<Begin Segment 12>

JS: Were you, did you practice kendo? Do you remember that?

RN: Oh, yeah.

KN: Tell Jill why Baachan asked you to take kendo, Mom.

RN: Because I was weak. She says that if I take kendo, I'd get strong. That's the reason she put me in that class. And I stayed in that kendo for I don't know how many years.

JS: Did it make you stronger?

RN: Yeah.

JS: Yeah, wow. So there were girls and boys that participated in kendo.

KN: Yeah.

JS: Wow. So that's a good skill. This is 1932, this tournament. So you would host a tournament and other teams would come to compete? And then would you also travel to other towns for kendo?

RN: No.

JS: No? You would just have one at the church?

RN: Yeah.

JS: On the grounds there. So you did kendo and you liked to run. What other sports, did you do any other sports?

RN: No.

JS: Play tennis or...

RN: Just kendo and...

KN: Well, tell Jill about the Lumbini team you were on.

RN: Lumbini.

KN: Lumbini softball team.

RN: Oh.

KN: At the church wasn't it, church team?

JS: So you were on a softball team.

RN: Yeah.

JS: So was that a girl's softball team?

RN: Uh-huh.

JS: And who was Lumbini?

RN: Lumbini is a junior... not senior, junior club, Lumbini.

KN: Why was it called Lumbini, though?

RN: I don't know.

KN: Wasn't it from Lumbini's Garden?

RN: Yeah, it was young people.

KN: But it's the Buddhist description, right?

RN: Yeah, Lumbini Garden.

KN: Like heaven.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.