<Begin Segment 29>
TI: Now, when you think about Walnut Grove in terms of the number of Japanese that came back, how many people came back to Walnut Grove?
WM: Not too (many).
TI: Like maybe what kind of percentage? Like half or a third?
WM: About a quarter, I think.
TI: A quarter. And so it changed quite a bit, then, because they're...
WM: Yeah, nobody there now.
TI: And in the town, who took the place of the Japanese? So if only a quarter came back, the other houses --
WM: It was open.
TI: Just, but eventually, other people lived in those houses?
WM: Yeah. Somebody come in and buy the house.
TI: And who were they? What kind of, like, race? Where they white, where they....
WM: I can't tell now. Mexican, white or something. See, I don't go Walnut Grove any more. My sister is like me.
TI: So what does that mean, when you say you don't...
WM: She wanted to take everything there, don't take care of us, anything. See, my dad and my mom used to stay there, and kids all grown up, and then want to take care, and I got to take care.
TI: Oh, so when the... yeah, so when your parents got really old, then the Niseis didn't want to take care of them?
WM: Yeah, but my sister-in-law, then they sent to my place.
JS: So your parents stayed with you?
WM: Yeah.
JS: Both of them?
TI: Okay. But staying with Walnut Grove after the war, how about, like, the churches? Like the Methodist church, the Buddhist church, what happened to those places? Did they still continue or did they...
WM: They didn't have that time. After that, war started, and after they come back, the Buddhists got more people, and the Methodists, nobody there.
TI: So then what happened to the Methodist church?
WM: Then they used to have it, and after that, nobody goes, so they used to come down Sacramento.
TI: Okay, so the Methodist church in Walnut Grove. So the building is still there.
WM: Yeah, but no good. All inside, not too good now.
TI: Okay, so it's just deserted now.
WM: I thought they were fixing something over there.
JS: Right.
TI: But then the Buddhist church, you said...
WM: They're going.
TI: It kept going.
WM: They're making money at bazaar, and they ask me to volunteer.
TI: And so do you volunteer? Did you ever volunteer?
WM: Yeah, we used to help shot clock, you know, the thing, we used to make good money for that.
TI: So even though you were Methodist, you went to help the Buddhists.
WM: Yeah. You know Watanabe? He wanted to be boss, he said, "we, we."
JS: He was recruited by Louie.
TI: Yeah, okay.
WM: Janet know.
JS: And Janet, too, huh?
WM: Yeah, Janet knows Louie, too.
TI: Oh, I think that's good, though. I think it's good to keep those things going. How about the Japanese language school? Did that continue after the war?
WM: Yeah, they quit now. Nobody there, so... the farmer used to go Saturday school.
TI: So during the week, the townspeople would go, and then on Saturday...
WM: Farmers.
TI: But then after the war, did anyone go for language school?
WM: No, they didn't have people, they quit already.
TI: So what do they use the building now for?
WM: Social hall.
TI: So a social hall.
WM: And the senior citizen they have every day, they're eating lunch over there.
TI: So a social hall, senior citizen lunch.
WM: And somebody die, you know, for the service, they had to eat over there all the time. The Buddhist church, too small to eat over there.
TI: Now, how does that make you feel? Because you lived in Walnut Grove before the war? And so there were lots of Japanese, it was thriving, lots of activity. And then now after the war, there's nothing...
WM: Nothing going on.
TI: So how does that make you feel?
WM: I don't care. I came to Sacramento.
<End Segment 29> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.