Densho Digital Archive - George Hiromoto Interview (denshovh-hgeorge

<Begin Segment 5>

JS: Where did you go to school?

GH: Rio Vista High School. You know where Rio Vista is?

DG: Riverside?

GH: No, Rio Vista.

JS: Where the bridge is.

GH: Yeah.

DG: So a lot of the Clarksburg kids, is that where they went to elementary school?

JS: No, not from that area. See, while Walnut Grove, Alton, Courtland, they all have a school of theirselves. They had a Japanese school there.

Off camera: Kind of south of Clarksburg.

DG: Yeah. But we're asking, where did you go to elementary school? Rio Vista?

GH: No, Ryer. It used to be an island near... it's there, the school building's there, but the school is just a small school there. Ryer grammar school.

DG: Did a lot of the Clarksburg kids go there?

GH: No, no, that's only the Ryer people. Clarksburg people living in Clarksburg, and some came as far as West Sacramento.

DG: And was the Ryer elementary school integrated?

GH: Yeah, it's integrated. Yeah, the separate ones were, I guess you've heard where.

Off camera: I went to.

GH: Yeah, she went to. Courtland, Walnut Grove, and Isleton.

DG: So were there very many Japanese American students at Ryer?

GH: Yeah, grammar school? Yeah, we had a lot of families coming to the schools yet, so we were all integrated, which was very nice. But when we heard we're going to go to Oriental school, I says, "How come we have to go to Oriental school?" It's American school, and so it kind of got me questioning. But we used to play against them. Oriental school like Walnut Grove, Cortland and Isleton, but we used to play, they had a separate team, see, white side and Oriental side, so we used to play them. And we were all mixed.

DG: And so that was elementary school, where did you go to high school?

GH: Rio Vista High School.

DG: Rio Vista?

GH: Rio Vista.

DG: And that was integrated, too?

GH: Oh, yeah. Rio Vista, by the time you go to high school, we're all integrated.

JS: So did you play baseball for the school team? You had a baseball team?

GH: No, our high school didn't have a baseball. Some high schools had it, but our high school, I don't know, they had some kind of a problem. So they just had football and basketball. I played quite a bit of basketball.

DG: For the high school.

GH: High school, yeah.

DG: But your baseball team was Japanese American.

GH: Yeah, right here. Here in Clarksburg.

DG: And what were they called?

GH: Nisei Club.

DG: Holland Nisei.

GH: Holland Nisei, right.

DG: What position did you play?

GH: I played center field. I used to pitch and I used to play center field. You know who was my favorite player? Joe DiMaggio.

Off camera: I guess my question is why were you so into sports? I mean, I have a lot of, I've sat in on a lot of interviews with men your age, and everybody talks about how much they were into sports. Can you describe what, why was it important for you, sports?

GH: In sport? Well, we play against other teams, but other team we're playing against is a Japanese team from wherever. But if it's a high school, they play against high school teams. And like I told you, Rio Vista did not have a baseball team. I don't know, somehow they, before I got there, they must have had a little problem or something, so they didn't have baseball. If they did, well, I would be playing for them. Clarksburg High School had a baseball team, Courtland had a baseball team, Courtland High School. Did you go around the school, Courtland?

DG: Yes, we did.

GH: It's all grammar school now. Well, no, there's a high school, too.

Off camera: I guess, George, what I was saying, though, was for like a lot of young Japanese boys, they were, some of the first memories they share with me is about playing baseball. And so why do you think that is?

GH: Well, they're all sports-minded, I think. And, in fact, some of them took the sport more serious than the study. I almost got into that, too. [Laughs]

JS: But it was also a community event, right?

GH: Yeah, a community event. But we used to play, like high school, we used to play, I guess, other high school, you know. Yeah, we used to go play the Vacaville, Fairfield, Winters, Sacramento.

DG: This is the Holland Nisei Club?

GH: No, no, Rio Vista High School.

DG: Who did the Holland Nisei Club play?

GH: Oh, we played against the Japanese in, like Vacaville, like Florin, Placer, you know, Penryn, Marysville, Isleton, they're the Japanese team. That's what we used to play against.

Off camera: What was the difference for you playing on the, playing with the Nisei with the language school club -- sorry -- the all-Japanese club and the high school? What was the difference for you?

GH: Well, this school, Japanese, where I was here in Clarksburg, well, we play against other school, I mean, other towns like Florin and Vacaville, Suisun, Placer, they had their own Japanese club, so we used to play against them.

DG: What David's trying to get at was how was it different to play on an integrated team versus the Japanese team?

GH: Well, like I used to play grammar school. I was grammar school, they were integrated schools, you know. Well, they were same as far as playing in sport, they were about same, no problem.

Off camera: I guess the question is, like for the Rio Vista High School team, did you feel like you had something more to prove when you were playing for that team? Was it a sense of, "You know, I have to show these guys, I've got to play on their level"?

GH: Competition?

Off camera: Yeah.

GH: [Laughs] Well, yeah, because it's in a league, we're in a league. Valley League, Solano League, and so when we play against other high school, it's competition. But we were all integrated there from high school, which was okay.