Densho Digital Archive - Alley Watada Interview (denshovh-walley-01-0012)

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RP: Let talk about, while we're on topic of community, how about the Japanese American community in Platteville and Fort Lupton, was it very vibrant, very active, involved group of people getting together and what organizations did people rally around? Was it the Buddhist church or the language school? What brought Japanese Americans together in that?

AW: I would think that, I believe that it was a combination of thing. I think that the first generation had their own organization. They probably called it Japanese Association of Fort Lupton. But as we grew up I think they realized the need that we needed, they wanted us to have, learn the Japanese language. So, Platteville and Fort Lupton got together and at Fort Lupton they had an old public school, I think they must have bought. And we were taught, we went there to learn the language during the summer months and on Saturdays during the winter months. And so we would, everyone would go to school for eight years. And I only went to third year, three years. So, yes, I think that started and I believe that, well, there were both people of, of the Buddhist religion and the Christian religion, of the Japanese ancestry. So, I'm not sure what the people of Japanese ancestry did at the, for Christian religion. But I do know in Fort Lupton they would go to the Methodist church. But in, for the Buddhist church, there were enough of them that before the war, that they were able to get together enough money to build a temple there. And so, it must, it must have been completed around '39, '40, '41. About the time war broke out is when they completed it. And so at that time it was a site of gathering. But going back to the school, this I think was a, more a center point for all of us, both the Christian and the people of Buddhist religion. Because we talk, we talked about history with all of my friends. And they talk about the teachers or the plays that they put together. Plays even where my father... it was not only plays where the students put together, but even the adults. And I remember my father being dressed as a female being in a, in the play. And so I think this is kind of a focal point for all of us. The school, where they taught school, the, the Japanese language there. So, yes, I'm sure that the Buddhist temple brought us together, too, but I would say the focal point I would say more was the school. And of course that, we had to terminate that when the war broke out. So, they, I guess one of the regulation is that we couldn't congregate any at one particular site.

RP: You mentioned that your dad was involved with the Japanese... there was a Japanese Association in Fort Lupton?

AW: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: And what type of roles would they fill in the community? What type of services or aid did they offer that you can recall?

AW: Oh, I'm not sure I could... you know, I don't know whether it's Japanese Association of Fort Lupton or whether Japanese Association of Colorado. I know that there's a Japanese Association of Colorado and I don't know whether the Japanese Association of Fort Lupton was part of the Japanese Association of Colorado. But I do know that they had gatherings and I imagine that -- I'm only speculating -- that they had issues that they need to resolve back in those days and that they would get together and discuss that. I don't know.

RP: There was also, Fort Lupton had its own JACL chapter.

AW: Yes. Fort Lupton has its own JACL and that's kind of vivid for me. I know that Denver had a JACL and Fort Lupton had a JACL. And one of the thing that... when the war started, my father had suggested that, that the money that they had in the treasury be given to the Red Cross and that the physical property goes to organization, they formed a organization called JACL, Japanese American Citizens League. And I don't know enough about it. Whether that was an independent organization or whether they felt that since other people had JACL that they will have JACL. That it, it is independent from the fact that the Fort Lupton JACL has their own number, let me say the federal number for tax exemption and whatnot. And many other chapters rely on the national chapter.