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MA: When you were growing up in La Jara, how many Japanese American families were there in your area?

BK: Oh, my gosh. I would think there must have been about a dozen. We lived in La Jara and then when I was in the middle of the second grade, we moved to Alamosa, and that was in 1939. So I really didn't live in La Jara that long.

MA: Why did your family move to Alamosa?

BK: Well, because my uncle, and my brother, and Mr. Nishikawa, because it's the Depression and everything, they lost the farming business because the Depression. So each one went their separate ways and my father chose to move to Alamosa and farm there, instead, on his own.

MA: Was there already a Japanese American community in Alamosa?

BK: Yeah, uh-huh. And the farm we were on was owned by a Japanese family named Hattori.

MA: How, what was the population of Alamosa when you were growing up? I'm just trying to get a sense of the community.

BK: Oh gosh, you know. I really don't know. Right now, it's very small, it's, a little over five thousand is all. And so it was much smaller than that.

MA: And where did you attend school, elementary school?

BK: In Alamosa, uh-huh. Yeah, I graduated from high school in Alamosa.

MA: What was the name of your grade school?

BK: Central Elementary.

MA: And how many Japanese American students were in your school when you were there?

BK: Oh, there weren't very many. Probably just my cousins and my family. So not very many.

MA: And the rest of the students, were they Caucasian?

BK: Caucasians and Hispanic.

MA: Okay.

BK: There's a large Hispanic population down there.

MA: In general when you were growing up, what were the relationships like among the various, like the Japanese American community, the Hispanic community, and the white community?

BK: I would say it was very divided, very segregated. The Hispanics usually lived on the south side of the tracks, as it was known. And the Japanese were, well, we were never included. And being raised a Buddhist, it was just really strange for us in school because they would observe Easter holidays and Christmas. There'd be a Christmas tree and we weren't familiar with all those things. Yeah, I would say we were, there was a lot of prejudice. We were never invited to the parties and things like that. And I know the Hispanics weren't either.

MA: So the Japanese American community and the Hispanic community also sort of --

BK: Were separate.

MA: -- were separate from each other.

BK: Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, most of our social activities were at the Buddhist church. And we also went to Japanese school on Saturdays, in the Buddhist church. Pack our lunch and we'd have Japanese school.

MA: Seems like the Buddhist church was kind of a, the center of the community.

BK: Very much for us, yeah, uh-huh. But I guess I just didn't realize the situation because all my friends were Japanese and we had fun when we got together at the Japanese church. And so, I just never thought too much about it until things would happen to me.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.