SEATTLE — The family of Jitsuzo Nakata and his wife, Shima, of Bainbridge Island, in Washington state, was that immigrant story at the heart of the American dream legend: Arrive with not much to your name, work hard, work even harder, save, create a business, build a home, be part of the community, raise a family in the U.S. of A.
In 1942, Nakata was 67; his wife, 55. Farmers who had emigrated from Japan, they had spent most of their adult lives on the island.
Before and after World War II, the Nakata family enterprises would include a barbershop, laundry service and bathhouse; a strawberry farm; a butcher shop; and a grocery business. After the war, they pooled resources with high school friend Ed Loverich — such enduring ties were not unusual — to start the Town & Country Market in Winslow. There are now six in the Puget Sound area.
