Densho Digital Archive - Steve Hiromoto Interview (denshovh-hsteve-01-0001)

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[Standing outside the Clarksburg Holland Gakuen building.]

SH: Good afternoon. My name is Steven Hiromoto, and we're here in Clarksburg, California. Clarksburg is located approximately twenty miles south of the capital city of California, Sacramento, California. We're right down the river in the Sacramento River Delta area. Before me is the Holland Gakuen Japanese school, and during the early 1900s, there were quite a few Japanese immigrants here as farm labor, and quite a few -- or I should say some of the early families had arrived earlier and became very successful in their own right, becoming farmers themselves. And so once they became established, started growing their own crops, and became short of labor, they would call back to Japan, and from certain areas of Japan, Yamaguchi-ken, for instance, they would be able to have relatives or friends come over and become part of the labor force here. So there was quite a large Japanese community here, and as the Issei first generation married, began having families, the families started propagating and the community saw a need for a social area community service building, you might say, and also a place that they could propagate their Japanese culture.

I understand the building was put together in approximately 1926. We had several carpenters that were very... I guess ahead of their time, actually, and were able to design this building, and it's still very structurally sound. They used redwoods on the foundation area, the concrete that they used is still intact, and as far as I know, from looking at the building, it's still very sound. Some of the additions such as the stairways have gone through years of weathering and such, and are in pretty dire need of repair. The roof was put on approximately two years ago, yes, uh-huh. It was a community effort spearheaded by Jim Burchell, who was able to get a couple groups together and they were able to put a pretty nice roof on there. So as far as the roofing area, we're pretty sound. It's made the building pretty well waterproof inside, and as we go in and take a look, you're probably gonna just feel like you're walking right into the past. Everything was pretty much left as is.

I think I would say the last occupants to use the building was the Holland Doshi Kai, and that was a fraternal organization that was kind of... oh, I'd say probably children of the early Issei that were here in the area that were still remaining in the Clarksburg area and wanted to create a fraternal organization who came together on various holidays and had special events here. Probably around the mid-'90s would be about the last time the club had used this building actively. So today, if you'd like to go inside.