Name/Title
Jun Sasaki Oral History InterviewEntry/Object ID
RLG_107Scope and Content
This interview is part of the Represent Los Gatos Oral History Project series. Jun “JJ” Sasaki was born in Watsonville, where he and his family lived on the Martinelli Ranch until they were forcibly relocated to the Poston War Relocation Center in Poston, Arizona. His mother, Marion Chiyoe Sasaki was born in Wrights Station in the Santa Cruz mountains. Her father, Saburo Yoneji, sold his ranch to the Radonich family. You can see his name on the bottom side of the corrugated roofing on the western end of the shed he built on the current Radonich Ranch. After retiring and selling the ranch, they moved to Japan, where Marion was married to Jitsu Sasaki. Together, they later moved from Japan to Watsonville. After the family was released from internment, they returned to the Carmel Valley and then moved to Los Gatos. JJ grew up helping work on the various ranches and orchards in Los Gatos where his father worked. After graduating from Los Gatos High School, he went on to become a skilled iron worker, and worked in various foundries and on projects including the River Park Towers, BART, and the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. Listen and learn more about his life and experiences growing up and living in Los Gatos. Read a complete transcript of the interview below. Daniel Keough: [00:00:00] Will you say your name and the year and where you were born? Jun Sasaki: [00:00:03] Jun Sasaki, October 10th, 1939. Daniel Keough: [00:00:08] And you were born in Watsonville? Jun Sasaki: [00:00:12] I was born in Watsonville. Dr. Ricecamp was my doctor that delivered me. Daniel Keough: [00:00:19] And what were your parents' names? Jun Sasaki: [00:00:23] My father's name is Jitsu Sasaki. My mom's name is Marion Chiyoe Sasaki. Daniel Keough: [00:00:33] And where were each of them born, where were they born? Jun Sasaki: [00:00:39] Oh, my mother was born in Wrights Station, California and my father was born in Japan. I'm not sure where. Daniel Keough: [00:00:47] OK. And you said they were married, arranged. Their marriage was arranged? Jun Sasaki: [00:00:54] Yes. Daniel Keough: [00:00:56] And and can you remind me of where your father was working near Watsonville when you were born? Where was your father working? Jun Sasaki: [00:01:06] He was working on the Martinelli ranch. OK, probably an apple ranch, because I think we lived there on the ranch. Yes. Daniel Keough: [00:01:17] And you lived there until about what year? Jun Sasaki: [00:01:21] 1941, when the war started. And then they put us in an assembly center at the sheriff's posse grounds in Salinas and then from there they shipped us to Poston, Arizona. We went on a train. Daniel Keough: [00:01:39] Do you remember the train ride? Jun Sasaki: [00:01:41] No, I don't remember the train ride going, but coming back I do. Daniel Keough: [00:01:47] And so can you tell me a little bit about what life was like at the camp in Poston? Jun Sasaki: [00:01:53] Ok. My father was a fireman there. And anyway, my mother would go to the cafeteria to bring us food for us to eat. And then I remember we didn't have too many clothes either. And I started school over there. And everybody, all the other kids there, all Japanese people there, all the kids, they knew how to speak English, but I didn't. So I had a hard time. I had to learn, you know, I had to learn English. Daniel Keough: [00:02:30] Did most of the families speak Japanese to each other, or was it mostly English? Jun Sasaki: [00:02:37] My father. Yeah, our family, they spoke Japanese, you know, but my mom could speak English, because she was born here. Daniel Keough: [00:02:47] Do you remember ever speaking in Japanese to other people at Poston, or only to your own family? Jun Sasaki: [00:02:56] I don't remember speaking Japanese, to tell you the truth. Daniel Keough: [00:02:59] Do you still speak it or? Jun Sasaki: [00:03:00] No, I don't. I don't speak it, but I can understand it. And I could probably reply yes or no, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:03:10] And what was it like being a kid at the camp? Jun Sasaki: [00:03:15] Ok, anyway, it was kind of fun for us because we were out in the desert. There were wild