<Begin Segment 10>

SF: So you were describing how the feeling of the Buddhists are in sort of actual living. Do you think that that's sort of a key contribution to the JA community? How much of that is, you know, sort of been passed on and become part of the culture of Japanese America at least Nisei/Sansei mergence? Is that, I mean that, if you could say that that characteristic about people kind of going into a group and feeling sort of warm, sort of regard for other people -- is that mostly traceable to the Buddhist influence? What's your thought about that?

RI: I think in community activities, just generally speaking, Buddhist Nikkei tend to be, not less active, less in the leadership positions than say Christian Nikkei. A lot has to do with the gospel in a way of Christians are encouraged to go out and serve the community and organize and be very visible in that way. So they form a lot of these charities and various service groups and so on. So right away you say well, this Christian church, whether it's Japanese or not, has all these programs in the community. You look at the Buddhist temple and you don't see this organization. And you don't see people talking about their service to the community 'cause there's nothing in Buddhism of earning points, or wanting to -- there being a difference of going up or down or anything like that. It's all done out of gratitude. And when you do things out of gratitude, it's very understated. It's almost hazukashii, and, a little embarrassment of having received so much one didn't deserve, so, "Hey, if I could just anonymously send some money out, or help out, then this is much, much better." So, I think Buddhists do donate a lot. They do a lot of public service and all that, but they don't tie it to say a Buddhist cause or organize in that way. I know when I was minister in BCA I was very concerned about what was going on in Cambodia at that time and all the refugees. So out of that suffering and pain, my response was to organize and try to form a social welfare fund. Where I knew that all the Nikkei Buddhists generally were doing pretty well, and they needed to be led somehow to join together and be more altruistic. So, I was just overwhelmed. Even today there's still many, many donations coming in from people who are grateful for all that they receive, not only themselves, but their children and grandchildren. And so they send large sums of money and to give out to various other groups. But I feel that if, if I and a few others didn't organize this fund, that many of them would still be donating quietly to United Way, whatever, but not saying, "I'm a Buddhist and I'm donating it," right? Or, "I'm volunteering at a hospital every week and by the way, I'm a Buddhist." That's never said.

SF: So typically if you compared maybe say a Japanese American Methodist church versus a Buddhist temple, the Buddhist temple would have very few kind of organized groups that are supposed to... the refugee committee or the Habitat for Humanity group, or, you know all of that. In a lot of JA Protestant churches they seem to have that kind of mechanism, I guess you want to call it. But in Buddhist temples you wouldn't have it, but the same thing would be accomplished typically?

RI: I think on an individual basis a lot is happening. But I think, say if you're a Japanese Christian church you belong to a national organization of, well mostly Caucasian churches. But, they have programs and they send you their literature, and maybe give you training, and there's kind of a model for doing those things. So it's not like you're creating something new, but rather you're keeping up with the other churches. In the Buddhist case there is no model like that. We're poor. We came out of camps, as kind of a new generation. I think it's changing that way. But the leaders in all these causes have traditionally been the clergy. And as long as we still rely upon clergy from Japan, where they don't even know about racism there, or they claim not to, right -- and, or being a minority, or understanding. Certainly people from Japan who come here don't identify with people of color here as being a distinct underprivileged minority. In fact over there the ones who come here often -- the privileged, educated class. And so when that consciousness isn't there, and the ministers, especially those that come from Japan, you don't get that kind of encouragement or leadership. Often the messages that come from headquarters saying, "Okay there's a social welfare fund," or, "Let's discuss the issue about abortion or something," it means nothing to the minister from Japan. So that literature gets filed away and never disseminated to the members. That's one of the greatest frustrations when I was trying to get these things started, was I knew it died on the minister's desk. Not that he was against it, because he couldn't read it for one thing, or didn't understand how important it was within our societal context. And so it breaks down there -- language problems, cultural differences. So the individual members are often left to join community organizations on their own to act out their feelings of giving and needs for giving and so on. And no one ever hears about it, at least not as being members of a Buddhist group. But every time I've been involved in asking for aid for different groups -- I've done quite a bit of that in Hawaii -- the response has always been quite wonderful.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.