<Begin Segment 26>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: By the way, we discussed the anti-Japanese movement before. You told me that you experienced very little prejudice. But it is a fact that there were many people who experienced such prejudice.

YI: My family?

TY: No. In general.

YI: Other people? No. There were many people who had many children. The first generation did not practice birth control very well. But they raised their children very well in spite of the poverty. I heard that some children of other races did bad things or stole this or that. I heard those types of stories, but I hardly heard anything bad about the Japanese. Even if we were poor, the parents were taught well in Japan not to steal and what not to do. Their children also learned that from the parents. The Japanese children rarely did anything bad. We were fortunate. We were poor but we raised the second generation very well.

TY: Did you teach those types of morals at the Sunday school, too?

YI: Morals? Well, if you listen to the stories of Buddha, you will naturally learn morals. You will not do anything wrong.

TY: How many children were there at the Sunday school?

YI: What?

TY: How many children came to the Sunday school?

YI: Let me think. I wonder how many came when I lived there. There were many who came. We had a separate picnic for the Sunday school. For the children. At Lincoln Park. There was also a picnic for the entire temple membership. Here too, when I came, there were two picnics. The Sunday school picnic and the whole temple picnic. They might have put those together into one now.

TY: The children must have had fun. Getting together once a week.

YI: Uh-huh. There were athletic meets, too.

TY: Who organized such athletic meets?

YI: The temple leaders and the youth group organized them. We used Lincoln Park very often. The women's organization had its own picnic. Nowadays there is one for the entire temple. In the olden days, we had a Sunday school picnic, the women's organization picnic... full of picnics. [Laughs]

TY: I understand you took your own lunch for that.

YI: Yes. Everybody brought their own lunch.

TY: Instead of the women's organization making the lunch for everybody...

YI: No. You bring your own. If you didn't have a car, the temple arranged for a bus. They rented a city bus.

TY: Was it all arranged by the temple?

YI: What?

TY: Did the temple arrange for the bus?

YI: The temple paid for it. If it was for the temple activity. In those days, the second generation children's activities were centered around the temple. It was the same at every temple. The temple was the center of the activities. It was a gathering place. The Japanese children in those days did not go to the Caucasian side very much.

TY: The parents must have felt safe if the temple took care of their children.

YI: There was one family among the temple members who espoused the American lifestyle. They invited us for Christmas or something. There was a beautiful tree. The wife was a piano teacher. [Inaudible] Another woman performed an American dance. There were some families living in the American style, but those were very few among the first generation.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.