<Begin Segment 11>

SY: So, we skipped the part where you learned piano. When did that happen?

PM: That was before the war. And Mom doesn't play the piano; Dad used to play by ear. They wanted us to learn the piano, so there was a missionary lady, Miss Dorkiserly, who was teaching piano at twenty-five cents an hour.

SY: A lesson.

PM: Uh-huh. And so all of us took piano lessons.

SY: All of you?

PM: Well, all five of us, yes. But I'm not quite sure if the youngest took it or not, but I know the one next to me, Mary Jane, she really, really enjoyed it and so now, as you know, she's a concert pianist and also writing music and teaching.

SY: That's amazing that they all insisted you take piano.

PM: Yes, yes. She really wanted us to learn the piano.

SY: So, and each, I mean, was there any resistance? Everybody was fine with taking -- even, even Betty took piano lessons?

PM: Right.

SY: Because she still, she doesn't play anymore, right?

PM: No.

SY: But all the rest of you do.

PM: I think Susie and Sharon, I'm not sure if they took it before the war because they might've been very, they were born after the war. That's right.

SY: Right, right. And every, I remember all of my sisters playing piano.

PM: Is that right?

SY: I wish, I wish I had learned. [Laughs] But so were you active in the church before the war? Did you go to a church in Boyle Heights?

PM: Went to Union Church.

SY: Union Church.

PM: In Little Tokyo.

SY: So you went from Boyle Heights to Little Tokyo to go to church.

PM: That's right. Daddy and Mom were insistent that we go to church every Sunday.

SY: And they wanted you to go to Christian church, not Buddhist church.

PM: Right.

SY: And was there a reason for that, do you know?

PM: No, but Baachan was a Buddhist and she always said doesn't matter which church you go to as long as you go to church 'cause you're not gonna learn anything bad at a church. So Dad, I think, is the one that wanted us to go to a Christian church.

SY: But you never found out why?

PM: He never went himself, no.

SY: Right, I know he never went himself and I wonder he wanted, I wonder if it had anything to do with being American. You know, going to a Christian church.

PM: Maybe.

SY: Maybe, but yeah, he never talked about it. So you went to, that was Reverend Toriumi?

PM: Toriumi, yes.

SY: He was at Union Church back then.

PM: Donald Toriumi.

SY: And then did he end up going to the same camp with you, Poston?

PM: No, not that I know of. But I met a lot of ministers in camp.

SY: I see. So you, when you --

PM: I was active in the Christian church in camp.

SY: In camp, so that's where you played piano.

PM: I tried.

SY: Did you play, you played piano for church.

PM: I tried. [Laughs]

SY: So were all your sisters also playing piano there too?

PM: No. Mary Jane and I happened to play "Pomp and Circumstance" at one graduation ceremony in camp. We played a duet.

SY: Oh, a duet. Wow. So you, at that time you and she were playing sort of the same level?

PM: Yes. And we were also taking piano lessons in camp.

SY: And who taught piano lessons?

PM: I think Miss Kawakami, as I recall. I'm not quite sure.

SY: One of the Japanese, the other Japanese women there. And there was, what kind, where did you find the piano to use?

PM: That's something that I'm kind of thinking of now. [Laughs] Maybe we didn't take --

SY: It must not have been right away. It was sometime...

PM: Probably.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.