<Begin Segment 11>

AI: Well, so you mentioned Thanksgiving. Did your family celebrate many of these American-type holidays?

MK: Oh yes, every one. Yes. My father wanted to mainstream. He did everything, parties, he liked, and so, yes.

AI: So you had Thanksgiving and Christmas even?

MK: Yes, Christmas, very community Christmas. He was... this is one area, I know he was not strongly religious. He certainly respected religion, but he, himself, never sat down, or went to a Sunday service or any... things that he had to go to, he would go, because it's the right thing to do, but he was not a churchy person.

AI: And what about your mother? Did she have any religious teachings that she passed to you, or anything of that sort?

MK: Because of my maternal grandmother's training, she was a Buddhist, and a very, vegetarian, never struck a match. She was one who used the flint stone in the morning to start her candle lighting. This is in Japan, Okayama city. And so she was very religious by action. And so, my mother was more religious. And she, she was a Buddhist. But we attended, the children attended the Episcopal Church in Seattle.

AI: Now, why was that? Why would they send you to the Episcopal Church?

MK: Okay, I have to give Dr. Ishibashi, the dentist, our dentist, the credit for this. He came and picked us up every Sunday. And that was his church. So this is where we attended. And every Sunday he would come by and pick us up. And so, I enjoyed it. And of course, you know, the longer you attend, you get your ties with the Sunday school class and your teacher. Yori Kumasaki was one of my teacher. And I just met her last night at the banquet. And I had to thank her to this day; that was another home base for me. So I have very fond memories of that. And I remember Dr. Kitagawa was our minister because he was young and energetic. And I, I was able to understand it. But in Buddhist, what the Buddhist priest is chanting, I didn't understand. Though bilingual, it didn't mean very much. And so, I guess I'm a simple person. I have to understand. [Laughs] For this reason I liked the Episcopal Church better.

AI: So, as a child, to have a minister like Father Kitagawa really made a difference to you because you could understand what he was saying. His...

MK: Right, right, than the chants that you don't understand.

AI: And also, for people who don't know, this congregation, then, was almost all Japanese American, wasn't it?

MK: Yes, they were. And the Taharas were, Mr. Tahara was my father's butcher at the Pacific Market and so, again, they were, the longer you attended, I mean, it did become a home base. So, I enjoyed, I mean, it was something I enjoyed going to.

AI: Well, it sounded like, sounds like you had a very full childhood, many things, many activities, many family activities?

MK: Right, right. I did. I thought this was a normal thing, but yes, we went to camping... so, I really think, for an Issei man, we really did have a full life.

AI: And it sounds like your father was very open-minded to new ideas, to American ways of doing things?

MK: Uh-huh. He was, he was. I didn't see him sitting. He wasn't what you called a reader, but, and he was a talker, so he often liked to visit people and talk. He learned that way and did a lot of hands-on.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.