horses out there and, you know, things to do, but not that many, you know. And see, our parents probably shielded us from a lot of that because my mom, it was really hard for her, you know. We were right on the Colorado River, and I got lost there one time, right on the Colorado River. Daniel Keough: [00:03:47] How did you get lost? Jun Sasaki: [00:03:49] I don't know. I just probably wandered off, you know, and it used to be an Indian reservation. Colorado River Indian Reservation. And they moved the Indians someplace else and they built those tarpaper houses for us. And as we were leaving the Indians started filtering back in, they start to come in and they had goats and things that they started coming back in to replace some of the houses that, you know, after the war. Daniel Keough: [00:04:22] Right. Do you remember any Native Americans living there at the same time or were they mostly forced to leave? Jun Sasaki: [00:04:31] It was toward the end, so I don't remember. Yeah, but I do remember living there. We went to this town of Parker, Arizona, and that's the first time I seen a store window. And it was at night, you know, it was lit up. I think they had probably fishing gear or something like that. It was really shiny. And I thought that was really something. Daniel Keough: [00:04:57] That's interesting you remember that because you were really young when you left, right? Jun Sasaki: [00:05:01] Yeah, I was probably five or six, probably. Daniel Keough: [00:05:07] Ok, how old were you when you came back, or what happened, I guess, how did your parents decide to come back here after you were able to leave Poston? Jun Sasaki: [00:05:21] Ok, first we went back to Watsonville and I think we stayed at a church until my father got a job. He got a job in Carmel Valley on a ranch. And so we lived in Carmel Valley for two years, you know, on a ranch. Daniel Keough: [00:05:40] Did they have you doing any work or were you doing school? Jun Sasaki: [00:05:43] No, just go to school. I went probably first and second grade over there. And my father worked with horses, you know, the draft horse plowing and cultivating the field and stuff like that with a sled, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:05:59] That was his job on the ranch, to plow the fields? Jun Sasaki: [00:06:05] Yeah, that was his job. Daniel Keough: [00:06:06] Did you ever get to ride horses? Jun Sasaki: [00:06:11] Well, once I asked him if I could take the horses back to the barn because we had to go down this road and right down by the river, Carmel River. And in the corner, they had the barn where they kept the horses. And so I asked him if I could take him to the barn and he gave me the reins and I practically had to run because I was little, you know, because they had a pretty good speed, you know, but they went down this way, down that way, and I tried to stop them, "Whoa" I tried to say, "Whoa", but they kept on going. So I'm sure my father was back there laughing at me. Daniel Keough: [00:06:55] What did your mother do when you were back in the Carmel Valley? Jun Sasaki: [00:06:59] My mother, I think she worked for the boss, did housework or something over there. Daniel Keough: [00:07:08] Do you know why they decided to move back and move up here? Jun Sasaki: [00:07:11] Ok, I think my father got fired, OK, because anyway, we lived in this house, it was divided. And the room over here, there was some Mexican, young Mexican people there. OK, anyway, they get up in the morning and they start chopping wood at four o'clock in the morning. So my father had words with them and I think they left. Yeah. OK, so anyway, that was probably the cause of my father getting fired, but we was there two years, first and second grade. And anyway, the people were really nice to us. You know, everybody was white there actually. So we was the only Japanese right there. Daniel Keough: [00:08:03] You didn't know any other Japanese families? Jun Sasaki: [00:08:05] Oh yeah. There was another Japanese family that lived across the river and I can't remember their names, but they had a son named Susumu, which was my brother's name. And for some reason we'd yell across the river 'Susumu' and somebody answered, you know, it was pretty neat over there. We'd