George Toshiyuki Teraoka

              GEORGE TOSHIYUKI TERAOKA
MRS. HASEGAWA: Today is August 18, 1980. I, Yoshino Hasegawa, am privileged to be interviewing Mr. George Toshiyuki Teraoka at the Fresno County Library.
May I have your full name?
MR. TERAOKA: George Toshiyuki Teraoka. Address is 8249 South Kenneth Avenue, Fowler, California, 93625.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Where have you lived the longest?
MR. TERAOKA: At the present location.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What is your birthdate and where were you born?
MR. TERAOKA: I was born in Lodi, California on May the 13th, 1921.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Do you recall your parents talking about when and where they came from in Japan and why they decided to settle in this area?
MR. TERAOKA: Dad was from Hiroshima in Japan. Mom also came from Hiroshima. However, she was born in Hawaii, in a place called Papaico on a big island of Hawaii. At the age of about six, the family went to Japan and, subsequently, she grew up in Japan and then married Dad to come to the United States.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Do you know what year they came to the United States?
MR. TERAOKA: 1920.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Your mother would be a Nisei, then, wouldn't she?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. While technically she is a Nisei, but I think for all practical purposes she could be classified as an Issei in view of the fact that her English is very limited and perhaps she knows more Hawaiian words than she does English words.
MRS. HASEGAWA: She didn't live in Hawaii very long. Did your mom and dad come together then from Japan?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. It seems to me Dad was saying something that he was here prior to that, but it was only for a few years, and then he went back to Japan to get married.
MRS. HASEGAWA: You don't happen to know when he first came to America?
MR. TERAOKA: Oh, it probably would be just a few years earlier than that. So, other than that, I can't place any definite year as to his first arrival in the United States. I think he settled in this area primarily because many friends were already here, and many of them were working in the fields, and there appears to have been some opportunity to work in the field of agriculture.
MRS. HASEGAWA: He came, then, directly to Lodi? MR. TERAOKA: Yes, into the Lodi area. And then from the Lodi area came into Parlier. I started my grammar school in Parlier. I could vividly recall the first days of my first grade. One of my biggest difficulties was that I couldn't speak a word of English. That may not be true; I'm sure I must have been able to say thank you, but Japanese was strictly spoken at home, so there were many problems.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Were you the oldest child?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes, I'm the oldest. Now here is a funny situation. My mother's family is a Teramoto and in Dad's family there were, if I recall him saying, something like seven or eight brothers and sisters in the family. But on Mom's side there were just two girls in her family, and I understood that Dad came to this Teramoto family as a yoshi (son-in-law adopted as legal heir) and when I was born, I suppose tech-nically, I was supposed to have been named Teramoto instead of Teraoka. But the birth certificate indicates Teraoka, so I have been going as Teraoka all through my life. However, my sisters who have been born subsequently were all named Teramoto. And, so, somehow or other, this principle of perpetuating the family Teramoto didn't succeed in this instance.
MRS. HASEGAWA: You don't have brothers?
MR. TERAOKA: I don't have any brothers. I'm the oldest in the family, and the only son of the family and I had three sisters.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Well, my goodness, that's very interesting. Do you remember what it was like in the area when you were growing up; your school, your childhood, and growing-up years?
MR. TERAOKA: Well, I don't feel that my life is any more unique than anybody else's. The family moved around a lot. If I recall correctly, by the time I was in the third grade, I think I must have attended seven different elementary schools; sometimes reenrolling in the school for the second time simply because we moved back to the same location.
Then it wasn't until I was in the eighth grade, or after graduating eighth grade, that we purchased the present farm where we are living--which would be about 1936. Since then, I didn't have to move any more.
I recall that decision very vividly, too, because an automobile salesman had come by and was trying to sell Dad a car. And so he asked the family, "What do you people think about the buying of this car?" and I thought for a moment and said, "You know, Dad, we really don't need a car." At that time a car was one of those purchases that would be considered major in our family. And thinking along the line of major purchases, I suggested to Dad, "You know, it might be nicer if we had any kind of money that we would buy a home or a farm that we could always come back to. If the family should ever grow, we'll have roots someplace," and so it was then decided that instead of buying this car, we'd see if we couldn't purchase some place. When the thinking got along in those lines, it wasn't until several years later that we finally did purchase the place that we are living on.
I recall we were truck farming at the time, and the cash flow was fairly good. It wasn't a great amount, but, nonetheless, there was cash coming in to the coffer practically every day. And we managed to save $250 and negotiated a term to buy the 40-acre farm; $250 down and $250 at the end of the year, making a total down payment of $500 for the 40 acres. The purchase price on that 40 acres was $4,000.
MRS. HASEGAWA: My goodness. It's worth a fortune now.
MR. TERAOKA: Well, yes. You know, when you think about it it seems ridiculous.
MRS. HASEGAWA: I think you must have been a very smart boy, young boy at that time, to think of that.
MR. TERAOKA: Well, I'm not so sure about that. But I did feel very grateful of being able to say that we did have a place to come back to; this was in 1939. I believe it was in 1940 we farmed it a year under our ownership when, at that time, we started to plant our trees and vineyards and one thing or another, and we had to evacuate just at the most critical time in the development of our farm.
MRS. HASEGAWA: That's right. Do you remember how you were treated at that time? Did you come across discrimination as a child?
MR. TERAOKA: Well, you know, discrimination I'd always heard about. I have never experienced discrimination per se that seems to stick with me. Perhaps there were acts of discrimination. I really didn't feel it to be discriminating, although I have heard my friends being refused to be admitted to swimming pools in and around Fresno. I know the treatment that I received from my friends certainly was no display of discrimination. Perhaps by their elders there may have been acts of discrimination, but I just assumed that they were treatment that would be given to any other strangers, so I don't feel that I really experienced a traumatic experience that I would consider racial discrimination. Other than the fact that I'dalways been told that discrimination is in existence and to be aware of it, I think when you're aware of it you tend to tolerate it, and I suppose that's the way I manage to accept it.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Now, you talked about having difficulty with the English language when you started school. Did you attend Japanese school?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. I didn't attend Japanese school until after I started elementary school and in my third grade. We were going just on weekends, and I can't say that my Japanese education is anything elaborate.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Was this in Parlier?
MR. TERAOKA: This was already in Fowler. When I was in third grade we were in Fowler.
MRS. HASEGAWA: When did you move to Fowler?
MR. TERAOKA: Originally, we moved to the place that we own presently in 1932. I think it was in 1931 or 1932, and went to the Fowler Elementary School from the third grade. MRS. HASEGAWA: Then you were already on the place that you bought.
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. At that time, but we hadn't purchased it until quite a few years later.
MRS. HASEGAWA: You had an understanding with the owner?
MR. TERAOKA: Not necessarily. It was a house to be rented there, and we had rented it. And Dad leased other open land and was in truck farming at the time.
