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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.


automóveis automóvel Chevrolet automóvel Corvette halls da fama Larry Shinoda veículos motorizados museus carros esportivos

Data: September 9, 2011

Localização Geográfica: California, US

Entrevistado: John Esaki

País: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Entrevistados

Grace Aiko (Shinoda) Nakamura tinha 15 anos de idade quando o presidente Franklin D. Roosevelt assinou a Ordem Executiva 9066. Em 16 de maio de 1942, sua família de sete pessoas embarcou em um trem na estação Union Station no centro de Los Angeles e foi enviada para o campo de concentração Manzanar, na Califórnia.

Em Manzanar, o irmão mais novo de Grace, Larry, projetou para sua mãe e sua avó duas cadeiras feitas a partir de caixas recicladas de madeira de banheiros – completas, com descanso de braço e encostos reclináveis​. As cadeiras tornaram-se uma “sensação” no campo de concentração atraindo muitos espectadores admiradores. Larry tornou-se mais tarde um designer renomado mundialmente, cujos desenhos do Corvette Stingray 1963 e do Mustang Boss 429 ainda são muito admirados.

Na primavera de 1944, Grace, Larry e sua mãe deixaram Manzanar em um ônibus e mudaram-se para Grand Junction, no Colorado. O projeto Quakers American Friends Service Japanese American Student Relocation Projectconcedeu à Grace uma bolsa para a Universidade de Redlands e ela se tornou a primeira estudante universitária nipo-americana a voltar para a Califórnia, graduando-se com honras. No dia após se formar, começou uma carreira docente em Pasadena School District – sendo a primeira nipo-americana contratada. Finalmente conquistou dois mestrados e continuou a carreira em educação e belas artes. É casada com Yosh Nakamura - um professor universitário de artes - e tem três filhos. (Setembro de 2012)

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Produtora na NHK Cosmomedia America, Inc.