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TI: So going back to Terminal Island, what are some other, like, memories? If you talked about some strong memories --

HN: Well, Terminal Island, they maintained the Japanese culture very much, like Obon, you know, odori, the Bon festival and they had the odori dancing. They used to have that every year. Obon and other... how many, how many of those did they have? Anyway, they, every occasion, they had those.

TI: Well, when you think of Obon, so that's a Buddhist --

HN: Buddhist, yes.

TI: Now, were you raised Buddhist?

HN: I guess. We were... my family never took me to Buddhist, Buddhist church, but we maintained, the family maintained it and the Buddhist books and all this, the, what do you call it? There was a...

TI: The butsudan?

HN: A butsudan, yeah. All that. So I assume the family was Buddhist.

TI: And I guess what I was trying to get a sense of was, so like Obon, was that more of a community-wide...

HN: Yes, it was community-wide.

TI: And so even, there might be Christians there, they would still participate.

HN: Yeah, right. It seemed like the Terminal Islander, they were a mix. A lot of 'em were both, Christian and, you know, these people who follow the Buddhist teaching or the Buddhist practice. They'd go to Christian, used to go to Christian church, and my mother was that way, too. She was, sometimes, she wasn't that religious, but I guess her friend must have talked her into going to Christian church.

TI: Well, so for something like Obon, would things sort of come to a focus on the festival because -- like fishermen, would they still do their normal fishing that day and do everything, or would it change?

HN: They, it appears like they must have took a holiday, because there were so many people out there.

TI: So describe that. Where at Terminal Island would they have it and what, what was it like?

HN: Well, there was a certain area around the center of the Terminal Island where they had the school and they had this big, about half a mile long, circular type garden type area, and the street used to surround that circle. And they did Obon dancing around that.

TI: So all the way around that, that whole park.

HN: Yes, yes, right. It was not a half a mile continuous, but they went around it.

TI: So it sounds like hundreds or maybe even a thousand people were watching it?

HN: Were watching it, yes. Right.

TI: And how does the Obon back then compare with the festivals today? So I know they look like --

HN: The festivals today, I don't even, I don't even participate. You know, eighty-four, I don't know what they're doing. I see that in the paper.

TI: But, well, so today people are dressed up, you know, lanterns, lots of food booths

HN: Yeah, they do, they used to do it. It was similar, very similar.

TU: The odori music, the dancing. And they dance in a circle.

HN: Yes, right. Very similar.

TI: In a line, dancing, okay. What are some other kind of memories of Terminal Island growing up? Like your friends, I mean, what kind of activities did you and your friends do?

HN: Like any other kids, whenever we get out of school, instead of studying we put the book under the desk and went out and played baseball and football, whatever the season, you know.

TI: Well, how about Japanese language school? After regular school did you have to go to Japanese?

HN: Oh, yeah, we went to Japanese language school.

TI: And was this, like, after regular school?

HN: Yeah, right. You'd spend a couple of hours, I guess.

TI: And tell me about that. How'd you like Japanese language school?

HN: I wasn't too keen about it, but we have to go. [Laughs]

TI: What was the difference between your English or American school and Japanese school? How would you compare the two?

HN: You mean the emphasis placed on...

TI: Yeah, the emphasis, or maybe how it was taught. Was one more strict than the other? Was, you know...

HN: Well, the Japanese school was much stricter, yeah. And the American school was much... open. We used to talk to the teacher and teacher used to -- well, they used to, well, we used to get spanking a few times, but still, you know...

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.