<Begin Segment 7>

BN: Okay. Did they go to -- did your family go to -- like, Japanese church or involved in...?

SH: Well, this is really weird. When I was at Maryknoll, on Monday we would be -- I mean on Friday we'd be reciting the rosary in the chapel. And then on Sunday my mother would take us to Nishi Hongwanji. And then when we moved to Exposition Park, you know, she would give us car fare and we would take the streetcar because there was such a thing as a streetcar in L.A. in those days. We would take the streetcar to Nishii Hongwanji. But, you know, actually what that did was it made me an atheist; I ended up not believing in anything. Although temperamentally and spiritually, I find some of Zen very, very interesting, especially the aesthetic aspects of it. I know more Catholic history than most people, but I've forgotten more than most people ever know. And so I'm very familiar with Catholicism but I'm totally not in sympathy.

BN: Did you and your siblings have to go to Japanese language school?

SH: There was Japanese language school at Maryknoll, which is why my mother sent us there.

BN: Oh, okay. But beyond that, after you were done?

SH: No, not afterwards. Well, you know, my nephew, who's half African American, went to Japanese language school for years, and then he studied Japanese at Irvine, and then he went to Japan and taught in Japan for five years. So the last time I was there, I was traveling with him and having him read all the kanji because I don't read it at all.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.