Beloved California doughnut shop owner reflects on childhood in Japanese internment camp

Off Route 66 in Southern California, a small doughnut store has been a neighborhood fixture for many years. 

Jim Nakano opened The Donut Man in Glendora, California, along with his spouse in 1972, as a result of, as he instructed CBS Information, “my spouse likes scorching doughuts.” 

And he or she’s not the one one. Loyal prospects hold coming again for the wide range of crowd favorites, from glazed to the store’s signature strawberry.

Nakano’s story is uniquely American. Throughout World Conflict II, at simply 2 years outdated, he was despatched along with his mom to a Japanese internment camp. 

“So many People have no idea about this chapter in our historical past,” he stated. “And a few of ’em do not consider it, you recognize, that our nation would do this to folks.”

He stated it is essential for folks to “study your tradition, study your loved ones, ‘trigger that’ll make us nearer.”

Nakano says the store has additionally helped him make a particular reference to the neighborhood.

“This doughnut store has given us a lot alternative to fulfill totally different folks,” he stated. “I am simply grateful that we got the chance and we made one of the best of it and the American dream.”