<Begin Segment 10>

TI: Earlier I asked you what religion, you said Buddhist. Were you, was your family members of the Buddhist temple during this time? Describe that. What was the Buddhist temple like before the war?

TM: Well, before the war, let's see, it was the one on Union Street. That location, it was upstairs, I mean, it was a two-story building, so for the funeral procession and things like that, it was pretty hard to carry a casket up, so then they, then they moved that, then it was built closer here, one you could see around the corner over there. We built that in... what year was it? '40s, '50s, maybe.

TI: So that was after the war.

TM: Yeah.

TI: Well, so before the war, what kind of activities would the Buddhist Church have? Would it be like every Sunday, would there be a service?

TM: Yeah, there was service every Sunday. I wasn't much of a church-goer because I worked on Sundays and played ball. My folks wasn't too religious. But they had sermon every, every couple of months or something, and they made sure they attended, they told me to attend, so I finally joined the gang and went to all the service.

TI: Well, how about, like, social functions like dances? Were there dances for the Niseis?

TM: Yeah, they had dances.

TI: Would that be at the Buddhist church, or where would that...

TM: Well, let's see. No, we didn't have a gymnasium like we do now. We just had a, this church, so they had a hall, they hired a hall. And in fact, Watsonville had a, they had a orchestra, Mrs. Iwanaga, she was a leader and she was a musician, and she organized one of the Nisei orchestra, and they played here and there, all over.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. So how large was the orchestra? How many members were on the...

TM: I think there were about ten.

TI: And they would play at these dances?

TM: They played, yeah, here and there.

TI: And so when you'd have, like, a Nisei dance, how many people would, would be there?

TM: Oh, well, a couple of hundred.

TI: Wow, so it was a pretty big deal.

TM: Yeah, it was a big deal. We didn't have too many, but whenever they had a social, it was a big event.

TI: And was this all, like, during swing era, so is it more swing dancing?

TM: Yeah, well, swing... well, mostly beginning.

TI: Or more orchestra, beginning.

TM: Yeah, beginning.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.