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JS: So the Hood River, Hood River was so bad after the war that a lot of people, they wouldn't, they didn't want the Japanese trade. So the first people who came back, out of camps, came back to Hood River, went to the Dalles and traded. They used to buy their cars there and they'd go to Dalles to buy their groceries, where they were welcomed. See, what, and one of the really bad things that happened in Hood River was this Reverend Burgoyne of the First Methodist Church really stuck up for the Japanese people and they ran him out of the church, as I understand it. Now, I'm not sure of this. My wife and I were married by Reverend Andrews of Japanese First Baptist Church in Seattle. Reverend Andrews, I don't know if he was with the First Japanese Baptist Church before the war, but evacuation time came, he left Seattle. They went to Twin Falls so they could be near, so he could pastor to the people up at Hunt. Things became so difficult for his wife that they separated, in Twin Falls. They weren't always this good, you know. They were pretty bad, in fact, so all the people in Twin Falls, they didn't want 'em in town. They wanted 'em out in the country to pick potatoes and top sugar beets and things like that. Anyway, this is something that just came out just recently, and I didn't, had I known this was, this man had, his son talked at this reunion up there in SeaTac, and we heard from other folks that went there. One of 'em said it was noisy at that gathering, and oldtimers want to talk to each other, but when Reverend Andrews' son started talking, why, just, you could hear a pin drop, I guess. But, so I'm going into post-war activities now. Is that alright with you? I didn't know where you were trying to lead me. [Laughs]

AC: Just keep goin'.

JS: I came home and joined the American Legion first, and then I also applied to get in the Lions Club. And it was kind of interesting because the president of the Lions Club was a friend of mine. He was a tractor dealer here whom we had dealt with since before the war. And they, he was gonna get me in, but he says, "I'm not, I got to wait 'til, there's certain guys that are going to vote against you." Now, this is not normal policy in the Lions. When the board of directors approves of you, or some committee, you don't have to go have your name bounced around by the whole... as opposed to fraternal organizations where one blackball and you don't make it. But anyway, the same kind of situation was going on in the Lions Club. And so the people on the, they didn't want the board members to vote against me, so they kind of watched it, when he was gonna be out of town, certain board member was gonna be out of town, and they worked it out. I was the first Nisei member of the Lions Club, too, here. And I had a good experience with them. I wasn't involved in leadership -- like in the American Legion, why, I went through chairs and became Commander of the Post -- but Lions Club I deliberately, it was noon hour, noontime organization, hard to get, make all the meetings and activities. A farm boy trying to belong to city organizations has a tough time, 'cause most of the things, the rules of meeting times and everything are governed by the people in town. Now, there's some groups that, because they have enough people who can't make a lunch meeting, they'll have evening meetings. That's up to them, what they want to do. But anyway, I belonged to Lions Club, and that's the one organization where I didn't occupy any chairs. I've served on committees, but... I joined the First Baptist Church while I was in service in Fort Harrison, Indiana, the First Baptist Church in Indianapolis, and so when I came back here, why, I asked to transfer by letter to the First Baptist Church in Ontario. And after my wife and I were married, she went forward and she joined, she joined up. She and I have been members of First Baptist Church most of our married lives.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.