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TI: Going back to your father, you mentioned he came to the mainland when he was fourteen. And to me, when you said that, I said, "Well, that seems unusual," at fourteen, to leave his... it seemed so young to me. I mean, I think when I've interviewed other people, going from a place like Maui to the mainland is like going to a whole different country.

HY: Oh, that was another country, yeah.

TI: It was just a huge leap. So what brought him to the mainland?

HY: Well, he said that he used to watch movies. He loved to watch movies about college life, I guess there were a lot of movies about college life at that time. He wanted to go to college. And he became friends with a hakujin fellow, I guess a mainland person who was a reporter.

TI: You were going to say "haole," is that what you were going to say? [Laughs]

HY: Yeah. A reporter on the local newspaper there. And he became friends, he would run errands for him. And this reporter invited him, when he moved back to the States, invited him to come and work for him in the States, so that's what he did. He thought it was a great opportunity, so he, of course, left, and took a boat, of course, in those days. On the boat he met a Japanese Christian pastor. And again, I can't remember the name, I'll have to remember that name. [Narr. note: Reverend Toda.] So during that journey he became friends with this pastor and was invited to stay at the basement of the church in Alameda. It was Buena Vista, I think, the Methodist church at that time. So that's where he kind of lived for a while, worked for this newspaper man, I don't know if he was a reporter or not. And then he went to high school in Alameda.

TI: I want to see if there's... and the reason I'm asking this question, we're doing, actually, a large project right now with the Alameda Japanese American community, and Buena Vista is one of the partners. I'm curious, do you have any stories about his stay when he was at Buena Vista? I think if there was a story, this group would appreciate it. Is there anything that you know about his stay there or his relationship with this minister? Because it sounds like he quickly found these, almost like mentors who would take him in and help him out.

HY: Yeah. When he was in high school, I guess, he would also work during the summers in Walnut Creek? Walnut Creek. And he got typhoid. And then one of the families, it was a husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Teshima, who were members of that church, took care of him while he was sick, very seriously sick with typhoid. And he recovered and he became good friends with the Teshimas and they were sort of like his parents here. And when I went to, he went to Berkeley, he managed to get into Berkeley. And then even when I and my brother went to Berkeley, we would visit the Teshimas, they were very, like grandparents.

TI: So tell me more. I'm now intrigued by your father. He must have had this gift to connect with people in ways that they really wanted to help him. First this journalist, then this minister, the Teshimas, how did he do that?

HY: Well, he was very, I would say he was very outgoing. He was always very interested in people. I guess he was just... well, he was very outgoing, I guess. That's the most I could say. He was, for a self-made person, I mean, he had nothing when he came. And through the help of friends and people in the church there in Alameda, that's where, through that community in Alameda, he met his wife's brother, future wife's brother, the Shikumas, one of the Shikuma brothers, and through that he met my mother. So the Shikumas were a very big clan in Watsonville.

TI: Right. But then I guess the brother was up here and was just attending church up...

HY: Yeah, he was actually in Stanford, attending Stanford.

TI: Oh, so this is Kenji?

HY: Kenji Shikuma, yeah. He was attending Stanford at the same time my dad was attending Cal, and they met at the Alameda church. The Alameda church, I guess they drew membership from... a lot of college students, I guess, attending during that time.

TI: Yeah, it's interesting. When I visit the church, because it's nearby also the Buddhist temple, there's kind of his hub here that both of them are there.

HY: Yeah, when I went to college, I went to the Alameda church, too.

TI: I'm glad we asked this because I know this group is just interested in all the connections to the church. So your dad lived there, you said, like in the basement or someplace?

HY: Yeah, for a time I think he lived in the basement of that church.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.