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JG: Okay, so shifting gears a little bit, I'd like to just talk about your life leading up into college. What were some of the activities that you were involved in?

MN: A lot of our activities, of our family, particularly our brother, my brother and sister, were similar to the activities of so many other Sansei kids growing up in Crenshaw during that time. They all revolved around the Japanese American community, but more specifically around the churches, the Christian churches, and the Buddhist temples. I can remember even the old CYC baseball league -- Community Youth Council, which was Japanese American league, which still exists today -- I can recall, even though you had just independent teams... for example, my dad, we were part of the organization called the Red Sox Organization, and my dad was a coach, but there were other, a good number of other teams that were sponsored by churches and temples that were also part of the league. But anyway, a lot of our activities revolved around this church, Centenary United Methodist Church, which was one of the well-known Japanese American Christian churches here in Los Angeles during that time. I'd like to think it still is one of the more well-known Japanese American Christian churches, a very biased opinion. But all of our activities, sports, social activities, youth activities, again, sports activities, to a large extent revolved around the church. This church had a very active YMCA program back during those days and also had a very, very active program of girls, girls' clubs and sports was one of the components of those clubs. So we were always, gosh, when I think about it... my wife and I think we're busy nowadays shuttling our one son to sports activities, but when I think about our mom and by extension all the other, the Nisei moms did back then, shuttling two or three or four kids around to different activities all on one day, usually Saturday or Sunday, it just blows my mind. But our activities revolved, to a large extent, around the churches and the temples and other community organizations that were around. I remember, for example, at least in the Crenshaw area, there was a very strong Optimist Club that was run by Niseis that, they had programs for the youth growing up there. There was also a, there were several independently run swim schools. Everybody that, back then, had to learn how to swim, and there were two or three independently run swimming schools owned and operated and run by Japanese Americans that were in the community that we went to a lot. For example, this time of year during the summers. But it really was, at least for us, this church, Centenary, back then called Centenary Methodist Church, that was the outlet for a lot of our activities. Sports, the youth fellowship groups, the bazaars. A lot of our even Japanese and Japanese American cultural upbringing was as a result of this church. And I know that's true for a lot of other Sanseis, my generation. Whether they went to another Japanese American Christian church or to a Buddhist temple, that's how it was for them as well.

JG: At what point did your family become involved at Centenary?

MN: Well, let me put it like this: this is the only church that... I mean, apart from the fact that I'm now the senior minister, this is the only church that my family, and my brother, sister and I personally, ever knew growing up. This was, this was the church we came to. Probably for several reasons. One, it was the most convenient. It was right in the area. Also, Centenary did have a very, very strong history of being rooted here in the local Japanese American community, which before the war was known as the Seinan community, or Southwest area, because of the fact that a lot of Japanese Americans lived in the area. Crenshaw was a part of that Seinan area, but it was generally known by the larger name of Seinan. And I also believe -- I never asked my mom or dad this -- but given what Japanese Americans as a whole were going through during the postwar resettlement era, I have a suspicion that one of the reasons we came to Centenary was because it was a Christian church and this was one of their ways, efforts to "Americanize" their kids, which was something that all Nisei parents were trying to do for their kids back during that time. I've often pointed out that the Buddhist temples had just as many Boy Scout troops as the Christian churches, and if you look at today, I would be willing to bet that there are more, within the Japanese American communities, there are more Buddhist temples that sponsor Boy Scout troops than there are Christian churches, and I believe that has to do with the historical experience of Japanese Americans, particularly the Nisei generation, wanting to assimilate into society, wanting their children to assimilate and become good Americans so that they wouldn't be ostracized from being who they are and of their ethnic heritage. And I believe the Christian church, in a lot of ways, provided a mechanism for that, to do so, and that's why our parent sent us to the Christian church, whether it would've been Centenary or any other.

JG: As opposed to sending you to a...

MN: To a Buddhist temple.

JG: To a Buddhist temple, okay.

MN: Right, yeah.

JG: Were your parents religious?

MN: They weren't religious in a formal sense, although my mom, when we were kids, did mention that she and a lot of her Nisei friends went to what was then called the 20th Street Church. Now it's called All Peoples Christian Church. But it was a church that back during her days of growing up during the '20s and '30s, early '40s, and here and Los Angeles, was a church that reached out to Nisei children, and so she would always tell stories of going to that church. My dad later on in life, 'cause being a typical Nisei male, didn't really talk about things like church, but he did later on in life mention that he grew up in the old Japanese Presbyterian church up on Beacon Hill in Seattle, which in some ways kind of threw me for a loop when he mentioned that. I don't know why, but he did mention that at some point when we were either in high school or college.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.