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RB: Yeah, so you sort of mentioned a little bit about the different JA athletes. Did you yourself participate in any of the Japanese American sports teams? I know that there were several in Seabrook and then also, were you or your family involved with other Japanese American organizations there?

MN: Let's see, starting with the last question first. We were, I mean, I used to attend a Japanese American Christian church, which was held, services were held during the time I was there in the, what was called the Community House, which, like its name, I mean, it was a very active place that offered a number of services. There was a library there, there were meeting rooms, there was a gym, which is where a number of us learned to play basketball. And there was actually as part of Community House, there was a place where tofu was made, there was an infirmary. And then, as I said, there was a library. I remember looking through these National Geographics circa 1929, 1930, when it was all black and white and no ads. And you know, all the usual stuff about naked African women and all that. It's a little exaggerated, but there were things visible in there, but you had access to it. Let's see, think I'm digressing.

RB: Japanese American community organizations?

MN: Oh, yeah. Yeah, besides the church, there was also a Japanese, there was a Buddhist temple. And so those are sort of the two religious bases, I think the Buddhist temple was, should be given a lot of credit for sustaining the culture. I mean, they had a language school taught there, they were much more focused, I think, on at least some understanding of Japanese culture than the Christian church was. I guess if you were to crudely define them, I mean, probably the Christian church was more of an assimilationist force. I mean, it wasn't put in terms of, well, we're gonna make you good Americans or anything like that. But I think the net effect that you had services in English, you know, and that's the operational language that was used. There was a Boy Scout and I think Girl Scout troops. And early on, there was a JACL chapter, I think probably might have started right around the same time as the Philadelphia chapter in the mid to late '40s. My father, as I mentioned, this is an interesting perspective, because I would have been, it would have been fascinating to talk to him about it. But even after national legislation was passed, which made it possible for Japanese to be naturalized Americans, my father didn't do it. And my take on it, which could be wrong, was that it was a kind of protest, you know? And in that sense, I remember thinking, well, probably the Issei have a clearer sense of themselves in that way, the confusion about who they were in the culture, it's probably not so strong there. They were Japanese, you know, and that was that. And I was to discover during the redress campaign, that there were quite a few cleavages within the Japanese American community that remained, you know, through all of those years and into the redress struggle, but there was a great unity that was developed because of the redress campaign. But, you know, the attitudes about the Japanese American Citizens League, for example, some people never forgave it for its position during the war, it's, or I think some thought to be its acquiescence or its selling out, depending on how you might want to describe it. And that I think that remains. It was, you know, just never explicitly serviced. I mean, the JACL was the hegemonic organization in the Japanese American community, still is. But I think all of these criticisms have been internalized. I mean, some of them have faded, and some, perhaps, in some quarters disappeared. But I can't help but think it probably remains there in some measure.

As for other types of organizations, I think there was generally, there was a kind of a simulation aspect of it. I mean, we had at least one or two members of the 442nd and we joined and that sort of thing. In other words, I think Japanese Americans were very much became part of the broader community. Sports leagues, sports teams, et cetera. That was a that was pretty much, I'm just trying to think of, there were not that many Japanese Americans who are active politically that I can recall, There might have been one or two members, the local township committee, which was the government at the local level, but I don't think that the Japanese American community organized themselves in that way. Which is not unusual, I mean, I think, under the circumstances, I think the first impulse was, you know, cohesion and survival. And that is exceeded, certainly, on those terms.

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