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DM: As far as the Japanese American community is concerned, there in the small town of Alviso where you lived, and then the bigger town of Alameda that was close by, what kind of organizations existed?

BS: At that time, the only social organization, I think, was what was called Nihonjinkai that our parents had, which is just the Japanese Association. And for the older Niseis was the JACL, the Japanese American Citizens League. And from our town that we were farming in, Alameda, the Alameda Buddhist Temple was about twenty miles. So, so it would be anything that the church would be having. Those are probably the organizations and the social things we were exposed to.

DM: So were you raised Buddhist then?

BS: Yes, I was raised Buddhist.

DM: And were your parents active in the temple?

BS: Oh, yes, they were very dedicated Buddhist temple people.

DM: Do you remember what kinds of activities you did with the temple?

BS: You know, in the Buddhist religion at that time, there wasn't what you call an every Sunday service or none. But they would gather, I think they called it houji, there was a big gathering always once a month. And not only would there be a big sermon and a lecture, but also, also a feast. People would come with food, and so that I remember, at least once a month we gathered in the Alameda church, Buddhist temple.

DM: And did the Japanese Association or the Nihonjinkai also host social events as well?

BS: Oh, yes. And that's right, there's one more thing that I forgot. Even though I did not go, our parents were, were very dedicated in education. And as poor as they were, somehow or the other the community was able to gather enough money to hire a, hire a person that could speak, that could teach Japanese. So there was really a Japanese school, and I think my brothers and sisters were, it was called the Alvarado Japanese school, and then there was another one about five miles from there called the Centerville Japanese school. So that was a another, another opportunity to have some social gatherings, the school would have gatherings.

DM: So you said, you mentioned that you did not attend the Japanese language school, but did you speak Japanese?

BS: Yes, I spoke, I learned to speak Japanese. Fortunately, my mother and father had the wisdom to teach me to speak Japanese. And the way they disciplined it, and I was so proud of what they did that I wanted to do it to my children, but I didn't. What they did at that time was they, it was an unwritten rule that when we came home from school, that we all spoke Japanese. Because they said they wanted us to go to the American school and really learn English and learn American. But, "When you came home, why, I would teach you your heritage's language." And to show you the wisdom of my father, why, later in life it was pretty difficult to completely discipline four of us to be speaking Japanese continuously when he would catch us speaking English when he wasn't around. So he was in a posture of compromise, and he said that it was probably too, too strict in asking you to speak Japanese all the time when you're home, but, "Just at the dinner table, will all of us please speak just Japanese?" so that's what we did.

DM: So your family was completely bilingual, at least the children were.

BS: Yes, yes.

DM: Did your parents ever learn to speak English?

BS: Yes, my father, I don't believe my mother learned much English, but my father was able to communicate in broken English.

DM: Now, you had mentioned earlier that your father would take the crops that you had harvested to market.

BS: Yes.

DM: Where would, where was the market?

BS: He had an old Model T Ford truck, and he would take all of our harvest every evening to the Oakland and occasionally to the San Francisco market. And in those days, there were what you call a farmer's market. Not like you see today, where you sell the product to the end consumers, but there were brokers that you unloaded your produce to, and they would take a commission for selling your product.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.