<Begin Segment 6>

SY: And then when you were, so this area that you moved in Uptown, was it, do you remember growing up with a lot of other Japanese kids?

YM: Yes.

SY: Other races too?

YM: It was mostly Caucasian. In the grammar school we were, there were a few Japanese, but then as soon as we got to Uptown, our folks enrolled us in a Japanese language school, which happened to be St. Mary's, was a church. And there was another Japanese language school on the next block, and I don't know how they chose St. Mary's, but that's why I ended up at St. Mary's Church at the language school. And so there were quite a few Japanese when you get to the, 'cause we went to school every day after public school and there would be about two or three, the early ones who got out at two o'clock and three o'clock, so we had quite a large Japanese...

SY: Japanese students.

YM: Japanese students, yes.

SY: And so your parents weren't really religious; they just started you at this Japanese school.

YM: Right. Because my parents were Buddhists from Japan, but we ended up there mainly because of the school, but then we were affiliated so anything with St. Mary's they supported. They weren't actually members attending, but they supported the church.

SY: I see, but did they, all the kids, you and your brother, go attend, and you went to Sunday school too?

YM: Yes, we did.

SY: And your parents would, would they go?

YM: No, unless it was a special occasion or something they would attend, but not the service. Any function they would go, but not in church.

SY: Not the regular Christian service.

YM: Right.

SY: And is, so did you become acquainted then with the Yamazakis? Is that when you first met them?

YM: Yes, Father Yamazaki.

SY: Father Yamazaki.

YM: He was one of the founders. He was the minister there at the time.

SY: So he was the, he was Issei.

YM: Yes, and there was an Issei congregation. And I was there when they, it was a, in an old house at first, like living room was a chapel and they had remodeled it that way, and they tore that down, I guess, I think the new church was built in '31 or '32 and I was there for the dedication of that.

SY: And so he pretty much was the founder but also was the only minister at that time.

YM: Yes, he was. Right.

SY: And did he have, was, the whole congregation then was pretty much Japanese?

YM: Yes, it was. It was. And we had -- [clears throat] excuse me -- we had two services, one in Japanese and then one in English.

SY: I see. And were there other people who were Buddhist that went to the church? I mean, since there were, there were probably a lot of Japanese there who were originally Buddhist, right?

YM: Some, yeah, probably.

SY: But they --

YM: But there are some, there were some people who were Christians from Japan, surprisingly.

SY: I see, so a large, probably a large number of them were already, already involved with the church?

YM: I think so. Some of them, anyway, 'cause it was early on and there weren't too many, that many Christians in Japan, I don't think. But surprisingly there were some that were Christians.

SY: And so your generation, the Nisei, there were probably more kids that, your age, that went to the church then, and a lot of the parents?

YM: Yes. Yes, right. It isn't like a whole family thing.

SY: So that was kind of, was that your social life too?

YM: Yes, it really was, everything. [Laughs]

SY: What did you do? What were some of the activities at St. Mary's?

YM: Well, let's see, early on, I don't remember too much about when we were younger, but as young people we were very active there. And sing in the choir, I think I didn't start in the choir 'til high school, but there was always that, and later on there was a lot of activities. But as a real youngster I don't remember exactly what we did.

SY: You just went, you went to the Japanese school for sure.

YM: Uh-huh.

SY: And then, so that was every day.

YM: Every day, five days we went to Japanese school.

SY: And then you went on Sundays too for church.

YM: Yes.

SY: I see.

YM: Take our little pennies for offering to church.

SY: So your friends, were they mostly St. Mary's kids?

YM: Yes, right. So there were so many of us that we went to public school and St. Mary's together, so we were together a lot.

SY: You hung out, hung out mainly with other Japanese Americans during that time. And do you still, are you, are they still around? Do you still see some of those people?

YM: No. We used to meet once in a while, but it's dwindled down to a couple, I think, a couple or two or three, so I don't see them anymore.

SY: But those, I would imagine, are your lifelong friends that you met back then.

YM: Yes, because there were at least four or five of us that just went all the way from grammar school through high school together. So a longtime friendship.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.