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BN: Before we jump to that, I just want to go back and ask a couple things about the growing up period. Your parents were Kibei, so I assume their first language was Japanese?

AN: No. Well, at home, we spoke English. And that was more my mom, I think, than my dad. But because of the camps, they did not want to speak in Japanese. I didn't learn how to use chopsticks until I was in college. We just used knives and forks, we didn't eat Japanese food, we ate, quote, "American fare" most of the time. And so the only kind of accommodation to my Japanese side was Japanese school. And so that was different.

BN: How many years did you go?

AN: I think I went for four years. But I was terrible in Japanese school, I was a terrible student.

BN: Like most Sansei, I think.

AN: I was really bad; my Japanese is horrible.

BN: Did you get the sense that they were kind of... coming out of camp, that they were really trying to emphasize or downplay, I guess, the Japanese stuff?

AN: Oh, yeah, definitely. So that was kind of... my parents were not particularly directive. I don't remember any conversations where they said, "Do this," or, "study." Everything was pretty much on my own with my sisters providing some guidance, but we were four years' difference in age, so even that was... but my recollection is everything was on my own or what friends would say. Like I signed up for this baseball thing, but that was me having to go sign up on my own and bring back the forms for my parents to review. So I was pretty much on my own at that time.

BN: Gardening, of course, was a very popular... I don't know if "popular" is the right word, but profession many Japanese Americans after the war had, particular Kibei. There were gardeners' associations, picnics and all of that. Was your dad involved in that? Did you go to those picnics?

AN: No, we didn't go to any of those things, and so he had his gardener friends who kind of hung out at the lawnmower shop. So they would drink at the lawnmower shop and go to the racetrack together, but he was not kind of sociable in that regard. He really was a loner, so that was kind of how things set up.

BN: Then you mentioned church also.

AN: Yeah. So I started, there was a church a couple blocks away, so I went to that church. And so got involved in church related activities.

BN: What church was it?

AN: Venice-Santa Monica Free Methodist Church. So during high school, I was involved in church related activities.

BN: Were your parents Christian?

AN: My mom was, my dad was a non-practicing Buddhist.

BN: Was your mom Christian from familial, before the war, or something she became?

AN: Oh, no, this was just because of a good friend she went to high school with in Japan was part of a church, and so she got involved. Plus, that was a social outlet for her, because it allowed her to have a circle of friends outside of the family.

BN: But this is a Japanese Christian church?

AN: Yeah, West L.A. Methodist Church.

BN: Which Japanese school?

AN: Venice. So I was there, it was about two blocks from where I lived.

BN: That wasn't tied to a church?

AN: No, it was built as a Japanese school, and then became the Venice community center.

BN: Then you said you weren't really involved in the Japanese sports leagues or any of that kind of stuff?

AN: No. None of that was... well, I played basketball, it was primarily with kids in the projects, so it was a different kind of basketball. Because I remember playing with some of the Sansei later, and it's a very different style. I was used to much rougher play, so you would have to literally be killed to be calling a foul. But I remember how much more polite and organized it was than what I was used to.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.