<Begin Segment 11>

YB: But he found that I had organized a citizens group already, but we hurriedly changed it to JACL, the same group.

TL: But you had formed a...

YB: A citizens group already.

TL: And this was without knowledge at all of this other development?

YB: Yes, uh-huh. And then I learned of this other group and I thought; well he's coming, so we'll see what happens. And so we just made that change from one group to the other, changed the name.

TL: Who were some of the people that you worked with to form that group?

YB: Our church group. Goodness.

TL: It kind of came out of the church group?

YB: More or less. Some of them are gone. They're all gone. Every one of them are gone.

TL: Were they, were they people that... I haven't actually asked --

YB: Buddhist church --

TL: Okay, uh-huh.

YB: Christian church, they were mixed groups.

TL: Uh-huh.

YB: And I'd go to... they'd even have Christmas service over at the Buddhist church. They'd say, "Yone, come over to the Christmas service, bring your children over." They'd come over to my church. So we were on the same block, we didn't know which was Christian and which was Buddhist. We mingled very well together.

TL: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

YB: It was a small... community of Japanese. So, we knew each other very much... closely. And then the American churches would come and help us organize. Which I originally attended, which was the Presbyterian Church and the Japanese was Congregation. But that made no difference, they would come and help us.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.