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Did your family identify with Christianity or Buddhism?
We actually did both because my father and mother went to Buddhist church and then we also went to Catholic church, but I was not a very good religious person because I was the youngest, and they all got tired of going to church, so they didn't really push me that hard to go to church. But after I got married we went to church because we wanted our children to be going to church.
Were your parents very religious?
No, because in those days they worked almost seven days a week. They were religious in a sense that they would attend churches when they had big services, and memorial services and stuff, and make their tithing. But going every Sunday, you know, Sunday was almost a workday for them too.
What did your parents do for work?
My father was a gardener, and so he worked seven days a week; and my mother was a housekeeper. We had seven in the family so she was pretty much taking care of all of us at home.
What did you feel about your father's work as a child?
I thought it was okay because later on I used to go help him. I used to be the power mower there, so I would cut the grass and trim it, and haul the grass away; that was my big job. Then at the end I'd water the garden, and then during the week I would go water the gardens at times.
Did your father do this gardening throughout your whole childhood?
Yes, that was his primary job and also he did extra work like domestic work, like the special days where they like him to cook turkey for Thanksgiving because he was also a good cook.
Was there ever a situation where he had to look for work?
You are always looking for work because the more jobs that you have, you have more salary. In those days you only get what you work.
What was life like as a child?
As I went Raphael Weill grammar school, it was pretty quite. I used to go
to school every morning, walk down Buchanan Street and as I got older,
I became a traffic policemen so I used to get there a little earlier
then. I used to escort the children on Geary Street on Buchanan and
let them go across the street. Grammar school was very enjoyable because
I knew all of the kids and they were all from the neighborhood so we
had a great time. We played basketball, baseball, right at the schoolyards
and there was really nothing exceptionally different from any other kids.
Who went to your school?
In
those days, schools were all from the neighborhood, not like they
do with a lot of bussing, so it was mostly kids from the neighborhood.
There were some Caucasian actually, but very few blacks because San
Francisco at that time had very little blacks until after the war
when they brought in workers for the defense industries, but I still
remember some of my friends. One I particularly remember because
he also worked at Cal Check with me. So I still remember him, but
the rest of them, I kind of forgot because I don't see them anymore.
Do you remember if most of your friends were Japanese?
Most
of my friends have always been Japanese because I lived in Japan
town and we all played together and all the Boy Scout activities
were mostly Japanese. It was like they call it, "Japantown."
What kind of activities would you do
in Boy Scouts?
Boy Scouts were a very interesting activity. In fact, I enjoyed it very much
because we used to go camping up to Russian River and spend two weeks there
camping. We had to pitch our own tents and drive a pipe into the ground to
get water and walk into town to get groceries. We had a lot of fun.
What was it like getting up to Guerneville at that
time?
To
get there they put us all into a big truck, one of those transfer
companies, so everyone threw their sleeping bags and bags into the
truck and all piled in. You don't take a bus, you just sit in the
back of a truck in those days. And our Boy Scout camp, we had to
go out there and pitch our own tents, pick up firewood and cook our
own breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So we learned a lot. In fact, that
was some of the good learning points of boy scouts. You learned how
to cook, and do all kind of activities. First aid.
What was your family's relationship with Japan and being Japanese?
We didn't have much relationship with Japan except that we were all Japanese and my mother had a big family in Japan so she would send them clothing and food whenever they had the need for it. But as far as myself the only time I went to Japan was when I went over there with the U.S. Army. That was the first time that I saw grandma and that was my first touch of Japan.
How did you meet your friends that lived outside of Japantown?
Being in Japantown, most of my friends were also Japanese Americans and then when I started to go to George Washington High School there were very few Japanese over there, maybe a handful there. Then I started to play basketball and that's where I started to meet them, but then I lived back in Japantown so I would never see them after school except playing basketball. Other times, like I said, they don't go to the same church, or the same Boy Scouts, so I rarely saw them.
Was this small handful of Japanese your main group of friends at your school?
Yes it was because ever since we lived in Japantown the grammar school was mostly all Japanese Americans in that area there, and then junior high it got more diluted because they went to different junior high schools and then when we got to high school it got more diluted because there were so many high schools in San Francisco.
As a child did you ever pick up on any anti-Japanese propaganda?
I really didn't feel anything about that because we were in this closed area there where I didn't really feel any effect. It was only when Pearl Harbor hit that I really noticed the discrimination effect, because as a youngster I didn't notice at all, but I'm sure my father and mother probably had discrimination. Until I grew up and started to be in the internment camp, that’s when I first noticed that because I was Japanese that we were being ostracized.
While you were in school did you follow the war between Japan and China?
I only followed to the extent of what was on the papers. I didn't read the paper that much either because we didn't even subscribe to the paper at that time; and there was no television that you could watch like you do now.
What did you know about the situation in China? Was there talk in your family about it?
Well prior to Pearl Harbor I knew that Japan was fighting in China, that I knew for sure, but as far as what effect it had on me, I really didn't think too much about it where the fact that Japan was in China. I never heard about all the bad things that are coming out in the paper about where they were killing civilians because that was not really publicized in those days.
Do you recall any discussion among your parents about the situation? Did they talk openly with you?
No, they never talked to me about anything political, about China and Japan or other countries because in those days we never talked about politics because I was pretty young then, I didn't care less really. I knew there was a war going on because you could see it in the papers sometimes, and at the same time I noticed in those days that the Chinese in San Francisco didn't like Japanese because there was a war going on, and then at that time Japan was occupying China but I knew that was a fact, that the Chinese didn't like Japanese in San Francisco.
Were there any instances where Chinese people said anything to you about the war?
No they didn't say anything to me because we never were that close. In Japantown there was one Chinese restaurant which we used to go to, and I knew that girl there but they were real friendly to us because I think being in Japantown they liked our business. So she happened to be in my class.
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