MRS. HASEGAWA: It was just a house, then?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. California Land Bank foreclosed on the original owner and some other people were renting the land and the house that was available was being sublet to us.
MRS. HASEGAWA: I see. I thought perhaps your father had been sharecropping or leasing that land –
MR. TERAOKA: Oh, no, not in this particular instance. But then, eventually, when the original renter of the land gave up leasing it, then it was available to us. And then we leased it there for a few years before we purchased the property.
MRS. HASEGAWA: You did your truck farming there?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What kind of vegetables did you raise on the truck farm?
MR. TERAOKA: Oh, turnips, carrots, lettuce, cantaloupes, watermelons, and casabas were some of the crops that I seem to recall.
MRS. HASEGAWA: During your high school years what were your experiences? Were you involved with extracurricular activities?
MR. TERAOKA: I kind of feel that I was involved in a limited sort of a way. Well, sports--I wasn't athletically inclined, or I don't feel my physique qualifies me as a competitive athlete, but I went out for the "C" team or the "B" team events. It was a very pleasant experience, I felt that I learned a lot about human relationships in high school.
MRS. HASEGAWA: I wondered if you attended social affairs such as dances or that kind of activity?
MR. TERAOKA: In high school? I don't ever recall any school organizations having a dance. There were dances outside of school, but other than just social parties, I don't ever recall dances being held on the premises of the high school. But, other than that, socially I felt that I was adequately involved in social activities.
MRS. HASEGAWA: And many times when you get into a larger school, the different ethnic groups tend to stay by themselves instead of mingling with the other members of the school. And I wondered if that was the case with the Japanese. Whether there were enough Japanese to make that kind of difference.
MR. TERAOKA: Yes, I noticed that. I noticed in our high school days that the Japanese tended to stick together. I had no problem being with the Japanese group, nor did I have any problem mingling with the other ethnic members of our society. I must have been an officer of various organizations. I was very active in the radio club, however, in high
school. Some of us who were scientifically and electronically inclined, grouped together and we formed a little nucleus which we called the Radio Club. At which time, a group of us studied together the transmitting and receiving of Morse Code, which was one of the prerequisites for the amateur radio license, and I got my amateur radio license from the Federal Communications Commission back in 1938, which would place me around sophomore or junior in high school. My licensed letter was W6PUC, and I still go on the air even this day.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Do you still use it?
MR. TERAOKA: There just isn't enough time in a day nowadays. But I know when the day comes, and I am so fortunate as to be able to retire, I'd like to go back to it in a more continuous way. It's a wonderful hobby.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Are there any other prewar memories that you would care to share with us?
MR. TERAOKA: I can't recall much more at the moment.
MRS. HASEGAWA: How about your first work experience after high school?
MR. TERAOKA: After high school I worked on the farm. I graduated in 1939, so I only had--I had always wanted to go to college, but somehow or other college just seems to be out of reach for me. And in the meantime, of course, the war came along and then we were all evacuated from the area.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What are your memories of December 7, 1941?
MR. TERAOKA: That was something of disbelief. It was hard to believe. Through the news articles and radio, the political situations at that time, and listening to Dad's comments about all the things that are happening in the news. He was inclined to believe that the two countries were headed straight for war. It was the thought about these comments that he had made prior was the only thing that kind of softened the impact of the believability of such a thing. So I suppose, like he said, it sure sounds inevitable that they're going to have to go to war, came true. So, on December 7, I thought, now what do we do? I guess there was nothing further to do but sit tight and see what would happen.
Subsequently, I think like everybody else that experienced the same sort of trauma that followed, all licensed amateur radio operators, whether they were citizens or otherwise, were required to be fingerprinted. And I went down to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office and got my photo and my fingerprints taken. I didn't feel that was anything prejudiced to me as Japanese, because all other amateur radio operators were required to do that, and they were all required to furnish proof of citizenship. I had no problem proving my citizenship, because I had a birth certificate. But I was astounded to find that many of my older Caucasian friends didn't have any birth certificates to prove that they were citizens of the country. It kind of tickled me at the time.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Do you recall anything about the evacuation and your experiences at the Relocation Center?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. I can't say that it was any more unusual than anybody else's experience there. I was still a youngster. Let's see, I was still 19, not even 20 if I recall, at that time. And it was for me a great social experience.
However, as I look back and realize that Dad and Mom were still in their 40's or perhaps early 50's, and to have their rug pulled from under them must have been quite a distressing experience, to say the least. When we get older, we begin to realize no amount of reparation is going to ever repay the damage that was inflicted.
MRS. HASEGAWA: How old were you?
MR. TERAOKA: Nineteen or 20, just out there looking for a lot of fun, I think, more than anything. And with that feeling, I went into the Relocation Center.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What did you do as a young man? Did you have a job?
MR. TERAOKA: In camp? Yes. I don't recall what, if anything, I was doing in the assembly center. Oh, yes, I was repairing electrical appliances and radios. But in the Relocation Center, I worked with the electrician's group where we wired houses, and one of my specialties was to climb Dower poles and to replace the burnt-out fuses principally caused by lightning strikes or overloads. And so that was quite an experience.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Were you at Poston then?
MR. TERAOKA: Our family went from Fresno Assembly Center to Jerome in Arkansas. And later on the family moved out of Jerome, Arkansas. But prior to their moving to Rowher, I had asked for a leave to go to St. Louis to do some shopping. And I think I was granted two weeks. And while I was in St. Louis, I decided, well, for two weeks I might as well see if I can't find a job. So any job that would pay any kind of money would do. I decided I'll take a dishwasher's job because there was a "Dishwasher Wanted" sign in a restaurant. And when I applied for it, there wasn't a job for me. Perhaps this is the first time that I've experienced firsthand discrimination; if that was the real reason for not having been given the job of washing dishes. So, I thought, I can't even get a dishwasher's job.
Well, dishwasher's job, that's a menial job anyway. Why go after something menial? Why not go after something that you really wanted to do? Well, prior to evacuation, I had friends who were in the coin operated amusement business. The reason why several of my friends were in it was because most of these jukeboxes required working with electronic amplifiers (record players). The people that were employed in that business, relatively speaking, were getting very well paid. And, so, I thought, I sure would like to get into that kind of work, since the work was along the line of electronics; but then I was stuck on the farm at that time. So, here was an opportunity for me to look for a job I felt I would really like to be in. I started pounding the street, looking up various amusement companies. They were usually titled amusement companies or novelty companies. They have coin operated devices set out in the various establishments around town. Then I found, because this is wartime, that anybody with any kind of an electrical experience, if they did not want to be drafted into the armed services, could be working in an essential defense industry, could ask for deferral. Anybody with any kind of electronic knowledge, all left for defense work.