go crawfishing, crawdad fishing, and where we lived, the boss, they had a daughter which was my age and two older boys. And anyway, we used to go ride on the horses with them. And so it was kind of fun over there. Daniel Keough: [00:08:54] That's especially fun for a first grader. That's really adventurous. Jun Sasaki: [00:08:59] Oh, yeah. Yeah. And we used to have to chase the horses to catch them. You know, they're out in the field. And I just wondered how the heck are you going to catch a horse in the field? But for some reason, they finally came to you, you know, Daniel Keough: [00:09:15] Do you know why your parents chose to come? Did they come up to Los Gatos or did they settle somewhere else in the valley? Jun Sasaki: [00:09:20] Ok. We went back to Watsonville and my father was working as a farm laborer there. And we lived on this, what do they call it, a camp. It's a work camp, OK? And I think he picked apples and things like that. OK. And then he got his job in Los Gatos and that's how we came to Los Gatos. And he got a job as a caretaker on this estate. Anyway, these Italians, they had a candy company. It's called the Kyoto Candy Company in Oakland, and they owned the estate. And so they didn't live there. They lived in different places. They lived in San Jose and Oakland or someplace up there. But they come for the weekend sometimes. Daniel Keough: [00:10:13] Do you know where about in town that was located now? Jun Sasaki: [00:10:17] Yes, it's below the novitiate. OK. It was 200 Prospect Avenue. And anyway, it was like that for I'm not sure how many years. And then the Sisters of the Holy Names, they bought it and they built a convent there. OK, but it's no longer there now. They took it down. They built big houses up there now. Big homes. Daniel Keough: [00:10:45] How long, how long did your father work at that...? Jun Sasaki: [00:10:48] He worked there ten years. And after the sisters bought the property, even though we weren't Catholic, he was allowed to work there. So we stayed on for another five years. I think around '58 or so. '57-'58. They bought a house down on a Blossom Hill Road. And so we we moved there. Daniel Keough: [00:11:17] Your parents bought that house? Jun Sasaki: [00:11:19] Yes. Daniel Keough: [00:11:20] And do you remember, we spoke to some other families who said they had trouble purchasing a house. Do you know if your parents had trouble actually being able to buy a house? Jun Sasaki: [00:11:30] Not that I know of. Not that I know of. But anyway, when they went looking for a house, we always thought because we were Japanese and who would accept this? Where could we go where we weren't hated, you know, because, you know, after the war, there was a lot of, a lot of hate because of these people, their kids got killed in the war, you know, and so you couldn't blame them. And so we had to watch what we did. And our parents always told us to set a good example. You know, don't, don't mess up, you know, and because you're being watched all the time, you know. Yeah. Daniel Keough: [00:12:14] Do you have any memories as a kid being, like, feeling that way, like you were being watched or uncomfortable? Jun Sasaki: [00:12:21] Not really. Not really. Everybody treated us really good. All the kids, they didn't seem to have that much of, you know, that we were that different. You know, that's the way I took it anyway. Daniel Keough: [00:12:36] What schools were you going to? Jun Sasaki: [00:12:39] University Avenue School. Yeah, it was a grammar school, Los Gatos Grammar School on University Avenue. You know, where Old Town is?. Daniel Keough: [00:12:47] Yes. Jun Sasaki: [00:12:48] OK, OK. You know about the history of it. Daniel Keough: [00:12:50] A little bit. Yeah, yeah. Jun Sasaki: [00:12:51] OK. And I started in third grade, but we had a class over there at the high school because it was, I think it was crowded. And so they had a room at the high school for third graders, just one of the class. And so at lunchtime we would walk over to the grammar school for lunch and then walk back. Daniel Keough: [00:13:17] And that was just for third graders? Jun Sasaki: [00:13:19] Yeah, just for third grade. Just the one class. Daniel Keough: [00:13:22] Interesting. Did you take the bridge