Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Bob Y. Sakata Interview
Narrator: Bob Y. Sakata
Interviewer: Daryl Maeda
Location: Denver, Colorado
Date: May 14, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-sbob-01-0017

<Begin Segment 17>

DM: How tightly connected were the different Japanese American communities in Colorado to each other?

BS: Very competitive. But when the chips were down, everybody had to work together. [Laughs] The Mile-High JACL was the big organization, and I couldn't convince the Brighton JAA to become a JACL. There was a Fort Lupton JACL, and every community had a local JACL organization. And very competitive, but always working together.

DM: So what all communities can you think of in Colorado that have a significant Japanese American community?

BS: Let's see. There, let's start off with way up north. Why, in Sedgwick County, there was a cluster of Japanese where, and all became leaders, too, all in agriculture. And then if you came down on Highway 76, then there would be Fort Morgan, Colorado. And then, then you go on Highway 85 up north, then you skip... oh, yeah, Highway 85, then you would hit Greeley. In Greeley there was a big Japanese community, I think there was a JACL in Greeley. And then it went all the way down to Fort Lupton and Platteville, and then to Brighton. And then when you went on I-25, it's strange, there wasn't one in Fort Collins or Loveland or -- oh yes, there was one in Longmont, the Kanemoto family. And that's where a very well-known Mayeda family were leaders there. And that's where a big farm called Tanaka Farms were from the Longmont area, but they, they do not exist anymore. They had some tough times.

DM: What about further out from the front range where, are there Japanese Americans in other parts of the state?

BS: Oh, yes. And in, then you go further south, and a big congregation and well-known Japanese were in Rocky Ford and Lamar and La Junta. And they were all agriculture, and they were known for really growing cantaloupes, melons. And then you went to the San Luis Valley, which is the Blanca area. There were several well-known Japanese families in that area, and the Blanca and the San Luis Valley, and then even in Grand Junction. So in the state of Colorado, the Isseis and the Niseis really made a, made a great economic contribution in agriculture.

DM: So it's fair to say that outside of Denver, all of these other communities were primarily, including Brighton, were primarily agricultural?

BS: Yes, yes. And it's amazing where it is today, almost zero in agriculture. They all became professional men and very few stayed on the farm.

DM: Why do you think that is?

BS: Well, it's a change. Let me just put it to you this way on statistics. Okay, when, when the Sakatas started the farm way back in 1944, '45, twenty-seven percent of the American public were farmers to produce food for the other seventy-three percent. Today, there is less than two percent of the public that are engaged in farming, and the most impressive, dramatic thing is two-tenths of one percent of that two percent, two-tenths of one percent produces over eighty percent of the food. So, so I can't, I cannot use the remark that it was too much hard work and so forth so they left the farm, it's just the change that has come about in society. And it is very fortunate that many of the farm kids did broaden their scope or their vision into other professional life.

DM: Yeah, there would have been no place for them had they wanted to stay on the farms.

BS: That's right.

DM: So in the early years, getting back to Brighton in particular, you had mentioned the Brighton JA Association and the Buddhist Temple, what other organizations did you belong to in those early postwar years?

BS: Well, I was sought out to be members of the... in the chamber of commerce, and also at that time, for the younger men, there was what you called the junior chamber of commerce. And we had a very active group, and I was heavily involved in the junior chamber of commerce. Let's see... but you were able to join even at that time, now, the organizations that did not allow any Japanese Americans were the Elks. Now, every organization.

DM: But back in the '50s, the Elks would not admit Japanese Americans?

BS: No, no. Elks, the Rotarians... but today, we're all sought out.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.