<Begin Segment 9>

MA: When did you move to Denver again? That was for high school?

CT: Junior high and high school. Ninth grade.

MA: And what was the reason for moving back?

CT: Because of my brother's health, so we came back here. He developed asthma in California and then they suggested Arizona, or Colorado, because it was drier in both places. And then we had relatives here, so then it seemed more natural to come back and we'd lived here before. So then when we moved back, again, a very large, tight Japanese American community. Most of us lived in that same kind of geographic area, but I think by the time I graduated from high school, then the housing restrictions were kind of lifted. So then the Japanese Americans were financially more stable, so then they moved out and were able to buy homes. And then from there, the rest is history because they're scattered all over. Now there's not one section where you have, like, more Japanese Americans. We did; once you moved out, everybody moved east toward the airport. But then again, as time went on, then they all sort of moved into the suburbs. And so my children were lucky that they grew up in a neighborhood where there happened to be more Japanese Americans. So they went to school, I think there were about fourteen Japanese American students in the elementary school which was very unusual.

MA: And what community was this?

CT: Live in the north side of, you know, North Denver. So it was, other people would say, "Oh, my children are the only Nihonjins in the school." Or, "There's only another family." But like I said, there were about seven or eight families.

MA: When you moved back to Denver, it had been a couple of years, I guess, since you had left. Did you notice any changes? I mean, had a lot of people moved back to the coast and sort of changed the community?

CT: Yeah, a lot of people gradually moved back and then re-established their businesses. Since we're doing, I'm involved in a current mapping project for this Japanese American Resource Center. We have been going to the historical center and start looking up data. And it was very interesting that Umiya senbei company restarted up here in Denver. I think they started in Los Angeles and then kind of stopped their business and then came here to Colorado. And then opened up a senbei, and then Mikawaya was here. And then they eventually went back and then they're established in Los Angeles, but there were a lot of businesses that were here. I typed up a list and evaluated how many beauty shops, how many apartment houses, how many restaurants and things, and we're all amazed at the large number that, of businesses that were here in 1946. Now, because of urban renewal, they tore the Japanese section down. All the businesses are gone. So that's why we're involved in a project to recreate that, at least on paper, and then to map the presence of the farming communities in the state. So we started also doing that, getting the names and whether these families were there prewar, they came during the war, or postwar. So that we can kind of get a big picture of what the Japanese American presence is in the state.

MA: Yeah, I think that's really important.

CT: Yeah, I think many communities are doing that. Kind of trying to look back and make sure that there's a record.

MA: The, you were saying there was urban renewal, and the businesses, the Japanese American businesses were sort of gone. Was that on Larimer Street?

CT: Uh-huh.

MA: So that's where the concentration of businesses were --

CT: Most of the Japanese businesses were on what was called Larimer Street, Lawrence, and Arapahoe. And after the Japanese businesses came, Larimer Street turned into kind of like a skid row. And I think the city decided they wanted to clean that up and everything. And it sounded like a good idea at that time. But I don't think that we as a community realize that fifty years later, or at that time, that we would have lost our history in the Denver area. So it's kind of exciting to discover. And I like talking to the older Japanese Americans and it triggers their memory of their childhood. And they're saying, "Oh, I remember this store. I remember we would come to Denver and we got to eat at a restaurant." So that's kind of neat that it's triggered their memory of their growing up.

MA: So you're getting a lot of your information from talking with people, people from the community.

CT: Right, from the community, yeah. And then we're backing as much as we can up with historical information, such as the city directories and the business directories. Making sure that... 'cause some people, as you get older you think, "Well, yeah, that happened in this year," and then you realize, "Oh no, it happened in this year." But we're able to back it up to say, "Yes, these businesses were here, only started in 1945." Or that they'd been in business for, fifteen, twenty years prior to that. So it's become my passion to try to record all of this. [Laughs]

MA: No, I think that's great. Yeah, that's wonderful.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.