<Begin Segment 8>

MN: Now I want to ask a little bit about the kenjinkai. Were your parents involved in the Fukuoka Kenjinkai?

KI: All I remember is just going to the picnics, but I don't remember any of the other activities if they did, but we did have the picnics. And I can't remember where they were if they were... yeah this had to be up in the Albany hills.

MN: Now, describe to me what the Albany hills looked like before the war.

KI: I think it had a whole bunch of trees, maybe eucalyptus trees. They were really tall trees, just like going to a big park, and a lot of space, barren, but there were also hills. I remember walking up those paths and things like that. 'Cause I have one picture of several of us holding hands and walking up the hill. And I guess we played games and stuff but I think mainly we went just to eat.

MN: Did a lot of people show up to these picnics?

KI: I think so.

MN: How would you estimate how many people?

KI: I couldn't, I could not estimate. It just seems like, when you're little it just seems like lots and lots of people.

MN: Did you participate in any of the talent shows or games they had?

KI: I think we probably did some races but I don't think at the kenjinkai in the picnic part I don't recall talents or anything like that. Maybe the guys, the older people played baseball or volleyball or something like that, but I wasn't when we were growing up with that. And this was when I was five or six years old so by the time we were ten, eleven, twelve years old, or eleven twelve years old, I don't remember going to those things. So maybe they did other things other than picnics by that time. Maybe one of those things going to this Finnish Hall, maybe that's one of them could've been that too. It could've been the different kenjinkai getting together and putting it on. It'd be interesting to research, I don't know how but so many of the people that are that part of the history are gone. So I even had trouble with trying to find out about that parade 'cause I called Dick and he says, "I don't remember," he says, "the people who are gone are gone, the questions that you're asking." I said, well, so he just told me the best he could, what he remembered.

MN: Now going back to these kenjinkai events, do you remember your mother preparing foods for the obento?

KI: I don't remember.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.