Densho Digital Archive - George Hara Interview (denshovh-hgeorge

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GH: And one of our favorite activities that I didn't go into that I'll mention now is the creation of a Nisei basketball league both for girls and boys with the cooperation of the City Park Bureaus and particularly Dorsey Lynch, a member. We were able to acquire a youth, a peninsula park, the two gyms that were there, and the locker. And they had the older men's league that was going full bore, and we used to watch, and then they decided to enlarge, and our age group was able to participate. So my friends in South Portland, we formed a group, got together, and we ran around soliciting donations from our parents and other business people, and we got five dollars. And by hard work and solicitation, we got enough money to purchase basketball and the uniform, and this is the first time in any organized sport like that, and we had real nifty satin uniforms, and I still, I don't have the uniforms anymore, but it was gray with maroon lettering. Nampo, we called ourselves Nampo Midgets, and we had warm-up jackets, satin with maroon trim, first class. And as I learned, as the Niseis grew older, went into golf, Niseis like good equipment and that worked for us at the time we formed the basketball clubs. Each one had two favorite shoes, ankle top, one was Converse, and the other was made by Spalding, and all the players had one or the other, and we practiced in the grade school gym, applied for times there. We had coach, learned intricate basketball warm-up drill, and this was really fun. But this was the Nisei league, and it wasn't because the Niseis as individuals couldn't compete at the high school levels because at Washington, some of the bigger Niseis before me, Chuck Shimomura, Ken Miyake were football varsity players, and at Grant High School, fellow I got to know later on, Ken Takeoka, I think he made all-city in football. I used to listen to the Grant game, and Takeoka waiting for the punt, gets the ball, running up the field. He was one of my heroes at that time. And wrestlers at Benson High School won state tournament, AU tournament. And so individually, they can compete, but in sports like basketball, the Niseis were at a physical disadvantage, and a league of Niseis only was more competitive, more fun, and we played in the same age group, and each team had their, you know, star player. And Nampo team, I wasn't one of the stars, I was more of a promoter, you know, of getting money. But we had some real good players, and our first year there, we won the championship. And anyway, basketball was a big thing.

And with that, the other thing I forgot to mention as I grew older in high school age, we learned how to dance and met more girls, and they had dancing parties with records. And during the grocery, I think, connection, at Wonder Bread, they had a recreation hall, and we bring our record players and record, and the ones I like to dance with have a record dance party. And later on money, how making events for our club was either a skating party at Rollerdrome located out on Sandy Boulevard near the top of the hill. We'd take over the whole thing from about nine until eleven and that was very popular. We'd go to Oaks Park, and it was big money, and it was a good social mixer. The other thing as we grew older was some of the Caucasian family church connected through Epworth particularly the Oliver family invited us into their homes, and a group of Niseis would spend hours there, you know, eating snacks and just being together. And so our lives, you know, were very busy in the Nisei world, but in the high school, I entered into this hakujin sort of society and felt accepted. And so by the time I was a senior, I had a lot of, what you call, piss and vinegar to meet the future. I wasn't, you know, in trepidation, and I like to know what comes, some of these stories that I hear in college graduates not being able to get jobs other than a grocery clerk.