<Begin Segment 6>

HH: The next question I had, what are some of the personal values that you retain that you can trace to your Asian background?

AO: I just said them all, really. The values of education, the values of people in authority, the values that you should be on your good behavior and not bring shame on your family or your friends or your race.

HH: I was going to ask you about shame, but you already mentioned that, so I'll skip that question.

AO: To what extent to you feel that your home, your family, influenced the practice of your, maybe non-practice of religion?

HH: My dad was not very religious. My mother, however, was very astute, and she felt that being the only Japanese, Japanese family in the area, she should be like other mothers. So she would make us go to church, Sunday school, and do all the things. She belonged to the PTA and baked cookies and cooked dinners for the PTA. And in my association with going to church, she made me to go to Sunday school and to the church. And as a consequence, I belonged to the boy's choir, I used to sing solos for the boys choir. I became an usher, an acolyte, and a server. We used to be very friendly with the minister, and at one time, when I was about, oh, I would say fifteen to seventeen years old, I was thinking of going into the ministry. And I was thinking about that and I went to college, got my BS degree, and even at that time, I was thinking about going into the ministry, and someone had tentatively set up a scholarship to go to a seminary, and of course, World War II broke out, and as a consequence, that was out. Having been overseas and so forth and so on, so the horrors of war, I had a lot of doubts when I came back, so I never pursued it. But I think that that would be one of my backgrounds, however, my wife came from a very Christian family, the girl that I eventually married came from a Christian family. Her mother was a very devout Christian, and as a consequence, she was very religious in that sense. So that we continued to follow that. She was a Baptist and I was an Episcopalian, and neither one of us liked the other's church, so we became a Presbyterian. And being a Presbyterian and with her, we joined the young couple's organization. I became a deacon, I became an elder, and we continued with our church work, going to Bible study classes and so forth. So I think the initial push of my mother saying, "You shall go to Sunday school and go to church," held throughout my life.

HH: Alan, I finished all my questions, but can you think of any experiences you had that holds particular significance for you?

AO: Religiously or what?

HH: Any kind. Whether it's in the service, in college, work?

AO: Well, I think the most striking thing as far as I'm concerned is having met my wife. I don't think I would have met her if it hadn't been for the war and so forth and so on. And we had a good life together, we have some very good children, and I think that that is the real crux of the kind of life that I enjoyed, and I think that was a turning point in my life, really.

HH: Thank you very much, Alan.

AO: You're welcome.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.