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TI: Now when you were growing up and at this age, by being the son of the Buddhist minister, was there certain expectations?

HT: Yeah, we couldn't do lot of things. We're restricted. Lot of people, maybe... those younger days we didn't do really nothing bad, but, of course, when you're small kids, I remember they used to smoke, but we couldn't do those things. Or we couldn't swear, we couldn't do, we couldn't do lot of things. We were restricted. That's one thing I didn't, I really didn't like about being a minister's son: you can't do anything. You had to be pure, because it reflects on your father. If anybody said, "Oh, the Sensei's kids are bad," that's not too good. So we had to really behave ourselves. That was rough.

TI: So even things like if a bully kind of picks on you, are you able to fight back?

HT: We would, but we try and talk our way out. We could avoid him, say, "I don't want trouble." They might, some people probably call you chicken because of that, but I says, "It's not being chicken." There's no sense in fighting. What you gonna accomplish? You gonna lose friends? But sometimes fighting is good for you because you become the best friends. And you fight with somebody, you win or they win, then all of a sudden, you become very good friends. Then you start helping each other out. And that's human nature, I guess.

SF: Speaking of friends, who were your friends? Were they mostly Nihonjins?

HT: Yeah, most of 'em, all Nihonjin. They all passed away already, though. Yeah, all my friends except one, he lives in San Jose. Yeah, they all passed away. I haven't been in touch with any of 'em except one that lives here right now. He had a girlfriend there, too. [Laughs]

TI: Terry, you've mentioned your brother, can you tell me all your siblings? Can you talk about that?

HT: My siblings?

TI: Your siblings.

HT: All seven of 'em?

TI: All seven of them. So who's the oldest?

HT: Bruce. He's the oldest, he's retired now.

TI: Now these are your children? I wanted, not your children, but your brothers and sisters.

HT: Oh, my brother and sister. My brother, he was older than I was, about four years.

TI: And what was his name?

HT: Shigeru. He was the one that was gonna be a Bonsan at Seattle, Washington. And my sister is Sumiko, she, I think she came to America after the war. And she got married. She didn't do anything special, she still lives here in San Leandro. That's the only connection, my only relative I have, so we keep in very close touch. She's about eighty-nine years old now. She's old. [Laughs] I just saw her the other day for Thanksgiving, and we see each other every year, and she was so small. God, I looked and said, "Are you shrinking or something?" [Laughs] I remember her as... 'cause when we were small, she used to beat me up.

TI: So Sumiko and then Shigeru...

HT: Oldest is Sumiko, and then Shigeru, I think, and me.

TI: Any younger brothers or sisters?

HT: No, I did have an older brother who passed away before I was born. I think he died of smallpox or something.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.