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PW: So tell me, so they landed in Oregon?

EH: Yes.

PW: And you were born in Oregon?

EH: Yes.

PW: Can you tell me anything about the community, where the church was, and where you were growing up?

EH: Well, there was a lot of Japanese farmers in that area, and so there was a farming community, and that's why they had the Japanese church. And most of the members at that time were Issei, because they had just come from Japan. But then the children were all Nisei because they were all born in, or a lot of them were born in the U.S. But my dad, in his history notes that he wrote, he said that they call it the parsonage, so it's where the minister lives. There was no electricity, no water, no toilets, everything was outside, and so it was very... I wouldn't say primitive, but that's the way it was in those days, in the farming areas. But you get used to that, I guess, living out there.

PW: Do you happen to know the name of that first church that he served at?

EH: (Salem Japanese Community Church). They were all just United Methodist or they were called Episcopal Methodist churches. And I think they said Japanese, too, so it was strictly a Japanese church.

PW: Do you know what, or have any idea what kind of duties your father would have as the minister? Especially, he's so new, he just arrived and he's in charge of all of these people in this church. Do you have any idea what work was like?

EH: Well, he had to also speak in English, so he did both Japanese and English. And apparently he learned English pretty quickly. He may have learned some in college in Japan, but I'm not sure about that. And then also he learned to play the piano, because in the services, they had, used to sing hymns. I guess at that time there was no pianist, so he learned to play the piano a little bit there, too. But you do the weekly services, which is usually on Sundays. But then you take care of the congregation, taking care of any issues that come up, that kind of thing.

PW: Did your mom have to work to also...

EH: Not at that time. Because two years after I was born, my sister was born, so there was the two of us. But my wife -- my mother was a very good singer, and so she participated in the chorus, the choir, and did a lot of things with that. But usually the mother or the wife of the minister will do a lot of women things, you know, help cooking whenever there's sessions, things like that.

PW: Again, I'm imagining this is a community of Issei women. And so they all, again, they have just a special culture and community.

EH: Well, yeah. In those days, there was not a lot of connection with the outside world outside of that Japanese American community.

PW: How would you describe your father? What was your father like?

EH: He was very involved in the church. So sometimes I felt that he placed the church above raising his children, that was more important to him. And that was okay with me at that time. And I think he was pretty strict in his teachings, though, about being a Christian and the things you should do and shouldn't do. Because I think many of the Japanese at that time weren't raised as Christians because they were raised in Japan. So they were either Buddhist or Shinto or just had no religion. But in those days, the Buddhist... because there was always a Buddhist church in the same community. So the two churches, the Buddhist church and the Christian church, became meeting places for people because there was no other activities available to them, or hardly any other activities for the people. But most of them were farmers, so they worked a lot of hours on the farms and they didn't have a lot of spare time.

PW: How about your mother? Can you describe what was your mother like?

EH: The interesting thing was that my mother, when she got married, didn't know how to cook. Because... since her father was a judge, and I guess they had a cook to take care of the family, and so she never had to learn how to cook until she got married, so she had to learn all of that. But she was a very good mother, and kind of is the one that raised all of us kids.

PW: You just mentioned that two years after you were born, another sibling was born, another child was born. Can you tell me who that was?

EH: Oh, that was my sister, her name is Nancy, Nancy Minako Horikoshi.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.