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JG: What kind of activities were you involved in?

GF: At that young of an age, there wasn't really organized sports as there is now that we have with the Japanese, such as the organized basketball teams, the T-ball or baseball teams. There wasn't until we, I got a little older. I became a, I was in middle school that I probably got involved with, like, YMCA, and I played baseball or sports such as that. But I was never good at sports. I was always terrible. It wasn't until I tried skiing that I found a sport that was really easy for me, and that's the only sport I've ever really excelled in.

JG: Thinking back about the kind of prominence that your family probably play, because so many families would have interacted with your own through the mortuary, what do you remember of your involvement with the Japanese American community as a youth?

GF: Very little, although my father was probably more involved in more organizations than I was, and so one of the organizations, of course, was also Nisei Week. And I'd remember just, maybe him taking me to the parade and taking me to the different events, but that was probably the limit of my involvement in the Japanese organizations. My dad was very involved. My dad was involved in the veterans' organizations, the church, a lot of the community organizations here.

JG: Was your family involved in any religious organizations?

GF: My father was an elder at Union Church, and he was instrumental in helping to build Union Church where, where it is now. It used to be over on Judge John Aiso Street. The old, it's now, it's now the East West Players Building. That was the original church, and then now we moved right down the street on Third, down in San Pedro. So he was instrumental in helping to raise funds and to build the building, and then I know he was, I believe, considered an elder at the church.

JG: Did your family attend church on a regular basis?

GF: When we were younger, but as we got older and became more involved in our own personal things or more independent, no, not as much.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.