Jessie Wardarski/Arizona Republic

Kathy Nakagawa would always be happy to have you swing by her dad’s flower shop.

KJZZ partners with the Arizona Republic to bring you the Arizona Storytellers series. We record the live events and share them with you on the radio. In Phoenix, the storytellers sometimes share stories about our community or the life events that have shaped them in general. Megan Finnerty is the creator of the series. 

Kathy Nakagawa is a Phoenix native and a third-generation Japanese American. Her dad started growing vegetables in Arizona in the 1930s. But during World War II, her parents were interned at the Poston War Relocation Camp in Yuma. After the war, the family returned to Phoenix and leased some land at the foot of South Mountain to start again, growing vegetables and flowers.

Kathy Nakagawa is a professor at ASU and would always be happy to have you swing by her dad’s flower shop.

You can hear more stories like this at our next night of live storytelling on Feb. 11, 2015, at Changing Hands First Draft Book Bar in Phoenix. 

→ Hear More Arizona Storytellers