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RB: All right. Well, since we're talking about childhood, could you describe your childhood home? Any memories that you have of growing up and just what the neighborhood was like?

PU: Well, the first house that we lived in was in Morton, so would have been really close to the Westinghouse plant, and I have zero recollection of that. I mean, we moved out of Morton when I was like three, and we got this this house in West Chester, which is, you know, where I grew up. And it was a new development, you know, suburban development, and went to public schools throughout, all of us in that school district. I was in Boy Scouts, I was an Eagle Scout. I don't know, did typical kid stuff, I guess.

RB: Were you involved in any Japanese or Japanese American cultural or community organizations at this time?

PU: Yeah, I mean, we would always go to JACL stuff, you know. So we would go to, you know, they have picnics. And I remember going to some conventions and we would pile everybody in the car. And for some reason, I remember going to a convention that was in Detroit because one of the booster activities that they had was to go tour a steel plant, which was kind of an awesome thing to see, molten steel being poured and rolled, you know, from inside the factory and everything. And we used to play games in the hotels and stuff and run around and have elevator races and things like that. But in terms of the convention activities that were actually going on where business was happening, I have no recollection of that. But yeah, we used to go to things like that. And I think sometimes... I have really vague memories of this, because I was the youngest kid, sometimes I was dragged along to meetings that they would go to where I was kind of too young to know what was going on. But the same thing that I mentioned before, that I just kind of remember some of the vibe of what those meetings were like and the kinds of people that were there at those meetings that were just doing JACL business.

RB: Who are some of the people that you remember, I'm assuming from the Issei community?

PU: I mean, people like Mike Masaoka, Bill Marutani, Spark Matsunaga, I mean, it's just like people that would be there. And you know, some of the, lots of other kind of old heads from different chapters, yeah, from way back. When people would come to their meetings all dressed up and everything. And then they would have a big dinner, like after the district council meetings and so on.

RB: Do you recall were there more celebratory events as well? Festivals? I know the Folk Fair was a thing for many years.

PU: Oh, yeah. Yeah, the Folk Fair, I remember going to that. I'm pretty sure that was every other year, and I think it was at the old Convention Center, which isn't there anymore. Yeah, and they had this booth that was a pretty significant structure that they had built on a, you know, they had designed it, built it, and then they would assemble it on site, and then they would take it down afterwards and store it away someplace. And they would put together a pretty sizable operation where they were, you know, selling food, and also they had some merchandise that they would sell. And it was a pretty significant source of revenue for the chapter.

RB: What did the booth look like? Was it a traditional Japanese construction?

PU: I don't know enough about traditional Japanese construction, where I actually remember the details, but I just remember lots of two by fours. And it was a rectangular structure, and did have, like, kind of a Japanese motif kind of decoration around the top of it and so on. And a lot of counter space for equipment and serving and all that.

RB: And do you recall what kind of food that they served and what things that they were selling in terms of the cultural wares?

PU: Wow, I don't know. I mean, I don't really remember what it was, what kind of food. I mean, it was Japanese food, but I don't remember what exactly it was that they were making. But it was a sizable operation where you'd have, there were a lot of people that had to go to, you know, put it together and make the food and sell the food and the merchandise. I don't know. My recollection was that it was kind of... I forget what the word is, but, you know, kind of stuff that you would see in a souvenir shop, kind of thing. It wasn't like it was high class collectible stuff. [Laughs]

RB: Do you have any memories, did your family go to the Seabrook Obon by any chance?

PU: I don't remember doing that when I was young.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.