Audio Tour

There's more to car culture than racing, but it's undeniable that the moment the automobile was invented, people were already wondering, Hey, how fast can this go? Japanese Americans have explored the dimension of speed for over 110 years, from the Mojave Desert dry lakes to urban drag strips to late night street races. Meanwhile, intrepid mechanics and engineers have innovated ways to boost performance on everything from Indy cars to everyday imports. Wise racers will warn you, never underestimate the Nikkei who pulls up alongside you in an unassuming car because you never know what's under the hood. 

Tod: Okay. My name is Tod Kaneko. I'm Nisei here, second generation Japanese American. I would say I grew up in the South Bay, primarily the Torrance area. Actually, my grandfather came, so he was the first Issei here. And my dad. And I'm actually a Sansei.

Oliver: All right, so your grandfather had that interest. How about your other relatives, your father?

Tod: Yeah, so again, my dad had a whole bunch of cars when he grew up too. So, his favorite was the T-Bird back in the day, and a GTO, I could really vaguely remember that. But he was, again, very mechanically inclined, so I kind of picked it up from him, as far as the car interest.

When I started getting into the cars, I started off at the Capri, actually. That was my first car, and I actually bought it from my friend that kinda introduced me to the car scene. Back then, he took me to my first Nisei Week, right?

Oliver: Okay.

Tod: So, we were cruising there, and he actually raced on First Street in front of everybody. So, that just really caught my attention, and kind of the love for the car culture. So, that's my first, I guess, experience, and it kind of led me down the path for enjoying cars.

So, that goes back again, I was fourteen, I couldn't drive, so I was a passenger with my sister's elder friends. So, my first Nisei Week, again, can I name names? So, my buddy Glenn Quatta had a Capri, a very, very fast Capri. So, he took me out on my first Nisei Week cruise, and I was just astounded by how many people were there. And after the event ended, how many people just lined the streets to watch the cruise. And I thought, "Wow, this is really astounding."

And just by chance that evening, he actually raced on First Street in front of everybody. So, again, being a young kid, I thought, "Wow, this is great." Right?

Oliver: Right.

Tod: So, that really kind of locked me into this whole subculture of cars and the cultural scene.

Oliver: So, when's the first time you were able to drive yourself, and was it with the Capri, is that what you took out there?

Tod: All right. When I was legally of age to drive, I actually drove the Capri. I actually bought the Capri from Glenn. So, that was my first car that I learned to wrench on. Learned a lot of good things, made a lot of mistakes, but that was my first toy. So, again, after that, I got the job with Joe Hunt, and I really got the professional viewpoint or knowledge from them, and really just I think it elevated me from just the knowledge and be able to produce really fast cars and engines. Some of the guys that Joe grew up with. 

There was a guy named Ed Iskenderian, who's real famous for Cams. Another guy named John Shaver who built really, really fast race engines. So, those guys actually helped me get my knowledge, based on how to build cars or build engines. But, yeah, so it was that Capri in Nisei Week that kind of set my destiny, in a sense. 

I think I always wanted a 510 as my first car, but I couldn't afford one, so that's why I had the Pinto. But again, I think the association to an import brand was also gaining momentum back then. Parts were becoming more available, so the whole tuning aspect was becoming a little bit easier. And back then, everybody tuned in the garage, so everybody actually wrenched and did their own work. We worked on cars back then. But the domestic side, I mean, it had its own culture, but I think the import side was something new and fresh. So, I think that's why a lot of people, at least the Japanese Americans, trended toward the import cars. And again, kind of reflects back on the heritage as well.

So, again, I think from my perspective too, why I went toward the import cars, were obviously they were smaller, lighter, smaller engines, but you can actually make these smaller engines in lighter cars faster than the domestics. So, back when I used to race, I mean, there were some racetracks out here like Terminal Island or Orange County Raceway, I'd line up against big block Camaros or Chevelles, and still beat them. So, again, kind of shocked a lot of these domestic people. You know, little, small rice burners, as they may call it, can just outdo the bigger muscle cars.

Oliver: You also mentioned that there was kind of a pride to it. And so I am curious, because I mean these are car companies coming from Japan, and even if a lot of the people that were getting interested in these cars were themselves, you know, Sanseis, like, I mean, they were three generations removed from Japan. Did you feel like there was some kind of ethnic pride that was associated with driving a Japanese car when you are of Japanese descent?

Tod: I think so. I mean, again, it makes me closer to the community that I'm part of. And again, I think that the technology was also a little bit more advanced than the domestics at the time. So, that's something I always wanted to leverage. And again, I'm always for the small guy beating the big guy. So, the small engine beating the big V8 engine was very, very nice at times.

Oliver: What are some of the examples of the kind of technological advances that you saw coming in on these Japanese imports, that were not in the American domestic scene then?

Tod:  So, back then, it's kind of funny. So, back to the Pinto. So, my first Pinto engine was a turbocharged two liter, four cylinder, and they made about 450 horsepower, which was probably equivalent to a good V8 back then. But the key items back then was turbocharging. So, you're actually force feeding the engine, your air and fuel to make the power. So, again, technology kind of drove me to these little bit smaller engines.

The next engine I did was a rotary engine, which is very unique as well. And those things, easy a two rotary 13B, they're making 13, 1400 horsepower right now in the drag scene. So, they're more than capable to keep up with the domestic V8 products.

Oliver: Were these equally easy to work on?

Tod: If you have the right knowledge and background, it certainly is. There's no magic behind that.

Oliver: You have been also part of the, for lack of maybe a better term, the classic Japanese car scene. Obviously, you think about things like JCCS, the growth and interest around, I mean, the car that's right in back of you, for example.

So, what was it about cars, specifically, like the 510s and the Zs that at least were appealing then, or at the very least are appealing now for collectors who are interested? What was it about these specific models that really drew people's interest and attention?

Tod: Well, let's see. So, the Z and the 510 was my initial love. Again, I couldn't afford it when I was young, but today I still have a Datsun 510 and a Datsun 240Z.

But I think a couple of things behind that. I mean, again, it ties back to the Japanese culture. These came from Japan, we're Japanese American. But also to the potential the cars have to make them fast, and the potential to beat the bigger domestic V8s was also key.

Also to Nissan, especially Nissan, well, Honda, Toyota as well, but they have a big heritage of racing history in Japan. So, they were basically already proven cars when they got here. So, we knew their capability. So, again, that was another drawing interest for me.

But again, I think when they brought the 510 over, the Z over, same thing, they were beating all the European cars and the domestic cars. So, that's one reason I fell in love with these cars.

Oliver: Right. It had to do with their success on the racing scene, is because if I recall—

Tod: Well they raced in different scenes, but the biggest one for North America was the Trans Am Series back in the day with Pete Brock and John Morgan.

Oliver: So, yeah, explain the importance of Brock and what did he do for the 510?

Tod: Well, Pete has a big design background history with the Shelbys, et cetera. But he also ran the Nissan factory program for the Datsun 510 and 240Z. But again, I think he put the 510 and the 240Z, he raised that, elevated that awareness greatly. And even today, I think you're still leveraging that past BRE, which was Brock Racing Enterprise. Right?

Oliver: Right.

Tod: So, again, that history never died, and I think it's still growing. Yeah, well-

Oliver: You actually had these cars back then?

Tod: Well, yeah, I mean I finally got my 510, right?

Oliver:  Yeah.

Tod: And then got the Z. So, really, I'm not shopping for anything right now.

Oliver: Tell me the story behind this car. When did you get this?

Tod Kaneko: So, I got this... So, my first car, first import, would've been the 510. This car is a funny story. So, I was building the 510 at home at my parents' house. My buddy owned this car, and he bought it brand new, and he started to work on it at his mom's house. Pulled the engine out, and then it sat for, I don't know, fifteen, twenty years. And his mom said, "Get rid of this thing."

So, he asked me, "Hey, you want to?" I mean, I got a super killer deal on it. It didn't have an engine, but it was perfect shape, and everything. And I didn't need a second car to work on, but I couldn't pass up the deal.

Oliver:  So, what year did you get this, roughly?

Tod:  Probably mid-eighties.

Oliver: Okay, so you've had this for forty years?

Tod: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Oliver:  Okay. Yeah. The way that you made it sound, you sounded like, "Well, I got the Z", but it made it sound like you got it like the last three years.

Tod:  Oh, yeah, yeah, no.

Oliver: So, you've had it—

Tod:  Yeah, I had another project, the 510 going on. I'm thinking, "I don't need another project", but I couldn't pass it up. Yeah.

Oliver:  You've never been tempted to sell it? I'm sure you've gotten offers.

Tod: I've got offers, but yeah, I haven't finished it in a sense. But yeah, it's never ending, right?

Oliver:  Yeah. What does finishing it even mean?

Tod: There's little things I still want to do. The pet peeve stuff, tuning stuff, and latest technology stuff I want to put into it. It's kind of a toy for me.

Oliver:  Have you customized much of the exterior?

Tod: Basic shape is still factory stock. Yeah, I didn't go crazy with the big flares, or big wings, or anything like that.

Oliver: Yeah. And how about the interior?

Tod: Interior is basically pretty much stock too. Yeah.

Oliver: I'm assuming the engine probably not so much.

Tod: Not so much. That's my toy land, I like to tinker with.

