Mira Nakashima (MN):爸爸在东京的Antonin Raymond办公室工作，那是他1934年的第一份工作之一。我试图从夏洛特·雷蒙德那里了解到，他在东京时是否有实际的桌子。我知道他做过一些椅子。他当时只是一个年轻的建筑师，雷蒙德是老板，所以即使他做了这些作品，他可能也没有得到赞扬。我以前见过的雷蒙德桌子都很直。它们有的腿是圆的，但主要是直的。那时候人们就是这么做的。这就是人们能够获得的物质类型。
曼:在他的生命中有一件非常重要的事情。1942年，由于战争，西海岸所有的日裔美国人都被监禁了。爸爸和其他家人被安置在爱达荷州沙漠的一个营地里。他说，当他在营地的时候，他们就像是彼此的学徒。还有一个在日本受训的日本木匠。他和爸爸并肩工作，使兵营更适合居住。这个来自日本的家伙拥有所有细木工的技能和知识，以及日本人选择木材和使用木材的方式。我父亲是建筑专业出身。他对结构和设计很了解。他们俩在Minidoka合作，在那里创造了一些家具。 I still have one of the toy boxes he made me when we were in camp. They couldn't purchase good lumber so they used leftovers from the construction of the camp and something called bitterbrush that grew on the desert. They harvested that, polished it, and cut it into pieces they could use for furniture—mostly decorative elements. It wasn't very big.
爸爸话不多。我从店里的工人那里学到的比从我爸爸那里学到的还要多。他做了更大的餐桌、咖啡桌、椅子座和其他东西。通常会有剩菜。因为他们总是很节俭，不想浪费任何东西，所以店里有很多切下来的肉，等着用。实际上，直到1970年我回来，我才做过任何有用的家具。我主要是和我妈妈一起在办公室工作，我并不喜欢。最后他们雇了个秘书，我就可以和爸爸一起工作了。我画画。我上过建筑学校，所以我知道如何画画，但我担心如果我在办公室工作太久，我会忘记怎么画。 There were these leftover pieces of wood in the shop and Dad said ‘Why don't you make something with these?' They became pencil holders, candle holders. I made them, drilled holes in them, polished them up and put them in the showroom. I would make three-legged tables out of the larger pieces. The smallest ones we call the plank stool. That's a design that Dad started when he was still in Seattle. It changed a little as time went on. There were specific angles and dimensions for the legs, placement of the legs. He did help me with that. He taught me how to make sure the table balanced after it had its legs on. I went onto bigger and bigger three-legged tables and finally made my first big coffee table before getting sucked into the office again.
