<Begin Segment 25>

TI: So I want to now go from Jerome and back to Isleton. When you first went back to Isleton, how much had it changed? Because you had a picture of Isleton before the war, and then everyone, the Japanese left, and then you went back. How had Isleton changed?

BK: Oh, well, we didn't go into town that much because we lived in this camp, another camp. So as far as change goes, I remember my kid brother, they didn't know where to put him because he was Asian and there were no other... so I said, "Well, just put him in with the rest of the students." And I think that's when they...

TI: They integrated the schools?

BK: Yeah. [Laughs]

TI: But when you think about the stores, before, the stores were being run by, the stores that were being run by the Japanese. When you would walk in town, who would be running the stores afterward?

BK: Mostly, most of 'em were boarded up. And the stores that were open were like Filipino. And I think there was a Chinese restaurant.

TI: So it was a combination of some still boarded up and a few of them run by either Chinese or Filipino.

BK: Yeah.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.