<Begin Segment 6>

SF: Do you think that it may have -- expanding on that idea about, sort of the community getting larger and people knowing people living in other areas, that when evacuation came that that might have been helpful in the sense that you knew more people from different areas, and when you went to Minidoka or Puyallup or some, something --

CK: Yeah. It, it must've helped. Right.

YM: Well, they had sports groups, you fellas...

CK: Right.

YM: With juudou and baseball and basketball. They used to have people from Auburn and Kent and -- where else?

TS: Fife and...

YM: Fife.

TS: Tacoma.

YM: Tacoma. And so we knew, mostly the fellows knew peop -- the people from the country or they got to know them.

SF: How did, how were those baseball leagues organized? I mean, who, were the Issei kinda critical in that? And how did -- who set up the schedule, and how did people raise money for uniforms, and all of that?

CK: I think it was started with Jimmy Sakamoto, wasn't it?

TS: He was --

YM: I think...

TS: Courier League, yeah.

CK: Courier League.

YM: But there must've been more leagues...

TS: Takayoshis?

YM: Yeah.

CK: Right. The Takayoshi, [inaudible] and --

YM: Before, before 'cause I have pictures of way back.

CK: Oh, yeah? Well, anyway, one of the most instrumental of forming of athletic leagues for the Nisei was this Jimmy Sakamoto. He was a, more or less a...

YM: Journalist.

CK: Blind editor of the Courier, a newspaper written in English here in Seattle.

YM: This was before the war.

CK: Yeah. And he started up all these teams under the Courier League, and there were class -- was

there a double-A?

TS: Double-A, A, B, C.

CK: Double-A, B, and C.

TS: Yeah.

CK: And people of different abilities were classified into these different areas. And then they used to compete against each other.

YM: They had girls' basketball teams, too.

CK: Yeah.

YM: And --

SF: That was part of the Courier Leagues, too?

YM: Uh-huh.

CK: Yeah.

YM: Yes, that was.

SF: And these, the players were all Nihonjins, huh, or Japanese.

CK: Yeah, basically. There were some...

YM: They --

CK: Chinese that started to...

TS: Yeah.

CK: Sift in there. But...

TS: Willie Chin was one.

CK: Yeah. And they may have had one or two hakujins, but...

YM: Well --

CK: But they weren't that restrictive. But it's just that other minorities didn't seem to want to --

TS: Well, they didn't live in the area.

CK: Well --

TS: Basically.

CK: They didn't have to live in the area, because there were, from Green Lake and all over the place.

TS: Well, Green Lake had their own team.

CK: Yeah, right. But the thing is that during the league --

TS: Yeah.

CK: See. And --

YM: We had Reverend Andrew's daughters.

CK: Yeah. So --

YM: Played with them.

CK: There was --

YM: Against them.

CK: A sampling of hakujins and Chinese in there.

YM: Various churches sponsored their...

CK: Yeah.

YM: Basketball teams, baseball teams, also.

CK: Churches, and also businesses, right?

SF: So if a business, for example sponsored a team, they would kick in for uniforms or, something like that?

CK: Yeah. That's about it. Yeah. Then they'd have a banquet after the end of the season for the players.

TS: But then there was groups like Taiyo that --

CK: Taiyo Club?

TS: Yeah. They were not church-oriented, were they?

CK: No. They were not.

TS: Athletic.

CK: Gambling club.

TS: Gambling club?

CK: That's -- yeah. I mean, it ended up as a gambling club, but it was a social club. And I guess they'd make enough monies to just sponsor teams.

TS: Yeah. Taiyo, and there was...

CK: Yeah.

TS: Waseda.

CK: Waseda, yeah.

SF: You mentioned that there were a few non-Japanese ball players that -- was there any, ever, any stink about, oh, picking a really good white, big, tall pitcher because, and they're -- and he would be kind of a ringer. And that, so the people were saying --

TS: Oh, Johnson.

SF: He was, he was kind of like a superstar, so they, people wanted him so they could make the team strong?

TS: I don't think no, anyone...

CK: I don't think --

TS: Ever did that.

CK: Yeah.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.