<Begin Segment 35>

TI: Okay. So once they decided to form the NVC, then what happened? Did you guys meet on a regular basis, were you at those meetings? What was it like?

HH: Well, the first meeting that they had was at the Buddhist Church auditorium because it was a large enough place. But we did meet in the Buddhist Church for the meeting and tried to have all the veterans come. So I think we original charter members, I believe we had around two hundred or three hundred or so registered for the, sign up as charter members.

TI: And then as an organization, what kind of activities did the group want to do?

HH: Well, our organization was more or less organized as a social type, where we could meet together. That was one of the main things, that we didn't have any place to get together, because we didn't have a hall or anything like that. So we kind of relied on the Buddhist Church because they had a little larger facility. We did, since we didn't have any office or anything like that where we could call it, I think at the beginning, I think we were using one of the insurance companies like Ogishima Insurance on Jackson Street here. Their office more or less has -- because he was one of the original ones that was organizing, or part of the organizing group.

TI: Okay. But then eventually you did get your own facility. Can you talk about how that came about?

HH: Well, that building that we have used to be, originally, the kendo, Japanese fencing, organization that was built just before the war by the fencing group. And during the war, being a Japanese martial arts kind of organization, the government took over the building. And so by the time we came back, it was being used during the war as a place for the maritime sailors, or maritime seamen, they were housed there by the government. They used it as housing. And when we came back, it was going to be returned, but the organization was already disbanded.

TI: This was the kendo club, was disbanded?

HH: Yes. But the property was still there, and they knew it was a community-organized club that we were trying to organize. Some of the board members or previous board members of the so-called kendo group said that they would turn it over to our club, and this is how we were able to get... I think it was a tax owed somewhere around a thousand dollars or something like that, tax owed on it. And we were able to negotiate to get the property by paying the tax.

TI: This is interesting. So it was, essentially, you paid the taxes on there, the back taxes, but the building was essentially given to you by the community leaders? Are these like Issei leaders that gave this to you?

HH: Yes. Well, it was kind of a club... how can I express that? These buildings, churches and such, even though it might be a Buddhist church or a Baptist church or whatever it is, Japanese organizations, when they built their facility, it more or less was helped by the community, the fund drive consists of... this is kind of something that I think carried over from their own experiences in Japan. Although they were not leaders, but the community all came in and helped. I remember if a farmer had to build a shed for storage of vegetables or something like that, it's really like a community affair, they all came out to help each other.

TI: So this is interesting. So the Issei, when it came to, like, building or helping to build say the Japanese Presbyterian Church, it wouldn't just be the congregation who raised the money, it'd be the wider community.

HH: Yes.

TI: The same thing with the Buddhist Church when they did something, or it might be the Japanese language school, everyone would chip in. It was sort of this large community effort to even, to build these facilities, even though it might serve just a smaller segment. And this was more for the Isseis, who were thinking this way?

HH: Yes. It came, I think, from the time that they were coming over as workers, when they're in the early days when they were able to come to Hawaii, it was more or less getting into a foreign country away from home and everything, and they didn't have any organization as such, just a group of people. So generally speaking, you will find that groups of people that are in certain kind of business or farming, you find that it comes on a prefectural basis, like ken people helped each other even though they did not know each other. If they said that the only close relations that they have will be either your, from the Hiroshima area or Yamaguchi like us, so they depend on each other.

TI: Do you think that was carried over to the Nisei generation? Do you think that they have that same feeling, that either from the larger community or from their ken, that they would do similar things?

HH: I think, in my own feeling, I think we lost that because we were more... we were not more used to community, thinking in terms of community as a whole. I think we were more individualistic, and if you were of a certain club or something, including all different... but we did not consider ourselves from the Yamaguchi-ken or anything like that. Individually we might have thought that, but I don't think the Nisei, didn't think too much about having to help each other out, except maybe for friends or relations, naturally we'll be more or less involved like that. The Isseis, for some reason, I think because of the fact that they didn't know each other, and the only ones that will be... because by relationship, their own relatives and their friends and such came from the same areas, or generally the same area like province in Japan.

TI: That's interesting. So there is this generational shift that happened between the Isseis who were more -- I mean, they were immigrants coming in, and maybe there was a need, too, to help each other a little bit more. But how the Nisei generation, what you're saying is that they're perhaps a little more individualistic and less aware of or supportive of the larger community and more interested in maybe, not only them and their family, but maybe the individual group that they're working with and didn't do as much. That's interesting.

<End Segment 35> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.