Entrevistas

1. Birthplace

2. My image of America as a child (Japanese)

3. Longing to be an imperial soldier as a youth (Japanese)

4. Boarding house life and the Issei (Japanese)

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

6. (Japanese) My children’s education

7. Luckiest Issei

8. The situation after the war (Japanese)

9. “Junior Issei” (Japanese)

10. Working in America

11. Struggles with English (Japanese)

Horikiri,Edward Toru

(n. 1929) Kibei nisei

Boarding house life and the Issei (Japanese)

(Japanese) When I was learning gardening and working as a gardener’s helper at the boarding house, I came to know a lot of Issei. These were men who had never been able to get married and lived out their whole life single. And then there were people who crossed the border from Mexico, so-called…what do people call them now…wetbacks. There were also Issei who had lost their wives and moved in with their sons but ended up leaving and going to the boarding house because they didn’t get along with their sons’ Nisei wives. I was lucky to be able to meet so many Issei in the later years of their lives and hear their individual stories. There were indications about what Nikkei society was like at the time and how it would change from then on. For me, school in America was at the boarding house, listening to the stories of the Issei.

casas de huéspedes generaciones inmigrantes inmigración issei Japón japonés-americanos kibei migración nisei posguerra Segunda Guerra Mundial

Fecha: January 31, 2012

Zona: California, US

Entrevista: John Esaki, Yoko Nishimura

País: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Entrevista

Edward Toru Horikiri (nacido en 1929), kibei nisei, nació en Little Tokio, pero se mudó con su familia de regreso a Japón cuando tenía 18 meses de edad. Él fue criado y educado en Japón durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, pero decidió regresar a los Estados Unidos en 1952 para restablecer el negocio de la familia, el cual se vio afectado por la guerra. Sin embargo, carente de suficientes aptitudes en el idioma inglés, él se dedicó a una variedad de trabajos incluyendo el de jardinero, empleado doméstico, conductor de camión y empleado de tienda de abarrotes y de supermercado. Él continuó participando en actividades culturales a través de organizaciones comunales de habla japonesa y a través de amistades con artistas como Taro Yashima. (Junio 2014)