<Begin Segment 7>

RP: Did, was your family religious at all or have an affiliation with the...

FH: I think basically they were Buddhist, but we were not in that vicinity because now you have to go to Japantown to go to a, get that Buddhist church service. I mean, it was all down in that area, and where we lived there was nothing like that, so I became a Christian because there was a Christian church nearby.

RP: In Glendale?

FH: Uh-huh.

RP: Might be the same one that Rokuro went to to study.

FH: Yeah, right. Right, that's right. He had... Rokuro. There was... six of 'em?

RP: There was Goro, Rokuro, Fusao...

FH: Shiro, Saburo...

RP: Shiro, Saburo...

FH: Fusao and Kenichi.

RP: Kenichi, yeah.

FH: I know 'em all.

RP: You knew them all?

FH: They lived next door to my mom in Seabroook when my folks were in Seabrook after they left camp. No, besides, I went to school with them. They were tough guys. Oh, they were tough guys when they were, like...

RP: Like a gang?

FH: No, they weren't a gang. It just all boys. They were tough. They call --

KP: The Glendale Yogores.

FH: Yeah, could've been.

RP: They kind of threw their weight around a little bit.

FH: Well, it's just being kids. What kids... I'm sure they mellowed and they're wonderful guys now. But in their day they would throw their weight around and that.

RP: So did you, did you decide on your own that you wanted to be affiliated with the Christian faith, or was that something that your parents --

FH: No, it was kind of a social thing, I think, in the beginning. To be with different people and lot of those people that went there went to Japanese school or whatever.

RP: So that was your social hub, the church.

FH: It kinda was, yeah. And maybe that was a way to feel like you belong. I don't know, maybe that's what it was. At that time I don't think that was in your mind, but I think, basically, it was that. We want to be, belong. But I have good memories of that. We, whatever we did.

RP: Do you remember what you did?

FH: We used to have beach parties and we used to have picnic up at Griffith Park and, you know, little, little incidental things like that, which was fun to be with your friends and share little things with them. It was a good era.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.