<Begin Segment 17>

JT: Kenji, I also wanted to ask you, I'm jumping around a little bit, but I wanted to ask you, one of the things that I have admired about you is your work in volunteering. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

KT: Oh, that was with JASEB.

JT: Japanese American Services of the East Bay. And how did you get started in that?

KT: Well, my mother was getting food from them, and so I thought I should do what I can to help them, and so I applied. And I delivered food to various parts of the East Bay where they were providing food service.

JT: Lunches, right. Japanese American Services is a community service organization, and you delivered meals for how many years?

MT: Thirty-two years.

JT: I think you hold the record for volunteering for JASEB, and then it became J-Sei, and you commuted from San Rafael to Berkeley and drove all around. And what I really want to ask you is what... you spent more time doing that than going to college, being in the army and everything. What motivated you? Why did you stick with it? Besides you said you were grateful for their services to your mom, but that's a long time to drive from San Rafael to Berkeley every week.

KT: That's true, but you notice that people were volunteers were very good people. And I enjoyed their comradeship.

MT: I think it was fun.

JT: And Mary went -- it was a joyride from here to Berkeley. You drove all those miles for so many years, and you met so many people. Do you remember any special delivery that you made that stands out in the thousands of lunches that you delivered? Anything that comes to mind that you can't... if you were writing a book, you'd write in it, write about? You touched many, many lives during those years.

KT: Well, yeah, I knew that people that I was helping out appreciated it, the help.

JT: And that's pretty, that's a value that Nihonjin, Japanese people hold dear. Do you remember any, can you tell me what kind of values that you picked up from your parents? They may not have said it, but what did you learn about from your parents? What did you learn from your parents?

KT: Well, you should always do your share of, like volunteering. And I was just...

JT: Working hard?

KT: Working hard, and just doing your share of working, volunteering.

JT: Sounds like you learned to help others. And do you feel, can you think of anyone in your life, besides your parents, that helped you along during the years? Maybe when you were younger? Or were you an independent kid and you could do...

KT: Well, by combining the language schools, the church language school and independent language school, I think my father and Mr. Kako really believed that it would be better if you had one language school rather than two split.

JT: Right. Did that ever happen? Did they ever combine?

KT: No.

JT: Okay. Yeah, there was quite a controversy over that.

KT: Right.

JT: And which school did you end up staying at?

KT: I ended up going to the larger language school, which was not the church language school.

JT: Okay, it was the independent one, okay.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.