Here is a jukebox business, certainly a nonessential business, with technicians working in this area were very difficult to come by. When I inquired about maintenance positions in various companies, they were all very polite and said, well, leave your name and address and we'll call you. Well, from many I did not get any call. However, there was one who did call. I was living at the YMCA in St. Louis at that time. He asked me as to what my experiences were, and I told him I had no experience in the mechanics of the jukebox or the pinballs mechanically, but I felt that I was adequately qualified to service any of the electronic amplifiers and all of the radio controlled equipment that they would have, in view of my interest in ham radio.
So, the man who called said, "Well, okay, why don't you come and work for a week and see how you fit into the scheme of things," I went to work the next day and just swept the place out and organized the shelves. One day one of the head technicians of the company said, "Well, here's an amplifier that came in, George, see what you can do with it." So, I said, "Well, do you have any test equipment here?" And he said, "We've got a few of these things," and showed me a small test meter. I said, "Well, okay, that's enough."
So I went through the amplifier from the tone arm all the way down into the loud speaker and was able to detect the problem easily and replace the shorted condenser and the burnt-out resistors. I told them that this should do it. From then on they were impressed that I could handle the electronics. I worked for that company for a good number of years after that; seven, eight years, perhaps.
In the meantime, earlier, I was getting extensions of my temporary leave of absence from the camp. Finally it got to the point where I could not get any more extensions, so I had to tell the boss that I'm from a concentration camp in Arkansas and that I'm an evacuated Japanese. There was another experience prior to that which made him aware I was Japanese.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Six or seven years, or was that six or seven months then?
MR. TERAOKA: I stayed with the company about seven years, totally, but at this point it was about six months. I felt very good, generally speaking, while living in St. Louis. I would say if I were to put it in percentages, perhaps 95 percent of the time I felt that I was very cordially and well accepted in St. Louis. Everybody seemed like they went out of their way to make me feel good.
The company owned a great number of these coin-operated vending machines. Then I started to run service for the company, going out on the streets. One day I had an experience. The route men that bring in their daily collections would sit around the table and play cards afterwards was a daily routine. And the conversation came about, I had told one of the fellows that I was Japanese, and the others were all trying to figure out what nationality I was. And one of the fellows decided to place a bet on whether I was Chinese or Filipino. And so when he came up and asked me pointblank "What are you, a Chinese or a Filipino?" I said, "Neither, I'm of Japanese descent." And he said, "Oh," and he went back. Whether he lost the bet or not, I don't know. But, anyway, at that time I guess the word got around definitely that I was Japanese.
Every day when I used to work in the shop, the boss would gather all the people from the shop and the office and take us to lunch. And so on next day, as usual, the boss said, "Hey, we're going to lunch, George, come on and join us, we will be down the street." And I was cleaning the phonograph, and I had this little experience the day before, and I thought I didn't feel like it, so I worked right straight on through lunch. After lunch the boss came back with a beef sandwich and a milkshake and he said, "George you eat this and you'll feel a lot better. And after you eat it, I want you to come into the office. I want to talk to you." And I thought, I guess I'm going to get canned now.
When I finished the lunch, I went into his office and said, "You wanted to see me?" and he said, "Yeah." He said, "The boys tell me you're Japanese." I said, "Yes." Then he said, "Well, couldn't you say you're Hawaiian or Chinese or Filipino or something else?" I said, "No, I don't feel that I have to, I'm an American citizen. I just happened to be born from a Japanese parent, and I'm not ashamed of my ancestry." And he said, "Well, okay, but you know George I'm going to have to send you out into the streets and a lot of our jukeboxes are in taverns and restaurants. Quite a few of them are in taverns and those drunks at the bar just might give you a rough time. And I want you to use your own judgment and say you're something else to avoid trouble." I restated my situation and told him that I don't feel that I have to apologize to anybody. He said, "Okay." But he said, "George, if you're ever in trouble I'm going to give you an FBI friend of mine's name. So I want you to call him if you can't get hold of me." And he said, "I used to be in trouble at one time with the FBI, and I used to run from them, in and out of my establishment, but now I'm all right." Well, anyway, that's another story, but he treated me very well.
He treated me so well, later on my roommate who wanted to start a business of his own, a cleaning shop, asked me to talk to the boss in his behalf to see if he wouldn't loan him some money to start a cleaning business. The roommate had a place in mind so I said, "Well, I don't know that I'd want to do that." But, anyway, Frank insisted so I asked in his behalf to see if my boss would loan him the money. My boss wanted to know where the place was, and so I gave him the address of the place my roommate was interested in. It was a litle dry cleaning and press shop. And he went to take a look at it, and I think the requirement was something like $4,000. That was the price of that business at the time.And so he went to take a look at it. And a few days later the boss called me into the office and said, "George, I went to take a look at that cleaning establishment your friend wants to buy." My boss thought the business was too small. He said, "You could kill yourself in a place like that, and you could exert just as much effort in a big place. And if you're going to kill yourself anyplace, you might as well do it in a big place. But I want you to take a look at this other place." The boss had sought out another cleaning establishment at another address. We went to take a look at it. It had in-plant cleaning facilities. I had eight employees, four presses, something much larger than the place
my roommate had originally in mind. But owner wanted around $25,000, originally.
He told me about it, so my roommate and I went over and took a look at it. It was something beyond his original dreams, so, naturally, he was very enthused about it. But how are you going to pay for such a thing? Was the boss going to put it all out or what the score was, we didn't know. But, anyway, as it turned out, the boss didn't know my roommate but he felt confident, I suppose with me. As long as I was in the thing, that unless I was involved in the thing, that there would be no participation on his part. So it came to pass that we decided to buy this place. My partner, or roommate, was to put up "X" number of dollars, and I was to put in some for a total $5,000 down payment on the place. The boss picked up a friend of his, and, anyway, it turned out that there were five people each putting up $1,000.
Well, my roommate did not have $1,000. I had about $700, so I said, well, I'll tell you, Frank, I'll loan you my $700 as to put your $1,000 up, and then the other partners, whoever they are, they could, too. Then I'll tell the boss that I don't have any money so I won't be able to participate. But my boss said, "Well, don't worry about your part. I'll loan you the thousand so you'll have yours. I'll put up your thousand for you, so that you'll have your participation." We got started in the cleaning business, but I was to still work for the company.
As time went on, there was a conflict of personality and pretty soon everybody wanted out. And, so, well, to make a long story shorter, my partner and I finally wound up with the business, and we ran the business for a few years. And enlarged the business, taking over another laundry. The laundry had about 60 employees, and this dry cleaning plant
had now about 17 employees. And so it got to be quite a wheeling and dealing sort of a situation. But during the course of the time we were expanding. So every time we needed some money to expand, I would go to the company and ask them to advance me my salary. In those days that was only about $4,000, so my whole year's salary would be advanced to me so that I could invest it into this cleaning business. And during the course of the time, I think the company advanced me something like $17,000, if I recall.
