before I started working as a gardener, when I went to Japan Town, I found that there were only two or three Japanese restaurants. And when I told them I had a chef’s license, they freaked out, and they didn’t want to hire me for that reason. They were like, we don’t want someone with skills that high.


California licenses Los Angeles migration United States

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)

Edward Toru Horikiri
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Horikiri,Edward Toru

Birthplace

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

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Iwao Takamoto
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Takamoto,Iwao

Return to Los Angeles

Japanese American animator for Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera (1925-2007)

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Edward Toru Horikiri
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Horikiri,Edward Toru

Working in America

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

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Edward Toru Horikiri
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Horikiri,Edward Toru

Struggles with English (Japanese)

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

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Toshiaki Toyoshima
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Toyoshima,Toshiaki

Becoming a member of nikkei community (Japanese)

(b. 1949) Sushi chef. Owner of Sushi Gen restaurant in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo.

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Robert T. Fujioka
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Fujioka,Robert T.

Great grandfather working in Hawaii

(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Great grandfather Asato was a sumo wrestler

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Grandfather loved to tell her stories of her great-grandfather Arakaki

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Yamashiro,Michelle

Parents leaving Peru to move to California

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Monica Teisher
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Teisher,Monica

Grandfather migrating to Colombia

(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States

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Edward Toru Horikiri
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Horikiri,Edward Toru

My father’s venture into the hotel business (Japanese)

(b. 1929) Kibei Nisei

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Masato Ninomiya
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Ninomiya,Masato

What made your parents decide to move to Brazil?

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

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Vince Ota
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Ota,Vince

Moving to and living in Japan

Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan

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Kazuo Funai
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Funai,Kazuo

Company in Tokyo burned down (Japanese)

(1900-2005) Issei businessman

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James Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,James

Family interrelations between mother and father

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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