or did you have to walk up the street? Jun Sasaki: [00:13:27] Ok, yeah. There was a, there was a bridge. It was a suspension bridge. Yeah. It was suspended so you could shake it, you know, it would shake. Daniel Keough: [00:13:36] Someone had talked about crossing, crossing a bridge back there. And I was wondering, because it's probably not the same bridge that's there right now. Jun Sasaki: [00:13:43] Oh, no. No, it's not. No. Yeah, it was suspension. So you could shake it. It was hanging off of cables. Yeah, it was pretty cool. There was a big, steep hill, a big steep hill behind the grammar school that goes down to the bridge, pretty steep. And anyway, my friend Billy Mason, I was down there and he came down on his bike real fast and he hit me with this bike, you know, and anyway, all afternoon he kept saying "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." But anyway, that's how we met, I guess. Daniel Keough: [00:14:21] And do you do you still have any friends that you were friends with back in grammar school? Jun Sasaki: [00:14:28] Yes. Oh, yes. Yeah. Most of them are my friends still. Daniel Keough: [00:14:32] Oh yeah. Wow. Um, like who? Jun Sasaki: [00:14:35] OK, there's a Billy Mason, Bill Flanagan. I see him every now and then and Harley Burke. And it's Ralph Higgins and a lot of them have died on me already, you know. Like Toni. Toni, I knew her in grammar school and high school both, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:14:58] Wow. And did you enjoy the University Avenue School? Did you enjoy going to school at that grammar school? Jun Sasaki: [00:15:06] Oh, yeah, I did. I did. Yeah, it was fun. Daniel Keough: [00:15:11] What did you, do you remember what you did in your free time as a young kid? Jun Sasaki: [00:15:16] Usually go home and probably had chores to do. You know, we lived on big estate. So my father had us working there, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:15:27] Oh, you lived on the estate where he was working? Jun Sasaki: [00:15:28] We lived on the estate, yes. Yeah, that's that's where they were able to save money to buy a house because, you know, the rent is free there. Daniel Keough: [00:15:39] That's amazing. What kind of work was he doing there? Was it all farming, ranching? Jun Sasaki: [00:15:46] It was a garden work, yard work, and orchard work. You know, they had apricot trees, so he had to prune them and stuff like that. Daniel Keough: [00:15:56] Did he have you doing that work, too? Jun Sasaki: [00:15:58] I didn't do too much pruning. No, I didn't learn too much pruning. But I love cutting trees now. Daniel Keough: [00:16:07] And then how about for middle school? Did you go anywhere? Where did you go for the grades between grammar school and high school? I guess how long, till what grade were you at the University Avenue School? Jun Sasaki: [00:16:23] Oh eighth grade, yeah, eighth grade. I graduated there and then went to high school. Daniel Keough: [00:16:30] And how was your experience at Los Gatos High? You were at this, Los Gatos High School? Jun Sasaki: [00:16:37] Los Gatos High School, yes. Daniel Keough: [00:16:39] How was that experience? Jun Sasaki: [00:16:41] It was very good. Very good. But anyway, I was kind of, oh what do you say, a social outcast like because I don't know, everybody started to have girlfriends and everything like that. And, you know, I was kind of out of it right there. I was really shy, you know. And so anyway, you know, sometimes you get dumped by your friends because you don't do the same thing they do. You know, they go to dances and stuff like that. So anyway, I made it through anyway. Daniel Keough: [00:17:23] Did you do any sports or anything or did you...? Jun Sasaki: [00:17:25] Yes, I did. I did a track, wrestling and track. I think that's about it. I was a future farmer also. Daniel Keough: [00:17:40] OK, what was that? Jun Sasaki: [00:17:44] Future Farmer is agriculture. They had a class in agriculture. OK, ok. That's because I started out taking algebra and. Oh what's the other one anyway. I wasn't that smart so I couldn't, I couldn't keep up with it. So the counselor told me that I should try something else. So I did agriculture which didn't take much brains I guess. Daniel Keough: [00:18:15] Did you enjoy it? Jun Sasaki: [00:18:16] Yeah, I did, had a lot of fun there. Daniel Keough: [00:18:20] And who were some of your friends in high school? Jun Sasaki: [00:18:25] OK, I had Louie Spinazze and Harley Burke, he's still my best friend right now. We kind of went back together, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:18:35] That's cool. Jun Sasaki: [00:18:36] After all the years. And now he lives in Watsonville right now. He's got about 18-20 acres up by Mt. Madonna. He's got a nice place up there and I go up there, used to go up there and help him. Daniel Keough: [00:18:56] And and what other kind of things did you do in high school? You said you were shy and outcast, but what do you do for fun? Jun Sasaki: [00:19:05] Ok. I did garden work after school. I did garden work. So afterwards, the sports, instead of sports, I went to do garden work. I went to you know cut lawns and cut hedges and stuff like that. Daniel Keough: [00:19:25] Wow, did you have a pretty good business there? Jun Sasaki: [00:19:30] Not not that good, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:19:32] How did you find people to garden for? Jun Sasaki: [00:19:35] Ok, I think I started at one place and then word of mouth kept, you know, the neighbors, and the neighbors and yeah. Daniel Keough: [00:19:46] That's fun. Jun Sasaki: [00:19:47] Yeah. It was fun. Daniel Keough: [00:19:50] And did you have any siblings, or any brothers or sisters? Jun Sasaki: [00:19:55] Yeah, I have one brother and one sister. Daniel Keough: [00:19:58] Are they older or younger? Jun Sasaki: [00:20:00] My brother was younger than me and my sister is older. Daniel Keough: [00:20:03] Did they also went to schools here too? Jun Sasaki: [00:20:09] Yeah. Los Gatos. Yeah. Daniel Keough: [00:20:11] How was their experience? Did they enjoy living here. Jun Sasaki: [00:20:14] Yes. Yeah they did. Daniel Keough: [00:20:17] What year did you graduate? Jun Sasaki: [00:20:20] '57. Daniel Keough: [00:20:23] '57 OK Jun Sasaki: [00:20:24] My brother [Susumu], '59 and my sister [Momoye] '55. Daniel Keough: [00:20:29] OK, what did you do after high school? Jun Sasaki: [00:20:33] Oh I got a job here at Macabee's. It was my friend was moving out of town so he got me the job and I was kind of small. They didn't think I could probably handle it because they had one hundred pound sacks and stuff you had to move. But anyway, I did it and I stayed there probably three or four years. Daniel Keough: [00:20:59] Wow, what was your title? Like, what other types of jobs did they have you do? Jun Sasaki: [00:21:06] After that? Daniel Keough: [00:21:07] Just at Macabee's. Jun Sasaki: [00:21:08] Oh, Macabee's. Yeah I did. I did everything. I did delivery. I did sales delivery, loaded trucks, loaded people's cars and it was, building material, fuel and feed, feed store like. Daniel Keough: [00:21:25] Wow, and what type of job did you do after that? Jun Sasaki: [00:21:31] After that, ok, my friend got me a job at this Republic Aluminum Company. They did windows, window frames out of aluminum extrusions and it was a machine shop like, and we had to cut it and do machine work to make the frames. Daniel Keough: [00:21:54] How did you train in that? You just got the job? Jun Sasaki: [00:21:56] I just got the job. OK, a saw, I was on this saw. It's a real fast saw it cuts real fast like that and you feed the pieces through and you just cut them to length and, oh they had punch presses and all that stuff to machine them with. Daniel Keough: [00:22:16] And you just learned on the job? Jun Sasaki: [00:22:18] Uh just the on the job. Yeah. Uh huh. I just started working. Daniel Keough: [00:22:23] And I guess, how long did you do that type of work? Jun Sasaki: [00:22:27] OK, probably a couple of years. Yeah. Daniel Keough: [00:22:32] Where was that? Jun Sasaki: [00:22:33] That was in Santa Clara. yeah. Daniel Keough: [00:22:36] Wow. Jun Sasaki: [00:22:38] And actually let's see, Toni's [Blackstock] husband actually, her first husband got me the job, you know. Yeah. Daniel Keough: [00:22:49] What's his name? Jun Sasaki: [00:22:49] His name is Mike Miller and he was in our class. Yeah. With Tony. She was in our class too. Daniel Keough: [00:22:59] And so what did you do