Shigeo Takayama, 90, discusses his life spent bridging Japan and U.S. cultures.

“In Japan, everything is controlled. The society is tight knit,” Shigeo Takayama, smiled and responded to an audience member who asked about the major differences between the U.S. and Japan at a book signing event held at the Japanese American National Museum on Sunday.

Takayama, 90, was at the museum to discuss his recently published biography, “My Life: Living in Two Cultures.” The Kibei Nisei flew from Tokyo for the event attended by a gathering of more than 100.

He was born in Los Angeles in 1916, as the second son of an Issei from Mie prefecture. Takayama went back to Japan by himself when he was 3 and returned to Los Angeles when he was 13. He attended Roosevelt High School.

He went back to Japan in 1937 and entered Nagoya Koto Shogyo Gakko (Nagoya University). After finishing his education in 1940, Takayama worked for Chu Itoh, a trading company. When World War II broke out, Takayama was drafted into the Japanese army and stationed in China with the Third Battalion of the 133rd Regiment. He was severely wounded while serving as a second lieutenant.

In 1946, Takayama worked for the U. S. military government in Fukui Prefecture as an interpreter and secretary to Lieutenant Colonel Hyland. He also worked for the Japanese consulate in New York in 1951. In 1953, he established a trading company “Hakuto” (literally meaning Brazil and the East) in Tokyo. Takayama  became a pioneer, importing quartz crystal for industrial use in semiconductors. He is chairman of Hakuto Company.

According to Takayama, the reason he published his biography was because his wife, Megumi, 79, had asked him “Why don’t you publish your life story?” He published his biography in Japanese in 2005, and “My Life” is the English translation. The translator, Kazuko Kuramoto of Ontario, Ore. also attended the event.

Speaking to The Rafu Shimpo, Kuramoto said, “ While I was translating his text into English, I was so fascinated by his guts and vitality.” According to Irene Hirano, JANM CEO and president, “Mr. Takayama has been a donor for a long time and he funded this book project by himself. We published a total of 1,000 copies, and it is exclusively sold at our museum store and our online shop.”