Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Tad Sato Interview
Narrator: Tad Sato
Interviewer: Stephen Fugita
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: August 15, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-stad-01-0009

<Begin Segment 9>

SF: So in terms of, say, sports, did you play baseball, basketball, or...?

TS: Yeah, but I wasn't good enough, so I never tried out for any high school teams or anything. But later on, a lot, some of the Niseis started getting into, and they did pretty well in athletics in high school. But I, I just played within the community. We had our own team and...

SF: Mentioning your own teams, when did the Courier Leagues get cranked up in Seattle? You remem -- was it Jimmy Sakamoto, I guess, someone like that?

TS: Yeah. Well, I really don't know what to say about that. See, it must've been I guess the beginning of my school. I, it was -- started with, I think, Nisei that were maybe couple years older than I. They started it up, and they started a league. And pretty soon, by the time I got involved, there was -- for the men, that is -- there was four, there was a double-A league for the, the older and the better players, and then there was an A and a B and a C. So there was four leagues, and each had maybe eight teams or so. I don't know how many; eight or ten teams.

SF: And you played in the Courier Leagues?

TS: Yeah. You competed within your league.

SF: How were the teams organized? Were they neighborhood-based or just...

TS: Well, some of 'em were neighborhood-based like ours, but then there were others that were group-based, like Waseda and Lotus, which was basically the Buddhist church group, Lotus. And then Waseda, I don't know. I think maybe, I don't know. Somehow, people that lived uptown there.

SF: So as long as you could organize a group of Japanese, then you could sort of apply, become part of a league and...

TS: Yeah. You had to pay. And you had to, they have certain, requirements. I don't know if -- you had to have uniforms. So we'd have to raise our own funds stuff. 'Course, parents didn't have any money.

SF: So how'd you raise your own money for uniforms?

TS: Well, when it came time where we had to have -- well then we had skating parties. Have you heard of them? Well, you'd rent a -- I don't know how, how you call it. You'd have a skating party at a particular skating rink, and you'd go to the Japanese printer and have tickets printed. You'd reserve the place, and then you'd go around selling tickets to, somehow, to as many people as you can.

SF: Who would come to these skating parties, all Niseis?

TS: It was almost all Nisei, yeah. Hundred percent. Dances were the same thing. We'd rent Washington Hall, for example, and arrange with the orchestra. And then we'd do the same, sell tickets. We had the splash party at the YMCA, where, did the same thing.

SF: With the dances, were the bands Japanese, or were they generally white? The bands. Were they...

TS: The bands -- there was one Japanese band, and there was a white band that was a good band, Mad Hatters or whatever. I can't remember. And of course, all the ones that were dancing were Nisei, and mostly the older ones. We were younger. We sponsored the dance but we didn't know how to dance so we'd watch. "Oh, and look at such-and-such dancing with such-and-such."

SF: With regard to the Courier Leagues and the baseball games, did the Issei -- were they interested in those things?

TS: I don't think the Isseis were involved, period. It seems to me, I remember going to, I think it was a Takayoshi, was older Nisei, maybe ten years older than we were, and he's sort of like the commissioner of the thing. And each league would have a meeting. I don't know how they set up the schedule and had to reserve... I remember going up to the park board and reserving fields where -- and the basketball places to play basketball.

SF: So the Courier Leagues were basically a Nisei operation.

TS: Period. Yeah. I don't think the Isseis were involved that I know of. Perhaps they were, but I was not aware of it. All I know is our neighborhood. Isseis were too busy working. And most of 'em had no knowledge of baseball or basketball.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.