<Begin Segment 18>

SY: And do you remember any negative reaction from people in Minnesota when you arrived?

HS: No. What the chef did after we left, he put a note up on the board, bulletin board, and it said, "I've just hired three boys of Japanese ancestry." Says, "If anybody has any comments, come to my office." And the first one that he talked to was a fellow named Dan Schouf. He was a big, two hundred fifty pound German, very gentle person, but very religious, and he was a baker's assistant. But when he came up to the kitchen and saw that, the chef asked him, "What do you think?" He says, "It doesn't matter what nationality they are. They're people. It's whether they're good or bad workers. That's the criteria." And so when Tok was, we all used to eat together, but when Dan and Tok were talking, Tok was, had a girlfriend who was very, she was five years older than him, but the two got along. They worked in the hospital in Gila and they fell in love, and so when Dan invited Tok, he said, "Do you want to come to church with us?" 'Cause he was a very devout Missouri Synod Lutheran, and the church was on the outskirts of Minneapolis. And anyway, well, Tok jumped at the chance because his girlfriend said, "I won't marry you unless you become a Christian." And so as soon as he left camp that was his first thought, that he was gonna become a Christian and then get engaged. So Tok says, "Dan invited me to church, but I don't want to go alone." He says, "Will you come with me?" And so I said sure.

And so this, we took a streetcar and it stopped right on the outskirts of town. It was called Edina, Minnesota. Anyway, the church was right across the tracks, and the pastor's house was next door. Well, the pastor was a young minister. He was twenty-eight years old and that was his first calling. It was a little church with a hundred fifty people. But I never forgot, the pastor's name was Harold Schweigert, and anyway, Dan took us, so we started going pretty regular. And so then when Pastor Schweigert, we got to know him a little better, why then, he asked if we would take catechism lessons and find out what Missouri Synod's all about, so he would come either in evenings or on our time off, he came to our hotel room. And so Tok and I would take catechism lessons, and so then I don't know how many months later, why, then he asked us if we wanted to be baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church. Well, we both jumped at it, so Tok and I were the first Niseis to become Lutherans in that church, or even in Minneapolis, as far as I know, 'cause I don't know any other Japanese in there. But anyway, Pastor Schweigert's nephew or something was in, taking, becoming a minister in St. Louis where a seminary is, but anyway, Pastor Schweigert wrote to him, and so he says, "You got two Niseis first thing?" Well, his name was Burt Schreiver, but anyway, he was, his best friend was a Nisei named George Shibata, and he was studying to become a Lutheran minister, so they both jumped at it, and so they followed us up. And we're in the history books in St. Louis where the main headquarters of the Missouri Synod Church is, is how we were the first in Minneapolis to become Lutherans.

SY: That's a great story. So you, are you still, so you stayed practicing?

HS: I'm Lutheran, and I've been a Missouri Synod Lutheran all my life. And my three kids all were baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church, and so all three of 'em still attend Christian churches.

SY: So this minister really had a lifelong impact on you.

HS: He was such a wonderful person, and we became lifelong friends. I mean, he came to visit me a couple of times, and then one time, why, my daughter said, "Dad, you haven't been back to Minneapolis for a long time." And she was working for an airline, so she says, "I'll give you two tickets," and says, "You go visit Pastor Schweigert." So when I called and told him, he says, "You're staying with us." He says, the first thing he did is they took us to the Radisson Hotel for dinner. We spent three days there with him, went back to the church. Then many years later, why, there was a seminar in Pasadena, so I told, he wrote and told me he's coming. I says, "Okay, Pastor, time to pay back. You're staying at my house for three nights." [Laughs] And I took him around. But he was really a wonderful person, though.

SY: So you always felt very welcome in Minnesota.

HS: Yeah. I think Dan happened to be an usher the day, the first time we went to church, and one fellow walked out and he said something to Dan. He said something about allowing "those people," and Dan remarked, he says, "Well," he says, "you better get used to it, 'cause if you want to go to heaven," he says, "you're gonna see a lot of 'em." That was his remark. That's how Dan was. But he was a wonderful person.

SY: What was Dan's last name?

HS: Schouf. And so...

SY: So you never had any personal encounters with any, or any incidences when you were in Minneapolis at all, as far as...

HS: No. One time there was a dishwasher and he got drunk and he got fired. There was a cook too that... well, there was a cook that I remember, now that I think about it, but he was working the broiler right opposite me and his idea of a broiled steak was burnt on one side and raw on the other, and he served it that way. He got fired right away, but a week later -- 'cause we lived on Seventh and Hennepin, or Third Avenue and Hennepin, and the hotel was on Seventh Avenue, Seventh Street, but anyways, walking distance -- but anyway, when I was walking on Hennepin Avenue, he was drunk and he says, "My son is fighting against Japs like you." He said, "I ought to beat you up." And I said, "Well, you think you wanna, let's go in the alley." So I walked toward the alleyway, I turned around, and he was gone. [Laughs] That's the only time somebody ever called me a "Jap."

SY: Wow.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.