<Begin Segment 6>

AI: Well, and you mentioned the Baptist church was so close by, also. I'm wondering, though, were your parents Christian or did they --

RI: I'm sure that they were not Christians at, when they came from Japan. And I think that gradually, with the neighborhood people going to the same church, they probably gradually became Christians. But my mother got baptized. But I think she got baptized after the war, but I'm not sure. My father, I don't remember ever seeing him go to church. Bur we were all sent to go to Sunday School, every Sunday we walked over, just a few blocks and went to Sunday School and learned our Bible verses and all that. But actually, I don't think we really knew what we were doing. But when I was fourteen I got baptized along with my friend who also was fourteen. But to tell you the truth, I don't know whether I really knew what I was getting into. But I thought that being baptized meant that after I'm immersed, and I come out, my whole life is gonna change and I'm gonna be a nice girl. That I would do everything correctly and have no bad thoughts. [Laughs] Well, anyway, that was, that was my idea of being baptized. But I learned that one has to make an effort.

DG: So how did you feel when you came up and found out you were still the same person? [Laughs]

RI: No, I thought that life after baptism, I would be the nicest person. [Laughs] Well, I don't know what "nice" means, but anyway, a good person. That maybe all my sins are washed away. You know, around that time I remember my mother reprimanding me for, "Oh Ruby, nowadays you're not such a good girl, you're talking back." And I remember looking in the mirror at my face and I said, "Gosh, am I that bad?" So maybe about that time I got baptized. I don't know. [Laughs] But those are the kinds of ideas we have when we're young.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.