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JT: Okay, and how long did you work in Pittsburg?

MT: Let's see. Must have worked there about eight years, and then I think moved to Walnut Creek for the last couple years that I was there.

JT: And in between, you got married?

MT: Yeah.

JT: That's right, in 19...

MT: '57.

JT: '57, okay. And did you work, after you had your children, Paul, in... no...

MT: He was born in '63.

JT: '63, okay, and then you retired. What kind of... I wanted to say games, but what did you do for entertainment or fun as a child or as a teenager, your teenager years? Do you remember?

MT: Shopping.

JT: Oh, you were one of those shoppers. You know I think I do remember that. You liked to shop, but did you have any hobbies?

MT: I think we were just looking more than shopping.

JT: Window shopping, we call that window shopping.

MT: Right, right, that's what it was.

JT: And you look with your eyes. And what did you, other kind of hobbies did you have? Did you sew or, like, cooking or anything?

MT: Well, I think I sewed a little bit, maybe.

JT: Because girls, that generation of girls didn't do... oh, what did we do? We went to dance, well, I won't talk about what we did, but did you do some activities with the church? Did you go to Buena Vista Methodist Church?

MT: See, let me tell you what happened. Okay, we lived next door to the Buddhist Temple. So we were Buddhists until the war started. The war started and we went to Palo Alto. Then our relatives, or our parents thought that if we were of a different religion, that we might be separated. So they said, oh, let's all convert to Christianity.

JT: It was a group decision.

MT: By our family, yeah. Right. So we all converted to...

JT: Methodist?

MT: Methodist. Every furniture that we had was put into that... I don't know, there was a Methodist church, Page Mill, and that's where we stored everything that we had, I think most of the Japanese.

JT: Before relocation, internment?

MT: Yeah. See, I think at that time, too, the Quakers were already helping us.

JT: I see. And that's how you became Christian, and you stayed Christian?

MT: Yeah.

JT: That's interesting.

MT: Wait a minute, you know how we are, we never go to church. [Laughs] I'm sorry.

JT: No, but I didn't know that.

MT: Anyway, that's our story.

JT: So you were, you never went back to Buddhist?

MT: Buddhist, no.

JT: To support?

MT: No.

JT: Okay, that's interesting, though, how that happened and why that happened.

MT: Right.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.