<Begin Segment 6>

RP: So at an early age, you had a little sense of your Japanese roots and culture.

TK: Yeah, little bit, yeah. So then in Florin, they used to sponsor movies. This guy used to come bring movies for two nights, and he brings samurai and all those. So in Florin, when all these people are taking kendo, the samurai, we loved that thing. [Laughs]

RP: Were those showing at the Methodist church?

TK: Well, all those different churches, schools, they all sponsored it. For a dollar, the whole family could go for two nights and see it. That's the only recreation most of us had. So in the summertime and wintertime, there were all these different churches, schools, Japanese schools. They all sponsored it. We all used to go get on the car and get over there and sit on a hard bench. [Laughs]

RP: Were these mostly silent movies, or did they have sound at that time?

TK: Yeah, at that time, they used to have this guy, the one who brings it, he is supposed to play all the parts, women, and it was kind of neat. Of course, half the time, we don't understand it anyway, so we just watched the action. [Laughs] So later on, the talkies came.

RP: You mentioned all these churches in Florin. Maybe we can just kind of go over what, what you actually had for the social community and the church community. You had a Florin Buddhist church?

TK: Methodist church.

RP: A Methodist church?

TK: Then outside of Florin had their own Buddhist... so you know, mostly mainly Buddhist or Methodist. But Methodist is just that one place, mostly. I don't think they had anything anyplace else. But Buddhist they had... I don't know if they had altars or something in other places, but in Elk Grove they had their own Japanese school and all that. They all sponsored. So just about every club in that area sponsored in the wintertime or summertime. So it was, that was a, most of the recreation, outside of baseball, basketball.

RP: Yeah, did you get involved with that in high school or did you also have teams like... Florin had a baseball team.

TK: Well, they had baseball, and I guess before my time they had a football team. And mostly basketball. The churches, and they all, districts, you know, like Perkins had their own, Elk Grove had their own, they all had their... and our church had their own teams.

RP: Basketball and baseball? And you were...

TK: And Methodist, I played for the Methodist team.

RP: What was your position?

TK: Oh, mostly forward.

RP: Did you have a gymnasium associated with the church?

TK: Yeah, it's, I was just looking at that thing. Half the, half court, you know, just from here to there. But Buddhist, they built a big gymnasium, you know, the regular size. But like ours, we just had that half court from here to there. And it's only... yeah, it's only from here to there, just that, oh, that side, the basket on that side. That's all we played.

RP: You had an interesting blend of Japanese cultural and American cultural sports activities, the kendo as well as the basketball, kind of drawing from both, both cultures.

TK: Well, see, like kendo and judo, that's what the Isseis, they went for. So they made the kids take that up. And at one time, gee, just about every kid was taking kendo. Even my sister had to take kendo, the one next to me, she took kendo. She was better than me. [Laughs]

RP: Was it common for women to take kendo or was that kind of just...

TK: Well, there were quite a few ladies that took it, sports. Yeah, when war broke out, we had these armor, we had to wear 'em. Says, oh, man. They didn't want anything to do with -- Americans didn't want anything to do with that kind of stuff. Said, "Well, we better burn 'em," so we burned 'em. But right now, they're worth millions. [Laughs] Tons of money. They're expensive. Those days they weren't.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.