Brighton Japanese Association Newsletter
February 2011
Pg 3
Member Spotlight
Fujiyo (Fudge) Tashiro
by Lorri Huff
My father, Katsubei Sakaguchi, was born April 18, 1885. He had longed to leave their small village in Japan so when he turned 18 he traveled to Hawaii and worked on the Kealei Sugar Plantation. After working there for 3 years, it was rumored that he stowed away on the USS Manchuria where it ported in San Francisco.
He found a job working for the Union Pacific Railroad which eventually led him to Platteville, Colorado. He loved it there and decided to set his roots. He was ready to settle down and marry so he wrote to his father in Japan and asked if he could find him a wife. The excitement he must have felt receiving a letter from his father telling Dad he found a wife. She would be arriving in Seattle, Washington Nov. 28, 1913, on the SS Awa Maru. Her name was Hisano Takayama.
Dad drove to Seattle where he met and married Hisano. He took her home to Platteville. There they worked on a farm until 1919 when they had enough money to buy 160 acres southwest of Brighton. By then they had 4 children: Kyosuke, Miyo, Shimpei, and me. I remember every Saturday was furo and udon night with the leftover noodles fried up for breakfast the next morning. There were a couple apple trees, called Summer Apples, next to the barn. I used to pick those apples to eat. They would turn yellow when they ripened and boy, were they good! There were bees around there. And one day I was going to pick one to eat but a bee was buzzing around me. I was so scared, I ran towards the house with the bees chasing after me.
Our house wasn’t very large, but Mom and Dad and nine of us children slept there. Only Shimpei was in college. Yes, ten children and two parents. There were three bedrooms, a kitchen and dining all in one. The large dining table where the nine of us sat around to eat was very cozy. There was also a parlor, a separate room where we had a coal stove. In the winter, that is where we studied, played, and kept warm. We had a wood stove those days to keep us warm and to cook meals. No electricity, just a kerosene lamp. We had to chop wood and then burn the coal. For water, we had a pump about 500 feet from the house. In order to have water to drink and cook, we would have to carry 4 to 6 buckets or more from the pump (the kind you had to pump by hand). Yes, even in the winter!
For our entertainment, on warm days we would play hopscotch and Anny Anny Over. With that game, there would be two people on both sides of the house. We would throw the ball over the house and say, “Anny Anny Over”. The kids on the other side would try to catch it. We also played Fox and Geese. We would make a small circle in the snow with our footprints and have 4-5 paths leading away from the circle (like the sun and its rays). Then we would make a bigger circle connecting the ends of the paths. The Fox was in the small circle and kids at the end of the paths, the geese. The Fox would try to catch one of the geese and if he did, that goose then became the Fox. That was a lot of fun.
At school, I would play marbles. I still have a fascination for marbles today. Christmas was always a day to look forward to at school. Each grade, 1st through 8th, would have a short play or sing. Every Christmas Mom and Dad would attend. They would give each teacher a gift which was very thoughtful and wonderful for them considering we didn’t have a lot of money. We had an old car, a jalopy Ford, I think, that Dad and Mom would take us in. Dad always drove us to school in wintry days. When it was warm, we would walk to school which was about 2 miles. That was our only transportation, no school buses in those days. I went 9 years to Henderson Elementary. There was no junior high or middle schools. I went 3 years and graduated from Brighton High School in 1938. There were 62 students in my class.
Our neighboring farm was owned by Masaki and Mata Tashiro. That is where I met Masato or “Mike”, the oldest of 8 children. Dec. 7, 1941, was a devastating day for the Japanese Americans. That was the day Dad took everything he had brought over from Japan and burned them. He wanted to prove his loyalty to the United States and disassociate the family from Japan. In 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that eventually led to the Internment Camps. But when the 100th Battalion from Hawaii proved their dedication, the US government reversed their decision on the Japanese Americans to serve in the armed forces. Dad had asked each of his sons to walk into town to enlist. In the end, 3000 from Hawaii and 800 from the mainland were inducted including 5 of my brothers. They served in the 442 Infantry becoming the most highly decorated regiment in WW II.
Mike and I married shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in March 1942. We were not put into internment camps but had to notify the Sheriff’s Dept. of any activity or gatherings. So there were a couple of deputies that attended our wedding. I settled in with the Tashiro’s and was content in taking care of the family and working the Tashiro farm. But Mike was very ambitious and was smart enough to know that farming was not good enough to raise a family. So in 1958 he purchased a failing restaurant and re-named it The Terrace Inn. He made it a friendly place where local farmers could come and eat a good meal and relax after a hard day’s work. He earned his place in the business world with his fresh Terrace Burger called “The Terrace D”. As a matter of fact, Craig Morton, quarterback for the Denver Broncos, stopped by for lunch! I’ve been a Bronco fan ever since.
Mike shared his love of fishing with the kids and me. At the age of 92, I continue to go fishing every summer with my two daughters and son-in-law. Mike became well known in the Brighton community as a long-time member of the BJAA, serving a term as president, and was active in the baseball and bowling leagues. Sadly he passed away in 1984 at the young age of 66. Today I thoroughly enjoy my life with my 4 children: Harvey, Norman, Lorraine, and Naomi (my eldest son, Ed, passed away last year), my 6 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. I am truly blessed.
