<Begin Segment 4>

[This transcript has been extensively edited by the narrator.]

SY: So who was it that actually came to the United States?

GN: Tomoichi Watanabe, that was my (maternal) grandfather.

SY: And do you know why he decided to come?

GN: Well, he also became a Christian through his reading, and he met this Japanese Christian missionary. All of his life he had that photograph of him in his house. I don't know what happened to that picture, his daughter might know. His youngest daughter, (Aunt Teru), kept most of his things. She didn't get married, and she somehow was the keeper of all those things. She was a CPA and she did keep very good records just like my grandfather. My grandfather was a librarian in Japan. He served in the Japanese army, he went to university in Japan, he served in the Russian-Japanese War, and he got a lot of medals and things like that. Beyond the protests of the family, the Japanese American Museum hadn't really been formed yet, was just in its infancy, and she decided she was going to give it to the Smithsonian. But then later on she grew to regret it because they will never see the light of day, I don't think. They're in the vault somewhere hidden in the Smithsonian. But who knows? They don't tell you. They tell you that they're going to tell you when they put the things on display, but you really don't know. Because Yosh (has an etching) in the (Joseph Hirshhorn Museum of the) Smithsonian collection, and they told us that they would tell (us) when the work would be displayed. It's been displayed many times, but they've never notified us one time.

SY: So all of your grandfather's things were very valuable then, and he kept a picture of the man who...

GN: Yes, but that was not donated. That was in his house. My aunt -- we'll tell you what happened to all of this things, because he thought everything through, very, very thoroughly.

SY: Okay, so he came to the United States, you're not quite sure why except that --

GN: I know he came because he became a Christian. He became a Christian through a Japanese person who had become a Russian Orthodox Christian. In fact, my mother was (named) Hide, but she was also baptized Hide (and given a Christian name "Maria" by Orthodox minister N. Shibayama on April 24, 1907, before the family's departure to America).

SY: So he was an Orthodox... did he follow that Russian Orthodox faith?

GN: Well, he was a very good thinker, and I think on his faith journey he came to the realization that there is only one God and people choose different ways to worship God. So he was not a judgmental person saying that only certain Christians believing certain ways would get eternal life or anything like that. I'm sure that was not his belief. I've never had a big philosophical discussion with him because I was too young. But by the way he lived, the books that he read, the way he thought, he was not a judgmental person. He would say that all people have a God that they worship, but they choose different ways to worship God. But there is just one God and different ways to worship whoever that God is. And on my long faith journey, that's the place that I've arrived in life. I'm accepting of anybody's religion, anybody's creed, anybody's nationality, I just accept them for who they are.

SY: That's wonderful. So was he able, do you think, when he came here, having had been a librarian, was he able to practice?

GN: At the library? No, because everything was really closed to people of Japanese descent. I keep really marveling that he continued to read. He used to have long discussions with one of my father's (older Masamoto) brothers who became a (Christian) minister, and they would have long philosophical discussions. He would have discussions with Reverend Nicholson who was a Quaker and was a missionary. In fact, he delivered the sermon for my grandfather when my grandfather passed away.

SY: That's Herbert Nicholson.

GN: Herbert Nicholson.

SY: Who was quite famous for having helped the Japanese during the war.

GN: Yes. And then when my grandfather was (interned) I'll have to tell the story about him (and) what happened during internment.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.