<Begin Segment 12>

MA: What are some things that you did, social activities in high school?

CT: I think it was pretty typical, you know, school parties and clubs. And they did have a, at Manual High School, they did have a Japanese American club. And so they met, and it wasn't a social club, but I don't remember too much about it, but they did school things, school issues and dealt with that. Then we did have for a while a Japanese American social club outside of school that they were trying to get started, and it lasted for a little while. Didn't last really a very long time. But it still gave the Japanese American kids a chance to get together. And then, of course, your churches had their youth groups.

MA: And what church were you involved with?

CT: At that time, I was involved with the youth group at Simpson United Methodist Church, which was called California Street Methodist Church at that time.

MA: And that was primarily a Japanese American church?

CT: It was a Japanese American church, uh-huh.

MA: Japanese American church. And the other main church you were saying was the Tri-State...

CT: Was the Tri-State Denver Buddhist Temple.

MA: The Simpson United Methodist Church, is that still in Denver?

CT: Yeah, it's still in Denver. It's located in a suburb town called Arvada, but it's real close to Denver. And then the Denver Buddhist Temple is located right down in what we would call what's left of our Japantown or something. We have Sakura Square, and that's the only center, but everybody gravitates towards there. There's a grocery store, Pacific Mercantile, then they have the senior citizen home, which is not limited to Japanese Americans. And then they have a restaurant there, Yoko's Express, which is really popular. So that if you want to see somebody, you go shopping at Pacific and have lunch at Yoko's. [Laughs] But compared to the other larger Japanese American communities where like Seattle you have your large area and Uwajimaya and then, in Los Angeles, they still have Little Tokyo but because Gardena and Torrance and all of those areas have grown up, then they have large business sections, too, so it's a little more spread out.

MA: What's the history, if you know, of Sakura Square? Was there an effort by the community to preserve that?

CT: Yeah, when the urban renewal came, the Denver Buddhist Temple -- and I don't know the exact history, so somebody who was, who knows the exact would be more accurate, but they formed the Sakura Square Management Corporation and so they were able to get that block and then kind of guide that so that the businesses were still located there. And then the Tamai Towers, the senior citizen home, was built. But we're going to be retelling that story in our Japanese American Resource Center so that everybody knows the story. So we have photos of when it was torn down and when it was being built up. But that's an important block, section for us. It's kind of, like I said, not everybody, but the majority of people kind of zero in and go there. And certain times of the year, you go to the grocery store, to Yoko's, and you see everybody you know. And we have a lot of our community meetings down in that area, too. So it's kind of a draw.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.