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TI: Let's, let's talk about right before the war. What can you tell me about the Japanese American community in Spokane? Were there activities that the community did together?

SK: Yes. To the extent that we had our kenjinkai prefectural society. We had our kenjinkai picnics and even that, the so-called bosankai, the memorial day service that we had for our own cemetery plots, always was a combination of not only religious service to honor our deceased, but also a picnic. We, we sat down right among all those stones and, and had a small picnic. Very closely-knit. And the fact that I think a lot of the citizens came from either Okayama or Hiroshima, outlying or connecting prefectures around Okayama. Okayama was a very predominant prefecture. When somebody gets located and gets a job, he writes to his relative also in Okayama and says, "Come on over, we got a job for you, or you can live here or, or whatever." So they looked out after each other and, of course, that spread.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.