<Begin Segment 22>

SF: Okay. We've covered a lot of stuff. What -- anything else that you can think of that we should, we should get down and talk about or mention for the record about Nihonmachi that's really important?

Larry Hashima: Well, one question I had, actually is, of the role the churches played in doing all these activities as well because you talked about, I guess, a lot of the businesses and the Kenjins, but what role did the churches play in the Nihonmachi area, in terms of what everyone did, and how people related to each other in the community?

TS: Well, one of the churches -- I'm not a Catholic, but they had a parochial school, Maryknoll, and that was all Japanese or Nisei that were Catholics. And that was a grade school that they went to.

YM: Father Tibisar was very -- he was Japanese-educated.

TS: Oh, was he? Spoke Japanese?

YM: His Japanese, his Japanese was very good. He was a fiery, red-headed priest. And I remember him coming down to the store, I didn't know him, but because I'm not a Catholic, but he was instrumental in, I'm sure, getting Catholics of Seattle here. So if you ask a Catholic group, they would know Father Tibisar.

SF: To follow that -- Larry's question up a little bit, did, was there much of a, kind of division between, say, the Buddhists and the Christians --

YM: Well, yes, there was in certain ways. But most of us got along. I have a lotta Christian friends, and we got along.

SF: Did people go to different events or something that were sponsored by Christians or Buddhists, or did -- it didn't really matter, people crossed lines and all of that? How did it, how did it make a difference, if you were a Buddhist or a Christian?

CK: No, I didn't think there was any division between Buddhists and Christians, were there?

YM: Well, there's some instances.

CK: But not to the point of not getting along with each other.

YM: No, no.

TS: Got along.

YM: Yeah.

TS: And you had friends --

CK: Yeah.

TS: You didn't really worry about their church, if they're a neighbor.

CK: Well, I don't think that there was any division among the Nisei kids. We didn't care whether you're a Protestant...

TS: Yeah.

CK: Or a Buddhist.

TS: Well, even if you're Protestant, there's so many...

CK: Divisions of... yeah.

TS: Methodists and Baptists and Congregational -- a lotta Japanese churches, Japanese Presbyterian...

YM: Episcopalian.

TS: Episco -- is there Epis --

YM: Episco --

TS: Saint Peter's. Saint Peter's, yeah. Congregational, yeah. Baptists and Meth -- Blaine Memorial Methodist. And the Buddhists, there's four, three, four, five different kind of Buddhists.

CK: Yeah.

YM: There was lotta little, different sects...

TS: Yeah.

YM: Too.

TS: And one of 'em's right close to the big Buddhist church. Right above there, there's a --

YM: Konkokyo?

TS: Yeah, whatever. That's Buddhist, isn't it? Sort of, or...

YM: It's some sort of Buddhist, yeah.

TS: Yeah.

YM: Nichiren Church.

TS: Nichiren, yeah.

YM: And then my mom was in Maruyama Kyokai, but that's extinct --

TS: Oh.

YM: A long time. A small, small --

TS: Yeah, that must, Buddhists is sorta like Christianity, where they kinda spread out. They start with one church and...

SF: Now, most of the JACLers were Christians. Is that right? Or wasn't that...?

CK: I don't think that was a division line or anything like that. Just that they're just trying to do some good for the Japanese Americans. That's why people joined, I think.

TS: Yeah. I don't think religion plays any role in relationships among Nisei.

SF: Just wasn't an issue, huh?

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.