<Begin Segment 14>

RB: Do you remember when you first heard about Shofuso and perhaps when you first visited here?

PU: Yeah, I don't really remember when I first came here. I mostly remember the wedding, but he knew that he was involved. And I know some of the other Nisei that we knew were also involved in the Japanese House. But the details before the wedding, lost to the fog of time. [Laughs]

RB: So your parents didn't talk too much about the work that they were doing here?

PU: I don't think so, I don't think so.

RB: From your perspective, I guess if you have a hard time remembering that, if you can't answer this, but did you see this as a Japanese American community space, and was it more of a space to teach Japanese culture to non-Japanese folks or something different?

PU: Hmm. I mean, it's funny when you put it that way because I think one of the things when you say "community space" that's kind of characteristic of the JA population outside of the West Coast, they don't necessarily have any community space. I mean, there were exceptions, like I feel like a place like Chicago, that there was this geographic physical community. But I don't think that ever really existed. So you could look at this as being kind of a symbolic place that connects to Japan and has ties to the community and so on, but it's not like we would come here to have meetings or come here to have family gatherings or anything like that, it wasn't that kind of space. So it was kind of different. But I know that my family and some of the other families did have that connection and didn't see the importance of protecting the space and building space and so on.

RB: Do you recall when your parents stopped being as involved in this space and what the instigation for that may have been?

PU: No.

RB: I know that in the previous conversation, you told me that your mom, and possibly yourself, were members of the Japan-America Society board.

PU: Right.

RB: And I'm wondering if you have any additional details that you'd be able to share?

PU: [Laughs] No, I can't say I do. I'm sure she's the one that somehow got me on that board. I was probably not a very productive board member there. There was a period of life when we had the kids and they were, especially when they were younger, that wasn't a whole lot of time to do activities and stuff that was a significant investment of time.

RB: Do you have any guess as to why she would have wanted to be involved with the Japan-America Society?

PU: She was more of a, kind of a strategic person, so I could see her seeing a benefit of having these ties to a more kind of corporate centered group. I think because of, especially because of the work she did on redress, that she was much more conscious of the value of having different organizational and social relationships and how that could relate to advocacy and just helping to get things done where you need to collaborate with other people and organizations.

RB: I think that sums up those questions.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.