<Begin Segment 27>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: So, I understand that the lease expired and the temple had to move from the old location to the new location. A housing project started on Yesler. As a result, the temple had to move. How did you go about preparing for the move?

YI: Well, the construction work for a new temple started well before that. As the pictures show. So I had to move, too. People from the women's society came to help me.

TY: Who was involved in the design of a new temple?

YI: Oh, that. That was done mainly by Mr. Arai.

TY: Was he in the construction business?

YI: The general contractor was [inaudible]. A Caucasian. He lived long, but died several years ago. Now Mr. Arai's son is doing something similar. What was his name?

Shinya: Jerry.

YI: Jerry. Because his father was in that kind of business.

TY: When designing a new temple, did he study Japanese architecture?

YI: The Buddhist church had to have Japanese style. I bet people told him how to build the altar for Buddha. Because he didn't know.

TY: They had to move the Buddha altar.

YI: Buddha altar?

TY: Yes. They moved the Buddha altar, didn't they? The Buddha statues.

YI: Oh, yes. The Buddha altar had to be arranged in a certain way. Inside the altar. You had to tell that to the general contractor. I guess they showed it in a drawing. Until the new one was built, Yesler Way... no, it was not Yesler Way. What was that? Fourteenth and where? Where Kendokai is.

Shinya: Weller?

Etsuko: No, after the war, we rented Kendokai...

YI: We rented Kendokai...

TY: After the war...

YI: Judo-kaikan or something is there. We rented that for a short while.

TY: That was after the war, wasn't it? Kendokai.

Shinya: I think it was after the war.

YI: It was before that. Because this temple was completed before the war.

TY: Oh, did you rent that, too?

YI: Wasn't it that judo place?

TY: Oh, that one on South Weller.

YI: Rainier or Dearborn. Where you go down the 14th a little bit. Dearborn?

TY: There is Budokan there.

YI: That hall is still there.

TY: Yes. The white building.

YI: That one. We rented that. Until the new temple was finished, we kept the Buddha statue there.

TY: When you moved to a new temple, did you have seven? I mean children. How many children did you have?

YI: At that time, not yet. Shinya was born after the new temple was built. There was a special Buddhist service to bring the Buddha statue from the temporary storage to the new temple. I remember I was pregnant with Shinya at that time. It was completed before the war. The hall did not have flooring material yet. They were just installing the material. Then the war erupted. Then the black people, mainly black people of the Marine Corps came to that temple. The soldiers. It became a housing facility for the soldiers. But everybody left their belongings there. They had to go to a camp so they had to leave their stuff there. People brought a lot of things to the temple. I also packed a lot of things into trunks and took them to the temple. When I returned from camp, the trunk which had a typewriter was stolen.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.