Oliver: Right. And you said you bought it without an engine anyway, so you had to basically construct, build an engine or it?

Tod: Right.

Oliver: And so the 510, you've also had since the eighties?

Tod: That's true too.

Oliver: Right. And that's the one that has a rotary engine.

Tod: So, yeah, turbocharged rotary, yeah.

Oliver: Would you ever consider selling that?

Tod:  Probably not. Again, it is still a work in process. I mean, we're trying to get it ready for a track event. So, it's kind of funny. My nephew, I think you interviewed already, Billy, right?

Oliver: Yeah.

Tod: Billy Johnson. So, when he was young, he's probably sixteen maybe back then, I had the 510, had the rotary, and we're at the track up at Buttonwillow. So, I said, "Hey Billy, you want to drive us in this time attack event?" So, he jumped in, and he was already a very talented driver back then.

Oliver:  Even though he wasn't old enough to have a license yet?

Tod: Yeah, I think he was sixteen. But he just finished that Formula BMW series. Right?

Oliver: Right.

Tod: He won a scholarship to that. So, he's back in the States. So, he jumps in and he just tears it up and just dusts everybody. Right?

Oliver: Yeah.

Tod: And again, that 510's a really old car. We were racing against the Subarus and the Evos, and half these people didn't even know what kind car that was. They're coming, "Hey, what kind of car is this?" "It's an old '72 Datsun 510." But with his talent and that car, the way it's set up, it turned a lot of heads. It was pretty funny.

So, right now we're trying to resurrect it. So, it's been, I don't know, twenty-something years since we did it. And I told Billy I'll get the car back together, we'll go out with the same crew, and go have fun at the next Time Attack event. So, that's work in process.

Oliver: : Yeah. So, that's why it's in the shop right now?

Tod: Yeah, we're working on it.

Moto: My name is Motohide Miwa, uh, Moto. I live in Torrance, Gardena area, but I'm originally from Japan. Migrated in 1978.

Oliver: And what generation Japanese American are you?

Moto: Should I say 1.5? What do you call somebody who came with their parents?

Oliver:  Yeah, 1.5. You'd be kind of like a different kind of Shin Issei, I suppose. And I should've asked, do you identify as being Japanese American?

Moto: Yes, because most of my life, I've been here since nine years old in California, grew up in San Francisco Bay Area and I've been in southern California since '92. That's when I ran into my Corolla project is I was hanging out at one of the shops, one called Toy Sport in Gardena. It's operated by a couple of Filipino brothers who used to be very close with Toyota because they were the son of a taxi fleet company in Manila who took on Toyota Crowns as their fleet cars. So they basically opened up Toyota's market in the Philippines, and their sons were here working with Toyota, and they had a little shop and they had this Corolla sitting that was just kind of stripped to the bones. And they just kind of ran out of funds and they weren't doing anything with it, and they offered me, "Do you want to build this? I'll sell you this for $500, and you can just put all the parts and you can just buy all the parts to put on. You can make it any way you want it."

Oliver: So basically they sold you a shell?

Moto: Shell, yeah.

Oliver: And what kind of Corolla was it?

Moto: It was an AE86. And it was something I wanted to buy when I was sixteen that I couldn't, because at the time it was $11,000 when the Civic was $8,600. I had no experience building a car from scratch, but I hung around with them enough that that could be done. And I had another car at the time, so it could be interesting watching this long-term project evolve. So that was my thing and then a few months later, this Corolla just... I drove it out of there, nice fresh paint. I mean, it looked very nice. And then they said, "Well, let's take it autocrossing."

So I started on this journey of autocrossing this car and met a bunch of friends there. This is mid-nineties by then, I think. But yeah, through building the car, I met a lot of other people that built cars, R.J. de Vera and Don Fujita, and all of those people that were just winning car shows left and right. They had the tallest trophies at any car show they went to. And Ken Miyoshi's Showoff series. So I was kind of friends with them all in the Southern California, Gardena, Torrance area that we were just very close by then. Just getting together.

There were already forums, you know, car forums which my start in having this much reach too is originally in the late nineties, I think it was ’97. This whole World Wide Web thing was becoming more of a future of things. And I knew eventually I would need a website for my restaurant. I said, "This is going to look like crap if I just make a website now. I don't know how to do it and I don't have a budget to hire anybody. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to practice. I have all these notes and random pictures of my Corolla being built. So I'm just going to put that up and then I'll just add to it as things go."

And then pretty soon there's hordes of emails coming in. "What are you doing about this?" "I'm doing this in Australia, but I'm stuck because I don't know which transmissions..." That sort of stuff. Because all of this information in my head was in Japanese, in Japanese magazines. So slowly I would translate these to English. And then suddenly, just in very short period of time, this website called Club4AG that I put up as a practice thing for my restaurant, turned into a center of English information regarding AE86 Corollas. So I put up a forum, and that became pretty much a benchmark standard of where to find information on Corolla by everybody's account.

There's a lot of people globally that knew a lot about these engines or had a lot of experience. And then there were others who were racing it actively that were just kind of blogging their progress, so everything that had to do with that AE86 Corolla in the English language was posted there. There was also a place where they can put reference information or history or whatever. I mean, there's lots of things that were archived there.

It just kind of expanded it to a lot of different Toyota cars and then stuff that's general like driving skills topics or racing topics would apply to any car. So it was a big healthy community and it kind of scattered into different places and offshoots. And I think early 2000s was right in the era when everybody was on a forum somewhere. That was the social media of its day. So even if they weren't on Club4AG, I could post something on another guy's forum and if it was interesting, then it would reciprocate and just go everywhere. So yeah, that's how we got 12,000 people to come into Irwindale Speedway, where NASCAR was never able to fill that venue ever. And that's when it, I think, hit a lot of the racing industry people because racing was a dying thing in Southern California as far as venues.

John: My name is John Kuramoto. I was the youngest of three boys. My middle brother, Daniel, is right here (Dan laughs). This is Dan. We have another brother, Ford, who is six years older than I am.

Dan: We were born and raised in Boyle Heights and he's still there.

John: Born and raised, Los Angeles.

Oliver: And what generation Japanese American are both of you?

John: Sanseis.

Oliver: Sanseis.

John: And I don't remember having any particular idea in my mind, necessarily, other than I like cars because we saw them a lot because of my father.

Oliver: Sure.

John: Then one day we get under the car, Dad says, "I want to take the whole family. We're going to go out near Disneyland." And I don't remember if ... And we get to Ball Road at Disneyland, and we pull off and it's right off the, what is that, 5 freeway? And soon as we pull over, we hear all this noise, this rhaeeeh rhaeeeh raheeeh. And we walk out there, and we all walk out there, and they're racing. And there was a pretty good group of them. And they're racing around the track. And the smell and the noise captured me like I was pinned. And I watched these kids race. And I look at them and I say to myself, "This is just unbelievable." This is quarter midgets. And we went to go see our parents' friend, the Shojis. The Shojis had been racing in quarter midgets for several years.

Dan: They were from Upland.

John: And they were from Upland. They're at that time, as far as we knew, the only Asian family, Asian driver, Asian car out there that was racing quarter midgets. And so we met the family, we met Carl. Carl Shoji, was I think believe a chicken farmer in Upland. And he introduces us to his son, Richard. Richard was a champion racer at that time. And I remember we stayed there and watched the race. And I don't know, I was just like, in my own world, I just couldn't imagine what I was seeing, and I was loving it so much. And I don't know why, because I had no indication that I should be a race car driver or have any place near these vehicles. I was chubby. I wasn't athletic. I never indicated this is what I wanted to do. But when I saw it, it hit me.

John: And then I remember when we stayed and watched the races, and Carl Shoji came up to my dad, towards the end there. He goes, "Jack, you should get one of these. You should race one of these. You've got the shop, you know you would be so good at this." And he said, "You'll be so good at it. You have the service station." And then he looks down and I'm standing there. "And have him drive, he can drive." Okay.

Dan: And functionally the engine was basically a lawnmower engine, which is a kind of interesting spin and irony about JAs and that generation of gardeners like our grandfather. And then here was my dad working on a lawnmower engine, and my brother, the first time he got in it and drove laps, people said, "He's a natural." I mean literally. And he won his first race.

Oliver: So basically go-karts were in a way kind of an offshoot of the midget scene because you had the same people working on it. And-

John: The big difference, though, is age, right? Don't forget, quarter midgets is for kids.

Oliver: Yeah.

John: So go-karts immediately are for adults. They did have kid categories. After I stopped racing quarter midgets, I was asked by the same go-kart company, Duffy Levinson, who's a great friend of Jimmy Imani, they offered for me to be a team driver and they had everything there. "Here's a kart, here's this, here's engines, here's this." He goes, "What we'd really like you to do, we know you can drive. We'd like you to go out there and set track records. Can you just go out there, give it a good effort? That's all we are." I go, "I'm down." The reason we got involved, because Richard Shoji had switched over. He was sponsored by a company, the second-largest company called Bug Go-Karts. And he was already switched over. And he was doing well. He was doing well and going fast. So then they heard, well, there was another guy, Richard's friend.

Oliver: Right.

John: And that's when I got—

Dan: But at this point he had already won three national open field championships in quarter midgets, which at that point was sort of at its peak. And then his picture was on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine, and Car and Driver, and all this stuff. And so he was kind of aligned perfectly to make that next move and into go-karts. And my family benefited from it because they gave him every kind of conceivable thing that they made.

