<Begin Segment 20>

RP: Church was an important part of your social life in Florin. Were you able to sort of reincorporate a Methodist church group?

CH: I didn't go to them. My mother wouldn't let us go.

RP: Did you go to church at all?

CH: Oh, I went to church, Sunday school every Sunday. Saturday school and Sunday school.

RP: Saturday school.

CH: The rest of the week.

RP: You were a Sunday school teacher, too.

CH: Yeah, I remember that. I have a picture of it, but I didn't bring that one. There's a whole lot of kids.

RP: You told a story about Mary Shimizu.

CH: Shimazu, yeah.

RP: Shimazu, and a story about church and Reverend Bovenkirk. Can you share that with us?

CH: Yes, I remember that.

RP: Tell us about it.

CH: Well, we were in church, and Reverend Bovenkirk was sending the message, and all of a sudden, Mary got the giggles, and she just giggled away. And I don't know who the other person was, they both giggled. And we just, they couldn't stop. I hope Bovenkirk wasn't offended by it. I imagine he would have been. But he was, let's see, she would have been fourteen or so.

RP: Just suddenly burst out in giggles.

CH: There must have been something that really triggered it, but I don't know what it was.

RP: How were you treated by the Caucasian bosses that you worked under?

CH: Oh, they were, they were real nice people, yeah. They were very sincere.

RP: Did you have any contact with Ralph Merritt at all, the project director?

CH: No, not really. Maybe he was there when there was this American Indian, B.O. Wilson. When he passed away, maybe he was there, I don't know.

RP: Mr. Wilson worked in the administration?

CH: Yes. And he used to come with Mr. Hooper and sort of tease me, I suppose. I don't know what it was. Yeah, they were very friendly people.

RP: And he passed away in the camp?

CH: Yeah, and then had the funeral in that auditorium at the time. It was practically brand new, I would think.

RP: What, you mentioned the funeral in the auditorium. Do you remember other events that you attended in the auditorium?

CH: Yeah, I've been to a dance with Bill Taketa, I remember.

RP: You danced with Bill Taketa in the auditorium?

CH: He asked me to go, so I went. And then there was this Ralph Lazlo, well, he used to come around our block, but I didn't go to dances with, or did I? I've kind of forgotten. But I did see him at one of the reunion, not the reunion, pilgrimage, that Los Angeles people were at, way back before he died. He was a nice young man. He didn't have to be in camp, but he was. How did the government ever not find out, huh?

RP: Well, they did, and they said, "You can stay," so he stayed. So did you actually go on dates with some of these guys?

CH: Yeah.

RP: How were your parents about dating in the camp?

CH: Well, they were okay. I mean, like my sister, she had a lot of beaux. But sometimes, some of these parents, if they weren't, if that person isn't the same religion, it was a no-no. That's what happened to my sister. Because the fellow was Buddhist, and she's a Methodist. They don't seem to figure that out, that that's not the point. But, of course, being a... well, he was a second son, so it wouldn't have mattered. But I guess to be safe with his family, we just stopped seeing each other.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.