<Begin Segment 10>

TI: So let's go back to Salt Lake City, and we're again, we're before the war, how was the Japanese community organized? Was there like a Japanese association or...

JK: Yeah, we had a, we had a Japanese association here. However, Japantown was, well, I'd say it was about a three-, about a three-block area, which is all where the Salt Palace is presently now. There was a town between, between South Temple and Third West, and First, I think and South Temple, between South Temple and about Second South. So it was just a small area there where we had Japanese hotels and Japanese restaurants and various markets, Japanese food markets, fish markets and places where the Japanese, actually, where they maintained all their businesses. Now that's all, that's all been torn down, and it was probably due to the efforts of the Mormon church that they can, took all the property and they built the Salt Palace and they built the big hotels. And so the only thing left of it is the Japanese church and the Buddhist church, and they're across the street from, practically across the street from each other, right on First South. But then that used to be the center of all the Japanese congregation.

TI: So you just mentioned the, the Mormon church. So here you had a Japanese Christian church and Japanese Buddhist church. Did the Mormons ever try to convert Japanese Americans to become Mormons?

JK: Oh, yeah.

TI: And did very many Japanese Americans do that?

JK: Oh, yeah, quite a number.

TI: So talk about, is this before the war, this is happening?

JK: Yeah, well, even after the war.

TI: Let's talk about first before the war. How was the, what was the interactions between...

JK: Well, there weren't, there weren't very many. Before the war there were a few Japanese in the outlying area, not within the, not within the city itself, but in the outlying areas like in, like in Murray, which is a little town, well, I guess it's a township just about ten miles south of there. Then there was Murray, and then in the outlying area, outside of the perimeter of Salt Lake City we had, there were several Japanese that joined the Mormon church.

TI: But was more after the war that more Japanese Americans joined?

JK: Yeah, well, those that, the Japanese that, I'd say that joined the church become quite affluent. In fact, the church was responsible for them becoming quite well-to-do, for that matter, in the line of property and in the line of all the industry that there was provided for the, not only just for the Japanese but then in politics, too.

TI: So it sounds like the church, the LDS church, once people became members, there was, I guess, maybe a network, a business network that would help them succeed?

JK: Yeah.

TI: Okay. You know, I forgot to ask this question. Going back to, sort of, the Japantown before the war, I was curious about the organizations, like a Japanese Association. Was this like Isseis who would kind of network amongst themselves, the businesspeople?

JK: Well, I'm not too familiar with the activities of the, of the Isseis at that time, but then they needed, they had a Japanese Association, just as they had a Chinese Association here, pretty much the same way, although the Chinese group was rather a small group.

TI: How about the Niseis? As they got older, did they start forming organizations or groups?

JK: No, no. The only organization we had was the JACL.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.