Oliver: Right.

John: We raced, I think almost four years, quarter midgets. I probably did two with go-karts, right?

Oliver: Yeah.

John: Because I was getting to be, I wanted to be sixteen so bad. I wanted my own car. What a guy like me, after you're racing, you're like, "God, I just want my own car. I want a real vehicle."

Oliver: Right.

John: And—

Dan: To me, the highlight of a nice car was that you might get to take out the girl that you wanted to see because you had a ’57 Chevy, which my dad gave me, that was completely the most cherry—

John: Was—

Dan: ... perfect—

John: Custom.

Dan: ... multi, candy apple blue with custom rims and everything until I totaled it.

John: Uh-oh.

Dan: Yeah.

John: Then I remember my oldest brother taking Dan and I outside, and giving us a talk. And this was after we just won the quarter midget, and he started telling me about family values, and about how he is willing, in the circumstance we have now, that we won the quarter midget, it looks like we're going to start racing.

Oliver: Okay.

John: And everyone has to make a commitment as a family. We are our Nikkei racing family. And what does that mean? And I listened to him. And the fact that he ... Maybe I didn't understand the words so much, but the fact that he supported what we were going to do, then he passed it to Dan and said, "Dan, we're going to need to do this. We're going to need to support John." And Dan said, "Okay." And I'm thinking, "For these guys to support me and ready to go, and I haven't even raced my first race. I haven't proved nothing yet. All we proved is we won the quarter midget."

Oliver: Right.

John: So I'm thinking, "You know what? I want to do well because of my family." We were a close family. It was a close racing family.

Cars have always meant more than just a means for transportation. We also love how they make us feel when we look at them or are seen in them, whether sitting at a stoplight or gracefully careening around an asphalt track. From car customization to drift racing, vintage rim collecting to cutting edge auto design, the Japanese American car experience wouldn't be complete without exploring the importance of style, design, and aesthetics. After all, it's not enough to just get you to where you want to go; people want to look good getting there as well. 

Nadine: My name is Nadine Sachiko Hsu. I was born and raised in Arcadia, California and I've lived here ever since like... Oops. I never left. I am a Nisei but remember our conversation that was kind of... Yeah. My grandfather was actually born here in the States but he did go back to Japan and marry and had my dad in Japan in Kumamoto. And then, my dad came here and met my mom so I'm a Nisei-ish (laughs).

Oliver: Right. Somewhere between Nisei or depending on how you want to count it, just-

Nadine: Nisei and a half (laughs).

Oliver: So let's get into your background in cars. And so, how did you... What is your earliest memory of being interested or fascinated in a car?

Nadine: My dad was very into F1. He would read magazines on the toilet of F1 cars. It'd be F1magazines on the toilet. So then, I'd be in the bathroom and then I would read his magazines and I'm like, "Oh, look at these cars. That's cool." Put them away and... I think it was always in the back of my mind. And then, he would always watch F1 and I'd sit down and watch it with him and it was just something that we would do. And then later, I met a lot of people who were into cars and I would go with them to the street races in Ontario. So this was much later, like probably when I was in ninth grade or something and we would go to the street races and I loved it. And there was a woman street racer named Kimbo and she was one of the only females drag racing her Honda Civic. And she really inspired me and I'm just like, "Oh, gosh. That's so cool." She doesn't always win but she's out there giving it her all and she's very brave. So I was like, "One day, I really want to do this. I want to be like her."

So I got my driver's license and immediately started fixing up my car and modifying it and going to Kinokuniya and buying Option magazines which is... They have lots of cars from Japan that inspired me to fix up my 240 and I happen, just by chance, to get a 240 as the first car. A cousin sold it to me for like 500 bucks. It was not my preference. I thought it was a terrible car. And then, I opened up an Option 2 magazine from Kinokuniya and it was like my car all over it and I go, "Oh, I have the best car for drifting," and I had no idea. So I was going to sell it and get a Honda but I changed my mind and I just stuck with the 240.

Oliver: What year was it?

Nadine: 1989. It's a is. I still have it.

Oliver: Okay. There we go.

Nadine:  Yeah.

Oliver: Early '90s would've also been the heyday of the import car scene-

Nadine:  Mm-hmm. Yes.

Oliver: Battle of the Imports. Things that were basically off the streets but more organized. And then, eventually, you would have the Showoffs and other car shows and car meets. Were you involved in that part of the scene as well?

Nadine: Yes. I would go to Battle of Imports, actually with my girlfriends. We would have fun there. And also, Pomona, they would do drag racing, just practice. I would go to that and actually that's where I had my first race, like where I took my own car, was the Pomona Raceway. And then, I would go to Ken Miyoshi's Import Showoffs all the time. I love looking at all those cars.

Nadine: So in terms of mods for my 240, the first thing you have to do is lower the car. I didn't have any money, so I cut my stock springs to lower my car, made a huge mistake, lowered it too much, got wheels. So I think suspension and wheels was like you have to have. That's kind of the base, the default. And then you get into stickers and then you get into mufflers to make your car sound good. That's kind of where I was hovering for a long time. Because I know my story's a little bit unique because I came from loving car shows, but also loving races. So when I initially built my car, it was for car shows and then I realized, "Oh jeez, I can race this car too." But it was automatic. And then I'm like, "Well, I'll just try automatic, but I think I need to change this car to stick." So then later I met Benson and I was into drifting, my car was still automatic, I got to swap this out. So we actually swapped our engines with a Japanese, it's called a SR20DET. Basically, a 240 in Japan is a 180, so it's a 180SX engine. So I put the engine that should be in my car, because in the USA you get these crappy truck engines instead of the turbo engines. We swapped that and I made my car five-speed and that was the best thing. And then after that, I built the car for race, for drift. And then that's kind of where the other piece of the pie is for me. But I've always been known to have a beautiful-looking show car that also is a race car. That's kind of unique for me because many people just build their car with one thing in mind, not both.

Oliver: Right.

Nadine: And I was always kind of...

Oliver: Try and do both, right?

Nadine: Yeah.

Oliver: Yeah, so let's get into this. You kind of explained how you first got into racing, but then how did you specifically get into drift? And actually before you get there, just for the benefit of our audience here, can you just define what drifting is and what makes it different than other forms of car racing?

Nadine: Drifting is sliding your car so it looks out of control, but you're in control 100%. It's something that people associate with ice skating, like ice skating your car. What's different from drifting than regular racing is it's not time-based, it is style-based, very subjective. So if you go into drifting competitions, many times it's in the eye of the beholder who's the winner. It's not necessarily like a time. It's a score from a panel of judges and what one judge may like, the other may not. It's still a technical sport because there are certain things you have to do to score points in competition. But it's an art and it's so much more interesting to watch than drag racing, because drag racing is just it's over in a few seconds and then you just have a time and that's it. It's very cut and dry, black and white. But drifting is it's an art and it's subjective and what one person thinks is an amazing slide, the other one may think differently.

Oliver: What was your introduction to drifting and what about it clearly captured your imagination?

Nadine: My introduction to drifting was through the magazines at Kinokuniya. But it was really funny because I didn't know what I was looking at. So I saw it and I read the magazine and the cars were this way, they were kind of sliding. It was action shots of the cars and I'm like, "Why do they keep taking pictures of them?" And I didn't know. I didn't know what I was looking at, but I was like, "Oh, that's cool, but I like his wheels." And then I met Benson at a 240SX Owners Club meeting and then he turned me on to Option videos instead of Option magazines, but they're videos at Kinokuniya. And then we started watching the videos and I'm like, "Oh, that's what drifting is." He introduced me to that and eventually we started going to the mountains and racing our cars in the mountains.

But that was more just like grip driving. That wasn't drifting. But we were drifting somewhere in the mountains a little bit. And then they started having sanctioned drifting events here. That's when Benson invited me to go watch him. But I was like, "You know what? I'll just bring my car," because I have the perfect car, like the Honda Civic of the drifting. Because in Honda Civics, they were great for the drag racing and the car shows. In drifting, you have to have a 240 or a Hachi-Roku, like a Toyota Corolla. Those are the quintessential cars to have.

Oliver: Why?

Nadine: Those are the cars that our founding fathers of drifting—like our founding father of drifting founded drifting in a Toyota  Corolla back in Japan in the '80s, so number one. Number two came later in 1989 with the Nissan 240. That also in Japan, the earliest drifting competitions and videos, the 240 was there. Those were the main two cars that you would just see all the time in the videos. And 240 is much easier to drift than a Corolla.

Oliver: Right. I was going to ask, is there something inherent to the design of the cars, the way its chassis is built, handling...

Nadine: Yeah.

Oliver:...that makes them particularly good for drifting?

Nadine: I think the wheelbase and the fact that it's rear-wheel-driven and it's nimble and light all play into that, definitely.

Oliver: As you were saying, when drifting first came up to Southern California it was mostly being done kind of like unsanctioned, off-the-books, up the mountains.

Nadine: That's right.

Oliver: So what were the main areas that people would go to drift up there?

