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TI: Okay, so this is where you joined the story. So you were born in Los Angeles, and then your mother and father and you moved to Chula Vista?

FD: Uh-huh.

TI: Now, did you have any siblings?

FD: Yes. I have a brother who's about, well, he's seventeen months younger.

TI: And what's your brother's name?

FD: John. John Masato.

TI: Was he born in Chula Vista?

FD: No, I think he was born in Los Angeles.

TI: Okay.

FD: And then after John, about two years later, they had another child, a daughter, and then two years after that, yet another daughter. So all told, he had four.

TI: Okay. And the names of your sisters?

FD: Let's see. Kayko, K-A-Y-K-O, Grace, her second name is Grace, Kayko Grace. And her present last name is Takata. And then my sister, youngest sister, was Ruth. And her last name was Nishita, but she died recently.

TI: Now going back to Chula Vista, do you have any memories of Chula Vista?

FD: Oh yes, I have a lot of memories of Chula Vista.

TI: And what was that like? Can you remember the...

FD: Well, it was sort of very pleasant. Well, that is, mostly pleasant. But on the other hand, I do have some not so good memories of Chula Vista because my father... well, it was during the Depression, that is, during the 1930s, and he was supposed to get a stipend from the headquarters of the Congregational Church. But because of economic conditions during those days, sometimes he didn't get his stipend. And so in order to make ends meet he had to go to, find some other kind of work. The only kind of work that he could find was a laborer on the farms of some of his parishioners, and that was very hard for him and my mother.

TI: When you say hard for him, was it hard...

FD: It was hard physically.

TI: ...physical labor?

FD: Yeah.

TI: So he wasn't used to that.

FD: No, he had never done physical labor in his life. Well, he was short and slight of build because he was thin. And, well, he just wasn't cut out for farm labor.

TI: I imagine it was hard, but then thinking of a minister, I imagine he used some of those hardships in his sermons over time.

FD: Yeah, probably. [Laughs]

TI: Okay. Yeah, I think earlier we were also talking that during that Chula Vista time, he was also assigned on an interim basis on a short term to San Diego?

FD: Yes, for a year.

TI: And do you recall anything about San Diego?

FD: Some, yes. For me it was a pleasant interlude. We lived in the house of the minister whose place he was taking. Well, at the time I thought, "This is strange. Here the church is paying the rent or owns this house, and so my father didn't have to worry anything about rent. And they provided money or whatever, but we didn't feel as if we were so poverty-stricken as we did in Chula Vista. I just sort of thought, well, I sort of questioned the Christian values of the people at Chula Vista, because they didn't provide a house for my father, he had to pay the rent and, well, other expenses. And I'm not sure about the details but I used to overhear my parents' discussions late at night worrying about this and that. And being so young, I don't remember the details, except that they were concerned about how to feed the family, and that he needed gasoline in order to visit his congregation and in order to go to church, and that was a big expense for him in those days.

TI: Now looking back, when you think of Chula Vista versus San Diego, was it partly because the San Diego congregation was much larger than Chula Vista?

FD: Possibly.

TI: That's what that happened, or what were the...

FD: Well, I don't know. I can only guess at it. Well, there were more people in San Diego, and then perhaps they were less poor. I don't think they were wealthy, but then they were less poor. They weren't farmers, at least I don't think so, because they lived in the city. Whereas in Chula Vista, the congregation consisted mainly of farmers.

TI: Well, and I was thinking your father's experience in Los Angeles where he raised enough money to build this really beautiful church.

FD: Yes.

TI: And so I'm thinking that it's a function of, kind of, I guess the wealth of the community that L.A. was much larger, much wealthier, Chula Vista is a small farming community, and then maybe San Diego is kind of in between the two possibly?

FD: Yes, I guess so.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.