<Begin Segment 15>

DG: So did you belong to one of the clubs, then?

BU: No. I was batboy for the Wapato Taiyo club.

DG: Back when you were...

BU: Back when, yeah. All during the time I was there.

DG: But you did play baseball and what was that?

BU: I played baseball in the Courier League, the Waseda Club.

DG: The Waseda?

BU: The Waseda Marmot. Marmot was just the name of our individual team.

DG: Before we forget, tell us about Mr. Yano.

BU: Oh, I joined the baseball team in 1932 and that was right after the Depression, and most families didn't have any money. So we were no different. We didn't have any money so they couldn't buy uniform for us. I was lucky to get a glove. I got a glove because I went into the dentist and for doing that I got a glove.

DG: I don't understand. Why would you get a glove?

BU: Because you didn't like dentist and you raise hell, so, therefore, you got a, you got a --

DG: You were a regular manipulator. [Laughs]

BU: I got a baseball glove in order to satisfy by having to sacrifice going to the dentist. But, anyway, so that... that was a --

DG: Well, so Mr. Yano, now.

BU: Mr. Yano, Mr. Yano knew that the whole team, the twenty-five, about twenty-five of us, knew that we didn't have...

DG: Now, what did he do?

BU: What he did, he went and put up money as well as to get other people to donate money so that one Sunday there was twenty-five boxes and we, each of us got a box. He knew how big you are, you are seven years or six years or so, so that we each got one that we can wear, and then we got a tennis shoe. So Mr. Yano, Yano give this because he was also baseball fan, too, but more than that, he wanted the Sanseis or us guys that were playing, play equal with the hakujin guys. He didn't want us to look shabby playing in the hakujin place and then playing a hakujin team. So I think it was pride more than almost anything else that made him do it, but also he knew that the rest of the, rest of the group were not as well-off as he is. He had just right around the corner here, he had a butcher shop and so that's the way it was. He was a good man.

DG: Well, a lot of Isseis had a lot of community-minded spirit.

BU: Yeah, all of them did. That's why they --

DG: Does that come from Japan or...

BU: Huh?

DG: Does that come from Japan?

BU: I'm not so sure. I think it was because here in this country they all got together because they're lonely. Like say, they had undokai, athletic event, and picnic up at Jefferson Golf, up there, up at Jefferson Golf Course. That was well-attended. The whole town attended that and they all looked forward to it every year. We did. And it was fun. But also in fun and everything else, but it also brought the community together that's why that Courier League worked so well because you already have, have something together.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.