During those years, I was drawing my living expense from the cleaning business, and I just had a few extra cents in my pay envelope after all the deductions were made for any advances.
I experienced wonderful relationships with the general populace of St. Louis. That would be generally Caucasian acquaintances that I had met. I experienced one severe case of discrimination. It was just an outright--I don't know if that could be called a discrimination. But I went to repair a jukebox in a tavern and one lady owner said, "I don't want any Jap working on this juke box," so I got literally kicked out of the place before I could close the machine. And I called the office, and they sent somebody else in. But I understand she later apologized for her action. But, nonetheless, that was the only situation of racially inspired confrontations that I experienced. But, other than that, it was generally a very good experience in St. Louis.
It was there that I met my wife, and she had come from Minidoka, Idaho camp. And she was working for the Church Federation of St. Louis. And we got married August the 4th, 1945.
About the time we were in camp, one of my interests was in what makes the Japanese Niseis behave the way they do. As I looked at myself, I could see that I was not as outgoing as some of my Caucasian friends, and it wasn't until about this time, or a little later perhaps, that I began to realize that our culture had so much to do with our behavior. I decided that I'm going to study this a little bit more, and as I began to study from what little materials there were available to me, I began to study the Japanese culture. But, then, as I began to realize that in order to understand Japanese culture, I have to understand the basic philosophy behind that culture. And it led me to the study of Buddhism, the Buddhist philosophy. I began to make comments on it that led to speaking engagements, and it was in St. Louis that I was considered to be a live Buddhist specimen in the city, so I began to get invitations to speak at various groups, university groups, and church groups. As I look back, many of the statements that I was making then were really shallow statements.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What were you saying?
MR. TERAOKA: Oh, I think I was just saying a lot of things in the beginning. But knowing some of the things that I have experienced and learned subsequently, I know now they lacked substance.
Camps life was one of the times that I really was able to spend a lot of time socially. And I chose to go to church groups, the Buddhist church groups, and naturally spent a lot of time with the ministers. The ministers generally spoke Japanese, so while my understanding of Japanese was very limited, I was somehow able to grasp or felt that I grasped. It wasn't until later that I came across a professor Daisetsu Suzuki, who is considered one of the world's foremost exponents on Zen Buddhism, the whole thing jelled together and it dawned on me what it was really all about.
But getting back to the St. Louis days. St. Louis was a time when I began to express thoughts, and my theme of expressions centered around Japanese culture and Buddhist philosophies. Through the years, subsequently, I kept building up on it and I arrived at this point in life where I really appreciate what terrific contributions Buddhist philosophy is making in our daily life and our culture. To see so much of the Japanese culture being accepted in the American society rather amazes me. I'm sure that they all realize that there is something there, but I'm not so sure that they realize the total, the basis of many of our cultures, and along that line. Since then, I've been invited to make presentations at various universities; Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis University, Brigham Young University, and the various colleges and junior colleges up and down this state. I have been invited to address conventions in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Diego, just to name a few.
I think Niseis, generally speaking, have made a tremendous contribution. I wish that more of the Niseis realize what the basic philosophy is that makes them to be what they are.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Could you give us some of the basic philosophy that you consider to be major?
MR. TERAOKA: Major? Oh, very definitely. Well, to put it in simple words, the difference stems from what we call dualism and non-dualism. The Japanese culture stems from that concept of non-dualism. The Western culture is dualistic in nature. You find that prevalent in all of Western reasoning. You know, when I start elaborating on this, it could go on and on, but the concept of humility, for instance, of the Japanese, can only be appreciated from the standpoint of non-dualism. For Western culture to try to understand humility, he can only understand it in terms of subjecting himself to little or nothingness.
In the Oriental concept, it is not subjecting himself to little or nothing, but rather melting his self into the oneness of the Totality. Time and space preempts further elaboration here.I'm amazed as I go speak to various Caucasian groups, as one Caucasian has indicated to me, the Caucasians in the United States who consider themselves the followers of this type of thinking outnumber the Japanese by eight to one. They're generally in the intellectual groups.
There are many people in that category that I have come across here in California. They're older people, who have sought the solutions or the answer, whatever they're called, to the problems of life that seem to have been experienced by these older people who have truly sought the truth. Frequently, they have symbols in their home, and yet never have stepped foot in a Buddhist church. There are many, many groups of this nature. They call themselves by various names, but like the man indicated to me, you call a rose by any other name and it will still be the same rose.
So it's been quite an experience for me. I think this evacuation had a lot to do with my developing of my thoughts.
MRS. HASEGAWA: You said that you met your wife through the Church Federation?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. She used to work for the St. Louis Federation of Churches. It is a Christian church federation. I think it was a conglomeration of all the churches. One of the facilities that was available to the people in St. Louis, especially the Japanese, was the Christ Church Cathedral, where they had opened up their facilities for the benefit of the Japanese-Americans. A place to get together for them, and I truly appreciated their gesture. This is where I met Mary Kawahara, my wife to be.
I went back to St. Louis the other day and met some of my friends who have joined that church. They were Buddhist before the war, but now they were members of the church. And I just couldn't help but feel very grateful for the things that the church has done for the Japanese there.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Now, you're Buddhist, then?
MR. TERAOKA: Oh, yes.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Your wife was a Christian? MR. TERAOKA: Yes.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Is she Buddhist now?
MR. TERAOKA: Well, she can't help but be drawn into that circle. I don't think she'll come out right and say she's a Christian or she's a Buddhist. But I think she's in the gray area one way or the other; I don't know. But she naturally follows along with me, so I think she accepts it as her faith today.
While none of us have gone through the formal dedication service into the Buddhist society of Buddhist Sangha. But, to me, that's irrelevant whether one makes that superficial dedication or not.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Well, it seems to me that you've had an awfully interesting life.
Going back to your laundry-cleaning business, it was very successful, I take it.
MR. TERAOKA: Well, no, it was a floundering business to begin with. I wasn't active in the business, my partner was.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Was he Japanese?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. He's from Fowler. We did a lot of business. We were several blocks from the Union Train Station, so we did a lot of fast service. We would take the clothes off of a serviceman, for instance, and put him in a booth and throw his clothes all in the washer and get it all cleaned out and pressed and ready for him to go, oh, in about 45 minutes. And so we had a lot of transient trade. And it was very good there in the beginning.
Then after the war ended, why, just like a storm that suddenly ended. Things kind of got a little rough there for a while. In the meantime, I being the eldest in the family, had to come back to California. And it was a very painful decision to have to make. But, nonetheless, being the eldest son, and both my father and mother expected me to be their social security, which is one of the customs that I had to accept. I reluctantly came back.
When I got back, my thoughts were always on the city life, and as time went on it suddenly dawned on me that my view of farming was completely wrong. I always viewed farming as just a way of life. And after I had these experiences in St. Louis and coming back and meditating on the various experiences, I suddenly came to realize that, this farm is a business, and the sooner I treat it as a business and look at it as a business, I'm not ever going to succeed. Then my thoughts began to change. Some of the things that began to make me realize that, this is the thing that I've been looking for all my life.
