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LG: I guess one question that I didn't get a chance to ask you was, of course, you worked for Germantown Friends, and currently you are a vicar?

TM: Uh-huh, yes.

LG: Would you want to talk a little bit about how you sort of came into Quakerism?

TM: I became a Quaker mainly because I taught at Germantown Friends School for thirty-six years. But it's interesting, because I think my first exposure to Quakerism was when I was in the Peace Corps. The doctor, our Peace Corps doctor was a Quaker, and another one of our volunteers was Quaker. And I noticed that on Sundays, they would go and meet, and I didn't know what they were doing. And they said, oh, there have been a meeting, I didn't understand what that was all about. I never attended it. But they were good people, I mean, they were wonderful people. Then, when I came to work for, was hired at Germantown Friends, the principal, in his first interview, said, "Oh, did your family experience the incarceration?" He didn't use that word, it was the "internment." But, "Did your family experience that?" And I said, yes. That was the first time anybody had ever asked about that experience. Now, this was in 1976, so that was pretty early. And I didn't know how he had known about it.

But just recently, I've learned the Quakers were very instrumental in helping Japanese Americans who were incarcerated. And in fact, one of the women who was a member of our meeting, she has since died, but she had gone to Japan in, I think it was 1917 with a group of Quaker missionaries, and they had started a Quaker school for girls. And she, in 1940, in the 1940s, they were asked, the Quakers from America were asked to leave because it was getting too dangerous, the hostilities between the two countries. So she went to Los Angeles, she lived in Los Angeles, and a friend sent me a letter that she was translating from English to Japanese about what Esther Rhodes had written. And Esther Rhodes had written about how she saw the Japanese Americans being rounded up and taken off to detention centers. So she immediately went out and got other churches involved and brought coffee and sweets to, you know, morning Danishes or whatever, to the people who were leaving on the trains. And I thought back on that, and thought, you know, it's just a little thing, but at least it made people on the trains realize that not everybody hated them, that there was, you know, there were kind Americans that were not hating them. And so, I know, she was a member of our meeting, and then I had a sabbatical, I went to Japan for five months, as I said, and taught at that school. And then I became a Quaker because I attended Meeting for Worship for many years. And then I finally was asked to join. And it's interesting how Quakers, how you become a member is you have to write a letter to tell why you want to be a member. Whereas, you know, most Protestant churches, if you just show up and come a few times, they're really glad, and then they ask you to become a member, whereas Quakers, you, yourself, have to be convinced that this is the religion you want to join. So it took me a long time, someone said, why'd it take you so long? I don't know if it was a fear of rejection or what, but anyway, so I joined and now I'm very involved in a lot of the committees, and you had just interviewed at Ed Nakawatase, and he's also a member of our meeting.

LG: Can you think of anything I didn't ask you that you think it's important to share that you want to talk about?

TM: I don't think so, I think you've covered everything, pretty much.

LG: Well, I think that's all I have.

TM: Okay, that's fine.

LG: Quite a few questions, so I think that's it. Thank you so much.

TM: You're welcome, you're welcome.

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