<Begin Segment 30>

MN: Now after you returned to Los Angeles, you became involved with this burial program of the Nisei Veterans. Can you share with us what this program was?

KM: Well, the Nisei Veterans Association was instrumental in, at that particular time, they were bringing back the soldiers, Nisei 442 soldiers that were killed in action in Italy and France and weren't buried in the country. And so the Nisei Veterans were instrumental in the construction of the Sadao Munemori monument and also in the burial program of these deceased soldiers from the late '40s.

MN: And then this Sadao Munemori statue is in Evergreen Cemetery.

KM: Uh-huh.

MN: Did the Nisei Veterans Association become the Go For Broke organization?

KM: No. No, in fact, that Nisei... I don't know what happened to the Nisei Veterans, but I had, I was treasurer for, I don't know, the last ten or twenty years of the existence of the Nisei Veterans. But we had a few dollars and we used to make money on, we used to sponsor the New Year's party at the Royal... something. Oh, Royal Palms Hotel on the west side there near, between Sixth and Seventh or something like that, over there by... what do you call it? MacArthur Park? That area. And anyway, I had some money leftover, so I just wanted to clear it out before I died, and the darn money would end up in somebody's other pocket, so I had to close it out and I gave the money to the Coordinating Council, Veterans Coordinating Council. But, yeah, that Nisei Veterans Association went kaput. Too bad, 'cause they did a lot in that burial program.

MN: How many soldiers do you think the group buried?

KM: Oh, gee, I don't know how many were buried at Evergreen.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.