For instance, in the laundry business, the bookkeeper would tell my partner and I that every customer who walked through the front door was carrying an average of $1.57 worth of business. So, we should try to get more people coming through that front door. We were doing around $200 a day business, and so I would have to meet about 130 customers to punch up $200 in the cash register. When you're meeting people, you learn all those things about human relationships. It's wonderful to have a business where you meet 130 wonderful customers in front of your counter. But, invariably, there'd be a customer who would come in with some kind of a demand so unreasonable that it could spoil the whole day for you. Some of them will make such a demand that they'll spoil the whole week for you.
While there are a lot of good people in the world, but they are not all good people; somebody's going to give you trouble. So I said to myself, next time I'm going into a business, for every hundred dollars I punch up on my cash register, I'm going to try to get into a business where I have to meet the least number of people for every hundred dollars I punch up on my cash register. Here to punch up a hundred dollars, I have to meet 75 people.
So I looked around town, looking for a business where I could meet the least number of people for every hundred dollars I punch up on my cash register. You know, they were difficult to come by. My sandwich shop next door, when I asked him how many people he has to meet for him to punch up a hundred dollars on his cash register, and he said, "Well, I don't know." One day he figured it out. His average customer brought in something like 40-some cents. He had to meet over 200 people for every hundred dollars. He said the worst customer that he gets were those nickel cup coffee drinkers that sat over there at the counter, and all they're in there for was to fool around with his waitresses. And he said the people who bought steaks and regular dinners made a good chunk on his registering of cash. But I had to treat a nickel cup customer just as well as the others. And in all of this business, in a business where you have to kowtow to the principle that the customer is always right and give service to your utmost.
Well, anyway, I looked around. I thought real estate was it. I praised an agent on how much commission he made for selling a house, and he said, "Oh, you'd be surprised." To sell one house you may have to bring in 50 customers and every one of them will find some fault with the house. So even if I made $500 on the sale of the house, you divide that by 50 people that you've taken over there and you've got it down to a small amount." They, too, had their problems with people.
But, anyway, when I got back on the farm we had some great crops there. Dad and the family were already back, and we had made our raisin crop. I had come back just when harvest was finished, and there were raisin buyers from the packing- house that came. They kowtowed to you as if you were their customer. You treat them as if they were your customer. It's a terrifically different type of relationship where one knows that each other is a customer to each other. Whereas in the other instance, one is the customer and they know it; and the other one is the server, and you have to appreciate that. Well, I thought this is great.
Well, anyway, as I got to thinking more and more about it, let us say it was a $10,000 raisin crop and there were six packinghouses that I could sell to. And there were six buying agents that came by and looked and talked to you. You finally sell to one. So when you register $10,000 on your cash register, you had to meet only six customers. And I said to myself, "This is the kind of business I've always been looking for." It's been here all the time, and it was because of my attitude towards it that I had lost sight of what I was really looking for.
In the cleaning business it's a service business and you have a lot of people working for you. When the cat's away, the mice will play. You put up with it for 300 days a year. Out here on the farm, if you're in the raisin business, the most that you have to put up is maybe one week for the pickers to help you harvest that grape; and perhaps another week or 10 days to help you prune it. These were the only times you had to put up with a lot of people. Only two or three weeks out of the year. For every hundred dollars you punch up on the cash register, you've got to contend with all of those people behind your counter. Here on the farm you don't have to put up with them some 300 days out of the year as in the business.
So what did I do, I just went against my basic philosophy and got into a business where the labor was very intensive, and therein lies my challenge. So that's something that I'm working on today. But, anyway, I felt that those were part of the things that happen as a result of our evacuation and how our thinking has been molded. The effects, the basic causes were there in that evacuation experience and in the development of, in my instance, life.
MRS. HASEGAWA: That's wonderful. You said your parents were back already when you came back. How long had they been back?
MR. TERAOKA: They were back as soon as the Rohwer Camp closed. Now, I don't recall when that would be. I would say 1945 or '46. And I came back in 1950.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Then when you returned to your home, you were married. Did you have children when you came back?
MR. TERAOKA: We had two sons when we came back. And since then another son was born to us and two daughters after that.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Would you like to tell us about your family now?
MR. TERAOKA: All right. The oldest son was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Both of them were.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What was his name?
MR. TERAOKA: We named him Tom Toshiyuki, and he graduated out of Fowler; went to Fresno State; went to UC Davis where he received his degree in food science; and went to work as a quality control man for Preserve Company, Safeway Division and decided that he'd like to get into management. So, he went back to school and got his MBA at CSU Long Beach, and finally drifted into the field of accountancy. Presently, he has his own office as a CPA in Huntington Beach. And he is married, has three daughters.
The second son was also born in St. Louis, Missouri; graduated out of Fowler High School; Fresno State, went to UC Berkeley and graduated out of UCLA; and went to Loyola. graduated with an economics major out of UCLA, and then went to Loyola to get his doctorate in jurisprudence and presently practicing in San Francisco where he has his own office. He is very active in JACL in San Francisco. For the last two terms, he's been president of the San Francisco chapter of JACL.
MRS. HASEGAWA: You didn't give us his name.
MR. TERAOKA: Steven. We named him Steven George Teraoka. He's presently in San Francisco.
The third boy Robert "Bobby"--we named him Robert Allen, and he is on the farm with me. I imagine in a few years he'll be taking complete charge of everything. He's helping me with some of our processing of the boysenberries and farm machinery maintenance and production.
The fourth child is a daughter. She married a Navy man who was stationed in Spain until recently. And presently discharged and is a Buddhist minister assigned to the Los Angeles Betsuin.
The fifth child is a daughter--the fourth child is named Janet Kay. And the last daughter is named Kathy Yuriko, and Kathy is still attending school at Fresno State College. She will be graduating next year.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What is Janet's name now?
MR. TERAOKA: Janet's name is Umezu. He is from Japan and comes from a family of Buddhist ministers. And he was assigned to the Fresno Buddhist Church for several years and, subsequently, decided to join the Navy to enhance his appreciation of human relationships. And where he also learned to strive to perfect his English by living in the strict English language environment. And I feel that as a result he's come a long way. After four years of service in the Navy, he was discharged recently, and presently he is back into ministry work in Los Angeles.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Are your children all married to Japanese people?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes, so far. We only have two married; the first one and the daughter, married. Somewhere along the line, I guess they'll be different.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Would you like to tell us a little bit about your career since you returned to Fowler?
