<Begin Segment 33>

SY: So I'm, now I'm wondering if we missed anything, if there's something that you've, you're, that we've forgotten to cover in your... is there something else that you --

HS: I don't know, there's so many things.

SY: -- that you, well, is there anything else that you, that we haven't covered that you want to mention? Some of the other things that you've done in your, over the last few years? Are there other, other organizations you've been involved with that mean a lot to you?

HS: Well, those two were nice.

SY: Well, tell us about these awards.

HS: There's one from the, after ten years of being president of Southeast Japanese Community Center. We're still connected with SEYO, the Southeast Youth Organization. Anyway, so SEYO nominated me for the Orange County Pioneer of the Year, and so they gave a banquet, four hundred people, and gave me that plaque. And they, in turn, nominated me for Nisei Week, so that's how I got that. But never in my life would I ever dream I'd be nominated for a Pioneer of the Year award.

SY: So both Orange County and Los Angeles have honored you.

HS: Yeah, but like they say, you never do things for honor. You do things for jobs that have to be done, and people recognize it. It's thanks. But so I've been rewarded many times by people that say thank you.

SY: And many, many friends over the years.

HS: Yeah.

SY: You still have, mostly people in the community, Japanese American community, are those the people you consider your best, your closest friends?

HS: Yeah, because that's the most I've been involved with. And I still have some friends at church, at Ascension, and so those are all hakujin friends there. But I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Lutheran Church because they've been so good and the people have been so friendly every time I've gone.

SY: And your children, your daughter, since she started talking to you about camp, have you, was that when you sort of opened up with her? You never...

HS: Yeah, in the eighth grade she kept hearing, says, "How come every time you, your friends meet, they ask what camp you were in?" So that's when I start explaining, so she wrote a, sort of a, one of her thesis on some class that she was having, so then she's been interested ever since. And so when I went to the reunions, like the one in Phoenix, why, her and her husband came. And so I've been the master of ceremonies at every reunion we've had 'cause I guess I'm the one that's always poppin' off, so I've been, more or less, the banquet chairman at every reunion we've had. So now, automatically, nobody would take the speaker's thing, so I was always the one that was the speaker. [Laughs]

SY: And how about your son? Does he, has he gotten involved with talking to you about camp?

HS: No, my daughter's the oldest one so, there's a daughter, a son, and then a daughter. But Cathy's the one that's always more about keeping family history and everything, and so she's in creative memory, so she's making scrapbooks of everything in our lives. So she's really into that, so she's chronicling a lot of the activities and pictures and things. She'll, when I die she'll have a nice photo exhibit. [Laughs]

SY: She's the one we should be talking to. She probably remembers something that we haven't covered that you might... I'm trying to think if there's any, is there any other question that you think I should, that... what is the one on the top there, that award on the top?

HS: That's from Southeast Japanese Community Center and the other one's from the Orange County Coordinator Council.

SY: Okay, so yeah, both. And you're still really involved with Southeast Community Center?

HS: Yeah.

SY: I know, they took, we took the other one down.

HS: That one there [points off camera], that nebuta, that's a collector's item, number thirty-three. But they gave me that as, the five honorees, the Pioneers that year, they gave one of those. They says, "You keep that." They said, "That's a collector's item." So I don't know if it'll have any monetary value, but at least they say they gave me a collector's item. [Laughs]

SY: That's great. And that, and that was just something that was given to you because of your active role in the...

HS: Well, that year, that year, that's one of, the five honorees received one of those. There's a hundred of those out, and that was number thirty-three they gave me.

SY: That's wonderful. Well, I've, it's a, like I said, you've had a very rich life. I'm so glad we were able to capture some of it, some of it on tape.

HS: Yeah, probably I'll wake up and say, "Oh, I should've told you..." [Laughs]

SY: I know. I feel the same way.

HS: That always happens, you know.

SY: [Laughs] But I think we covered a lot.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.