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RP: And were you, what was the religious background of your family?

MT: My dad was converted to Methodist and Methodist church, and he was a very strong member of the Methodist church. And I know my mother, my mother was more Shinto in her religion, but one of the customers, traditionally, when you marry, you take the religion of your husband. And at that time, my father was a Methodist, was converted, so my mother became active in the church.

RP: So your father originally was a Buddhist and converted to Methodist?

MT: Well, I don't know whether he was a Buddhist or he was an agnostic, I don't know just what he is.

RP: When he came to America he converted to...

MT: Yeah, he converted at Hawaii. He got in, he was in Hawaii in one of his churches before he got married, and he met a Methodist minister in Hawaii, and converted him to Christianity from whatever he was.

RP: So did he work for a short time in Hawaii?

MT: Pardon?

RP: Did you say your dad worked in Hawaii?

MT: Yes, he was, my dad, when he first, before he went to my mother, he traveled to Alaska, to Chicago, to the gulf states, and then he went back. On the way he came by to Hawaii, and in order to pay for some of his expenses, he became a professional mourner. You know, in Hawaii at that time they would hire people who would mourn for you at a funeral, they mourn, they would have mournings and so on, and he did this for some income. And through process he ran into this Methodist minister who took an interest in him, I assume. Because I don't know anything but our family being Christian, myself. Although my mother put, on New Year's Eve, on New Year's Day, would put up three tangerines as a symbol of Shinto.

RP: And what was the symbolism of the three tangerines?

MT: Well, I'm not sure. [Laughs]

RP: But that was part of, that was a ritual of Shinto?

MT: Yeah.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.