<Begin Segment 23>

MA: And are you, you had mentioned that you are active in the Methodist Church, is that right?

SE: Uh-huh.

MA: How have you, I mean, you've seen, you've been a member of the church since the war years, right?

SE: Uh-huh.

MA: How have you seen it change over the years, over the fifty or so years, sixty years that...

SE: Well, it's interesting. The church has more Caucasians now than before, and it's moving away from all Japanese, but still, it's mainly Japanese. But there is really no need, because Japanese language is not spoken, and we have a Caucasian minister. Some, some things we do hang on to, old traditions. But it's nice that it is a, you've seen the church, it's a beautiful building, and it's nice that they do have one place where the Japanese get together. But the Buddhist Church has a Buddhist temple now, and they're doing very well.

MA: What about the Spokane Japanese community? How have you seen the community change in the years that you've lived here, and what sorts of things have you observed?

SE: Well, it's very loose. They don't have too much, people don't do too much together, but they do have what they call Bosankai, when we have that services, and we hold it together, the Buddhists and the Christians, they hold it together. We go to separate churches on Sunday, but most of the community things we do together. So the JACL has graduates banquet and stuff for the high school, college graduates, and they give little scholarship for them and things like that. And try to have some sort of community life, and that's what we're feeling, that if they don't continue to do that, that Japanese community would be lost. But then there's not many young people. There isn't no, hardly any Sanseis.

MA: But you feel like there's still some sort of effort being made to pass on the traditions and...

SE: Yes, they're trying to, but it's getting harder and harder. But we still carry on the, like whenever there's a funeral, it's done the old traditional Japanese way, koden and everything. But it's gotten so, of course, lot of the hakujins do the koden, too. Yeah, they've taken it up.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.