<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.