Nadine: Well, see the drifting, a lot of people would just drift on the streets. If you're talking about drifting only, there's a lot of people that would drift in the street wherever they could find a turn where there was no one around at night. Because, see, drag racing, it was very organized chaos because everyone knew where to go. But with drifting, it's kind of like people just make up, find a street, and go with maybe two friends. That's what also is very different about drifting is we were just trying to slide anywhere we could. We'd find a parking lot, a street in the industrial area. That was mainly the place where you would see the illegal drifting.

But that was very short-lived, because there was like Moto Miwa of Drift Association. He founded Drift Days very, very early. I think 2001. Was it 2001, Honey Bunny? Moto? I think the very first Drift Day was like 2001. He did Drift Days at Irwindale Speedway in the parking lot. So he got the drifting off the street. Moto was a big organizer of Corolla Owners Club called Club4AG. Moto was very, very important because he brought drifting off the street and onto the track.

Oliver: What was the importance of making that transition?

Nadine: Because it's dangerous and I think drifting could not ever be where it is today in the United States if it wasn't a legitimized motor sport. I think it's always struggled to be. So the sooner we got it off the street, the more likely it would become a more legitimate motor sport. Because now there's a professional series called Formula DRIFT, and Toyota backs my friend who is a driver. So it's like, then you have the big sponsors coming in and it's a sport that you can make a career out of.

Tats: My name is Tatsumi. I like to be called Tats Gotanda.

Oliver: And what generation Japanese American are you?

Tats: I think I’m Sansei.

Oliver: So Tats, how did you first become interested in cars?

Tats: I don’t know. I guess through magazines and... I used to see... I don't know if you know Bob Hirohata, I used to see his car and from there, I just decided I want to just start customizing cars. It's just mild custom and don't ask me how I got to where it is with the finished product. But I just kept on going and before I knew it, it was a show car. And little by little, that ’59 Chevy was getting, what I consider as a mild custom. And then, eventually I started changing the grille on that thing and the tail lights and body modifications. Taking the door handles off, putting on air scoops, sunken antennas, pipes on the side. And it got to the point where, in fact, I was sort of scared to drive it. So I got a ’55 Ford and I modified that thing. That's the car I was driving out in the street. In the meantime, my Chevy was with Bill Hines and he was constantly working on it.

Oliver: This is the Impala, right?

Tats: Mm-hmm.

Oliver: Tats, you were saying, with every car that you had, whether it was the ’50 Merc or the ’55 Chevy, obviously, the ’59 Impala, you would always change something. There would be some kind of customization. So why was that important? Why was it important to do any kind of modification or customization?

Tats: I just love custom cars. I just want something different. I'll be honest with you, I thought I had the baddest car around, okay? And so, I would love to show that car off and when I did, it was a showstopper out in the street. And a lot of the custom cars was done by Barris. Barris, Barris, Barris this, Barris that. And then, I found out he worked for Barris and I said, "Man—"

Oliver: He's got to be good.

Tats:  —"He got to be good." Yeah.

Oliver: Yeah.

Tats: And he was good.

Oliver: And so, you worked a lot with Ed Martinez on the interior. So how did you first start working with Ed?

Tats: It started with my Chevy. My ’59, when I first got that Chevy, I said, "Could you put the tuck and roll dash on there?" And I want tuck and roll on the rear window and so he did it. And then—

Oliver: This is the ’59 Impala?

Tats: Mm-hmm.

Oliver: So this is the Buddha Buggy?

Tats: Right.

Oliver: So what were the first things that you began to do in terms of the modifications on the Impala?

Tats: Take the emblems off.

Oliver: Okay.

Tats: I started taking the emblems off. Well, the first thing I did was lower it. And next thing I know, I went to see Bill Hines and I had him put in a sunken antenna and that was the next. Well, I remember I had Bill do the tail lights. And then, I had him put some air scoops on the car. So at the same time while it was there, it went over to Martinez. I said, "Hey, a poster, I want it all white," so he posted that.

And then, it would go back to... He started doing something else again. I remember when he took the door handles off, I said, "Hey, Bill," I says, "I want to put the button on the side," I said, "but how could I use.... For security, I want a lock and key." He says, "We got to..." He said, "We have to use a ’51 Ford glove box lock." So when he pushes the button, he says, "This thing would trigger or tap something," he says, "then the door would pop open." I said, "Really?" He says, "Yeah." But anyway, he did install it exactly where I wanted it and it worked. God, it was amazing. Uh-huh.

Oliver:  Now, at what point did your Chevy get the name Buddha Buggy? Where did that come from?

Tats: I started thinking about that. I said, "How did I come up with that name, Buddha Buggy?" I don't know. I think I was with Bill Hines and I said, "I'm going to put this in a show." He said, "You are?" I said, "Yep." And then, I started thinking, "Man, I got to... Maybe I should come up with a name," and I started thinking a different name. Then finally I said, "You know what? I'm going to just call it the Buddha Buggy," I said, "Heck with it," and there it was. And then, I had a poster made Buddha Buggy and all the things that was done that was modified on the car. I can't think of what the other names that I came up with. That was the only one that stuck with me.

Oliver: So what gave you the idea to enter the car into a show?

Tats: I don't know. I thought it was... When I got down to a certain point, I said, "Maybe this could be a showpiece." And there was a car club called... I think it was Triton. Triton Car Club? And the big promoter name was Gary Canning. In fact, I think his name was Gary Canning.

Oliver: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It was.

Tats: And then, he called me up and he said, "Hey, I heard you got a ’59 Chevy." I said, "Yeah." And he says, "Why don't you put in a Pasadena show?" I said, "What Pasadena show?" He said, "We're going to put on up a show in Pasadena." So he sent me a sheet to fill out or whatever, car, and I said, "Okay." That's about it. That's the first time I started in any shows, was the Pasadena show.

Oliver: What year was this?

Tats: God. I think ’60? I'm just guessing. ’60? ’59? ’60, I think. I think.

Oliver: Yeah.

Tats: Possibly ’61. I don't know. It was in there.

Oliver: And this was the first time that you had any car in a car show like this?

Tats: Yep.

Oliver: So at the Pasadena show, how did the Buddha Buggy do?

Tats: I got first place on that one.

Oliver: Okay.

Tats: In fact, I got first place... Either first place or sweepstakes on every show that car entered.

Oliver: I mean, roughly how many shows did you enter the car into?

Tats: I keep thinking it was either twelve or sixteen shows.

Oliver: Wow.

Tats: ... and I ended up something like twenty-five trophies.

Tim: Good afternoon, I’m Tim Mochizuki, I’m a third generation Japanese American, actually, of rarity, I’m a native Los Angelan. My mother always jokes that I’m a Nisei Han because she was born in Japan. My father was raised here as a Kibei Nisei, but part of his upbringing was in Japan. Born in Culver City, raised in Gardena, currently live in Torrance, California.

Cruise. You’re part of a car club, you want to see other cars, what did you do? The cruise circuit. The cruises all started right about early spring. Hanamatsuri, Cherry Blossom festival. It’s the spring festivals that the JA community holds. The last cruise here at Nisei Week, end of summer. So, you had that whole spring to summer time. Three months.

If you go back and talk to some of the people, ask them, “What did you do, when did you start working on your car and what was your goal?” And you’ll always hear, “To cruise Nisei.” 

The first cruise or the first carnival was either Venice or maybe it was at the time Long Beach, did have an Obon. And all the Buddhist churches published the schedule of when the Obons were. That became the cruise calendar. And if you look, the last thing on there is Nisei Week. So you had a lot of people that started working on their car on the first cruise. And you’d go out to the first cruise and you’d see dented cars, primered cars. No one has wheels. They’re freshly lowered. Exhausts are hanging on the ground, cracked windshields, you name it. By about the middle cruise, which is usually OCBC, the cars are starting to get painted. They’re starting to show rims and tires. They’re starting to have tinted windows. There's some pride being shown. Because everybody was gearing up to cruise Nisei.

And you’d start noticing somebody’s car. You knew someone, “Hey that’s Mikey, he’s getting ready, he’s got his car out.” And then you would see it at every cruise thereafter. Something else was done to it. And after a while you started noticing certain cars and you kept your eye out, because you thought, That’s going to be a good looking car. And when it showed up at Nisei, it’d be fully painted and it would be a fantastic vehicle to look at.
 

Work vehicles have been vitally important to the survival and growth of the Japanese American community throughout the entire 20th century. Especially with racial discrimination limiting labor opportunities for many Nikkei, work trucks and vans opened up forms of self-employment that allowed families to pursue social mobility on their own terms. That included farming, gardening, fish peddling, and service stations, all areas of work made possible by cars and trucks. These vehicles may have been more humble in their looks, but they were no less profound in their impact on family and community fortunes. 

Naomi: So Naomi Hirahara and I grew up in Altadena, and then we moved to South Pasadena, and I live in Pasadena right now.

Oliver: And what generation Japanese American?

Naomi: I call myself 2.5. My father's a Kibei Nisei, and my mother is a Shin Issei. They're both atomic bomb survivors, so that's part of my legacy. 

I guess my family, my parents, it's kind of a picture of the past because they were omiai or arranged marriage. My dad was here. He was born in Watsonville, California, went to—uh, with his older siblings to Hiroshima when he was a child and then, you know, was in the train station when the bomb was dropped. 

