<Begin Segment 38>

DG: Let's finish up with your being one of the ten people that help put together Keiro, and tell me a little bit about some of the early days of gathering the money.

BU: Among the ten young men that got together to decide they were going to buy the nursing home, we signed that mortgage, the first mortgage, to that old nursing home. Ten of us signed it. In other words, once we signed it, we were responsible of payment. If we couldn't get it from the community, we are going to have to put it out. That's all right. We all recognize that, so we'll do that. But you see, each one of us had our own reasons for doing so, but the same ten people are still involved in Nikkei Concerns. We help put that Nikkei Manor, the assisted care living place, and then whatever else we're going to do, we'll be all together. We may not agree with everything, but we at least put our pocketbooks where the need is.

DG: And you mentioned that had some of the contributions that is you got from the community were --

BU: Yeah, yeah. Mr. Kubota, he was my surrogate father and I needled him for three years, and then he finally gave us enough money to build a management, or I should say that area in Keiro where... that entire area was put up, put up by Mr. Kubota. But it took me three years to get it because he and I used to have, have little snack together every morning. I would go down -- this is when they had Sagamiya, which is a confectionery at Fifth or Sixth and King Street -- I'd go down there around 10:30 after I finished my rounds, and I go there and have manju, manju and tea. And Ojisan would see me, my car get, so he'd pop out and then he'd come in and we'd have coffee or tea, mostly tea and mochigashi. And the lady that was in there was Mrs. Shibata and Mr. Asaba, but when he see me come, they come out with already a plate with manju, manju and tea. So we always sit and talk. And it took me three years to convince him that Keiro Nursing Home was a good thing to donate to that it will be useful, that it would be helpful. And...

DG: What about your church affiliation?

BU: Huh?

DG: What about your church affiliation?

BU: Church? I'm not very close to the church, but I always help out with the church whenever they having money raising problems. And then my mother liked Reverend Tsai a lot. Reverend Tsai was a minister at Congregational Church, and they liked, they liked, she liked him, and each time they'd have a bazaar, she would make one thousand mochigashi.

DG: Your mother lived how long, then?

BU: Huh? She lived almost, she died ten years ago.

DG: How old was she when she...

BU: She was... I think she was eighty something.

DG: But you said that when Keiro started their fundraising that Congregational Church donated, donated some...

BU: Yeah, they donated ten thousand dollars. The reason for that is they had to take it out of their building fund. This month they just finished, finished building their new addition. That took a lot of sacrifice.

DG: So a lot of community organizations or whatnot participated in...

BU: They all participated. All the churches participated to the extent of ten thousand dollars or so. Yeah, we're talking about the Presbyterian church, Methodist church, the Baptist church. They all donated so we appreciate that. That's why they're automatic member of the board of directors.

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.