<Begin Segment 14>

SF: Okay. One of the main cultural institutions in the community, I guess, was Nippon Kan? Maybe you all could give us a little history about how it started, what events took place there, why it was such an important community institution.

TS: How we started out...

YM: I don't remember.

TS: I think way before our time.

YM: Yeah. Maybe from our time...

TS: Yeah.

YM: 'Cause I have a picture of my sister, she was, she used to do Japanese dances. They used to have recitals of Japanese dances quite a bit there. And there's a picture of my sister. I was still a baby then, so I don't remember when it started.

TS: Yeah. How long -- it must, some Japanese musta owned it, though.

YM: Must be.

TS: There was a hotel right above there, too, wasn't there?

YM: Uh-huh.

TS: Yeah. There was a hotel.

CK: Yeah, yeah a hotel there. And there was a small grocery store right at the entrance, remember?

TS: Yeah.

YM: Yeah. They used to have a Japanese school graduation there. Lot of the shibais, plays, were being done there. Our church had, we'd have plays there. What else?

TS: Juudou things.

YM: Juudou.

TS: And then --

YM: And kendou --

CK: Kendou.

TS: Kendou and sumou. When they...

CK: Yeah, sumou, right.

TS: Started that.

YM: And I think if some people came from Japan, they'd have something there for entertainment...

CK: Yeah.

YM: Like that.

TS: Boy that was, I remember, you'd go to see a Japanese movie or something, it was so smoky in there, I remember.

YM: Yeah, all the Japanese movies were there. But, did anything from the kenjinkais happen there? I don't remember.

TS: Kenjinkai...

CK: I don't --

TS: Usually had their...

CK: Yeah.

TS: Get-together at the Chinese restaurant, at Kinka Low or --

CK: Yeah, not Kinka Low or Gyokoken or someplace.

TS: Yeah.

CK: And then they have their picnics, Lincoln Park...

TS: Lincoln Park.

CK: ...or whatever.

TS: Yeah.

CK: Lake Wilderness. Kubota Gardens.

SF: So was the, was Nippon Kan active all the way up to evacuation, and then --

TS: Yeah.

SF: Still going, huh?

TS: Uh-huh. And then, and then it got resurrected, huh? Afterwards.

CK: Yeah.

YM: This --

TS: Didn't they fix it up or something?

YM: Yes, just have --

CK: Hakujin guy bought it out, and --

YM: Yeah.

CK: Put in office, offices and, professional offices, and he restored the auditorium.

YM: They, there was a curtain that was for the auditorium, is preserved on the side of the wall now. It's still there.

TS: Oh, you've been in there?

YM: Oh, yes.

TS: Oh, good for you.

CK: And they preserved the pencil-and-ink writings of the various people, like 1938 juudou tournament --

YM: They used to have back --

CK: People used to write their names on there.

YM: It was backstage, mostly.

CK: Yeah, backstage, and on the poles.

YM: I think it's still there.

CK: Yeah. They preserved those.

SF: What, what happened to the theater during the war? What, did people store things in there or what?

YM: I don't know.

CK: I don't know. I never heard...

YM: I don't know what they did.

CK: Of them storing things, but I think it was just closed up because, it was in, well, I think the floors were starting to give way and everything. So they just kept it closed until this Caucasian guy bought it as a business and restored the building. But then again, he also made it possible for lanterns and different kinds of -- they have a small Japanese garden up there that people could more or less read about the legacy of this building. And --

YM: Wasn't he collecting Japanese artifacts, also?

CK: I don't know.

YM: Oh.

CK: Maybe yes. But it was a pretty good deal for the community anyway.

SF: How did, did they have fund drives or things to support the maintenance of the building, or was it private, just purely privately owned and people would -- groups would rent it, or something like that?

CK: Must've been owned by the Japanese community, huh?

YM: I really don't know.

CK: Yeah.

TS: I wonder who'd know that?

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.