<Begin Segment 9>

DG: You said there was quite a community of Japanese.

TS: Uh, there was. And there was church, JACL and the JACL national headquarters was located in Salt Lake City at that time too.

DG: And so was JACL active then?

TS: There was a local chapter that was active and also the National Headquarters was very active. And there's a local Japanese community church. I think the minister of that church at that time was a Presbyterian Minister, but it was a community church.

DG: Did you, did you find any problems being Japanese?

KS: No, no, they... Utah is a Mormon country and the Mormons are very, very friendly and we were welcomed with open arms. I can't say enough about the wonderful friends that we made in Salt Lake City. We made both Japanese and Caucasian friends and one of the very good friends that we made there were Doctor and Helen Kurumada and they were (a) very unusual couple that lived in Salt Lake City. They were very active in the Junior Chamber of Commerce and he belonged to a golf club and several other community things. So they, they introduced us to this world of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, a service group and it was in the Salt Lake City proper. It was not just among the Japanese people.

DG: Now he was a, was he a medical doctor?

KS: He was a dentist.

DG: And he had his practice established there?

KS: He was in Salt Lake City.

DG: Before the war.

KS: Yes.

TS: Yeah, he's native.

KS: Yes, he lived there. He had his practice there for quite a long time and I mentioned this Junior Chamber of Commerce. I think Toru belonged to it. He didn't have too much time to be active himself. I think he went to meetings and things, but the women had a very strong auxiliary that had meetings every single month and they took on many different kind of service projects in the city and it was an altogether new life for me.

DG: Well, like what kind of service projects?

KS: Umm, it was in, they had a daycare that they used to go and, and make little clothes for the children. They had...

DG: These are hakujin people?

KS: These are all hakujin people and they would have bake sales and things like that. Since I had a little boy of my own, I didn't have too much time to do that kind of thing, but I, I was telling the ladies that you know, what you don't have, and I'm a new member, so I would be happy to work on it, is a roster. And so this, "Well yeah, Kiyo, you could just take care of the roster." So, I became active right away. I didn't type myself, just only barely, but I was able to put together a roster and have it mimeographed and, and we folded it and stapled it and so it was my introduction to a community service kind of thing. It was new and I enjoyed it and I have to thank the wonderful people in Salt Lake who were friendly and took me in right away and certainly it helped me when I moved to Seattle.

[Interruption]

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