And then when he was an older teenager, about eighteen years old, he was—because he only had American citizenship and he did not fight for the Japanese. So he was able to get on a boat with other young men and return back. And so he did farming in Watsonville. He was a migrant farmer and all that. But then there were opportunities in Southern California for Japanese Americans, Kibei Nisei to become maintenance gardeners. And it was actually a very lucrative profession. After World War II, one out of ten Japanese Americans were in the gardening trade. It paid better than other kinds of transitional work.

So, um, but my father was not in camp, but he, you know, kind of rode the wave of gardening. And then in his thirties, he needed to get married. And so my father's family knew my mother's family. So, you know, it was it wasn't like a picture bride situation. The families knew each other. My dad went to Hiroshima and then my mom, you know, they came back married. And, you know, in Pasadena, there was a lot of people in need of gardening. I mean, historically, it's a wealthy area.

Oliver: A lot of lawns.

Naomi: A lot of lawns. And after World War II, with the GI Bill, there was this huge demand for gardeners. There were lawns, you know, outside of all these new developments. So a lot of people got involved.

After World War II, I mean, people are released from camp. They’re barred from doing a lot of different kinds of profession and they need to make money quickly. There’s also a stereotype. There’s the halo effect that Japanese people could grow things. Some of it was based on, you know, fact, because many people, like before World War II had come from agricultural backgrounds.

Oliver: Sure.

Naomi: And that’s actually why a lot of—there’s a lot of Japanese American gardeners, because one was, they had experience working with agricultural cooperatives back in Japan. So they kind of were able to band together. It was not, you know, uncommon for them to work together, whether they’re people in the same profession and like to get good deals, like on fertilizer, whatever you need to do.

And the other thing was they started living in boarding houses. And so, you know, Professor Takashima has called that the gardening college. So you get a bunch of bachelors together in a house. They're more experienced gardeners. The newcomers are like their apprentices and learning. And then, you know, white customers, they know, you know, they call up the house, I need a gardener. And they dispatched well, maybe the newer one.

Oliver: Yes. 

Naomi: So that kind of encouraged that whole profession. And after World War II, I mean, because people had favorable impressions of Japanese as gardeners, you know, they would open the door, you know, and it's a type of thing if you don’t like a gardener, you could just fire them, you know, so it’s not a big risk. And all you needed was a beat-up old truck, and a push mower in the beginning, and you were in business. And like I mentioned it actually paid better than other jobs, and I’m talking about like, 1946.

And I myself had a lot of nostalgic memories of my father's own truck. He had a Ford. It was like kind of like that green kind of green mold. But I think it’s beautiful. And my fond memories [were] when my father was coming home in when we lived in Altadena, we had a long driveway. So when I heard my, you know, dad coming up the driveway and he would go really slow, you know, the whole thing was to jump up the back, you know, and just hang on and Yeah.

I think in like the presentation of the gardening truck, there was so much creativity. There [were] a few car companies. They saw how many gardeners [were] out there and they tried to promote like a gardeners truck. Like you're going to put all—here's a special ramp, you know, here's a special container. It didn't take off because [this] group of people, they wanted to do things their own way.

So I believe this kind of shows, you know, here’s a rule and it's like, you know, whether it be alien land law, it’s like, I’m not going to follow that rule. I’m going to go another way, you know? And I think that kind of represents the spirit of the gardener, which I love. And it’s a spirit in which I was raised, you know, And I don’t think that's really talked about or acknowledged that much.

A lot of gardeners, they were tanka writers. There were, you know, poets. You know, haiku, senryu. They would—in their Turf and Garden publication they always had poetry in there. 

Oliver: Right.

Naomi: And so it’s kind of a different thing. You’re like—flower growers, for instance, had more money, they're more established. They are more the rule followers. So you didn't get, you know, the troublemakers. There were a lot of troublemakers among gardeners. There were people who came who are maybe, No, No, or, you know, and but it's like, okay, I want my own kind of job, so they got into the profession. 

I really learned how political that the gardeners were. They took a lot of positions with politicians, political campaigns, and also, I kind of knew this, but it really became apparent that they were the lifeblood of the community. So with one out of ten Japanese American men being gardeners, of course, you know, and they very much understanding the importance of being part of a larger community in giving money. You know, they were the ones that started a lot of community centers after World War II and or keeping them afloat. They were also—you know, so socially they had gardeners’ picnics. There was a whole kind of network. 

It was usually with the lawnmower shop or the gas station. That's where a lot of that was the social hub. But in some cases, the gas station on the side offered some mechanical services. So I think the reason why the gas station served that purpose more than maybe the mechanic was just space for them to socialize with my own father. I was more, it was like the gas station, the nursery and the lawnmower shop. It was more that network.

Sachi:  And my name is Sachiko Gotanda, and I like to be called Sachi. I'm Nisei, second generation. I grew up in East LA.

Oliver: Okay. And do you know how your parents ended up there?

Sachi: : When we came out of camp... And I was born in camp, so I was, towards the end of the war. I know we rented and my parents always wanted to have their own house because we were renting. So then my father and my mother found this house on 1st Street. It was a little small back house. That's where we first started living in East LA. And at that time, I guess my father didn't want to be a dishwasher any longer. He's always been kind of a person that would work for himself. And he enlisted the help of his uncle, the only one we had in the United States. His name was Yukawa, Uncle Yukawa, that's all I remember.

Oliver: : So let me back up, where do you think your father got the idea to start the truck?

Sachi:  Okay, getting back to that. So in looking up the log of where my brother was born, of the internees of that time, this one name came up. His name was Abe. We called him Abe-san, A-B-E. So we looked him up and they also put down where they came from. And so he came from San Bernardino. It was located on there. And so we think that when my father had to go out on these, I don't know, they were fruit, fruit or vegetable picking trips, all the men would have to leave the camp and they would be gone for a month. That's what my mother said. And then they would get paid for that. But they would come back, and I'm thinking that during those days when they're all together, they're talking about what they're going to do later, that could have possibly sparked some idea for him. Because Abe-san later became one of his customers in San Bernardino and a good friend, and he owned a market. He ran a market there, but he didn't have fish.

So that could have been it. We don't know where the idea really came from. But we know that knowing him, he knew he didn't want to wash dishes and he wanted to do something on his own. I mean, not being a citizen, it was very difficult. And then having a family, he couldn't go back to school for anything because he had to feed us. So somehow he came up with this idea. And he got this truck, which is different from what I understand might've been trucks of later years. He had a built-in ice compartment built into the truck that was all stainless steel, and it had locking doors. And then he would go early in the morning down to LA, Downtown LA, get the ice, probably go to the fish market, get the fish, and then he would go off on his route.

Oliver:  What do you remember about the truck in terms of what it looked like? I mean, you showed me a photo earlier of you and your brother sitting in the car. So what do you remember about the truck?

Sachi: Right. I always remember the fish compartment. But I do remember that he, in later years, he had shelves built in past the refrigerated section. There was a wall, I remember that. And then he had shelves put on the sides, and they would hold all the canned goods. They would hold all the things like senbei, that would be rice crackers. The back had a wall that separated the refrigerator compartment from the rest of the truck, I would say probably the middle.

My brother remembers the shelves because my brother would go with my father. My father would make him go, on summer vacations, go with him and he would remember that my father would always be yelling at him to get the kanzume. That's what they called canned goods. And so he'd had the shelves with canned goods, rice crackers, senbei, dried... I think in those days they sold the dried shrimp in little bags, things like that that all those shelves held, plus the rice.

Oliver:  Basically what your father had was a mobile market, right?

Sachi: Yes, he did. But like I said, first it started with the fish market and then it grew, I guess, because of demand for what his customers wanted. So I don't know when he picked up the March Air Force base. I don't know when it was. It probably was in maybe the 1950 or something when I guess the troops [were] coming back. He picked up the route where he would service the Japanese war brides that were married to... that came back to March Air Force Base that were married to Army people. And so they were very good customers with him because they missed their home, they missed their food. And so he had these customers that he also made friends with.

And I remember one time, I must've been about twelve, and so that would put us in 1950-something. But they all came over, the war brides and their husbands, and they made mochi the real way because my father had the mallet and then he had the granite stone thing. And my mother would cook the rice and she had these big, tall cans to steam the mochi. And they just had a great time. And they did it the old way with the singing every time they pounded, just like... And so I think the war brides, they really enjoyed that, his company. I mean, having to be with someone that they could relate to for back home.

Oliver:  Why was his route so far inland as opposed to he could have been servicing Los Angeles, right?

Sachi:  We're trying to figure that out. But we think it's because of his connections in camp. That's what we think. I mean, he not only had this customers, but they were also friends. Do you know what I'm saying?

Oliver:  Mm-hmm.

Sachi:  And if Abe-san was the same Abe-san, which we think was in Crystal City with him, I mean, you're talking a friendship of how many years?

Oliver:  Now, why are you so certain he was the first?

Sachi:  Because I have never heard of anyone else servicing that area.

Oliver: And how long did he do this for? When did he stop?

Sachi:  About 1958, somewhere around there.

Oliver:  Do you know why he stopped?

Sachi:  They're tired. He was tired and my mom was tired and they wanted to open up a grocery store.

Richard: I'm Richard Ikanda.

Oliver: What generation are you?

Richard: Sansei, third, and I was born in Reno, and we left when I was three years old. We moved back to Los Angeles where my parents basically grew up here.

Oliver: And what were your parents' names?

Richard: Tom Ikanda was my dad, and my mom was Dorothy.

