<Begin Segment 21>

DG: So about forty students and then you had to organize the social program too?

TS: Yeah. Of course, it's a social program otherwise in conjunction with the Japanese Students' Club which had its president, vice president and officers.

DG: So the club was separate from the house itself?

TS: Yes, and the outside members (of) which we had something like 125 Japanese students so the students who lived in Seattle would come to the house to eat lunch or play poker, or bridge, or pinochle or just hang around. So it was the center of social activities.

DG: Was there any drinks?

TS: Very little, there were some. [Laughs]

DG: But you had some events, too, that you planned. What were those?

TS: We had for the Japanese Students' Club there was an annual homecoming dance and the members would invite members of the Fuyokai group, which was the women's organization, or their own girl friends. We had dance classes and dance mixers.

DG: How often were those?

TS: They were every week.

DG: Who taught these classes?

TS: The older Fuyokai girls would teach us young bucks! [Laughs]

DG: What happened during the summer? Was this house in operation then?

TS: There were just a few that went to summer school and stayed at the house and they took care of the house by themselves.

DG: So who owned the house?

TS: It was a nonprofit corporation called University Students' Club.

DG: Was that separate from the house itself and that other students club that the 100 people belong to?

TS: It had something to do with the house and the Board of Directors were composed of alumni members and officers of the Japanese Students' Club, which formed the governing Board of Directors of the University Students' Club, which owned the clubhouse. This Board set the program for how much to charge each student for rent and what to pay the cook and what to spend for repairs and maintenance of the clubhouse.

DG: So did the students themselves have responsibilities as far as cleaning and...?

TS: The day-to-day cleaning was up to the house members.

DG: And the gardening?

TS: There was very little gardening.

DG: Who washed the windows?

TS: [Laughs] I don't think anybody washed the windows, that I remember!

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.