Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nishi Interview I (denshovh-nhenry

<Begin Segment 6>

RP: Did you go to Japanese language school?

HN: Yeah.

RP: What did you think about that?

HN: It was a, it was a drag. [Laughs] I hated it. Because that meant going to regular school, then after regular school, you had to go, go to Japanese school which gives you hardly, very little time for recreation with your friends in school. You couldn't hang around after school with, with kids. You had to hurry home and go, go to Japanese school. That was five days a week. At least that was the school I went to, was weekdays, the same days as the regular school. It was, I guess some of the Japanese schools were on just Saturdays only. But the school that I went to was on weekdays.

RP: Which school was that?

HN: That's the Hollywood, Hollywood, well, it's the Hollywood gakuen, which was the Hollywood school, Hollywood Japanese language school.

RP: Was it a Buddhist church or a...

HN: We went to a, a Christian, Hollywood Presbyterian.

RP: The language school, was it strictly just for Japanese language or was it also used as a church or...

HN: No, no, it was strictly a school. Had no religious...

RP: Affiliation.

HN: Yeah.

RP: Did your father, was he involved in helping set that up? Or did he have a role to play with that school?

HN: I don't think so because he was very involved with, with the Buddhist church in downtown L.A.

RP: Nishi Hongwanji?

HN: No. The Koyasan.

RP: How was, how was he involved with the church?

HN: He was very involved, helping them financially and... primarily I guess as, as a very staunch member.

RP: Were they just establishing the church at that time?

HN: I don't know. Yeah, it must have been starting just... right about that time when the Japanese were coming over. 'Cause the original... it was right in downtown Little Tokyo.

RP: First Street?

HN: It was on Central, right near First Street. Where the... it was right across, you know where the, the old, the Buddhist church was. Nishi Hongwanji, it was right next to that on Central Avenue. It was just a wooden building, small, small temple. Then they moved to First Street later on. I don't know if you're familiar with the Koyasan church on First Street?

RP: I've seen the most recent church.

HN: Yeah, it's kind of set back behind, behind the, the commercial buildings.

RP: But you remember a wooden building?

HN: Yeah, yeah.

RP: Was it a two-story building or just a...

HN: No, it was... yeah, one part of it was two stories, the minister's quarters. The temple itself was a one-story building.

RP: What do you remember going, what holidays do you remember going there for?

HN: We went there primarily, whenever we went there, it was a funeral. But we, as far as our... we, we went to a Christian church in Hollywood.

RP: Was it primarily Japanese?

HN: 'Cause religion was, I guess, my dad probably, my parents probably... religion is something that was necessary but you didn't have to go all the way downtown. [Laughs] Whatever was convenient. And that, that was convenient to send us to a Christian school because, because it was in the neighborhood.

RP: But he remained, he was a pretty staunch Buddhist?

HN: He was, yeah.

RP: So, when you were growing up, where did, where was your social life centered around? Was it the church or school?

HN: Most of my friends were from school, school friends. 'Cause I went from elementary to high school without changing... we never had to, we never moved, I mean, from... so it was, I had some longtime friends from elementary to high school.

RP: Did your family celebrate any traditional Japanese holidays, including New Year's?

HN: Other than New Year's? New Year's was the biggest holiday, of course. We celebrated Christmas. But, being, at that time being... my mother being involved in, in a florist business, Christmas is one of the biggest business days, business holidays there was. It was huge for the flower business. 'Cause everybody bought flowers and poinsettias and cyclamens. So, it was the biggest part of their business was, was the Christmas holidays.