<Begin Segment 11>

MA: You said that earlier you were involved with the Young People's Christian Conference?

GY: Uh-huh.

MA: So then you were Christian, your upbringing was Christian?

GY: Upper name?

MA: Your upbringing?

GY: Oh. Oh, yes, very much so. My mother, pretty sure was Buddhist. My dad, I don't know what his religion, but I would assume they were Buddhist when they came over here from Japan. The timing of their being over here, we didn't have a Buddhist church. So naturally the older Isseis were trying to establish a Christian, Christianity.

MA: Do you know why there was no Buddhist church, why that never came about prewar?

GY: I, well, maybe it was everybody was just too busy. Christianity -- well, I mean to say, yeah, Christianity came in first before the Buddhists did. And one of the reasons, strong reason Christianity was stronger in our, in our society, Spokane, was due to the fact that our, we had a couple of churches, but the one that I remember prominently was the one on Second Avenue and... no, no, Third Avenue and, right across the street is McDonald's, right across the street Lewis & Clark High School. We had Central United Methodist Church, and from them came two wonderful, beautiful ladies, Mrs. Ellis, E-L-L-I-S, and Mrs. A. Butler, Mrs. Butler. And through these two ladies' efforts to establish Christianity among us, they worked real hard.

MA: What did they do to...

GY: Oh, they just came in and taught Bible classes, taught Sunday school, and taught us more about Jesus Christ. And from that, I think we have our strong beginnings of Christianity through these two ladies, although Christianity went on for a hundred and two years as of last year. It'd be a hundred and three now, the church for the Japanese was established a hundred and three, hundred and three years ago. And from that we had a couple of deaconesses, Japanese, I think a couple of deaconesses, I don't remember them at all. That was way before my time. But then we have Reverend Tanabe, Reverend Niwa, Reverend Goto, this is all way before the war.

MA: And this is all the same church?

GY: Yes. The Methodist Episcopal Church.

MA: The M.E. Church?

GY: M.E. Church, Methodist Episcopal, right. And we had a John J. Cobb, a Caucasian minister. Why, he could speak Japanese better than some of the Isseis, I thought. He, his Japanese was just, just great. And he was our minister during those war years. But anyway, finally the Buddhists came in there, I'm not sure when it was, just after Pearl Harbor. Because we did have a Buddhist church in town, and that later was sold and went over to Perry Street where they built the present-day church. It burnt down once and they built, rebuilt it on the same location, and that's where the Buddhist Temple is now. But I understand there are, like our church, there's more hakujins in Buddhism, just like our church, Methodist, there's a lot of Caucasians that are in our church presently.

[Interruption]

MA: So we're back, and we were talking a little bit about the Methodist Episcopal church, and about Christianity, I guess. And I'm curious about how Christianity was accepted by the Isseis in Spokane.

GY: Very strongly. I have a picture of all the Isseis in the choir robe, a number of them. They're all Isseis, and they're all gone now. I just recently dedicated a Holy Bible, New Testament, printed in Japanese, and with the scriptures in Japanese. It was printed on real thin Japanese paper, very thin. And you might say... my mother's name was on it, my minister came over and he says, "What is this? I see your mother's, Yamada name on it." And I looked through it, it happened to be my mother, Fumiko Yamada. And I just said, "Well, since it's been in the church for all these years, why don't we just put it in the church archives? And I really believe, I know my mother was a very strong Christian. After she came to know Christianity, she and other Isseis here in town became strong, strong churchgoers, Christianity.

MA: So how important, then, did the church become in the Japanese American community?

GY: Very important, I think very important. Once they got to know or learn Christianity, it was a strong motivation for them to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. I know they were trying to follow those teachings, at least my mother would talk about Christ, you know. And I went to church, but not as strongly as some of those Isseis did.

MA: Do you think then that the Christianity was embraced maybe stronger by the Isseis than the Niseis?

GY: No, I wouldn't put it that way. I think they felt the same feeling about Christianity as the Niseis did. They didn't... their feeling was somewhat subdued, however, but you knew their feeling for the teaching, from the scriptures, was very imbued in the Isseis through their ministers, various ministers. Fortunately for the Isseis, we had many of our pastors were Japanese heritage, and that helped the transition a lot for their understanding. A lot of them spoke Japanese. Most of them were Isseis.

MA: Most of the ministers?

GY: Ministers were Isseis, so they got along and understood Christianity real well. Now with the Isseis gone, it's primarily Caucasian ministers, at least in Spokane. I go to Ontario, Oregon, and find a Japanese minister there, you go to Seattle and find two or three Japanese ministers. In addition, this is just the Methodists. The Presbyterians have, has a Japanese minister. I'm not sure about the Catholics, although when I was in Seattle, I, to this day, I can't understand. But anyway, I was invited to the Matsudairas, which were very strong Catholic, and I understand Mike is gone now, but I knew Mike, Michael, and I heard that Mrs. Matsudaira got the Catholic Mother of the Year. And I think there was a Kinoshita in there that also got the Catholic Mother of the Year, and I, for some reason or another, I think I thought I stayed at their house. He was killed in World War II, I believe. But anyway, lot of my friends were, too, YBA, the Young Buddhist group. I really don't know why, but I guess it's just through my cousin or attending some of their Buddhist functions.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.