Densho Digital Archive - Kiyo Maruyama Interview (denshovh-mkiyo

<Begin Segment 31>

MN: I wanted to ask you also about the Japanese American Optimist Club because you're a charter member. Can you share with us how that started?

KM: Okay. There was two guys, Bunji Hamanaka... anyway, there's two guys in the Highland Park Optimist Club that thought there was a need in J-town for some organization to take over some of their activities. So at that time, I think the Optimist Club and every other, Kiwanis, and they were looking for new clubs and new members. So it was the right time for, I guess, all those organizations to try to create new clubs. So, but anyway, these two guys came down to J-town and got some, few of the J-town people interested in it, and then it ballooned out to about, they recruited about a hundred potential members, and so we formed the Japanese American Optimist Club.

MN: What year did you form?

KM: What year? 1954.

[Interruption]

MN: Can you tell me what the mission of the Optimist Club is?

KM: Well the mission is, our motto at that time is "Friend of Boys." But since, oh, a few years back we had to change the name to "Friend of Youth," because it excluded women, girls. But now it's called... but at that time, it was strictly, we did mostly our boy's work with fellows. And then I think when we changed from, when the CYC was formed, because the Optimists couldn't handle it, it was getting too big, the clubs decided to start a program for the girls. So we're still running that girls club.

MN: So when you say CYC, you're talking about the Community Youth Council.

KM: Right.

MN: So the Optimist Club, what sort of sports programs did you sponsor?

KM: Oh, we were on our own, we used to have baseball, basketball, we used to have swim meets. I remember when I was president we had that cross country run in Griffith Park. And I think we were, we had a marathon one time. In fact, before the L.A. even thought about having a marathon, we had one. So we had various programs that didn't continue, but maybe one or two years and then it was abandoned. Too much work, or it cost too much money.

MN: It does sound like you had a big sports program.

KM: Yeah, very big. And then we had like a baseball, we used to have the top team play the top team of the northern California. 'Cause at the same time that the Japanese American Optimist Club was formed, they had a Japanese club formed in San Francisco called Japanese American Optimist Club of San Francisco. But the name of Japanese American was not, or ethnic group type of organizations were sort of not very kosher with the Optimists International. But our club decided that we're unique, and if they didn't want to have the Japanese American Optimists be called that, well, they could shove it or we could go, go in another club. But they, since we were a very strong club, it was more or less okay or not okay, but allowed us to keep our Japanese American Optimist Club of Los Angeles name. But San Francisco changed their name to Golden Gate Optimists. And so they sort of relinquished their rights to that, I guess.

MN: Now in addition to putting on a lot of programs for the boys, you were, the club was also very active with the Nisei Week.

KM: Yeah. In fact, we used to run the Nisei Week coronation ball, and the parade, and the carnival at one time. But...

MN: It's a lot of work.

KM: Lot of work.

MN: Other than that, the Japanese American Optimist Club, were there other activities that you liked to share with us?

KM: Well, I mean, they had their regular, the international had their regular programs, oratorical contest, essay contest and stuff like that. Golf, we had junior golf, stuff like that. So we participated in those, but we didn't get to, we didn't have the publicity or make the publicity on that kind of subject 'cause it was all geared to the international.