<Begin Segment 13>

MN: What about Japanese school? Did you go to Japanese school?

CH: Warren Furutani's grandmother. You know Warren Furutani? His grandmother was my teacher. And his father's my good friend. So when Warren Furutani, he became something. Yeah, I told him, "Hey, you know what?" "What?" he says. "You look like Hiroshi, Hiroshi Furutani." He said, "That's my father." "Oh. Your grandmother was a schoolteacher, huh?" "Yeah, how do you know?" "I'm from Terminal Island." "Oh, you're from Terminal Island." So he invited to me, he had a station right downtown, invited to talk anything you want about redress. So I said, go ahead. But when you got half an hour, look like only five minutes. Time goes fast.

MN: What was the name of the Japanese school?

CH: Seishou Gakuen. There were two. One Buddhist and one Christian. See, I used to go to Baptist church when I was young, 'cause I used to love to hear "Jesus did this and that," and everything, it was fascinating for me. The reverend's talking, "Oh, yeah, what a guy," I thought. And he's a god, he said, "Oh, yeah, that God, number one." As I grew up, older and older and older, Mrs. Swanson was my teacher, she used to come and call me every time, "You bad boy. I heard you did this and that, bad. Come to church," I used to run all over the place. Finally I went over there, we were baptizing. Baptize, what's that? "Oh, see that tub of water?" "Yeah, that's a regular tub. What are you going to do with that?" "No, you come over there, you get inside there with a cloth on top and the thing gonna bowl like that, you're baptized." I don't want to do that thing. So the people gaman. They finally asked the reverend that came to preach to all the Japanese people, there was about three preachers. Nobody do nothing. I raised my hand. I went over there, I did it. Baptized. "Hey, he help?" "I don't know if he helped." But that's why I used to, you know, Tom, I used to argue with all the preachers. Man, I used to argue with them. Yeah, but boy, they're preachers. They don't get mad what I tell 'em.

TI: Well, that's interesting. So first, they talk about what a baptism is, you said, "No, I'm not going to do that." But then when they asked for volunteers, you were the first one.

CH: Yeah, I feel sorry for those guys. Yeah, I did. Nobody go up. So those guys, "I don't want to take a furo," he said, take a bath. So that's why Mrs. Swanson treat me real good. But I didn't believe in God, that he was a god. He was just a person. Same thing. Buddha, same thing. I used to work with all these Catholic people and, you know, I'm not impressed by, you know, this maybe later come up, but when I went to South America, lot of things happened. Now what?

MN: Tell me what the name of the other Japanese school was?

CH: Sokei Gakuen. That's the Buddhist. There were two. See, there was, Seisho Gakuen was number one. So all the, maybe two hundred students going to that Seisho, first Book 1 to Book 12. That's the way it was, by book, you go grade. Up two, I don't know, twelve, it's book. So when that Buddhist school opened up, half went that way. Half and half split open. Then that one, Sokei Gakuen, they started Boy Scouts. We didn't have Boy Scouts. So I wanted to join the Boy Scouts, "No, you're a Christian, that's why you can't join." Huh? What's that got to do with it? My mother telling me, and it cost five bucks, five dollar, too much. And so our place, my dad was Christian, Christian. He didn't go.

TI: Well, so was that on purpose, that if a Buddhist wanted to join your gang, you'd say no?

CH: No, no, it's a different type of people. Looking at my grade, my grade, one up or maybe two or three down, there was that group. There were a different type of people. There's that studious kind of people, and you know, innocent type of people, and the rowdy kind of people. Anyplace you go, they're kind of different kind of people, right? I don't know what kind of people you are, maybe you're a bookworm, or I don't know.

TI: Yeah, I'm kind of a nerd. [Laughs]

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.