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TI: So earlier you talked about these long car rides, and you would help, you would drive.

MT: I would drive, a seventeen year old, I was driving. Salt Lake, we'd get a license at sixteen. And he was getting pretty old, and he doesn't know the American law that you cannot, you cannot make a right turn at a stop sign. I mean, he didn't care. He did whatever he wants. [Laughs] He was going down the street. I said, "Dad, stop." He wants to, wonders why. I said, "Dad, red means you can't go." Said, "Oh, okay." So he'd stop. And when you make a right turn, he'd never look, he'd just stick his hand out. You'd hear the cars screeching, brakes screeching, honking horns and everything. [Laughs] It was scary. God, it was scary. So I thought I'm gonna drive. So every summer, said, "Okay, Dad, here we go," and take off, run up to Idaho and all through Idaho, and went to Yellowstone, and came down Wyoming, to Kemmerer and all that, then went to, we went as far as the border on Colorado, Rock Springs. We drove four or five thousand miles.

TI: In all those drivings, you'd go through small towns and you'd go to towns and you'd eat, did you ever have problems being Japanese?

MT: No. No, we did not. No, I don't think we ever had problems. We went to gas stations and stuff, drugstores or restaurants, but we did have a lot of fun, you know. Because my father didn't know anything about reading a menu or leaving a tip, especially. He didn't know anything about tips. We'd go to a restaurant, we eat, and I'd give some money, I'd put some on the table, and we start walking out, my father, "Chotto matte," then he goes back and he'd go, take the money. He says, "You forgot this." I said, "That's a tip." See, in Japan they don't tip, I understand. So he thought it was a waste of money putting, leaving money on the table. "What's table gonna do with the money?" [Laughs] And he always thought it was the dumbest thing. He can't read, "This," the waitress comes, "This." And he ordered buttermilk one time instead of milk. It was so funny, he ordered and he goes, "Aaaah." Got sugar and goes... he put three or four tablespoons of sugar and mixed it and he goes, "Oh, it's still sour." [Laughs] I waited 'til he did that and I said, "Dad, that's buttermilk." I told him how it was made. It was supposed to taste that way. But he said, "Oishikunai." Oh, he did a lot of stuff. He was funny. He had a good sense of humor, you know. See, used to crack up. All the dumb things we do. Then that's when he used to teach me about Buddhism.

TI: Oh, on these long car rides?

MT: Yeah. He told me how to, how to live your life. What not to do, what to do, what's good, what's bad. And he used to tell me quite a bit. He would tell me about some of the ghost stories in Japan, and it's scary. He saw so many experiences in ghosts in Japan. But his main thing was, he would always tell me, he says, "Always, when someone look at you, look them into the eye. And if they make eye contact with you, always smile and say, 'Hello.'" And he said, "Ninety-nine percent of people will smile and say, 'Hello.'" He said, "Always create a good feeling." That's why I always still do that. My wife and my son think I'm stupid or crazy, you know. One day I go to bank and I'm standing in line, the line in the bank. By the time I'm leaving the bank, everybody's shaking hands, "Hey, see you later, buddy." And my son said, "Do you know those people?" I said, "No, I just met 'em." And he says, "You talk to everybody. That's embarrassing." What's embarrassing about talking to people? [Laughs] That reminds me of something else. I'm in the emporium, San Jose Emporium, and the kids were shopping, I went to emporium. And I talked to all the clerks, every one of the clerks, introduced myself. And so my daughter had come looking for me, and she wondered where I was, she was gonna look for me in the store, so she asked one of the clerks, she said, "Did you see a Japanese man, kind of gray shirt, walking around here?" She said, "Oh, you mean Terry?" And she gets the speaker and she said, "All departments, is Terry around the area?" And everybody said, "No, Terry was here a few minutes ago." So she goes, "Do you know all these people working in this place, Dad?" I said, "No, I just talk to them, get acquainted." So that's why I told you, it's an example. People are nice people generally. If you let them be nice to you, and if you get to know 'em, you'd like 'em. So I don't have any hate for anybody, no.

TI: And these were the things your father talked about on these trips?

MT: Oh, yeah. Yeah, he used to tell me, "Oh, be friends. Always help out people, handicapped." That's why I help at, with the old homes once in a while and go down there, talk to old people.

TI: But I'm curious, on these long car rides, did your father ever talk to you about being a Buddhist minister?

MT: He told me not to be one. [Laughs]

TI: Really? He told you not to be one?

MT: No. But he didn't encourage me to be one. You know, you would think he'd say, "I want you to grow up to be a minister." Never. He says, he used to tell me to, "Be what you want to be. As long as you're happy, that's all that matters."

TI: But your older brother became a minister. Was there more pressure for him because he was the older brother?

MT: Yeah, I think so. I guess my father actually wanted somebody to follow the footsteps. And he, my brother tried, and he tried an engineer, it didn't work out, medical doctor, it didn't work out. It was kind of, to me, it was kind of, he wasted money for the family, 'cause he went to all different schools that cost too much money, you know. So my father, he apologized to me. He said, "We don't have enough money to send you to school, college education." So I went to San Francisco and I worked in the newspaper over there and went to school.

TI: So your brother got lots of...

MT: Everything.

TI: All the money, all the encouragement.

MT: Yeah, encouragement.

TI: And so you had to do it on your own more.

MT: I had to do it on my own, yeah.

TI: But I'm curious, you talked about these summers, these long car rides, did he do that with your older brother, too?

MT: No.

TI: So why was that?

MT: I don't know. My brother was too lazy. He won't do it. He had too much to do. "You do it." So my brother and I never got along, unfortunately. So my father, I guess he knew how I was, always laughing, joking around with him, so I guess he wanted somebody that could talk.

TI: So how did that make you feel, that you had this special relationship with your father...

MT: Yeah, that's right. I enjoyed it.

TI: And you were, but you were the second, and your older brother didn't, but he got all the...

MT: Yeah, he got all the everything.

TI: The help and everything.

MT: But he was, for one thing, he's older, that's why he got the first choice in school, right? Maybe if it's, as far as the older one, I'm going to school, maybe it would have been the other way around. 'Cause he had so much money, the ministers don't make that much money in those days, anyhow. [Laughs] So he had enough money to send my son to school -- my brother. But when I was going to San Francisco, he felt bad, I guess, so he asked me, "How much is it gonna cost to go to school in San Francisco?" I said, that's, for room and board and everything else, I said, "Well, about fifty dollars a month." So he was able to give me fifty buck a month. That didn't pay for my room. [Laughs] That didn't pay for my school. Oh, gee, it was rough. That's when my wife came in and she helped me out.

TI: Okay, but before we go to your wife and San Francisco, we have to talk about your military service, but let's take a short break before we do that.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.