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SY: Can you talk a little bit about... everybody called him Grandpa?

FO: Well, after the war they called him Grandpa because he was a grandfather. Father John took over the Nisei congregation at St. Mary's.

SY: And Father John was Grandpa's son.

FO: Oldest son. And Grandpa handled all the Issei people.

SY: So Grandpa Yamazaki was here in the United States very early on.

FO: Yes, he was.

SY: And he just met, your dad just met him when he came to the United States?

FO: Well, I don't know exactly when they got together, but I understand that he was one of the young guys that used to hang around at the church. And I don't know what they were doing. My dad never expressed anything about that time.

SY: But it must have been mainly men then, because there weren't that many women who were...

FO: Yeah. That's why they all went back to Japan to get married before the exclusion act took effect.

SY: Uh-huh. So do you have any idea how large a group it was?

FO: No, I don't. I think maybe... I think there must have been ten, ten or fifteen bachelors that hung around the church. And a Miss Louise Patterson, a missionary, started then, and Grandpa Yamazaki was encouraged to become a minister.

SY: Oh, I see. So she was the one that encouraged him to join the ministry?

FO: Yeah.

SY: And she was someone who lived in Los Angeles?

FO: Well, she's a Canadian. The way I understand it, she got the call when she was in Europe. And she went back to Canada to ask if the church would sponsor her in Japan. And the church in Canada said, "Our budget is full now, we can't help you." Evidently she was a woman of means, so she went on her own, and somehow she ended up in Matsumoto, a city in the central highlands of Japan. And then she was a tall, redheaded woman. So she was a striking woman, and evidently she scared all these young guys, so they used to throw rocks at her to have her stay away 'cause they considered her kind of as a demon. But she hung out, and she got to know some of them. And if you go to the St. Mary's church here in Los Angeles, we have a stained glass window, and we call it the Yamazaki Window. And Father John, the son, has little rocks in the stained glass window signifying that these were the rocks that Grandpa threw at Miss Patterson.

SY: So she must have met Grandpa Yamazaki in Japan then.

FO: Yes.

SY: So it was a relationship that started there and then...

FO: I don't know if it was a relationship, but...

SY: [Laughs] A friendship.

FO: Yeah. But from what I understand, I think Dr. James Yamazaki could better explain it, and you ought to get him to talk with you.

SY: He's one of Grandpa Yamasaki's sons...

FO: He's the second son.

SY: I see.

FO: And he comes into L.A. every now and then, so maybe you ought to get him. But he, Grandpa Yamazaki kind of was the shepherd for all these young guys, to keep 'em out of trouble and help 'em find jobs and help 'em learn the language. And he did a good job, evidently.

SY: But he formed sort of a special bond with your father.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.