Alice Kaya: A woman’s story

By M.J. DeLost

In 1974, after moving to Omaha from Baltimore, I met this most amazing woman by the name of Alice.  At the time, I didn’t realize just how amazing she was because like most twenty-one year old young men, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Today, I’m about the same age as she was when I first met her, and she is even more amazing now. This is her story.
In 1916, four years before Alice was born, her parents, Yanayo and Kanichi Matsunami, moved to the United States in search of a better life.  They settled in Sacramento, California, where they worked as farmers and lived on the Sacramento River in a wooden hut built by Kanichi. 
Alice was born on May 12, 1920.  Her parents named her Toshiye which means “third daughter.”  Eventually, the Matsunamis had seven more children. 
Alice spent her early years in California, where she met Jack (his Japanese name was Tsutomu) Kaya who was a member of Japanese royalty and therefore required to follow Japanese tradition.  Jack’s parents arranged a marriage between him and the Matsunami family. Jack had the choice between three of the daughters, Masako (Em), Minako (Pat) or Alice. The first time Alice saw Jack was when she was about 12 years old. Jack had come to their home to borrow money from her parents. Alice peeked at the stranger through a knot hole in their wooden hut. Little did she know that she would be the one Jack would ultimately pick to be his bride, and the only child of the ten to marry by tradition.
After high school, Alice went to Los Angeles to attend The Wolfe School for Costume Design. Upon graduation from The Wolfe School, Alice landed a job with Slater and Slater in Los Angeles as an assistant designer. She was employed by Slater and Slater for nine months. Following her stint there, Alice moved on to a bigger and better design house and she became an Assistant Designer for Maurice Everetts Design Shop.
In 1939, Jack Kaya worked in Los Angeles at what in those days was called “a ten cent restaurant”, which catered mostly to the poor.  He would sell his customers a hamburger and coffee for 10 cents. Alice and Jack were both working so they decided to get married and on September 24, 1939, they tied the knot.
Jack and Alice had been married for only 3 years when, in 1942, there was a mass evacuation of Japanese residents from Hawaii and the West Coast. The Japanese-Americans were detained in concentration camps called Assembly Centers. The first Assembly Center that Jack and Alice were sent to was Arboga, located about 8 miles south of Marysville, California. Arboga was a short-term camp where they were held for about 3 months. The Center was built to hold a total of 2,451 evacuees, but was over-crowded and housed 2,465 evacuees. From Arboga, Jack and Alice were sent to Tule Lake, California, which was much larger and held a population of 18,789. Their next stop would be Jerome Relocation Center in Jerome, Arkansas. Jerome was in the middle of heavily wooded swampland, 120 miles southeast of Little Rock. The camp was divided into 50 blocks surrounded by a barbed wire fence, a patrol road, and seven watch towers. The forced removal and incarceration of the Japanese-Americans during World War II without due process of the law was a very traumatic event for everyone who was there. The evacuees were stripped of their sense of honor and worth. After leaving these camps the evacuees became more determined than ever to restore their dignity and honor by working hard.  Alice and Jack Kaya were certainly proof of that.
In 1944, when Alice was 24 years old, she and Jack moved to Omaha to start a new life. Jack immediately found work at the Blackstone Hotel as a cook. Alice, looking for work in the fashion industry, had a harder time finding employment. In 1944, there was still a prejudice resulting from the war; it was commonly known as “Yellow Fever”. Alice tried to get a job at The Singer Company, but she wasn’t hired because of her race. Eventually, she did find a job at Herzberg’s, making $19-$25 per week. Alice only stayed there for three months. The Great Western Fur Company contacted Alice while she was employed at Herzberg’s to offer her a job; due to a phone call that her ex-boss and owner of Maurice Everetts Design Shop, Mr. Nathan, had placed to the Great Western Fur Company in New York. They offered her a salary three times the amount at Herzberg’s. Seventy-five dollars was an extreme amount of money in 1944. Alice took her first paycheck and bought herself her first gold watch. She was employed at the Great Western Fur Company for one year until she decided to be a stay-at-home mother with her first child, Carolyn, who was born in 1945.
While Alice stayed at home and raised her daughter, she gave birth to a second daughter, Marilyn. Since she now had two children at home, Alice decided to start a home business of custom dress designs, designing gowns for Ak-Sar-Ben royalty’s countesses and princesses.
Jack wanted his own business, so in 1947, the two of them decided to open their first restaurant together.  They named it Grass Shack Cafe.  The restaurant was located at 3229 California Street in Omaha. While at the Grass Shack Cafe, Alice gave birth to two more children, Wayne in 1953 and Jacqueline in 1957. After 17 years there, their lease was not renewed and they bought the Old English Inn in Countryside Village. After two years they decided that they should serve Japanese food and the Old English Inn became Mt. Fuji Inn.
In October of 1969, tragedy struck and a fire totally destroyed Mt. Fuji Inn. Once again, Jack and Alice were without a restaurant. Alice wanted Jack to go to work for United Airlines, but Jack wouldn’t hear of it.  He wanted and needed a restaurant. Alice now had a mission…get Jack a restaurant and she did just that. She went to John Morrison, the son of the Governor of Nebraska from 1961 to 1967.  Morrison, who owned a nightclub on 72nd and Blondo called the Porpoise Place, was selling his business and he offered Alice  a deal. If she took over his business loan, she could pay him a down payment at the end of one year. Alice made the payment in eight months.
Alice was introduced to Bob Klanderud, a designer from California, who took the Porpoise Place and turned it into Mt. Fuji Inn, the first and only Japanese restaurant in Omaha at that time. Klanderud had designed Johnny’s Café in South Omaha and the New Tower Inn on Dodge Street. He had also designed Lawrence Welk’s home in South Dakota.
On January 15th, 1970, Mt. Fuji Inn became Jack and Alice Kaya’s dream come true.  The dream lasted until Jack’s untimely death at the age of 68 due to cancer. Alice, being a true survivor, has carried on the family legacy and passed it on to her children.  Even today at the age of 86, Alice works a full week. You’ll find her at the restaurant every morning preparing her famous egg rolls or running to get supplies for the business. During the evening, she’s either hosting or tending bar at the restaurant. If she has a free moment and you’re one of those fortunate guests, she may even give your shoulders a massage.
Most women Alice’s age would rather take it easy. Alice doesn’t smoke or drink, but she does love Las Vegas. I’ve known Alice Kaya for 32 years, and I have to say my life would not be complete if I hadn’t met this amazing woman who still teaches me something about life every time we have the chance to talk.
If I had to describe Alice in one word, it would be…well, I can’t really do that, there just isn’t one word that would do her justice for the life she has lived, created and conquered. I could only say that if a word should be a definition of a woman who has beaten the odds, lived through triumph and tragedy, and managed to survive with head held high that word would have to be ALICE.

