<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So how did you get the job at the Japanese American Courier?

HH: Well, Japanese American Courier was started by James Sakamoto, who was kind of a, he attended Franklin High School in Seattle. And he was more of an athlete, he was, I think, on the football team. And then after he graduated from Franklin High School, he, I think, went on to be a fighter, boxer, and he even boxed in Madison Square Garden and all that. But he got injured, his eyes, and became blind. So he came back in 1928 and started this Japanese American Courier, which was all-English, for the younger people. We did have two Japanese-language dailies, but the Courier was a weekly, but it was all in English. So they, and then they also had sports, I think one of the, at that time, around that time, even 1936 and such, before that, 1928 when it started, they had, he started the Courier League, both in football, basketball, those were the two main sports. And baseball, three. Baseball was very popular. And so he organized the league, and being the sports editor, I had to be the, more or less a league secretary.

TI: Well, so let me, so the Courier League started when the, it sounds like, when the newspaper started, around '28 or so?

HH: 1928, yes.

TI: How far did the Courier League extend? Like when you were in Tacoma, were you familiar with the Courier League?

HH: Yes. Buddhist Church, Tacoma Buddhist Church had a team, baseball team, and also basketball team, so they had different class age-wise and such, A-League and eventually became AA and League B and C. And C was the youngest.

TI: So you had the Tacoma teams playing the Seattle teams.

HH: Yes.

TI: And were there other communities?

HH: Yes, all the community like Fife, Sumner, Auburn, Kent, Bellevue, even a team from, in those days they had Green River, Green Lake, I mean, area. Green Lake area had a little Japanese community there and they had a team, a baseball team and a basketball team, and then also Winslow. So they had teams from all over, and also even up to Eatonville and... anyway, it was a lumber town like Enumclaw.

TI: So these teams, back then it probably wasn't that easy, but the teams would travel to those different communities and have these games and play.

HH: Yes. So travel was usually the coach who would have a little pickup or truck, and we would sit in the back, all the way from Tacoma to Seattle. And many times we had problems with the flooded areas, even the gyms down in the White River area, in a then place called Thomas, they had a school there, they had a Japanese school there also, and they had a grade school. And sometimes it would be flooded on one corner during the basketball season.

TI: So this league really connected communities together?

HH: Yes, yes.

TI: More than any other thing, I'm thinking especially amongst the Niseis, that you knew other athletes throughout the Puget Sound area.

HH: Yes.

TI: That's interesting. And so when you went to Seattle, you were hired as the sports editor, and one of the jobs was also to coordinate this league.

HH: Yes, schedule-wise and getting the field if it was baseball and such.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.