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SF: Well -- just kind of speculating here -- but do you think it might have something to do with that people have some sort of common understandings about obligations and commitments or something that would sort of make it easier to get organized, to commit to a longer term relationship? Well, trying to sort of get to what is this, what is it that causes this comfort, this ability to feel good in this social context which makes the interpersonal relationships so lasting and significant?

FM: Yeah. No, I don't think -- you know these ideas of obligation and so on probably, and of interdependence, this kind of thing -- no doubt in the abstract sense existed and played a part. But in the real world in which the kids were functioning, I would say it was something more like this. That, that if you proposed an idea among a bunch of kids -- let me be more specific and more concrete. I grew up learning about the Japanese community with my cousin's family, the Hashiguchis, who lived on 11th and Washington Street. Now Washington Street was the hub of the Japanese residential district in that time. Now that area is (a) housing project. It used to be called the Yesler, or the Seattle Housing Project. Anyway, that hill was filled with Japanese residences back in the 1920s let's say. And I used to go and visit my cousin at 11th and Washington -- they had a small house there. And whatever play activity was going on, I took part in it because it was very enjoyable as I found it. In contrast to the Beacon Hill community where we used to have baseball games or soccer games or whatever, but it was never a lasting thing. It was that, it was not something that would have long enduring permanence. The group would come together and kind of then break off. I had friends whom I regularly played with and I supposed if we'd form gangs, as sometimes happens, maybe then there might have been this kind of permanence that we're talking about. But at least within the context in which I grew up, we did not belong to gangs, at least I did not, and none of my friends formed gangs that I know of. So we were unable to function together effectively within that setting. But on Washington Street, what you would invariably see was groups of Nisei kids focused and in a some kind of group activity on the 11th and Washington, or down on 9th on Washington, or down on 6th and Washington, and as a matter of fact (the) Nippon Kan Hall was down on Maynard and Washington, and that was one of the activity points that I want to talk about in a minute.

But anyway, coming back to this factor that brought us together, I think the fact is that kids were, the Nisei kids were looking for an opportunity to engage in whatever activity they had that was of interest to them. And one of the main activities of course was sports and there was no question, you go down on Washington Street and immediately you could find a group of kids who would be willing to do that. And not only that, but once you got this group together, there was a certain likelihood of permanence in that relationship. I can tell you the kids I grew up playing with simply because at 11th and Washington, these kids would always get together. And they would play baseball or soccer or basketball or whatever we wanted to do on this street corner. Incidentally the street, Washington Street, was a dirt road at that time. I think there was a concrete sidewalk maybe, but it was a dirt road and none of the streets around there were paved. So we could play baseball or whatever, as if they, it was an outdoor field. It's limited, but nevertheless possible. And once we got a game going, why kids would turn up and very frequently they were the same kids you saw the last week or the week before, and so you get to know them. Incidentally we would play all kinds of games. We had one game called Jintouri. Jin is man and tori is take. So Jintouri meant go and capture someone. And there was a certain set of rules by which we, we'd play, we would play Jintouri. Well, obviously this is a Japanese adaptation, game brought from Japan that we played. And Hide and Seek or whatever games could become very elaborate. We'd develop our activities now. One of the interesting questions is why did we not get involved in criminal activities. You know, this is the kind of basis for gang formation and here is a setting within which prostitution and all kinds of criminal activities going and here are these kids growing up on Washington Street within the setting. And we didn't get involved in prostitution, we didn't get involved in gambling. Gambling was very active down in the Chinatown community and we knew about it, but we didn't get involved. Some Nisei did, and some Nisei got into prostitution, in fact I had a friend who became a pimp and I knew he was, but that to me was a kind of a distant thing. But it's a curious thing as to why we did not get into that type of activity. Well, I suppose our family background and the community background played a part in preventing, setting up barriers against our getting involved in criminal activities. But we did not form gangs of that kind, we got, we formed these friendship groups and they tended to be the basis for organized activities such as Boy Scout troops or Christian endeavors or whatnots that channeled us into more legitimate activities.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.