Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Sumi Okamoto Interview
Narrator: Sumi Okamoto
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Spokane, Washington
Date: April 26, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-osumi-01-0006

<Begin Segment 6>

MA: Well, how did you get involved with the, it was the Methodist church, right?

SO: Uh-huh.

MA: How did you become involved with that?

SO: My oldest brother started at the Methodist church, and he, he became active and then we just followed through. My dad wanted us to go to the Methodist church. At that time there was no Buddhist church anyway, and the Buddhist... so I think they were both, my mother and dad were both Buddhists in Japan, of course, but he wanted us to go to the Methodist church to get acquainted with all the other young people. So it was fun. The church was used as a community hall then, so we had, we did lots of things at the church.

MA: What types of activities would take place at the community hall?

SO: Well, we'd, we'd have, play ping pong, and then we'd have little dances, you know. And we started our sukiyaki dinners from that little church, it was just, and it's gone up to today. So it was kind of hard because the room was pretty small, but the Issei people are the ones that started that, and we've been going every year. [Laughs] We're getting kind of old, and the Sanseis and the Yonseis, they're, a lot of them have intermarried, and a lot of them don't come to our church, so I don't know how it's going to be in later years.

MA: So it sounds like, then, the church was a religious place, but also community.

SO: Community, yes, uh-huh. That's the only place we could go. We didn't have another place to have fun. [Laughs]

MA: Can you talk a little bit about the history of the church? 'Cause it started in a different location, right, than it is today?

SO: Yes, it started next to the United Methodist Church, and it's, it was on Third Avenue. It was just a little, little mission, and the ladies of the Central Methodist Church are the ones that started. There are a few men that had come from Japan, and they started an organization, and it was built up from there. But there are only about three or four men that started that church.

MA: And they worked with the ladies at the United Methodist?

SO: Yes, the mission, yes. Yes, they were, the United Methodist women were really good to our church, and they really helped us organize and everything.

MA: And these were Caucasian ladies?

SO: Yes, Caucasian ladies, and our church, the Ellis Hall is named after this one lady that helped us, and Butler Chapel is Mrs. Butler. She helped us tremendously, too, so they're named after them.

MA: I see. So I always wondered why there was no Buddhist church in Spokane before the war.

SO: Uh-huh. No, I don't believe there was. I can't remember... if there were, it was just a small group, and I don't think there was a church at all. There were not enough to build a church, but after the war, then some of the Buddhists came to Spokane, and they built that nice Buddhist church.

MA: But your, your parents, for example, you said they were Buddhist in Japan.

SO: In Japan, yes.

MA: And when they came over to the U.S., did they convert to Christianity?

SO: My mother did. Yeah, my mother did, but my dad never did. Didn't seem to have time to come, go to church, but he, he encouraged us to go. And in those days, it was no, it was... you know, you could walk to church, and we were on the, on this side of town, and the church was, well, it was in the middle of the town, so we were, we were able to walk, and we didn't have to be afraid or anything, not like these days.

MA: So it started as a mission, you said --

SO: As a mission, yes, it started as a mission.

MA: -- on Third Avenue. And then did it grow from there?

SO: Yes. Well, and then we moved to a bigger church on Fifth, on Fourth Avenue, which was close to our house. Then it was about three blocks from our house. And then from there we moved to Grant Street Methodist Church, and that was a Norwegian or Swedish church before, and so we, we bought that church. And then from there we went to Highland Park, and that Reverend Shimada is the one that moved us all to this church. And this church was built on rocks, you know, it was just all rocky. But he, he believed that it would be successful, so he's the one that started the Highland Park Methodist Church.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.