MR. TERAOKA: Well, I have been in farming. I am farming the present farm that Dad had started. And, subsequently, made several purchases of land. Today, with some of the lease property, we are farming 240 acres. Of that 240 acres, 130 acres of it is in boysenberries, and boysenberries have been one of those crops that challenged me. Well, challenged me in the sense that I got on to thinking about positive attitudes and decided to use the boysenberry as a means of testing whether that attitude really works or not. And I was amazed as to this concept of what positive attitude, positive thinking can do to a person.
We originally had about two or three acres of boysenberries, and to me it was a very fascinating crop. And as a result, one thing led to another, and now I am at the point where-- well, the other day for instance there was a delegation from New Zealand. One of the members of the delegation accepted our invitation to stay with us in our home. These people were unique to us in a sense that they were all boysenberry growers out of New Zealand. After comparing notes we determined that I must be the largest boysenberry grower in the world. It doesn't mean anything; but, nonetheless, we decided that I could claim that distinction. But nothing official there, however.
This, I think came about as something of--in the Buddhist philosophy there is a thing called psycho-cybernetics, which is a modern term put on to this principle of what is called nenbutsu in the Buddhist doctrine which flourished back in the llth and 12th Centuries. But, anyway, right at the moment, I'm buried under with berries.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What is nenbutsu?
MR. TERAOKA: Nenbutsu? Nen means to think. Butsu is generally referred to as the Amida Buddha or the Infinite Light, Infinite Wisdom. So the practice of nenbutsu literally means to think of the Truth. The butsu here is referred to as the dynamic force of this universe that possesses infinite wisdom, so the nenbutsu principle is this principle of
attuning your mind to reality, the ultimate truth. That's basically it. One goes on to elaborate on it after that. That's all it is.
MRS. HASEGAWA: So, how do you relate this to your boysenberries?
MR. TERAOKA: Oh! For instance, goal-setting. The reason why nenbutsu is goal-setting. That's what it amounts to in modern psychology, I guess. Not having any college education, I have to do whatever my thoughts and reasoning dictates as a result of reading more from any kind of a formal education. It appears to me that in modern psychology they have terms of goal-setting as a method of management with some kind of an objective. Nenbutsu is exactly that, you set your goal, you set your thinking towards the objective.
Earlier I said the basic difference between the Japanese culture and the Western culture was that one is non-dualistic and the other is dualistic. I don't know why the Japanese prefer to use the word non-dualistic instead of the word unity, but I think one of the reasons why they do not use the word unity is simply because unity has within that word a connotation of unity from a dualistic viewpoint, which immediately makes that concept wrong. Well, anyway, nenbutsu is that process where you unify; where you coalesce with the force of this universe, at which point there is no problem.
A problem exists simply because you divorce yourself from the very force of this universe. I think in the Christian term, they use the word God. I think you could almost say that you become one with God, but the reason why God is not accepted because in the West, God is seen as an entity that has created. And here is a creation that stands contrasted to a Creator. This is dualistic. There is not that concept of a Creator and a creation in Oriental philosophy. But, if you can conceive of a concept where the Creator and the creation is synthesized into one, non-dualistically, then you can appreciate what the Buddhist philosophy is. So that might be an example of how one might differentiate dualism and non-dualism.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Well, my question was, you said earlier that you were using this positive thinking in your boysenberries –
MR. TERAOKA: Yes.
MRS. HASEGAWA: -- so then your objective was to be the biggest boysenberry grower?
MR. TERAOKA: Not necessarily the biggest. There were other challenges. One of the challenges is that it's a very labor intensive crop. MRS. HASEGAWA: You were trying to get away from that.
MR. TERAOKA: Right; to mechanize it. And in order to try to mechanize, I ran into problem after problem. And so for the past 10 years, I have been solving or trying to find solutions, because although I feel that I have arrived at a certain point in this process, I can see there are other hills to go over, too.
MRS. HASEGAWA: How have you improved the work, because I think of boysenberries work as picking each berry and putting them into little baskets or whatever.
MR. TERAOKA: It was easy enough to pick the berries mechanically; pick them off the vine fairly well, but then there's a lot to be desired there. There's more of a problem in that there is a lot of debris in the product. Well, let's look at it from the conventional. In the conventional picking of boysenberries, you pick it by hand, place all your berries in a crate. Then we take this crate and put it into a freezer and when we put it into a freezer, the berries, the product, is frozen solid.
Now, when you take this out of the freezer, we could dump it on a crusher and shaker, so whatever berries that clump together come apart. Then we shake whatever debris that can be shook out of it and then they are packed. Now, if I took mechanically harvested berries, there would be all kinds of debris in there. NA only that, if has been subjected to beating, and as a result there's injury to the droplets and when that happens, the juice runs. If you put this into a crate and into a freezer, now when you dump it out, it comes out as a square chunk. And whatever debris is on the berries is stuck by juice onto the berries, and it's hard to take apart. So I decided if I want to really continue this thing, I've got to figure out a system of cleaning that thing. The cleaning now is very simple, it just put into the water and washed. Now, when you wash the berries the debris is washed away, but the berry itself is similar to a juice berry, because there's moisture all around it. When you put it back into a container to freeze it, and you try to dump it out, you've got the same sort of situation where it comes out in a square block. So the technology, working with the University of California, they suggested that I go into cryogenic freezing.
Now as the berries come out of the wash, they go into a blanket of snow--not water snow--but a dry snow made of dry ice, which we call carbon dioxide, (I bought a shrimp freezer and converted that into berry processing.) and then it's frozen on the crust--it's not solidly frozen--but they still kind of come out clumped from this dry ice freezing. So I built a cement mixer type thing that it falls into, and it also freezes in there, too, continues freezing in there, too, and now I've got a berry that's washed, frozen, free flowing, and all the berries are processed.
I recently got a two-page write-up in the California- Arizona Free Press. It's an expensive process, and this product today is being sold by Safeway stores in little 20-ounce bags. But, anyway, there are many other facets now that I'd like to get into that keeps the one idea working. Problems and solutions seem to be the basis for the next idea that comes that you build on and –
MRS. HASEGAWA: Is this all your idea, then? This whole berry processing and freezing?
MR. TERAOKA: Well, it's really not all my idea. I think I've accepted suggestions from all over. But nobody else is doing such a thing at this point in time that I know of. Maybe there are.
MRS. HASEGAWA: This process could be used for any kind of bush berries?
MR. TERAOKA: Bush berries, right. I don't think that it's that type of a thing that can be patented. Engineers out of Chicago came to take a look to see what I was doing, and they shared with me some of the suggestions that they felt would be an improvement and I've accepted some and rejected some. In the cultural area each one of those canes on the bush
berries have to be trained up by hand. While I have yet to complete it, the machine is still partially built, but it's a machine to elevate the canes and to sew them in between the wires by machines rather than by hand. These are the challenges that are still facing me that I'd like to conquer.
MRS. HASEGAWA: (Laughing.) It sounds like a big job.
