For Nori Shiba, life has been full of ups and downs San Martin
resident Nori Shiba is living proof that happiness can be borne
from tragedy. The longtime resident has had her share of both
during her 89 years of life.
San Martin resident Nori Shiba is living proof that happiness can be borne from tragedy.
The longtime resident has had her share of both during her 89 years of life.
“I have stories that are just remarkable,” Shiba said. “I have done so many things in my life, it’s almost unbelievable.”
Shiba was born in 1916 to parents who immigrated from Japan and ran a successful dry cleaning business in San Mateo. In 1942, she was forced to leave her California home for internment camps with other Japanese Americans in California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada.
“It was a rotten, rotten deal,” Shiba recalls. “We were American citizens and to be forced into a camp like that … it was awful. All of us were in tears.”
But for all the misery of the internment camps, Shiba has a bright silver lining. She married her husband in the camp after meeting him in San Mateo before the war. Prior to being forced from her home, Shiba’s mother was uneasy about the two, but changed her mind in the shadow of the war.
Her parents consented to the union and her husband paid the family $600 for her hand in marriage.
“We always joke, that I was worth $600,” Shiba said with a huge grin.
Ironically, it would be the 40th anniversary of the “Day of Infamy,” that another life-altering tragedy would strike again. On Dec. 7, 1947, Shiba’s son Kirk was aboard Southwest Airlines flight 1771 when disgruntled employee David Burke shot and killed the pilot, causing the plane to crash near Templeton – killing everyone on board.
Kirk was on his way home to San Martin – where Shiba has lived with her husband Tak for 50 years – and left behind a wife and daughter.
During her working years, Shiba proved to have an affinity for business. She sold Tupperware and cosmetics throughout the United States and Japan for 20 years. She was so successful in selling Tupperware, she was offered a high-level position with the company in Japan. But when Tak said he wouldn’t move, she declined the job.
“Many times in my heart, I regret not going and taking the job,” Shiba said. “But I would not want to spoil things with my husband.”
It was in 1975, when Shiba decided to enter the then male-dominated world of real estate.
“I went to Zubow, knocked on the door and they opened up,” Shiba said. “The room was filled with men and I asked if they were all realtors. They said ‘Yeah’ and I said ‘I want to be a realtor.’ And they said ‘We don’t want women working here.’ And they all laughed.”
Shiba said the experience was nearly enough to kill her hopes of being a real estate agent.
“It was a terrible rebuke,” Shiba said. “It almost discouraged me out of real estate.”
But she stuck with it, and is able to joke about the experience now.
“Any challenges of that type always perked my interest,” Shiba said. “It was such a terrific opportunity, and I did very well. I made a lot of money.”
The longtime South Valley resident said she has no plans to leave. Although she has been all over the country selling Tupperware, she has not found anything like Morgan Hill and San Martin.
“I would not trade (this area) for anywhere else in California,” Shiba said. “I think San Martin, Morgan Hill and Gilroy can hold its own with any place I’ve been to.”
Cheeto Barrera is an intern at the Morgan Hill Times. He can be reached at [email protected].