Oliver: And you said that both of them grew up in LA before the war?

Richard:  Yes.

Oliver: What part of LA?

Richard: Good question. They moved I think back and forth between Santa Monica and Los Angeles basically, in this area here. A terrific area to grow up in, and I think for my dad, he started his business. He lost the business when they had to relocate, and he had a gas station right over here on Olympic Boulevard and Corinth Avenue, and of course when they were sent off to camp, they couldn't make the payments and therefore he lost his property.

Well, when he returned, he put a lot of effort into actually getting a car business, auto repair business going again, which he did, and he did that up until he retired. And while he was in business, because 20th Century Fox is just down the street here, his reputation as a good mechanic started to spread around, and eventually he became known as the mechanic to the stars. He had Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Tyrone Power. He had wonderful clients and he worked on their cars.

Oliver: Do you know what got your father interested in running a gas station? You said that he ran a gas station before the war.

Richard: Right, right.

Oliver: What got him interested in doing that, if you know?

Richard: Well, my grandfather, Ikkanda, he was actually in his youth, he was one of the first Japanese people here who actually flew biplanes. He took up flying. I think again, this was a mechanical thing, and I think from that, my dad was interested in anything mechanical, and of course that's how he got into boat racing and car racing. He was in the LA Times once. Being in the car business, you tend to have people come in and fix their transmission and then go home and have a flat tire, then they would want to take him to court because obviously you did something wrong to my car. So he spent a lot of time in court, small claims court, and eventually he put a sign outside his shop that said, "Not open to the public," and he only wanted customers that were recommended. He didn't want to cut all these goofballs.

And so people were wondering, how do you stay in business when you're not open to the public? Well, my dad had so many referrals of people, but his prices were always very reasonable. But my father said that he will always keep his prices fair, and when he had these movie stars and their managers telling him, "Tom, you should be raising your prices. They're too low." And my father said, "No, those are fair prices." And my brother and I always laugh about all our vacations involved a tent. We never stayed in a motel. He just didn't make that kind of money and he didn't want to raise his... So my dad had a very good reputation in town.

Oliver: What was the name of his shop that was on Sawtelle?

Richard: Ikkanda Automotive.

Oliver: And where was his new shop?

Richard: On Sawtelle.

Oliver: And where?

Richard: Sawtelle and Mississippi. He rented a place from a Shell gas station from Bob Fujimoto, and then eventually, he moved to another place just half a block north of that, he rented. And then eventually, he moved north of La Grange on Sawtelle and he bought a property there that he had until he retired.

John: My name is John Kuramoto. I was the youngest of three boys. My middle brother, Daniel, is right here. This is Dan. We have another brother, Ford, who is six years older than I am.

Dan: We were born and raised in Boyle Heights in East LA.

John: Born and raised, Los Angeles.

Oliver: And what generation Japanese-American are you?

Dan: Sanseis.

Oliver: Now, how did your family end up in Boyle?

Dan: Our father said that he picked the east side because there's a lot of logistical reasons for being East LA. To drive to Little Tokyo was just over the bridge and he said things like, that is the way our dad thinks, "Well, and you always have the sun at your back so you're not risking driving into the sun at the end of the workday," and things like that.

Oliver: So what did your parents do for work back then?

John: Well, dad was always working on cars. Okay Whether he was working for a company like Cook Brothers or he had his own station, or he would be working on the side of the street, he was very inclined to automotive stuff. And for him, he wanted to do what he enjoyed doing as a living. Okay And time afterwards he would say, "Be sure to do that. When you pick something to do, make sure you love it." He goes, "I love what I do." Sometimes we'd look around and go, "Yeah," and that was okay though because he was so committed.

Dan:  In a way, his situation was somewhat iconic because he had a Texaco service station. It wasn't originally. Before the camps, it was a-

John: Union.

Dan: ... Union. But after he came back, and again, the person that he was leasing the service station area from, let him come back and get back in. So there were white people who were really copacetic to what was our community. Our father had the only service station right in the heart of Little Tokyo where it's now Union Bank, that corner was Jack's Auto Service Center.

John: 2nd and San Pedro.

Dan: Apparently had quite a good reputation because people would come literally from all over Southern California to go to Jack's Auto Service.

John: Rumors from certain people get to other people, and suddenly, these Hollywood producers are bringing their cars. Right?

Dan: Well, also, the four dealerships and the Chevy dealerships, when they couldn't fix the cars, we had to be under secrecy. But we would go to the dealership, get the cars, that wouldn't work, and then our father and our uncles, but along with Frank Ohtani, they would make those cars run that the dealerships couldn't figure out what was wrong with them.

John: Our father was very interested in getting that service station on 2nd and San Pedro, and then he went to work there and met the people and talked to the owners until there was some kind of point of negotiation. The shop became the possession of our family, and it was a mobile station. So next thing we know, here we are, it became transitioned into Jack's Auto Service.

Oliver: Okay.

Dan: My brother mentioned that in a typical-

John: Family.

Dan: ... family, his brother, Frank, who also went to Lincoln High School, and then his youngest sister's husband, Harry, who was a major in the United States Army, it was a family gas station is the point.

Oliver: I see.

Dan: But with Frank Ohtani, who was a family friend.

John: When we took it over, I think the family decided, "Let's make this family." And so you do this and do that."

Dan: Right.

John: Right?

Oliver: Not a coincidence. So what was it like working at your dad's shop?

John: It was responsible, number one. It wasn't easy. Okay A lot was expected of you, but we also understood that kind of came with the territory. Right? Because he was trying to run a professional business and they needed help. Anyway, yeah, I think it was because of that. We worked there. We understood that it was a growing process.

Dan: Well, and as in most Asian families, you really didn't have a choice anyway.

John: Oh, yeah. I forgot that.

Oliver: The popularity of Jack's Auto Service, was that partly about location? Because I would imagine-

Dan: Absolutely.

Oliver: ... families were going to come in to Little Tokyo, do shopping, whatever else. They might as well get their car serviced while they're going to be there.

Dan: It was centrally located and thus, that had a lot to do with it. And then apparently, they were quite good at what they did because he was always booked out. Really, nothing ever left a shop that wasn't guaranteed fixed. In that sense of Nisei pride was really big in our family. So if I did it, then it's got to be 100% right kind of attitude.

Oliver: What happened to your dad's tools during the war years?

Dan: Well, the family was the Dehart family and-

John: Ken Dehart.

Dan: Yeah. And just the nicest people. A white family that... And they just saw it as wrong, as many did. Deharts risked everything because they took all his tools and hid it in their garage. And to me, as I think back on it, what a risk. And it was a very dangerous thing to do at a very dangerous time, but that's what happened. And they held it all through the war, right?

John: Yes. Yes, they did.

Oliver: So when your family came back from Idaho, right? I think that's where you said that-

John: Yeah. Yes.

Oliver: ... he able to go get his tools and basically get back to work.

Dan: Yeah.

John: They had his truck, which was sold for-

Dan: I don't know how they did-

John: The pick-up truck was loaded, right? And they put it in their garage.

Dan: Yeah, they hid everything.

John: And that thing was stacked up as high as you could stack it with whatever they could put in there. They say, "You put whatever can fit in this garage." So they, I think had to take some stuff out, then get the truck out and restack it. But it was like that. And once he had his truck, he had that back to the shop and make it work. Right? That's enough. He said he appreciated what had taken place, what was done for our family. And he said, "I'm going to make the most of it now."

Dan: And actually, because he was ready to go back to work because he had access to a truck and his tools, I think that is the real reason why he was able to get back into that 2nd and San Pedro property-

Oliver: Right.

Dan: ... because he was ready to go.

Car culture has played a major role in shaping the Japanese American community in southern California over the past hundred years. Whether joining car clubs, taking road trips together, or polishing their rides to cruise summer festivals, the Nikkei have built friendships and sustained in intergenerational family relationships through their vehicles. This was just as true for early car owners in the 1910s as it was in the dark years of World War II incarceration as it has been for multiple generations of Nikkei who have come of age in LA in the decades since. There are car communities and there are communities forged through cars, and Japanese Americans here have had indelible experiences with both. 

Nadine: My name is Nadine Sachiko Hsu. I was born and raised in Arcadia, California and I've lived here ever since like... Oops. I never left. I am a Nisei but remember our conversation that was kind of... Yeah. My grandfather was actually born here in the States but he did go back to Japan and marry and had my dad in Japan. In Kumamoto. And then, my dad came here and met my mom so I'm a Nisei-ish (laughs).

Oliver: Right. Somewhere between nisei or depending on how you want to count it, just-

Nadine: Nisei and a half (laughs).

Oliver: Right, right. So let's get into your background in cars. And so, how did you... What is your earliest memory of being interested or fascinated in a car?

Nadine: My dad was very into F1. He would read magazines on the toilet of F1 cars. It'd be F1 magazines on the toilet. So then, I'd be in the bathroom and then I would read his magazines and I'm like, "Oh, look at these cars. That's cool." Put them away and... I think it was always in the back of my mind. And then, he would always watch F1 and I'd sit down and watch it with him and it was just something that we would do. And then later, I met a lot of people who were into cars and I would go with them to the street races in Ontario. So this was much later, like probably when I was in ninth grade or something and we would go to the street races and I loved it. And there was a woman street racer named Kimbo and she was one of the only females drag racing her Honda Civic. And she really inspired me and I'm just like, "Oh, gosh. That's so cool." She doesn't always win but she's out there giving it her all and she's very brave. So I was like, "One day, I really want to do this. I want to be like her."