MR. TERAOKA: No, but I think the idea of this positive attitude is that you don't get scared away by the mountainous problems that are ahead of you. In this positive thinking process, you chip away; you keep chipping away, at least this is the way I'm impressed that it ought to be done. You keep just chipping away at this little problem here and there and pretty soon you get this rock all chewed away.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What other kinds of crops do you raise besides boysenberries?
MR. TERAOKA: We have plums and nectarines. They're grown in a conventional sort of a way, and we follow the rest of the crowds.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What changes do you see in farming practices from your father's time to the present?
MR. TERAOKA: Oh, we did a lot of work with the mules. And it wasn't until 1940 that we bought our first tractor. I would say the biggest change, perhaps, is in the field pesticides and the largeness of the machines that are used since Dad's time. The basic problem is still there; to make a profit out of all of this.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Now, would you care to comment on the Farm Bureau or the Nisei Farmers League?
MR. TERAOKA: Well, I believe in unity; joining organizations for the basic purpose of gaining strength. I think it's not good when a team of mules pulls in all different directions. I don't think the result is near as great as when the teams of mules pulled in one direction in unison, and I think the same holds for any organization.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Have you been involved with the Nisei Farmers League?
MR. TERAOKA: Nisei Farmers League? Yes. This is a public relations organization, and I feel that there is a definite purpose for this type of an organization. Our president Harry Kubo, I believe, is just doing one tremendous job. I hope you interview him.
MRS. HASEGAWA: We have.
MR. TERAOKA: Good.
MRS. HASEGAWA: How does the California Farmers Co-op function?
MR. TERAOKA: Oh, that's a co-op in Fowler that was originally started by the Issei people for the primary purpose of buying in quantity so as to be able to take advantage of quantity purchases. And it's strictly a buying service organization. And perhaps it's gotten to a point today where it's outlived its usefulness. Most of the Niseis can make deals on their own. In the earlier days, when the Isseis were still farming, many of them were inadequate in their communications. And for small growers it performed a very necessary and a vital service for making purchases, whether it be insecticides or fertilizer or equipment or any other hardware or supply that was generally required by the farmers.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Do the Niseis still play an active part in the Co-op?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. I'm the chairman of the board there, but constant changeover of management has been our problem there. It has to be run like any other business organization, and whatever profits that are made by the co-op are returned to the participating members through a rebate. This rebate dwindled to little or nothing lately, and we are beginning to wonder now if we haven't come to that point where perhaps it might be just as well that everybody go out and make their purchases in the best way that they can, because language is not that much of a problem any more today.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What are some of your responsibilities as a member of the California Bushberry Advisory Board?
MR. TERAOKA: California Bushberry Advisory Board is an organization authorized by the California Department of Food and Agriculture for the prime purpose of aiding industry, for the purpose of research and/or marketing. The organization is no longer in existence. I was chairman of that Bushberry Advisory Board. The board members were elected by the boysenberry growers in the various areas of the state of California, and the boysenberry growers were assessed a certain number of dollars per ton. The funds from which is administered out of the Department of Agriculture. It was then allocated according to the wishes of the members of the board, and many of the funds had been allocated towards research; both for genetic research and general mechanization type of research. For a while it was involved in public relations and product promotion. I happened to be the chairman of it for perhaps eight or nine years.
MRS. HASEGAWA: In your resume, Mary Bissett, Inc., and Dance World, Inc., are listed as business organizations. Please elaborate.
MR. TERAOKA: Mary Bissett is an elderly lady. I used to call on her to sell her boysenberries. She is a baker. She has a pie shop, and I always used to go in there and visit with her. During our conversation I encouraged her to think positively and so she began to think positively. And so she said, "Well, now, what do I do?" But, anyway, she's quite along in years and she told me that she wanted to perpetuate her name some way and she didn't have that much of a business. So I decided to help her. And in the meantime, she just gave me the business. But she wanted to do something, so she operates the business. And I, knowing that she wanted to perpetuate her name, moved her out of the Maple Avenue place and she's presently set up in the shopping center right next to Christensen's Grocery Store in Sunnyside. So she's got a little shop over there, and we help her financially, and I'm the sole stockholder. So that the name can be perpetuated, the business has been incorporated. It's just a pie shop, and as long as she's living she'll be there. And, hopefully, I hope she can find peace and happines some way or another. At times it's cost me money, but so be it.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Does she just sell pies there?
MR. TERAOKA: Pies. And I think she bakes cookies at times, and cobblers, and beerocks.
MRS. HASEGAWA: It's just berry pies?
MR. TERAOKA: No, she has apple, peaches, and cream pies, meat pies.
MRS. HASEGAWA: How are you involved with Dance World, Inc?
MR. TERAOKA: Dance World is another crazy thing that I've got off into a tangent. Dancing is one activity that my wife and I could do and enjoy. And so during the course of our dancing career, if that's the word, I came across a man who seemed to hold quite a credential in the field of dancing. He and his wife both hold a degree which can be equated to a Ph.D. in ballroom dancing, and he wanted to start a dance studio business, so I helped him get started. But the unfor tunate situation here is this fellow's from England and he recently underwent surgery for cancer. And it's a terminal situation, so I think that business is going to be liquidated. I just couldn't make those people happy, so I guess that's not going to work out.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Does he have dance studios here in Fresno?
MR. TERAOKA: Not here in Fresno. It was in Stockton. He was on the board of directors at Arthur Murray's Dance Studio, and he's on the international board of the Ballroom Dancing Society. He has taught dancing and entered competition type of dancing in Japan, Australia, Paris; all over the world. Both he and his wife. He impressed me as quite a good teacher of social dancing, but I think he had something to be desired in the way of management ability.
MRS. HASEGAWA: You just financed him?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. We will be terminating that business.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Would you care to tell us about your involvement with the various civic and social organizations to which you belong?
MR. TERAOKA: Well, Buddhist Church, of course, I've been very active in that area. Not so much in the area of administration, but more in the area of doctoral presentations. Sunday school teachers; I have taught for 26 years. I am retired from it now, but I do hold seminars for Sunday School teachers, trying to point out to them what their objectives should be, and so forth.
JACL, I don't think I'm anything special there, just about like anybody else, holding a chapter past presidency and a membership at one time in the CCDC Council--Boy Scouts of America. I have always felt that the youth is an area in which I could really contribute, especially in the formation of attitudes, mental attitudes. One of the areas of youth organization that I've become very inspired with is the objectives of the Boy Scouts movement. I think they have a very find objective. Unfortunately, I think it's an organization that more of the middle and the upper group participate in. Until last year I was a relationships chairman for the Area Three of the Western Region of the Boys Scouts
of America. Area Three covered all the area from the Oregon border down to Bakersfield and also covered Nevada. My area covered as far west as the Far East; the units in Tokyo, Guam, Hawaii, and so forth, was my area of responsibility in the way of relationships.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Have you been able to travel to these places with the Boy Scouts?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. I've participated in many of the national conventions and regional conventions and so forth. The Fowler Friday Evening Club, to which I belong, is a literary organization of Fowler. The maximum number for membership is limited to 16. Presently, there are 14 or 15.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Are these all men?
