<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Wow, yeah, I'm sure I could ask a lot more stories about downtown, but let me switch a little bit and ask you about your relationship with the Japanese community, 'cause it sounds like you were, like, right in the middle, being close to Japanese Baptist.

MA: Right in the middle, and my friends, I played with all the kids around. It was a very integrated situation. And then down the street, like there was a guy named Seigo -- I can't think of his last name -- but a few years ago he had written to me and, quite a few years ago, and we met up at the China, on Beacon Hill, China, a restaurant.

TI: South China?

MA: South China, and I met... this dumb blonde with about five guys from, one Watanabe and Seigo and about four other guys, and we kind of reminisced about, again, the old days. And Seigo was a very handsome, very suave kind of a guy, and he was, had his business partly in Hawaii, partly here and so on. But anyway, yes, I mixed a lot with all the Japanese.

TI: And when you would go to some of your friends' homes and they would come to your home, tell me the differences between a Japanese home and your home. I mean, what kind of things would be different?

MA: What kind of things would be different? Well, at Sachi's home, which is the one I went to mostly, and Hisako and Toshi, which were at the triangle, and then next door to my mother's house and dad's house was, invariably there were Japanese people renting the home there. And how was it different? I guess I didn't pay attention to anything much different. All I was really familiar with was the smells of Japanese --

TI: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. When you walk into a Japanese home, does it smell different?

MA: Smells were different, and tea was always a highlight, and as far as Japanese food, I don't think I ever had a meal in their homes, but then I...

TI: How about like the things hanging on their walls?

MA: Hanging on their walls...

TI: Can you remember that or even maybe like Japanese dolls?

MA: Dolls. Dolls, yes. Still one of my favorites is a Japanese doll -- my brother sent one to me one time from Europe, or the Orient. And as far as... you know, I don't think I spent meal times there, and I think we snacked after school and I think most of our activities were, was playing out in the streets and stuff like that, as far as really integrating with play and things like that. In their homes and in my home, all I know is that Mama was open to all the kids, they could come. I have a picture of her with our Japanese neighbor. She's mowing the lawn and this little Japanese gal has her arm around Mama. So there was always a good feeling, and when we get to that point I'll explain why some of the things with Sachi that took place in my life disturbed me.

TI: Yeah, so I, I'm curious now about the parents and how they accepted you. So when you went to a Japanese home, oftentimes they probably, many of them, didn't speak English.

MA: Right, right.

TI: And I'm just wondering your kind of relationship with...

MA: One of the families' homes that I went to I was not totally comfortable with because I wasn't sure how the mother felt, whether she didn't want to have a white person with her child. I don't think that would be the case, but then I don't know what the case was, because one of, she was rather serious and, and I never felt like she, I got a feeling maybe she didn't want me there. Now, I don't know if I was right in my feeling or not, but then there wasn't the comfort there that I felt in Toshi's and Hisako's house and others, you know? So, but otherwise in their homes everybody was very cordial and very inviting and I felt totally comfortable.

TI: Okay. And how about your parents with Japanese kids coming over?

MA: Perfect. No problem at all. Mama was, and Papa both, I mean, they were both very hospitable and, as I say, Papa was always funny, making jokes. So no, there was no discomfort there. It was always really nice. I think, I think it was good.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.