To Smoke or not to smoke

By R. Shindo

Is that the question?  No.  What is the question and reasoning behind Omaha’s smoking ban?  Before I answer this, you should know that I smoke.
Ordinance No. 37412;
Article VIII; Sec. 12-160.  Intent
‘The city council hereby declares that the purposes of this ordinance are: (1) to protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public gathering places and places of employment; and (2) to guarantee the right of employees, residents, and visitors to breathe smoke free air, and to recognize that the need to breathe smoke free air shall have priority over the desire to smoke.’
That sounds good to me, but hold on just one minute here!  Line 4 on page one states; ‘create exceptions.’  Exceptions?  Maybe I had better read those purposes again.  Nope, nothing about, ‘exceptions,’ there?  Just what are these exceptions anyway?  ‘Sec 12-165.  Where smoking is not regulated.’  There are a number exceptions listed, and to be honest, all seem very reasonable and make perfect sense to me.
Hold on just another minute!  What’s this?  Sec 12-165.1  Where smoking is not regulated until May 14, 2011.  Not regulated for five more years?  This is where the smoke filters out!  Under this part of the section;
1.  Stand alone Bars providing only Limited Food Services.’ Limited Food Service being, ‘snack items or commercially prepared and wrapped foods that require little or no preparation.’  That sounds like ‘junk food’ to me?  Smoke, drink, and eat ‘junk food,’ nothing unhealthy about that, is there?
2.  Up to two main or mini-main Keno locations.’  Play Keno, smoke.  Now that’s certainly healthy isn’t it?  Oh, let’s not forget that you can eat and, drink alcohol too!
Now isn’t this interesting?  If a business wasn’t fortunate enough to meet any of the criteria to be an ‘exception,’ on its own, they could have applied to be a Keno sales outlet on or before June 8, 2006, and if approved by the city, would have been exempt.  That sounds like coercion to me?  Get Keno, and smoke.
3.  Any Public Gathering Place that is conducting or simulcasting horseracing at a designated place, or conducting interstate horserace simulcasting.’  Now you can do it all!  Smoke, drink, eat and gamble!  Wait, sorry, no Keno there.
I don’t object to Keno or horseracing.  If those are your choices of entertainment, enjoy them.  Remember that word, “choices.”  What I do object to, is the city of Omaha giving an unfair advantage to those businesses simply because they have these forms of entertainment.  Doesn’t this violate Federal Antitrust laws? Antitrust or competition laws are laws which prohibit anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices.  The laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers, or both, or generally to violate standards of ethical behavior.
So what is this law really all about?  Certainly not public health and welfare to provide a smoke free environment for employees and visitors!  If that was the case, why not a total ban?  This law comes down to one thing, revenue for the city and trying to appease the non-smoking community!  I will have you know, all other things being equal, that as a smoker, I pay more in taxes than non-smokers!  And what happened to the health and welfare of employees and visitors at these establishments?  I guess their health and welfare doesn’t matter?  I know of at least one business that has laid off four cooks and two servers in order to continue to allow smoking. 
Remember that word?  “Choices?”  There are over 600 restaurants in the city of Omaha and surrounding area that did not allow smoking before the ban took effect, and that’s not even counting, “fast food.”  Of those that allowed smoking, all provided a “smoke-free” area by prior law.  You have a “choice,” you can choose not to go into a restaurant or bar that allows smoking and you can choose not to work in one.
I ask that you to consider this.  Today it is a smoking issue.  What will it be tomorrow?