So I got my driver's license and immediately started fixing up my car and modifying it and going to Kinokuniya and buying Option magazines which is... They have lots of cars from Japan that inspired me to fix up my 240 and I happen, just by chance, to get a 240 as the first car. A cousin sold it to me for like 500 bucks. It was not my preference. I thought it was a terrible car. And then, I opened up an Option 2 magazine from Kinokuniya and it was like my car all over it and I go, "Oh, I have the best car for drifting," and I had no idea. So I was going to sell it and get a Honda but I changed my mind and I just stuck with the 240.

Oliver: What year was it?

Nadine: 1989. It's a is. I still have it.

Oliver: Okay. There we go.

Nadine:  Yeah.

Oliver: Early nineties would've also been the heyday of the import car scene.

Nadine:  Mm-hmm. Yes.

Oliver: Battle of the Imports. Things that were basically off the streets but more organized. And then, eventually, you would have the Showoffs and other car shows and car meets. Were you involved in that part of the scene as well?

Nadine: Yes. I would go to Battle of Imports, actually with my girlfriends. We would have fun there. And also, Pomona, they would do drag racing, just practice. I would go to that and actually that's where I had my first race, like where I took my own car, was the Pomona Raceway. And then, I would go to Ken Miyoshi's Import Showoffs all the time. I love looking at all those cars.

Oliver: Given that so much of the car scene and... Or scenes. Plural, right? So many of the car scenes here are disproportionately, predominantly men, right? Do you feel like you were treated differently as a woman entering into that space?

Nadine:  Yeah. I was definitely treated very different. When I approached sponsors, it was a very weird thing because usually like a guy, you approach a sponsor and you give them their driving history and their qualifications and that's it. But then, I was thinking about how I looked and then there's that fine line between being a model who wants to race and being a true race car driver and I would get mixed up with that. People would get me mixed up with that like, "Oh, she's just pretty."

And it wasn't that I never wanted to be a model and I never wanted anyone to view me that. And I was constantly kind of fighting that, "Show me sexy." It's like, "No, no, no. I'm a driver. I just want to drive. Let's leave it at that." So I had more of a battle. And then, you're kind of more under the microscope because there's not that many of you. So then, you become the spectacle. So then, I'm criticized more than your average guy. Because then, everyone's watching you because you're the token few girls that are there that day. It was difficult. But also, we had tons of support from our fellow drivers. The men who were driving with us, they saw me as who I was. They knew I was Nadine and I was a driver and they wanted to help me.

Oliver: And somewhere... Sorry. Sometime within this, you form your own drifting crew.

Nadine: I do.

Oliver: Yeah.

Nadine: I do. I formed Drifting Pretty in 2003. I was so sick of not seeing any girls at the track. It was so frustrating. There was one girl at the track, Yoshie Ishiyama and me, and that was it. And it was just Nadine and Yoshie all the time and I was... I loved Yoshie but I was like, "Come on. There has to be more girls." And girls would always email me saying, "Oh, I love what you're doing. I wish I could only, but I can't because..." They would give me excuses. So then, that would happen. I think after one hundred emails from girls, I was like, "I got to do something."

So then, I emailed all the girls that were at least in the States, like in California, and I said, "Do you want to meet? Do you want to get together? I'm thinking of creating this maybe club or school to help teach... Get the girls together, and we all help each other, and we'll teach each other things and learn how to drift together. Maybe that'll be less scary." And so, yeah. So in December of 2003, we all met at a park, fourteen girls, and a couple of them were from San Francisco area, they even drove down.

Oliver: Wow. Okay.

Nadine: And we got together. Some had their cars already. Some came in their Hondas and they all had one goal in mind which was learning how to drift. That was that historic day in December of 2003. So we became like a school. So we would meet every month. We would do classes. We would do tech days where we would learn how to do basic things like change oil, change our tires. Eventually, we got more advanced. We were swapping... We weren't doing it all by ourselves but we would be taught how to pull out a transmission, pull out an engine, do little mods like change out your suspension or your brakes.

So we would do themed days like that to teach the girls and expose them to that. We would do field trips to shops that were building cars. And of course, we would race every... I would race every month. Not everyone could but we would go to the track together and go race. And we would also go go-karting together to train because I think it's a good foundation to know how to do wheel-to-wheel racing. We do autocross racing. We would do different kinds of racing besides drifting. So I feel like all of that is a good foundation to have to make you a better drift driver. So we were exposed to a lot of different types of racing.

And eventually, we built a team. Of our four members, there were four of us that wanted to go pro. So we formed Team Drifting Pretty and I asked my sponsors to get on board and give us some tires and body kits and money. And we started competing together and two of us made it into Formula Drift, the Pro Series, and I did do a season with Formula Drift in 2005, I think.

It's still... So Team Drifting Pretty was short-lived because competitive racing is a very challenging sport, both on the budget and the mind. Honestly, we didn't like the competitiveness of being a pro driver. It was a lot of pressure and a lot of consequences for not placing and not qualifying and it was just too heavy on us. And we were... Drifting was about having fun. It wasn't about competing. So that was short-lived, Team Drifting Pretty.

But Drifting Pretty, the organization itself is still in operation today. But we kind of shifted our focus and we more just do outreach through our podcast, the Drifting Pretty Podcast, because we still want to touch people's lives. But I think we can touch a broader audience by talking about our experiences through Drifting Pretty, because all of us have since done so much with our lives and we all have drifting to thank. I think that all our experiences gave us the confidence that we needed to take risks in life and draw outside the lines.

Oliver: Tell us your name and tell us how old you were when you joined The Atomettes.

Sadie: My name is Sadie Hifumi. Let's see, I think I was about twelve when I joined The Atomettes.

Rose:  I'm Rose Honda. And Mary Ishizuka and myself, we were advisors to the seven teenagers, and I must have been about  nineteen years old.

Kathleen: My name is Kathy Yamazaki, I was fourteen years old, I had come from Chicago so I was one of the last one to join the group.

Oliver: How important was it especially at the age of sixteen, seventeen years old, people to have access to a car or to a truck. Was that something that you and your friends looked forward to? Getting a driver's license?

Sadie: When Susan turned sixteen, she's the first one that got a license, she's the one that drove us around everywhere.

Rose: Twenty years old when I applied for driver's license. And after that I was able to take these girls around. It was a Chevy Coupe and there was space behind the driver's seat, so the girls were not very big, so they all fit in there, four, or five, or six of them.

Sadie: There'd be at least two or three in the front and then the rest in the back.

Rose: But it was a wonderful Chevy.

Oliver: Tell me about how did The Atomettes form? Whose idea was it and how did you find people to join the group?

Oliver: Did you meet any of the members, did you know any of the Atomettes when you were in camp?

Rose: No. No, I didn't know these girls at all. Yeah. So once we got out it was wonderful. Mary Ishizuka and I said to the adults, let's form a club for them and show them what's available around Los Angeles because their parents were definitely working and this gave us an opportunity to show them around what is available.

Rose: The group started as a Sunday school class. Mary and I decided, "Well, we need to have some activities for the young girls." Started to have this club! And that's how it started.

Oliver: What kind of activities did you and Mary want to introduce the girls to?

Rose: Well, it was mainly traveling to different places. But every week, I think it was Friday nights, we had club meetings, and we had the club meetings at each of the different homes. And what was the greatest thing about, we always had plenty of food to eat and lots. We just enjoyed each other and had lots of laughter, just laughed all the time.

Sadie: Whenever we had these fundraisers, they specified that we could keep half for our activities, but we should always use the other half to

 give back to the church. So once, we were able to buy a record player, I don't think people know about it anymore, but a phonograph player for the Sunday school. And we bought curtains for the kitchen that we had painted. And what else did we buy? But we always had mission projects.

Oliver: And how did each of you end up joining The Atomettes? How did you join?

Sadie: We just sort of slid in, didn't we? We were in the Sunday school class and when they, Mary and Rose asked us, would we'd like to form a club? We all said yes. So that's how we joined. But Mary emphasized that we should always learn things. And I guess she was a teacher, so that's why she would take us to Forest Lawn. Well, who goes to Forest Lawn? I mean, only dead people. Right? But she knew that they had sculptures, and they had, what do you call? Stained-glass windows. And she made sure that we—

Rose: Always, always—

Sadie: ... always something that we could learn from.

Oliver: Yeah, I mean, when you first joined, what do you remember as being your memories of joining the club?

Kathy: Well, as I said, just because we knew her family, but there was Tya, and it happened that she was in my same class in Manzanar, and so we reconnected. And so that made two of them. And so it was easy, and it was really, since we're still friends and we get together. In fact, we got together just, what? Last week. And we were lucky that all of us that's still here.

Sadie:  And our parents were Issei, and so they would never think about taking us places. But Rose and Mary introduced us to all the—

Oliver: And so, Rose, why was traveling so important to you and Mary in terms of what you introduced?

