<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So let's talk a little bit about the churches. So when I took the tours, there was a large Methodist church and a large Buddhist church. So for your family, what, did your family attend one of the churches?

LW: Yeah, the Buddhist church, because from Japan, most of 'em, Japan people was all Buddhist. But the Christian church, I don't know. A certain area from the back area mostly was all Christian. And seemed like the front areas were mostly all Buddhist. Seemed to me that way, the family was, going to church.

TI: That's interesting. Well, in terms of the size of the churches, was the Buddhist church bigger in terms of...

LW: Oh, they're bigger, a lot bigger. A lot bigger.

TI: And was there any, did you ever feel any competition between the Buddhists and the Methodists?

LW: Well, in sports, baseball and basketball, kind of...

JS: So each church would have their own team?

LW: Yeah, each, that's the time, only time they had competition and kind of didn't like each other.

JS: Which sport did you play?

LW: Huh?

JS: Did you play basketball?

LW: Yeah, we played basketball.

JS: And baseball?

LW: Baseball. But baseball, I didn't play the older league. My brothers did, George and James, but I played basketball. And they had a football team, you know. And those days, those football pads, no pad or nothing. You know the helmet and everything. But we had that stored in that Japanese school, you know. And when we came back, somebody broke in and took everything. So that's the reason they don't have that equipment. Same thing with the kendo. They used to have it in the Buddhist church there. And somebody broke in. Those kendo outfits, they're not cheap, they're expensive.

TI: Yeah, they're beautiful.

LW: They had all the sports.

JS: Where would you practice basketball? Where was the basketball?

LW: What's that?

JS: Where did you play basketball?

LW: Oh, all over. We had a Buddhist team. In fact, when Pearl Harbor got bombed, we were coming into Sacramento to play basketball. That's where we heard over the radio that Pearl Harbor got bombed. That's the last time I came to Sacramento because after that, they got restricted, remember? You could only go so many miles from the area.

JS: So when you heard that news, you were with your teammates coming to Sacramento?

LW: Sacramento, that YBA hall there in Sacramento. Well, that time, every town, Japanese town, they had a basketball team. Sports was a big thing, and there were a lot of good players, too..

JS: What do you remember about hearing about Pearl Harbor? Were you worried?

LW: Well, no, I was a --

JS: You were young.

LW: I was a young kid yet, so we just heard this, "Jesus, what are we gonna do?" you know. But we played basketball and went home, but kind of in shock, you know. That was, I could remember that was coming into town to play basketball.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.