<Begin Segment 9>

DG: And I notice that in the minutes they talk about different issues, and so I'm going to go through these issues one at a time, and maybe you can comment on them.

NS: Okay.

DG: Okay, one was caring for the aging and elderly.

NS: Uh-huh. Yes. You mean of Japanese?

DG: Well, probably, influx of people in general. And then among them were a lot of aged.

NS: Yes. Well, people were getting older. After all, they came to Seattle in their middle age, and then had their work and their children and their families and decided to stay in Seattle. There was a lot of people who came to Seattle in the early stages, of early 1900s, who made their money and went back to Japan. But the people caught in evacuation were the people who selected to stay in the Seattle area and make their homes and livelihood in the Seattle area and didn't have any hopes of going back to Japan to live. And so Spokane, being close and a step outside where there were -- and more of a urban place -- a lot of them who were farmers went to Ontario and Oregon, and that area. But people who lived in the cities would rather go to the cities; and, therefore, they went to Spokane and found some jobs. But if they didn't, why, they found temporary work someplace.

DG: So housing became a problem?

NS: It was a problem then.

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