<Begin Segment 13>

MN: Let me ask you a little bit about the holidays at Shonien. What was Christmas like at Shonien?

MY: Very good. The Japanese Christian Church, Reverend Unoura, they had a group that would collect... make Christmas gifts for must have been about twenty of us that would go down to the church. They would pick us up, take us down to the church, and they'd have a program set up for us. A few games, I remember this Reverend Chuck Severens to tell us different stories, and then they would give us, each one of us got a gift there. At Shonien we had a Christmas program. A lot of the parents would come, we'd have it in the playroom, they'd have chairs set up and then we had a program like made up of the nativity scene and things like that. They had a little program and the Elks Club in L.A., they would send a lot of gifts and things so we all had Christmas presents from different things. That was one of the nicer holidays.

MN: This Elks Club, was this a hakujin club?

MY: Yeah, hakujin club in L.A., but I remember they used to send us Christmas gifts every year.

MN: What kind of presents did you get?

MY: I don't know. I don't remember too much about 'em but I remember we got different things. I think mostly clothes but they must have got a list of all the kids that were there and the age and size and things or whatever, but I know we all got something. We had a big Christmas tree there, we'd decorate it and have a Christmas program and sing some songs and things and then they had a short program, but that was one of the nicer holidays. New Year's was nice. Helm's Bakery used to send us a bunch of sweet rolls so New Year's day we always had sweet rolls for breakfast. You never forget those things. Fourth of July, this one Chinese Restaurant, Sanko Low on First Street, they used to send a bus, pick us up, take us out to Brighton Beach. They'd have a box lunch packed for all of us and so we'd spend the day there, then we'd come back, feed us supper at the restaurant, and put us in the bus and take us to the Coliseum for Fourth of July, the fireworks show they had there, then they would take us home. And I'd think, gee, you know, you never forget things like that. So whenever I would go... if you're going to go to chop suey place that's where I would go, but it's Sanko Low.

MN: Did you know that the Sanko Low owner was married to a hakujin before the war?

MY: No, I don't know. I just knew that they did all of that for us, and you know, when you get a nice box lunch like they'd fix up and nice chop suey dinner after being at the beach and then going to the Coliseum for the fireworks show, boy, they really went out for us. So it's one of the real nice holidays.

MN: When you were at Brighton Beach, did you have any contact with the Terminal Islanders?

MY: No, we just pretty much... more or less day at the beach.

MN: Now you mentioned for New Year's the Helm's Bakery. Was there any mochitsuki?

MY: No, we never had any mochitsuki. I never knew about that until after the war. One of my friends used to do it all the time so we did it for like forty years. Every year he'd set up and we'd go over to his place and pound mochi. But in my younger years I never heard of such a thing.

MN: So they didn't serve mochi either?

MY: No, I never had mochi until after the war.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.