The Nisei Lounge, Chicago

---

I am stopping in Chicago, on my way back from Annapolis/Baltimore and my visit with Dirty Pat, and Mrs. Pat. I am here to complete the last part of my journey to document and discover the places where my parents spent time during World War 2, including their incarceration in Gila, AZ (I visited in March 2023). After my parents eloped to Phoenix, while incarcerated at Gila, they left Arizona on a work furlough. Internees were allowed to leave the camps, provided they had a job in the interior part of the country, to help in the war effort due to a severe shortage of manpower. I plan to visit two locations, the apartment where they lived, and the famous Nisei Lounge.

The Nisei Lounge: From their website:


Nisei Lounge (at 3439 N. Sheffield) is proudly celebrating its 67-year history as the oldest bar in Wrigleyville. Whether you are in Wrigleyville for a game, or live down the street, or just looking for a bar to hide out where your boss, spouse, priest or rabbi will never find you, Nisei Lounge is just where it has always been, ready and waiting to serve you a cold beer or a tasty cocktail in a bar that has not changed since Nixon was in the White House and the Cubs only had one World Series ring.



There have been some recent improvements to the bar since its 1951 founding. But most notably are a web site, acceptance of credit cards, a new logo, six new flat screen TV's and new owners looking to continue the long tradition Nisei Lounge has provided the city of Chicago and neighborhood. Nisei will continue on as one of the last pubs in the area and will keep its character and atmosphere. There may be some other surprises as well, but you will have to come on in and have a drink to see!



Our web site is complete with information on private parties, news articles, and all sorts of history about Nisei Lounge, past and present.



This much is known about Nisei Lounge:




It is Chicago’s finest dive barIt is conveniently located one block south of America’s best ballpark - Wrigley FieldIt is pronounced “Knee - Say”


Everything else about Nisei Lounge’s history is rumor, innuendo, and conjecture.



Legend, and a few guidebooks, say Nisei Lounge was founded by second generation Japanese immigrants in 1951 to provide a spot for Chicago’s Japanese American community to socialize over a few drinks. It may or may not have been located at Clark and Division from 1949 to 1951 until moving in 1951 to its current location in historic Links Hall (built in 1921 - just 7 years after Wrigley Field).





From K. Nagasawa:

Japanese Americans didn’t end up in Chicago of their own accord: The U.S. government forcibly resettled 20,000 of them to the city from World War II incarceration camps. And, as part of that effort, the government pressured them to shed their Japanese identities and assimilate into white society.



The result? Unlike cities on the West Coast, Chicago’s “Japantown” was not official, and it was short-lived. The government’s efforts have had a lingering effect on Japanese Americans, though. As one Chicago Japanese-American tells it: “You had to basically be unseen.”





Pretty sad commentary. I wonder how my parents actually fared here.



From Scoundrel's website: While many dive bar names consist of puns, family names and neighborhood landmarks, ‘Nisei’ stands for a bit more, the word meaning second-generation Japanese immigrant. One often forgotten part of Wrigleyville’s deep, beyond baseball history is its association with displaced Japanese Americans relocated to the area after the closing of World War II-era internment camps. Opened in 1951, Nisei Lounge gave some of these Japanese American Chicagoans a place to congregate and swap stories. Over time, that original set of regulars moved away or passed on, but the heritage reflected in the name here is a bit deeper than the average dive bar.


Did my Dad ever stop in here for a beer after work? Maybe. In the relatively short time I observed my Dad, and his alcohol intake, I can only recall a few facts. A case of beer in the garage would last years and years. His favorite drink at a bar was a Seagram's VO and water. We shared a drink at a bar only once, at my Uncle's wedding reception in Fresno back in the 60s.
But when I pull up a barstool at the Nisei Lounge, I will have a cold beer for him. For those of you that do not know, he died in 1971, at the young age of 51, while I was in Europe. I was stuck in Switzerland or Italy, and experienced the worst two weeks of my life.


My parents lived in this Chicago apartment at 4421 W. Jackson. I also plan to drive by (Uber) and at least see where they lived just prior to the end of the war. Interestingly, all of my Mom and Dad's siblings followed, except for the two youngest brothers who were still in high school. A third brother, my Dad's younger brother, was drafted into the Army from Jerome, AK Relocation camp. Ironically, he joined the MIS and had to interrogate Japanese POWs on the mainland of Japan, near Tokyo.


In total, my Mom and Dad had their three sisters (Bette, Kikuye, and Nancy) living with them. My Dad worked in an auto repair shop, the Wood Brothers, while my Aunts worked at Curtis Candy factory. During this period, they became Chicago Cubs fans as well. But I never heard them talk about enjoying Chicago, other than the freedom from the Relocation camps in the desert of Arizona or the swamps of Arkansas.


This trip will provide some closure regarding my quest to learn about their wartime experience. They rarely talked about it. And as children, we did not have enough curiosity or perspective to ask questions. Have I documented their journey accurately? I think so. Will any of my family become interested in their journey? Apparently not.


Does it matter to me? No. I did it for myself.


I may try to find the Buddhist temple where my Great Grandfather served in Nagoya in April.

---