Rose: What was important about traveling? Well, I think mainly with Mary, because she was a geography teacher, she wanted to teach the girls all about what's happening locally and what are the benefits to learn about LA. Because the girls didn't have any way to really go around Los Angeles to find out. So that was mainly to introduce them to this new place for them. One of the things that the girls did that was very important was to support the church by doing many projects, and that was very important. That was all part of learning to give as well as returning. So I think that was what happened.

Kathy: And having fun doing it too. Yeah, right. Because those are the memories I remember. Yeah, it's different than the kids going up right now.

Oliver: Right. I mean, I really liked, I think, Rose, what you were saying, it was about giving service, but enjoying pleasure. And thinking about, on the one hand, contributing, but also enjoying yourself. And I feel like that's a really great value system to—

Rose: Yes, and the girls were amazing. They formed a choir, the first choir for the church, which the choir still is existing. The girls were the first one who started serving Easter breakfast.

Oliver: Yeah. So first, what year did The Atomettes form? Do you remember? Was a 1950?

Sadie: Oh, maybe ’48 then.

Oliver: Okay.

Sadie: Yeah.

Rose: And all the girls, as they got older, they all helped in the church school to teach Sunday school.

Oliver: And I was going to ask, I mean, did this, at the time, did this feel special to you all to be able to go with your friends? Your parents aren't with you, you're just going as friends, and you're going to all these places and experiencing—

Kathy: A lot of fun.

Sadie: Yeah, absolutely.

Kathy: And different places too.

Sadie: It was one of our, the best times of our lives. Right?

Kathy: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah.

Rose: Yeah. Well, all those road trips were just very, very pleasant and so much fun.

Kathy: Well, I guess because we were young and it was, quote, "safe." And a lot of time we're just laughing from incidents that happened, and it's hard to, because we were always laughing, huh?

Ken: My name is Ken Miyoshi and I'm from Huntington Beach, California. I am a Shin Issei, which is a first generation coming to America. Well, as a Shin Issei, I was born in Tokyo and I was raised in the Philippines, which my parents ended up opening up a seafood business to export to here to the United States. I eventually ended up here in Los Angeles. I grew up in Cerritos, which is obviously the border of Orange County and Los Angeles. My interest in cars is from my brother, which he hung out more with the Asian groups. The older ones, either his friends' brothers were from a group. There was a large, very popular group called Shoreline Racing, and a couple of the members were in Cerritos, and a lot of the Asian kids looked up to them and wanted to be just like them, so they created subgroups just like Shoreline Racing.

Oliver: You got involved with one of those subgroups?

Ken: Yes. There was a largely Japanese American group called Pacific Power, namely fitting, obviously, with Pacific Ocean and the power, as you mean, horsepower. Most of them were from Cerritos, Fullerton, Buena Park, but mostly surrounding areas. Whether they knew each other from martial arts or the SEYO basketball, so they already was clumped up and grew up together, and they got all into cars together, which my brothers were friends of and I got influenced into it. They were doing nightclub events, so that's when me and my friends got together and we started doing little... We started making deals with these night bars and running them out, and doing eighteen-and-over events. The popularity for all these Asian parties was, first, a sense of belonging, because obviously, there wasn't much things to do at night. It was like race crews, where who could throw the better parties? That's another factor what drove me to throw bigger parties. It's like a pat on the back when even South Bay people come to our parties. Sometimes never ended good, because there was a fight. Yeah, it was just... I think each promoter had a sense of competition. The transition from throwing parties to car shows was... There was a time when I was throwing car shows and, obviously, parties, but that came when we were doing a nightclub in here in downtown Los Angeles and they had a smoking section. I was out in the balcony and then I already had fixed-up cars, but noticed they would like to cruise up and down the street. When there's a line, the reason why they cruise back in the street is because they want the people in the line taking a look at their cars, and right when everybody else is inside, I don't know if they don't want to pay the entrance fee, but they would park their cars outside, stand next to the cars, and wait until the club is over, so they can be seen again while they're walking out. I think that triggered me to a point where it's saying, "Well, if they want to be seen and they want to hang out, I want to encompass that under one roof in a convention center or a huge building atmosphere," and that's where Showoff became.

Oliver: Tell me about that first Showoff. When was it and where was it, and how did you put it together?

Ken: Okay. Well, the car show was mainly called Import Showoff, was put together in Pomona Fairplex, it was in 1994. We've gotten together and talked to a couple of clubs, the car clubs, and it's seeing if there was any interest, we passed out flyers. People mailed in with a picture if they're interested in showing their cars, and that was my research to see if it can move forward. Then that's when we moved forward in presenting at the Fairplex staff, and they were first not too welcome, since a couple years before that, they had a lowrider show, which for them, any modified car is modified car, and there was a stabbing, so they didn't know if the right demographics would be coming, and they banned those lowrider shows at Pomona Fairplex.

Oliver: In terms of specifically the import cars shows that you began to throw, the Showoffs, did those kinds of shows already exist before you got involved in that scene? If they did, what were they like?

Ken: Okay. Before car shows, there were, in modern terms, like a little meet where everyone meets, but it wasn't to a point where there's admissions or things like that. I think the whole shift in paying admission or thousands of people want to come in one place to see it was to Battle of the Imports, which was a drag race that happened in Palmdale Raceway, where an organizer, he's Korean American, name's Frank Choi, he put together maybe two or three times a year where it was largely first started as sorority and fraternity battles. Friendly competition amongst Asians first started from Battle of the Imports, which kind of gave me the push to say, "Okay, these cars are fast, but they don't look as nice. I like nice-looking cars and I'm promoting events, and I know that I could get more people that are not into speed to have more interest at our car shows." For the first car show, after reaching out to a couple people, I personally had an inner feeling that it would work, but there was the deterrence where, even people from my inner circle said, "Wait a minute, so you are going to charge people to show their cars and you're going to charge people to go come see the cars? That's not going to happen. You could just hang out and throw a little parking lot and have people come." I said, "Well, that's cool. You could maybe grab about one hundred people, but this is when you want to bring thousands of people into one place. They're doing it in Palmdale, I'm sure they could do it in Pomona." I had a really inner gut feeling with a little bit of a discouragement from the outside.

Oliver: It sounds like the Fairplex folks were also a little bit hesitant as well.

Ken: Yes. Obviously, they would like to hold any events, because that's what they are, an event hall, but they weren't so sure of the demographics, to a point where I had to turn in a roster to show them that they all had names like Lee, Nakamura, versus Gonzalez, Lopez. It's weird that I had to show pictures... Because all the entries, I had to show the pictures to make sure that they can rest assured that there are no lowriders at the show.

Oliver: Seems a little racist on their part, in terms of... They're basically profiling who—

Ken: Exactly. I already knew that it would bring the right demographics, so I just complied with their requests. Yeah, looking back at all of it now and obviously being this era of being correct, it would definitely be profiling. For sure, that's for sure.

Oliver: How did that first show go?

Ken: Our first show at Pomona went really well, to the point where, right when I finished, I got phone calls, or pager text, "When's next? When's next?" I just wanted to decompress. I was in my room and didn't even get out for a week just to decompress, but right when I finished, I wanted to do another event, and we knew that there's a large... Because of Battle of the Imports, there was a large subculture in San Diego also, so there was a lot of Filipinos and Asians, because we're doing it out here, that went over and they have their illegal drag races out there. We did it at the Del Mar fairgrounds, and that one even did more. As we moved on to San Francisco, we made more people, so it just snowballed from there.

Oliver: What do you think made those early Showoffs so popular? Both for people who were participating, but also for the people who wanted to come through to spectate.

Ken: Our car shows appealed more, because as opposed to Battle of the Imports, it's out in the sun, it's sometimes even 90, 100 degrees weather, where Pomona is a controlled... Well, first of all, you could get there in forty minutes, not like two hours, and secondly, we geared it towards where Battle of the Imports was throwing flyers more towards colleges. We, as promoters, went to other nightclub promoter events and bombed flyers there, or we were promoting it at our event and bombed flyers there. Then we also put in... Our DJs are performing or things that could trigger, but later on, as we gotten bigger and bigger, more interest came that way. We did the dance crew showoff, the turntable showoff, and other entertainment.

Brian: Yeah, so my name is Brian Karasawa. I was born on the west side of Long Beach.

So I’m third generation Sansei, Japanese. Again grew up in Long Beach, west side of Long Beach. My parents, um, they moved a lot. My mother was originally from Canada. My father was actually born here in California, but his family moved back to Japan at an early age. We spent probably the majority of growing up in the west side of Long Beach.

As far as the activities, you would drive around, you would street race. You would find other rival clubs, whether it’s on good terms or bad terms. But depending on what that is, will drive whatever behavior might be going on out there in the streets. But I would say, also attending a lot of carnivals or social events. The Japanese Obon Carnivals, Nisei Week, going places to eat. There were always local places that everyone would go. Those were the type of things we did back then.

So for Nisei Week, and specifically the Nisei Week Carnival and the cruise that happens during and after it, I mean, it was the biggest event of the year, I think, for a lot of Asian youth. It was the closing of the summer, right before everybody has to go back to school or work or whatever.

But the event was the highlight of the year, right? There would be hundreds, if not thousands, of cars that would come out. Definitely people, Asian youth, in the thousands, would just line the streets and the sidewalks just waiting, watching the cars go by or socializing. But I haven’t seen a phenomenon like that since, and I don’t know where all these people went, but yeah. I mean, these gatherings were enormous.