Interviews

1. Going to America after completing a three-year contract twice (Japanese)

2. Opening of Sushi Gen in Little Tokyo (Japanese)

3. Wanting to serve authentic nigiri sushi in America (Japanese)

4. Difficulty of spreading authentic sushi (Japanese)

5. Teaching how to eat sushi (Japanese)

6. Presenting nebuta from hometown Aomori at Nisei Week (Japanese)

7. Becoming a member of nikkei community (Japanese)

8. Why I became an American citizen (Japanese)

9. I’m worried about the future of sushi in America (Japanese)

10. Unforgettable words of my mother (Japanese)

Toyoshima,Toshiaki

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

Becoming a member of nikkei community (Japanese)

(Japanese) I moved to America to make sushi, so I hadn’t really thought about anything else, like the nikkei community. I came here as a migrant worker, so I thought that I would eventually go back to Japan and open my own restaurant in Japan with the money I’d earned here. But when I opened my own restaurant and started business, after finishing my second contract of three years, I realized that there was a really active community here, something I wasn’t aware of, and I started to become more and more conscious about things I didn’t learn in Japan. There were nikkei internment camps and other things that happened to people. I’d never heard of them. They went through such hardship. In April every year, there’s a bus that goes to Manzanar. I had wanted to visit the place - I always thought about it - but maybe I should start local, and then get into such community. That’s how I started. And I realized that there was a community for nikkei people and for new issei like us, so it’s been such an encouragement for me to be able to work in the community built on hard work of nikkei people.

California communities generations immigrants immigration Issei Japan Los Angeles migration postwar Shin-Issei United States World War II

Date: April 16, 2016

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mistue Watanabe

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

Interviewee Bio

Toshiaki Toyoshima was born on August 21, 1949 in Aomori Prefecture. In 1962, he moved to Tokyo at the age of 16 and received his training to become a chef as a live-in trainee at a sushi restaurant, while taking evening classes at the same time. Later he joined Sanchoukai, a chefs’ association, and worked at a number of sushi restaurants. In 1973, he signed a contract to work at a restaurant, Tokyo Kaikan, in Los Angeles for three years, and moved to America. After finishing the contract, he went back to Japan once but was asked by Tokyo Kaikan to work for them again, which led him to sign another contract of three years and return to Los Angeles. Upon completing his second contract, he decided to stay in America, and in 1980, he opened “Sushi Gen” in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. He worked for the foundation of Aomori Kenjinkai (prefectural association) of Southern California and contributed to the development of nikkei communities in Los Angeles. In addition, he became the first chairperson of the Nebuta Performance Preservation Committee in 2007, and has committed to the inheritance of Japanese culture. In 2015, he received an award by the Consulate-General of Japan in Los Angeles. (May 2018)