<Begin Segment 5>

VY: Because I do want to talk about your childhood more because I know, it sounds like your father did a lot of the caretaking as well early on, and now you're saying that your grandmother also did?

JT: Oh, yes.

VY: So that's interesting. So let's back up a little bit more. And yeah, I know that, I can tell that you have a lot of empathy, and I know that you're someone who really feels deeply. And I'm just wondering if you, I think some people are just like that regardless, but I'm wondering if you feel like any of that comes from or is enhanced by your family's experience. Because you've spoken about how certain feelings have been kind of passed on without actually being talked about?

JT: Yes, I think so. I call it role modeling, I don't know of another word for it, but I know that they didn't lecture us about doing the best we could. But I think it was this sort of pride, the cultural values of pride, and don't bring shame. We lived, Alameda is a small community, and so it was like living in a fishbowl, really. It really was. Everybody knew what was going on, and our house was Grand Central Station. I don't want to call it the heartbeat of the community, but it really, because it was across the street from the Buddhist temple, two houses away from the Methodist church, and so it was a place where people congregated daily. Not just on Sundays, but daily. And I would come home and there would people around the table in the kitchen having tea or coffee and just talking, and I think they have a sense of community, and I think that's what I love the most is that they encouraged each other, they had each other's back, in other words. They knew their struggles, and so they were, had what they call this tonarigumi, this sense of community and this sense of helping each other. And it was built in, and I don't mean to say everyone was that way, but they came together in good times and bad times, and we grew up that way.

VY: Yeah. Do you think that that sense of community came from, like a shared experience of like the early immigration story of a lot of the families? Or do you think it was a combination of, I know there was like a couple of different churches that people who were very heavily involved in in the area and still are, as well as just the community that already sort of developed.

JT: Well, I know there were strong, strong connections when they came because they... it sounds like our house was, it was Grand Central Station but it was like the hub almost, aside from the churches, social activity. Everyone came to our house and my mother was kind of, I called her, well, like a social worker in a lot of ways. Because she helped a lot of the Issei with their language needs and administrative stuff, governmental forms. But she was also like the welcome wagon lady, too. She had this knack of making people feel welcome, and she'd bring people home and feed them. We never knew who was going to be at our house for dinner because it was like Grand Central Station, and we got used to that. I didn't like it because -- I'm talking about now as a teenager. I didn't like it because I knew that we had to, like, throw more potatoes in the soup, if you know what I mean. [Laughs] We never knew who was going to come or how many to feed but somehow it was enough.

VY: Yeah, so that's a good thing to talk about.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.