<Begin Segment 28>

SY: Okay, so you're also very active in the church still?

MK: Well, we belong to the West Adams Christian Church but we're ready to close down because of the lack of membership.

SY: Is it because the neighborhood is changing?

MK: Well, not only that, it's because we don't have the people anymore and so I think we're just about ready to go into escrow to sell the church now so that is very sad.

SY: And how did you start your involvement with the church?

MK: Well, I used to belong to the Westside Church of Christ but they closed. I hope I'm not the bad one to close all these churches. [Laughs] But anyhow, so went to West Adams because George Sato, I don't know whether you know him but he was the reverend, he was also the manager at Casa Heiwa and Sachi was staying there at that time. They became good friends, he and his wife, Carol. And so we decided well, we'll go to West Adams, (...) I think it was the second time I went there, George, Reverend Sato approached me and asked me would I just help out being a treasurer because the treasurer, (...) wasn't able to do the job anymore. And he said just for a year or so and I said, well maybe for a year. It's been ten, eleven years now and I'm still treasurer. [Laughs] But a good group of ladies there, we had a real successful CWF women's organization.

SY: And your job is raising money for that too?

MK: No, we just count the weekly offering. No, but the women's club have been making bibs and other things for Keiro for, oh I don't know, twenty, thirty years now. And so that's one thing yearly that we would do for them. But as far as the church goes --

SY: So, it's the same families who have been involved all these years?

MK: Yes, right, and zero growth because of that. All the children have moved away but now the young people, it's amazing, there's about five or six of them have come back to help us try to wind up everything. And so they've taken over as far as the sale and everything, they're going to be taking care of that that is a good thing.

SY: So they feel it an important part.

MK: Right, they still... they were all Sunday school kids at one time so we call them the kids now.

SY: So as far as their religious education, was that important? Is that something that's always been important to you? It's a Christian Methodist church, West Adams?

MK: (...) I've always been Methodist until I went to (Westside) Church of Christ. (West Adams) is a Disciples of Christ. I figure one church is as good as another as long as they teach the same thing, right?

SY: And why do you find the church to be important to you?

MK: I think it still goes back to Aunt Hazel in those days and she instilled in us so much about being good people. She didn't say good Christians but just being good people and good people that go to church. So I think that probably has a lot to do with it and I just felt all my life I had to go.

SY: So it's not so much the religious part of it in terms of --

MK: I'm not a real good student of it, I'm sorry to say, but just the idea there is a spiritual thing there that I think that I need anyway.

SY: So the importance of... it is amazing to me the importance that you place on how you say giving back. Almost to the point where that becomes your life is giving back. So is that...

MK: Yeah, now that you say it.

SY: Is that something that --

MK: I always feel it, it was given to me I should pass it on.

SY: You think that that started with this Hazel, do you think that whole idea of giving back, or was it your mother? How did you come to place such an importance on that?

MK: It must be a combination. I think in my own mind I just came to that conclusion. I've been fortunate.

SY: But is it something that because you have always been very active in Japanese American organizations, always been involved in some sort of volunteer thing, do you think that it has some sort of --

MK: Cultural significance? Yes, I think so.

SY: So all the women and all the people you've been involved with over the years, they feel a similar...?

MK: I'm sure in the back of their mind everybody, all Nisei have, I think our parents all taught us the same thing.

SY: So Nisei in particular you think?

MK: Nisei, yes. 'Cause no matter who I talk to they all say the same thing. My parents always say shikata ga nai so they have to just grin and bear it.

SY: Right, but not everyone... or do you feel like a good portion of the people you know volunteer as much as you do? I mean not everyone does that. I don't know what makes they people who do that different.

MK: That I don't know. I try to get people involved. It's my fault if I can't get them involved and if they're not involved.

SY: Yeah, 'cause your strength is really fundraising it sounds like it.

MK: Sounds like it, doesn't it now?

SY: And what's your secret? How do you do that?

MK: Well, now that I think about it, I ask the same people in my family and I imagine they hate to see me coming nowadays. Maybe I won't have any more friends to pass it on to. [Laughs] No, but I think I keep telling myself I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it for Go for Broke, for the organization. That's the only way I can ask people.

SY: And the response you get reflects that.

MK: Yeah. And most people say thank you for doing it, probably better you than me type of thing.

SY: And you never feel like you're overdoing it?

MK: I do. Lots of times I do when they overlap especially.

SY: So then you have to back down a little?

MK: Yeah, I do. But if the opportunity comes I'll pounce on it.

SY: Just kind of closing up, what's your life like today? So you obviously still are very busy doing all these things for Go for Broke and tell me about what you do at the museum now.

MK: Well, now I've slowed down quite a bit now because these old legs don't want to stand for any length of time.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.