<Begin Segment 17>

TI: How about organized, you mentioned baseball, but were there organized sports like judo, kendo?

LW: Yeah, they had judo, kendo, sumo, everything. It's like a club, like. That's for the older people. Sumo was very popular. You know where the church was? On the next, to the left, on the empty lot, that used to be a sumo place there. You know how they build up the mound, they knocked that out. But it used to be, before the war, used to be competitions like baseball, you know. Each town got sumo wrestlers, they're competing each other for prizes, you know. And most of the town, farmers are the one that, they're big and strong, so they used to beat the city folks. But Sacramento had one, and L.A., Walnut Grove, Courtland, they all had one, Lodi, Stockton. That was one of the sport that Nisei had. That's the older group. Not the younger group, but the older group.

TI: And so describe, you mentioned kind of the place where they would do the tournaments. How many people would show up at a tournament?

LW: Well, they got good turnout.

TI: Like...

LW: From, it's, come from all over the country, like Sacramento, Stockton, they all come in for that tournament. They're competing each other.

TI: So would there be, like, over a hundred people?

LW: Oh, yeah. Easy.

TI: And it would be almost like a more festive... would they have, like, food there?

LW: Well, I didn't see no food, but what they... kind of, they don't charge admission, they ask for donation. That way they get more anyway. The Issei was pretty generous when it's come to like that. You know, they pass the hat around and get all the donations, they get prizes for whoever wins. You know, sack of rice or something like that. That was a good sport for the Nisei.

TI: Now, did they, did people gamble? Like, say, "We think my wrestler's going to be better than yours," and they would bet?

LW: No, I don't think... maybe they might, you know, but I don't see any gambling like that. But they brag about, you know, who's the best, what town, just like the baseball. Baseball's a very good sport for the Nisei.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.