after? Jun Sasaki: [00:23:01] OK, after that, let's see. What did I do? I worked. Oh let's see. I was bouncing around a little bit, OK, because, uh, let's see. I worked in a nursery for a while. I worked at a car dealership for a while and, oh and then I went back to Macabee's because, you know, I just happened to go back there and see if I could get back on. And I worked there for another, probably a couple of years. And then I got a job at a machine shop. OK, that was in Santa Clara. OK. And then from there, I got into the ironworking, OK, because Louie Spinazze, my friend Louie Spinazze, asked me if I wanted to try it out. So I told these people that I'm going to take a vacation, just to try it out, I didn't tell them where I was going, you know, but they wouldn't let me have a vacation. So I had to quit and go over there. Daniel Keough: [00:24:14] How did you get the foundry job? Like, Louie recommended you? Jun Sasaki: [00:24:21] Yeah, because Louis was working there. Daniel Keough: [00:24:25] What kind of work was that at the foundry? Jun Sasaki: [00:24:27] OK, we put up stairs, precast stairs, and they did handrail, too. So it was a miscellaneous iron work they did. OK, so I worked for Louie, me and Louie worked together and we put up the frame for the precast stairs or put up the springers for the precast stairs. Daniel Keough: [00:24:51] That was in Santa Clara? Jun Sasaki: [00:24:53] Yeah, all through the valley here actually. Campbell, all over. Daniel Keough: [00:24:58] Do you remember any of the places where you put in the stairs and handrails and things? Jun Sasaki: [00:25:04] Yes, I do, yeah. There on Saratoga Avenue, at Saratoga Avenue, Payne Avenue. And yeah, there was many, many places over there. Daniel Keough: [00:25:15] That's, it's a pretty intensive job casting iron. Jun Sasaki: [00:25:18] Yeah, it was pretty, pretty and anyway we got into the union, OK. Me and Louie got into the union because it was a non-union shop and you know, the union would try to clamp down on us. So me and Louie got in, Louie got in as a journeyman and I was an apprentice. OK, yeah. OK, so I worked there for a couple of years and then my other friend, Tim Boyajian, anyway, he was working as an iron worker and he got me a job in the city, OK, for the big iron, big boys Daniel Keough: [00:25:58] San Francisco or...? Jun Sasaki: [00:26:00] San Francisco. Yeah. Daniel Keough: [00:26:03] Which shop, or which company? Jun Sasaki: [00:26:05] Ok, it was a big, big company, it was United States Steel, American Bridge, they called it. Daniel Keough: [00:26:14] What kind of work were you doing there? Jun Sasaki: [00:26:16] OK, I was welding. Welding, OK. My first job was fitting up for the welders. We put these back up plates so the welders could come and weld it without them fitting up themselves. Daniel Keough: [00:26:31] Wow, what kind of, what were you working on? Like what were you welding for? Jun Sasaki: [00:26:36] Well, it was in the financial district. It was, I think it was probably twenty one story office building. Yeah it was big steel. Big beams and columns. Uh huh. Daniel Keough: [00:26:53] How long were you at that? Jun Sasaki: [00:26:54] OK, probably three or four months probably. But from there on I just kept different companies. Daniel Keough: [00:27:07] Where were you living during all this time, like from high school on? Jun Sasaki: [00:27:11] Ok, I was living. Now let's see. I was living in Campbell. I lived in Campbell. Uh huh, Daniel Keough: [00:27:21] Uh, close to downtown? Jun Sasaki: [00:27:24] Campbell, Hamilton Avenue. I lived on Hamilton Avenue. Daniel Keough: [00:27:27] The whole time after high school? Jun Sasaki: [00:27:30] Oh, no, not for that long. Probably in the '60's. '66 to I don't know '69 or so. Daniel Keough: [00:27:39] Wow. And I guess did you keep any connection here in Los Gatos, did your family still live here? Jun Sasaki: [00:27:50] Yeah, my mom lived here. My mom lived here. Yeah, my dad died when I was, in 1961 he died. And so my mom lived at the house on Blossom Hill Road. I lived with her sometimes too, you know, and then I bought a house in Los Gatos. Daniel Keough: [00:28:11] Where at? Jun Sasaki: [00:28:12] It was on Harwood Road. Harwood Road, Los Gatos. Daniel Keough: [00:28:17] Around what year? Jun Sasaki: [00:28:18] Oh let me see. I can't remember. Probably '68 or '69. Daniel Keough: [00:28:30] How was that? How was life in town in the 60s and 70s? Jun Sasaki: [00:28:34] Ok. It was a, I wasn't in town much you know, I was mostly out of town, on Harwood Road but it was a it wasn't like it was today. I can tell you. Daniel Keough: [00:28:53] Is there anything that you see now around town that shocks you or makes you, uh, makes it clear how different things were back then? Jun Sasaki: [00:29:03] Oh, no, not really. I don't know. Things progressed, you know. OK. Yeah, they say the yuppies moved into town, at one time. So it became a town with a lot of rich people coming into town, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:29:22] Around when do you think people started to move in with money? Because other people have told us, too, that they were.. Jun Sasaki: [00:29:29] Ok, you know what? There's always been people with money around town, you know. Daniel Keough: [00:29:37] Because I know, like, some people would come and vacation down here from San Francisco, but it wasn't until later that a lot more people with a lot of money started to move in versus the kind of working class community that was here before. Jun Sasaki: [00:29:53] Mm hmm. Daniel Keough: [00:29:54] Do you remember noticing any time when that really felt like when you said yuppies moved in? Jun Sasaki: [00:30:01] Uh, I don't know. I don't recall. Daniel Keough: [00:30:06] That's OK. Does you or any one in the family still own the house on Blossom Hill Road? Jun Sasaki: [00:30:15] My mom did. Yeah, we sold the house. Yeah. After my mom passed on in I'm not sure in 1991, or so. Daniel Keough: [00:30:23] Do your siblings still live in the area? Jun Sasaki: [00:30:32] Yes. I have a sister. She lives in the Monte Sereno. Yeah. My brother, I lost him three years ago. Daniel Keough: [00:30:39] I'm sorry. And was he also living in town? Jun Sasaki: [00:30:44] He was living in San Jose. He was living in an apartment and his wife died and about seven years later, we lost him. Daniel Keough: [00:30:58] Did he have any children? Jun Sasaki: [00:30:58] Pardon me? No, he didn't have any children. Daniel Keough: [00:31:03] What about your sister? Jun Sasaki: [00:31:05] My sister never got married. Daniel Keough: [00:31:07] OK, what about you? Jun Sasaki: [00:31:09] Me, I never had any children, but I raised five children. Yeah, I had a relationship before and I raised three children. And then now I raised two more. Daniel Keough: [00:31:23] Wow. Jun Sasaki: [00:31:24] So I got grandkids. I got a lot of grandkids, but none of my own, you know, Daniel Keough: [00:31:30] Where do they live? Jun Sasaki: [00:31:31] Pardon me? Daniel Keough: [00:31:31] Where do they live? Jun Sasaki: [00:31:32] Oh they live in San Jose. Daniel Keough: [00:31:33] OK. Have you been able to see them? Jun Sasaki: [00:31:36] Oh yeah. I see them off and on. Yeah. Daniel Keough: [00:31:41] Especially with COVID and everything, have you been able to keep in touch with family? Jun Sasaki: [00:31:49] Yeah, we do see them, the grandkids and stuff. Daniel Keough: [00:31:53] Oh that's good. Have you been part of any other organizations, like religious or political or social organizations or groups? Jun Sasaki: [00:32:06] Uh, no. I just belong to the ironworkers and union, so I was lucky. My my brother was union also. He was a carpet layer. And my sister worked for the telephone, Pacific Telephone, PacBell or something. So anyway, so we get pensions, so we're lucky. Daniel Keough: [00:32:30] Where else did you work as a union worker? Jun Sasaki: [00:32:33] Ok, I worked, I worked in Northern California, Southern California. I worked in Utah, Wyoming, and Washington because as an ironworker, you could, they call it booming around. You could boom from, you could boom all the way across country if y... [truncated due to length]Collection
Represent Los Gatos Oral History ProjectOral History Details
Interviewee
Sasaki, JunInterview Date
Sep 16, 2020Primary Language
EnglishRecording Media
MP4Oral History Notes
Creator: Los Gatos Library
Publisher: Los Gatos Library
Video recordingCopyright
Notes
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