<Begin Segment 19>

RP: Another organization...

ST: The Japanese American Citizens League?

RP: The Japanese American Citizens League...

ST: Yeah, he was a representative for the Mountain Plains for about five years and that helped a lot.

RP: In what way? What did he do?

ST: He had Mountain Plains area, from Alabama, Arkansas, to Montana and up north, south, the states in between them. So like, Nebraska, Montana, all those states. So he traveled a lot.

RP: And what did he... was he trying to recruit members to the JACL?

ST: Uh-huh, recruit and talk to them and explain to them what the JACL is. Because they were completely ignorant about JACL. And amazingly, many of them joined. Because it pertained to their problems, too.

RP: Right, so many of these folks were farmers in isolated areas and might be dealing with issues of discrimination or prejudice.

ST: That's right. And I think, maybe not all of them, but some of them did have discrimination problems. So I think it helped them to have somebody there to go and talk to the people.

RP: So Roy was kind of like a missionary. That was his --

ST: Yeah, more or less.

RP: -- going on his mission.

ST: That's right. To try to...

RP: Bring some people into the organization.

ST: Inform people that we're just Japanese Americans like anybody else.

RP: He told me that that was very beneficial because occasionally these people would come to Denver and look you up and you were able to...

ST: Uh-huh, yes. Oh, I was busy. Everywhere he visited, they were gonna come to Denver, they would look us up, which was nice. It was a lot of work for me, but it was nice. And I got to meet a lot of people that otherwise I couldn't.

RP: And eventually you got involved in the JACL, too.

ST: Uh-huh, yeah. Therefore I was involved.

RP: What did you do?

ST: Well, I helped him and I, of course, I became a what? A secretary for several years and then I was a membership chair for about eighteen years. I just gave it up last December.

RP: And so you were responsible for increasing membership, too?

ST: Uh-huh. Yeah, at the time I think they had about seventy members. And then when I gave it up I, we had a little over two hundred. Which is fair, could have been more. But, at least I didn't decrease it. And I enjoyed it.

RP: There was, the other organization that was prominent in, in Colorado, was the Japanese Association?

ST: Japanese Association?

RP: And you had a, a role in that as well.

ST: Uh-huh. I think Japanese Association started kind of late, later after the JACL. I think it was probably about twenty years ago. And I was secretary for a while and then I was also membership chair, too. And I gave all that up, too. At my age I thought younger people should take over. [Laughs]

RP: That's always been the issue with those organizations. There're not enough young people.

ST: Yes, uh-huh. And some were receptive but some said, "Why should I join?"

RP: So what would the association do? What was their role or purpose?

ST: It's more of a community thing. Holidays, things like that.

RP: A social...

ST: A social. Tried to get people together. So, I guess I was always interested in being active.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.