MR. TERAOKA: These are all men. Some of the past members, looking back over the membership list, include the president of the Fresno State College and many of the professors out of Fresno State College and that kind of people. The membership is necessarily limited to people of Fowler.
MRS. HASEGAWA: I see.
MR. TERAOKA: I am not the first Japanese to have joined this organization. I am the second, I think.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Who was the other person?
MR. TERAOKA: The other person is an architect by the name of Ken Fujii. This is an organization where every member takes a topic and prepares a paper on it. And these topics are accepted by the membership for presentation about a year in advance so that you have a whole year to prepare your paper. And the organization meets on the third Friday of every month, with the exception of summer months. The topics and participant are published at the beginning of each year.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Dr. William Smith belongs to that organization, does he not?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. Dr. Smith, Bill Smith, he belongs. He's the only one out of Sanger. My topic on one of the papers was "The Dilemma of a Nisei in American Society." Well, anyway, that's that kind of an organization. Its objective is the fulfillment of the well-being and the welfare of each member. Social betterment. And intellectual betterment may be some of other objectives.
Fowler Dance Club is an organization that my wife and I belong to. We both enjoy dancing. We take private lessons, and whatever we learn in the private lessons we share with the group there in Fowler. My wife and I and another couple, Mr. and Mrs. Honda, share also.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Is this a Japanese group?
MR. TERAOKA: Yes. Right now a predominantly Japanese social organization, although we have our Caucasian friends joining us at parties. Japan American Radio Society is an organization of Japanese Nisei amateur radio enthusiasts. We have membership from Los Angeles and up and down California; Northern and Southern Calfornia. Aircraft Owners and Pilots is an organization that I feel compelled to belong to inasmuch as I feel that the strength of unity is one of my philosophies. I hold a private pilot's license and fly every so often.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Where do you fly to? Do you fly on business trips?
MR. TERAOKA: Oh, business; sometimes speaking engagements, that sort of thing, principally. And some pleasure flying. We'll fly to Las Vegas or Reno for lunch or dinner.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Do you have your own plane?
MR. TERAOKA: I did have 'til a few years ago. The plane got old, so I decided to get a bigger plane. But after I sold it, I regretted it very much. Now I rent planes and never got around to buying that new plane. Shigin Club. I joined this organization and was with this
organization for about 10 years, and I really enjoyed it.
Shigin is not singing. Shi is poetry; gin is to recite. It seems to have a singsong sort of rhythm, but shigin is poetry reciting. One of my problems with this is that I'm not adept in Japanese, and so when I get into a class I have to carry a dictionary with me, and about the time that the class is over, I've suddenly realized the real meaning of the poetry. And I can't really say that I recite the poetry in the real objective of this culture. Of all the poetry that is recited, I seem to enjoy those most written by the Chinese. They seem to have a way of expressing a though in a unique and profound way. Maybe this might be so, simply because only the best Chinese poems are published in these books.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Aren't they mostly Chinese poetry that's sung with the shigin?
MR. TERAOKA: Ah, they're written in Kanji, which is Chinese. And they're written in what they call nanazekku, seven characters, or gogen which is the five character lines. Kanji is Chinese, you're correct. But the author may be a Japanese or a Chinese. But, like I say, those that are written by the Chinese I really enjoy. I don't care too much about reciting. My enjoyment of shigin seems to have been in trying to capture the mood or the feeling of that poet. And then I guess from that point you're ready to recite, and until you reach that point, you're not ready to recite. But, you know, that isn't the way it is done. Everybody just goes right into the thing.
MRS. HASEGAWA: What changes have you seen in activities and problems of Japanese-Americans during your life?
MR. TERAOKA: Well, I suppose it's really not a problem; but I've seen changes. Changes in the sense that the Japanese life and any other American's life are almost identical. I can't see that there's that much difference other than in the observance of special occasions. Ah, I don't know about a Christian family, but as far as the Japanese in the Buddhist way, I've found there seems to be certain observances that are perhaps uniquely different. I, for one, like to observe the traditional New Year's. I guess maybe it's called festivity, where we sit down and break bread with our neighbors. To all the Caucasian friends that I invite over to our house, I try to explain to them that this open house is our way of saying thank you for their past favors that we've enjoyed, and that we hope to continue--that our relationship will continue in the same way in the coming year, with the feeling of I'd like for you to come and join with us.
I think that's one of those traditions I'd certainly like to see kept, which seems to be on its way out because it's a problem. I think if you understand the meaning of the observance, it has a place in our relationship with our American--Caucasian friends. In our daily life, I'm not so sure that we are unique. I'm inclined to believe that any Christian family or any Western family that upholds its principles of courtesy and whatever else that goes along with it is important.
As long as these things are observed, I can't see that the Japanese family is any different than any other in our daily life. I think if that was unique with the Japanese, I certainly would like to see it perpetuated. But I don't think that's unique. I think in some of our clean Caucasian families that I've come across, they observe the same principle in their way.
As to the future of the Japanese as an ethnic group, I think personally that Japanese culture, the way that it is being accepted, offers a potential for the understanding of the true spirit of Japanese.
Yes, and there is definitely a place for Japanese to be making a contribution. I think Niseis, in general, have made a tremendous contribution in our American society, influenced from their background. I think quite frequently the Niseis are not aware of their real cultural influences that influence their behavior, which, in itself, is a tremendous contribution. And that certainly is to be perpetuated.
I certainly wish not to see any Japanese become so Americanized you couldn't tell. I mean change the color of his skin or whatever; you couldn't tell him as different from any other race, because I think there are many things in the Western culture that need to be impregnated or implanted with more humility and gratitude. I know that we talk about enryo as a Japanese syndrome. I think there's a place for enryo in the Western culture.There is a real need for humility in the Western culture. I see so much display of arrogance today that it's pathetic. It makes me so sick to see some of our Sanseis
becoming so belligerent and demanding. They, apparently, have no concept of humility.
Self-righteous, outgoing efforts and demands are becoming common. These are born out of arrogance more than humility, and they've lost that if they didn't appreciate humility. I don't care what you take, whether it's flower arrangement, judo, or any other Japanese culture, all of these are inspired out of humility. Yes, they're inspired out of humility, and they're all inspired out of this non-dualism. But, anyway, that's the way I feel, and that's the way I've come to be today.
MRS. HASEGAWA: That's a very wonderful way to be. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
MR. TERAOKA: No, I think I've overtaken my allotment of time, I'm sure.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Well, this has been a very interesting interview, and I really do appreciate it.
MR. TERAOKA: Well, thank you. I appreciate this opportunity. I hope that I am able to contribute something in a limited sort of way.
MRS. HASEGAWA: Thank you.