"Knock It Over Seven Times, Rise the Eighth” - Mitsuo Usai - Los Angeles (1981)

Mitsuo (Mitchell) Usui, a realtor from Northridge and WWII veteran, testified before the Commission in memory of his late parents. His testimony traced his family’s flourishing nursery business, the trauma of incarceration, his own military service, and the lasting wounds of loss.

• Family & Community Roots: Parents were active in Los Angeles Japanese community groups. His mother taught songs and cherished sayings; his father served on civic boards and left a legacy of service and faith.

• The Nursery Business: In 1938, the family invested in the Friend Club Nursery in Crenshaw, with $10,000 in land and inventory. By evacuation, it was thriving. They were forced to sell it for only $1,000 when his father was imprisoned by the FBI.

• Arrest & Evacuation: FBI agents raided their home after Pearl Harbor, chaining and numbering his father “like an animal.” The family was sent to Santa Anita Assembly Center and then to Colorado; his father later rejoined them from detention in New Mexico.

• Loss & Humiliation: Returning after the war, Usui tried to buy back the nursery, only to find it resold at inflated prices. The insult broke his father, who “never recovered” and died in 1953.

• Military Service: Despite his father’s objections — “It’s like kicking you in the pants, then asking you to shine my shoes” — Usui volunteered. He trained in Japanese language and paratroop units, serving until 1946. Returning home in uniform, he faced slurs of “damn Jap” on a Los Angeles bus, only defended by the bus driver.

• Legacy of Resilience: Remembered his mother’s proverb: “Knock it over seven times, it still comes up the eighth.” Saw in this the spirit of Issei, Nisei, and Sansei — to keep fighting for justice, dignity, and recognition.

• Closing Plea: Declared he would “keep on fighting until justice is done.”