<Begin Segment 9>

RP: Was religion a large part of your family upbringing, too?

KO: Not especially. We did visit the churches every now and then, particularly during holidays and stuff. My mother was probably more religious than my father. My father was like me, we could, sort of, it was one of these things. We recognized with religion and we went to the church festivals and stuff, church holidays and things of that sort. But we didn't go out of our way to go to church services every week or whatever it was at that time. Of course, in those days, we would have had to travel five miles, ten miles, a half-hour drive to get to a church. And I guess, well, that Buddhist church in San Jose, when they built the thing, our family went and joined the celebration and dedication.

RP: Big event.

KO: Yeah. That church is still there.

RP: Did you make visits to San Jose Japanese town?

KO: Huh?

RP: Did you visit the San Jose Japanese town on occasions?

KO: Oh, yeah, yeah. We'd... it was handy in a sense, that it was a bigger set of stores and stuff there. So some of the things that we couldn't get in the Mountain View stores, especially specialty items, you would find in the store in San Jose. I still do every now and then, and get some of my supplies that I concoct every now and then. 'Cause I haven't gone the last four or five years 'cause I haven't been to that area too much. Directly I should. But one of these days, I'll have to get, restock some of my perishables -- not perishables, but canned goods and stuff that I concoct every now and then. In fact, I should do that 'cause I think some of the stock I have left is probably too old. So I better restock with the fresher stuff.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.