<Begin Segment 32>

TI: And so during this time, you lived in Sacramento all this time? Or where did you live when you came back?

WM: Northgate, Sacramento.

TI: And how do you stay in touch with the Japanese community now? Do you, are you part of, like, the Methodist church in Sacramento?

WM: VFW and Boy (Scouts). I still help in Boy (Scouts).

TI: Oh. So the VFW, the Veterans of Foreign War, so it's a veteran's group, and then the Boy Scouts, so how do you stay involved with the Boy Scouts?

WM: Because VFW supports the Boy Scouts. They put me to take care of the Boy Scouts. Can't win.

TI: So are you like a scoutmaster?

WM: No. Everything, they want something from VFW, I got to tell 'em, and the Boy Scouts want something, I got to tell the VFW. For how many year, I do it for them.

TI: And the Boy Scout troop, is this a Japanese American Boy Scout...

WM: Yeah, but now, Boy Scout, you know, parents, Sansei, they don't want to take care of the Cub Scouts. The VFW say, support it, they don't want to do it. You've got to have Cub Scouts to come up. Every time they don't have it, so all the Mexican people want to join the VFW, Boy Scouts.

TI: And so what do you think is gonna happen to the Boy Scout troop in the future? I mean, so...

WM: It'll go down. And the VFW going down, so the more, pretty soon.

TI: How about other organizations you're involved in, anything else? So VFW, Boy Scouts, any other?

WM: Church. Every, tomorrow I got to go help clean the, maintenance job over there.

TI: And what church is this?

WM: Methodist church, Sacramento.

TI: So the Sacramento Methodist church. And tell me how that's been changing over time. I mean, so you're talking about the VFW, the Boy Scouts, how that's kind of coming down. What about the...

WM: Methodist church, to fix the gymnasium, they want money, donate, donate.

TI: So they built a new gymnasium, so they had fundraising and they asked for people. But in terms of the number of people at the Methodist church, is that about the same?

WM: No, going down.

TI: It's going down?

WM: Nisei gone, Sansei don't come. Only Sansei want to play basketball, young kid. And they got to come half time, church, after that, they don't come to church. It's bad.

TI: So what do you think's going to happen to the Methodist church in the future over time? What's going to happen?

WM: Then I'll be dead. [Laughs]

TI: Any other organizations? So church, VFW, Boy Scouts, any other --

WM: That's good enough. I got Kuramoto (Kenjin-kai), I got to help all the time, too. He (is a member of the Kuramoto Kenjin-kai, Gene Itogawa).

TI: And so tell me about that. How big is the group, Kumamoto?

WM: Small now. Everybody died, nobody want to join.

TI: So Sanseis aren't...

WM: No. See, we used to have picnic and everything, now, down, down now.

TI: And so what do you think's going to happen to the Kumamoto-ken group?

WM: At the Buddhist church, we have meeting once a year.

TI: But you think that's also going to...

WM: That's less.

TI: Less and less. And what about Walnut Grove? People interested in Walnut Grove Japanese, what's going to happen there?

WM: Pretty soon like this, too.

TI: Now when you think about that, all these Japanese organizations going down, how does that make you think?

WM: Can't do nothing.

TI: Is it okay, is it sad?

WM: Sad, but you know...

<End Segment 32> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.