<Begin Segment 15>

RP: And then you also mentioned this community hall where --

VI: Nippon Kan, right.

RP: -- social events took place.

VI: Right.

RP: Can you recall any events that you attended with your family?

VI: Well, they had the judo tournaments there, they had the kendo tournaments, they had plays there. And it was kind of funny, a lot of activity went on there, so the younger kids wrote their name on the walls, and this was way back. My sister had her name on there, and this was what, seventy years ago or so. That's the first graffiti, I guess. [Laughs] And what they did is they preserved the wall.

RP: They did?

VI: Yeah.

RP: Is the building still there?

VI: The building is still there, right.

RP: And so is the graffiti.

VI: Now, they don't use it as much as they used to because there's not that many Japanese activities in town anymore. In fact, you don't really have a Japantown in Seattle.

RP: I was going to ask you about that.

VI: Yeah. No.

RP: How much has it changed?

VI: Yeah, it's really changed.

RP: I imagine.

VI: And it's funny, you can see this happening. What's happening is the Vietnamese are at the place where our parents were, what, eighty years ago? They come and a lot of 'em can't speak English so they have to do the little restaurants, the little markets, the communities. They raise their kids bilingually, they're going to public school, they're learning English. And you can see this thing really developing. And of course, it's developing where like Japantown used to be or around that area. And when you look at it, it's really kind of reminiscent of what it used to be, a little bit in a modern sense, but...

RP: Yeah, because you're kind of outside looking in at it.

VI: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

RP: Before you were kind of right involved with it.

VI: Yeah, yeah. See, like if you look at the, who owns like the dry cleaning shops, the Koreans did that. You don't have to really speak English that well to run a... the Japanese used to run hotels. You didn't have to speak that kind of... so you get into occupations where the language is not that much, that important. And you can see that right now.

RP: Through the different cultural groups.

VI: Right, right.

RP: You were talking about the events at the community hall. Did your parents drag you to traditional Japanese events like kabuki theater?

VI: Well, they had theater but --

RP: Movies, Japanese movies?

VI: Whether we got dragged or not we went, I don't remember. But we used to go down there quite often.

RP: Quite often.

VI: Yeah. In fact, in fact, that was the community center so everything happened around there.

RP: I know your dad, it sounds like he was really busy working in a restaurant, but...

VI: Yeah.

RP: ...and the hotel as well. But did he get involved with the community in terms of joining organizations like Japan organizations?

VI: Not as, no, not as much. I think he was too busy working. And he wasn't very political so that when they had the, right after Pearl Harbor where they rounded up all the people, he didn't get rounded up so he didn't belong to or subscribe to things that the FBI thought was subversive or radical.

RP: Yeah, in some cases it helped to be just a common worker. Because at least you stayed with your family.

VI: Right.

RP: You didn't get separated and cause another sort of trauma as well.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.