Densho Digital Archive - Richard Sakurai Interview (denshovh-srichard-01-0005)

<Begin Segment 5>

RP: Tell us what life was like for you growing up in Troutdale.

RS: Well, that was during the Great Depression and so we were really poor and of course there weren't, no kind of help anywhere. That just wasn't the sort of thing that happened in those days. Everything was just sort of doing the best you can living day to day and hoping that you could grow something and sell it on the market.

RP: What did your father primarily grow in those days?

RS: It was vegetables, you know, it was a truck farm and so he grew all sorts of fresh vegetables and he did have a strawberry field part of the time, things like that. But he grew cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, that sort of thing, and it was always a matter of seeing if he could sell them. It was just hard times. And of course we were a minority that people just didn't like. Now we lived in the country and went to small country schools and so most people were friendly, we're friends with and so forth. So the fact that we were a minority that everybody hated and even there were laws, discriminatory laws about Japanese, our friends, we got along with them, our neighbors and so forth got along with them except for a few people who would resort to the excuse that well, they're Japanese and so they're these people that are no good you know. But most people in the neighborhood since we knew them, we got along with them okay. But the socialization was mostly with the neighboring Japanese community.

RP: What type of activities do you recall?

RS: Well, it's mostly work. From the time I was a little boy I worked on the farm. After school, weekends, all summer long I worked as a farm worker as soon, as I could pick up a hoe, I did that. Once in a while people in the community would have a kind of, sort of a community picnic and so we would celebrate that. Once a year there was a big Japanese in Gresham and Troutdale big gathering, or a big community picnic and games and all that kind of stuff. That's the sort of thing we did you know. But mostly just day by day just trying to... and so whatever kind of play we did was just sort of make do what you could do, you know. We didn't have a big enough organization to have any organized sports or anything like that. Any of that was done at school at the school, had games, athletic games and so forth. And we would participate in that but everything else we just sort of wandered around fooling around. If you didn't have to work and then neighbor kids and us, we'd do something or other. In some ways I think some of that was good for me. I think sometimes when you just sort of fool around and do nothing that's organized just go around and see what you could find, fool around with things like that. I think a certain amount of that is a good thing, at least it was for me. I think being too organized, having every minute of your life being accounted for by this activity or that activity, I think doesn't give enough... you don't have enough experience of creating something for yourself. And I think my having to do that for myself and also my having to sometimes just sit there and just wonder about things is probably a good thing.

RP: Did you have any interests or hobbies growing up?

RS: I really liked baseball and I wanted to become a real good baseball player. I didn't have much opportunity to do it because... but I really liked it, that's one of the things I really wanted to do.