Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Spady Koyama Interview I
Narrator: Spady Koyama
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary), James Arima (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: March 23, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-kspady-01-0012

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TI: Several times you've mentioned the JACL. You mentioned Dennis Yasuhara, you mentioned, I think, during Joe Okamoto's wedding, about the JACL. I want to go back to that and can you explain to me how the Spokane JACL chapter was formed, and your, and your role in that?

SK: I believe this occurred in 1940 or '41. No, '41 is Pearl Harbor. So I think it was in 1940 that a few of us got together, usually over the telephone, because I'm on a farm working away and we thought we would like to form a chapter which could eventually become a JACL chapter and affiliated with the national. And we called ourselves the Spokane Japanese American Civic Club, is what I think we called ourselves, which later on became a JACL chapter. And I think I got some background support from Mike, people like Mike Masaoka and Mas Satow, whom I knew. And later on, after I went into the army, sometime during my absence, the name was changed to a JACL chapter, Spokane, and it did become affiliated with the national, which it is today.

TI: But when you got together with sort of the small group to talk about forming the, the Japanese American Civic Club, what were some of the reasons? Why did you feel it was a good idea to form this club at this point?

SK: I think mainly because of the influence of the Yakima Valley JACL. See, Yakima Valley, especially Wapato, and some of the Spokane Nisei are tied in together through intermarriages. Like my brother is married to a girl from Sunnyside whose brother used to play on the Wapato Nippons, and my brother himself used to play for the Wapato Nippons. Several fellows who are currently living and still surviving in Spokane, are from Wapato area. And they had a very thriving JACL chapter there. And in fact, one of the former, two of the former presidents are still residing in Spokane, in Harry Honda and Roy Nishimura, that I know of. So, in those days before World War II, I thought, "How come there is no chap-, no chapter here in Spokane?" We participate in a annual baseball tournament that's held in Seattle during the Fourth of July tournaments. We go in Wapato whenever they have a function, like in the Young People's Christian conference, we participate, and they come over to Spokane and so forth, so there's lots of intermingling of the young people who should have a chapter. So some of us agreed and we formed it.

JA: So the Japanese American Citizens League was largely based on athletic and social ties? Is that correct?

SK: To the best of my knowledge and the, and the fact that there was no organization as such to speak for us. And I conferred with this Judge Kelly and he thought that was an excellent idea and so subsequently, after we formed it, he became our advisor.

TI: And what kind of advice did Judge Kelly give you? When he thought it was a good idea, did he have some thoughts as to what the, your group should be doing or thinking about?

SK: Well, the fact that it is for the enhancement of American ideals. The fact that we believed in the Constitution and all the goodies, and like after I got into the army, whenever I came back to Spokane, I always visited Judge Kelly and he would stop all proceedings in the courthouse and put his arms around me and introduce me to everybody in the room. He was very proud of me, especially after I became a commissioned officer, oh, he thought, he thought the world of, of me.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.