<Begin Segment 15>

JS: So the people in Isleton that you were, you socialized with were mostly Japanese, and did most of the people from Isleton go to Tule Lake?

BK: Yes.

JS: And then to Jerome if they... segregation, do you know?

BK: No. After Tule Lake, I didn't know where most of my friends went to. Some went to Amache, some went to Jerome. And then from Jerome, I think a lot of my friends went to Seabrook Farms.

JS: To work there?

BK: To work, yeah.

JS: So when... but now, do you keep in touch with some of the Isleton friends, you reconnected?

BK: Yeah. There's about, yeah, thirteen of us that meet for lunch. Well, see, like last time, I said, "Let's have lunch." We better hurry up because one of our group persons, she has cancer that's inoperable. And so I said we should have one before she gets worse. And, see, if I don't do it, nobody does. And I haven't been that well either, so it's been kind of hard.

JS: So you've been planning these luncheons with your friends, but you also had a reunion that you planned, the Isleton people from the Japanese side?

BK: The reunions were good because they came from all over. I mean, I was surprised when people from Chicago came, Florida... yeah. And then when I said it was the last one, we had people from Ohio. But you know, when you don't see each other for fifty years or sixty years, you don't know what they're like. I mean, there's not too much to talk about.

JS: So how many of those large reunions have you had? Would you meet every year or...

BK: We used to meet every year until... when was the last one? [Laughs]

JS: You said the first one was 1979, and then you would meet every year...

BK: For twenty-five years.

JS: And you would meet, where would you meet, have the reunions?

BK: Huh?

JS: You would have them in different places, in different towns?

BK: Well, we used to have it here in Sacramento, 'cause it's kind of, more people live in Sacramento area than anyplace else. We've had it in Los Angeles, we've had it in Benicia, we've had it in San Jose. So we just said, I just said, "I don't have to do this every year." I said, "If you want to have it, you have it in your town." So I don't have to, all I can do is be a guest. [Laughs]

JS: And so the people from Isleton would come and their spouses.

BK: Yeah.

JS: Did you ever have a, would you invite your family, too, your kids?

BK: Yeah, but then the kids don't want to come. (Narr. note: One year my second daughter and one of my nephew and niece came.)

JS: What would you do at the reunion? You would have a --

BK: Just talk (and entertainment by the Isseis and Niseis).

JS: Talk?

BK: Yeah, just talk. Because some of 'em haven't seen each other, oh, even once a year, you know.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.