<Begin Segment 27>

TI: So, let's talk about the day of the service, and what was that like and why don't you just describe that?

EBA: The service was held at First Baptist Church and we decided that because there, we thought there'd be a huge attendance at that service. And the other reason was that back in Japanese Baptist Church early history, it was a mission church or a mission plant, church plant, however you want to term it, of First Baptist. They were the supporting group that got the church started. And so the night of the funeral service we, we started the funeral cortege, started from Japanese Baptist Church. It was the hearse and then family and a few of the leaders from Japanese Baptist Church. And so we drove, started there at Japanese Baptist, drove from Japanese Baptist to First Baptist Church. And we wanted to recognize that symbolic, that as a symbolic connection between the two churches.

TI: So how large was the procession, when you say you started? I mean, how many people were part of that?

EBA: It was, I think, maybe four or five cars. It was not a long procession because everyone else was gathering at First Baptist. And I was overwhelmed at the number of people that were at the service there. It just, I guess I never thought about anything that, well, it's gonna be a large service. But there were a little over a thousand people that attended the service that night and they were standing around the walls and, in some places. And it was open casket, kind of a traditional Japanese service in that regard. And we had the people that, I was able to reach those people on my father's list that he wanted to sing and the different numbers that he wanted sung and so forth. And then came the viewing of the casket itself, people would go up in front and pay their respects. And I was just amazed at the line of people that went up there. I mean, it just overwhelmed me. And for some reason, one of the scouts went up there, and when he went up there he saluted my father at his casket there. And for me -- I'm not sure why -- but that was a moment in which I almost broke, at that time, in grief. But I puzzled over what that connection was. Maybe it was, maybe it was for me a symbolic connection of my, whoever that scout was, that symbolically it was, I was the one standing there and recognizing my father and saluting him, but it was a strange, strange moment and I don't know how else to interpret that. And...

TI: Out of those thousand people there, did you, did you know many of them? Did you, was it sort of like --

EBA: I knew many of them. Some of them I recognized after they told me their name or something, but of course, lot of them I didn't. I mean, people came from all over the United States to attend the service.

TI: Was it predominantly Japanese American or was it mixed?

EBA: Predominantly Japanese American. There were some, as I recall, some Caucasians, I don't recall who the Caucasians were but apparently some Caucasians, maybe my father had some association with or had been touched by his service in the community. So I don't know who they were.

TI: Now, I'm curious. There's a tradition in the Japanese and Japanese American community at services like this, to, to give koden.

EBA: The koden, yes.

TI: Was that done with your father?

EBA: Yes it was. I was just amazed at the total amount of koden. It was, it was a little over five thousand dollars.

TI: And these were --

EBA: -- of koden.

TI: -- like just...

EBA: Just in envelopes. Some cash, checks, they were, I was forever opening the envelopes and some came in the mail later. It was a huge, huge thing.

TI: Now, was that expected from you? I was curious because I wasn't sure if your dad would receive --

EBA: Well, I was aware of koden because I'd been to Japanese funerals and I, you know, you give the envelope with the koden. But you know, I didn't, I didn't even think about koden in relation to my father at the service. And I, in thinking back, I thought, you know, I'm not sure the Japanese community perceived my father as being Caucasian. I mean, to them he was Japanese. And so the koden was, was what you did for the Japanese funeral. And to me, that was some signification that, man, he was accepted, and very much a Japanese as anyone else, 'cause that was his whole life.

TI: Anything else you recall from that day that kind of stands out?

EBA: Nothing comes to my mind at the moment.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.