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TI: So going back to your life, so you received your masters in social work. So what did you do with that?

KY: Well, I got a job after graduation and I got a job as a social worker in a children's hospital in Chicago.

TI: And how long did you do this?

KY: I worked there for thirty-three and a half years.

TI: Okay, for a long time.

KY: Long time.

TI: And during this time, how involved were you with the Japanese community?

KY: While I was in school I wasn't active, I should go back. Out of my experience with the Chicago YWCA I became a Christian. And my family was Buddhist, although they were not what we call practicing Buddhists, but Buddhist in the sense that whenever there was a memorial or certain things you go to the Buddhist temple to give respect and go through the ritual. But out of my experience at the YWCA I became a Christian so I became a member of a Christian church here in Chicago and got very involved. It's a Methodist church and so I was very involved in the church. But during the time I was going to school I really was not active at all in anything here in the city, but after I graduated I became very involved in the Chicago, the Japanese American Service Committee and was on the board for over thirty years and continue to be active with that organization.

TI: So tell me about the Japanese American Service Committee, thirty years you're on the board, you mentioned earlier that how Chicago Resettlers was kind of the precursor to this. So I guess tell me what the mission of the JSC is, I mean what was the purpose of the organization after this resettlement period?

KY: Well, they had different services. One of their... eventually one of their services was serving the aging population, they had a workshop which they had to dissolve because it was not... financially it was not working out. But eventually the agency has evolved to provide day care services and counseling services, cultural programs, so currently they have programs like helping people, they call it "out of the home." But having senior citizens, rather than remain at home, come to a center where they have different activities to get them to not just sit at home but stimulate their brain, mind and physical. And currently I am... when I was active on the board I was the program chairman and developed different types of program, currently I am the coordinator of the Japanese cooking classes. And I'm not the instructor but I work with the staff to carry on the classes.

TI: And do all these programs happen at the JSC?

KY: Uh-huh.

TI: I was thinking as you were talking on the west coast some of these same activities are often handled by the churches because in like places like Seattle before the war there was like the Blaine Methodist which is a Japanese American and Japanese Presby, Japanese Baptist, are there similar church organizations in Chicago?

KY: Oh, yes, we have a Methodist church, we have a Presbyterian church, we have a UCC church.

TI: That are primarily Japanese American?

KY: Yeah, the ones that I mentioned. There are other Japanese churches too but these are the three largest. There is a Baptist but it's I think a small group. So there are these churches that serve the Japanese community.

TI: And do they provide similar services?

KY: No, I think some of the churches are beginning to develop services for the aged in working with the Service Committee but many of them are more church related activities I think.

TI: And how about the Buddhist church? Is there an active Buddhist church?

KY: Oh, yes, there's a Midwest Buddhist and there's the Buddhist temple of Chicago, which are the two largest. And then they have the various sects have groups, they're not as large.

TI: Now, I'm wondering because I mean I'm guessing that these Japanese American churches emerged after the war because there wasn't a real prewar community here. But they had to sort of counter, I was thinking back earlier when you mentioned how the WRA said, okay, so can go out there but don't kind of congregate but they had to then I guess counter that by all of a sudden you have a Methodist Japanese American church. I mean, was that difficult, I guess, for these things to happen? It seemed like in the case of west coast, they were all established before the war so it pretty much after the war they just became hubs naturally. But these had to emerge from nothing and run counter to what the government wanted in some ways.

KY: Yes, I know. It's sort of contradictory but there wasn't any... we didn't sense that anybody was upset. I think what they probably didn't want you to do is like congregate on the corner and that kind of thing. But I don't think any of us really felt... groups, there were athletic groups, there were social groups, there were girls clubs groups, they didn't seem to... there was nothing anybody said, "You can't do that." So that see for my point of view I think the WRA was very cruel to impose that. I understand, but, you know, when we were all removed from our homes and then we were supposed to not be supportive of each other, I mean, it really was not very kind to say you shouldn't congregate. That's just my own opinion, but I know from reading material that they didn't want large groups of Japanese in the community.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.