Berkeley Bears Youth Organization web-site

 

Welcome to a web-site that is dedicated to trying to preserve some of the history of the Berkeley Bears Youth Organization mainly through the many photographs of the various teams over the years and will hopefully be a nice site to allow people to reminisce about past special times.

 

We mainly hope this site allows all of us to thank the many coaches, team managers, leaders and other supportive parents who dedicated so much of their time and energies to the various Berkeley Bears and other Optimist League teams and activities in helping to create such special memories for generations of youngsters over the years.

 

We especially want to sincerely thank Min & Yae Sano and their family for the years of dedicated service to the Berkeley Bears Organization. The special spirit and love they held for the Berkeley Bears helped to sustain the organization for decades and their tireless leadership was a tremendous gift to our special community.

 

We also want to thank so many of you for the contribution of your pictures and photos from the past and we hope to continue to add to this unique collection of Berkeley Bears history in the years to come.

  

The Berkeley Bears was a Japanese-American youth baseball organization formed in the early 1960's. This site will be for the various team pictures that were taken over the years from the 1960's to 1990's. A call out to all former players to send their team pictures they may have that can be uploaded to this Berkeley Bears team picture site.

 

As former players, we all would like to thank all the Managers, Coaches, and organization leaders that helped make it possible for us to play. Mr Min Sano, Mr Taro Fukumori, Mr Jiro Nakaso, Mr Joe Yatabe, Mr Morio Nishita, Mr John Nakayama, Mr Tad Hayashi, Mr Roger Yamashita, Mr George Nakamura, Mr George Kagawa, Mr Paul Takata, Mr Roy Kurahara, Mr Art Ikoma, Mr Gus Tanaka, Mr Bill Muranishi, Mr John Hirasawa, Mr Ito, Mr Bob Sano, Mr Mich Takahashi, Mr George Yamada, Mr Hiraoka, Dr Tom Takahashi, Mr Tom Tominaga, Mr Bob Murakami, Mr Bob Tsutsui, Mr Art Yamagata, Mr John Muranishi, Mr Mack Fujii, Mr Joe Kita, Mr Paul Oyama, Mr Kiyo Harano, Mr Arthur Tad Hayashi, Mr Tachi Tanaka, Mr Kiyo Harano , Mr Ben Saito, Mr Makoto, Mr Uchihara, Mr Joe Shimada, Mr Ikeda, Mr Tad Moriwaki, Mr Makoto Mike Kachiu , . and many many other managers, coaches, and parents who helped make this all possible for us as players.

 

Link to Berkeley Bears Presidents from 1963:

www.flickr.com/photos/163438565@N07/52378223609/in/datepo...

  

As youngsters growing up in the 60's and playing on the various Berkeley Bears teams, we were collectively able to play baseball, have fun, participate in social gatherings........Our parents who were our coaches, team managers, and fans gave their time to us as their children. We as players reflect back and are forever thankful to the parents for letting us participate in the Berkeley Bears Organization as well as other like groups we all participated in.

 

All the Berkeley Bears players from the 1960's are now in our 60 and 70's. Some of the players have passed away.... as we all know, a great majority of our parents have now passed away... (as of 2020) We collectively are older than our parents when they were our coaches. It seems the Berkeley Bears days of our youth were not that long ago??? Do we all remember each team lining up and getting the Popsicles after the games?? In retrospect, the memories of playing for the Berkeley Bears growing up, are fond and endearing to us all. So much thanks to our parents, grandparents, all the fans, for providing this activity for all of us players while growing up.

 

We would like to thank Wes Fukumori who helped get the 1st group of Berkeley Bears team pictures posted. Wes was member of the HS=1972 teams and was a coach in the 80's/90's. . As Berkeley Bears Alumni, a host of former players helped add to our collection of Berkeley Bears team pictures. Bruce Shimada, Jim Yamada, Doug and Bill Kagawa (their father, Mr George Kagawa was the official Berkeley Bears Team Photographer for decades), Lee Cubby Nakamura, Gary Tominaga.

 

We are getting much help from our Berkeley Bears family with help with names of players/coaches!! Gary Tominaga has helped reach out to many of the Berkeley Bears family to add greater details of player names and coaches by team. A special thanks to the collective members on these efforts:

 

Gary Tominaga, Brian Endo, Rev. Michael Endo, Donald Buggs Harano, David Hirota, Shirley Imai, Dennis Katayama, Mary Lindquist, Dennis Moriwaki, Dean Okamoto, Phil Omi, Dr. Sheldon Omi, Anne Sano, Edwin Sano, Jeff Sano, Ken Sano, Richard Teraura, Dennis Tominaga, Lowell Toyofuku, Mark Toyofuku

Mark Yamaguchi, Eugene Yano, Steve Yoshimura, Irv Yamashita

  

To add more pictures of other teams and you have them to share, pleases email: mktanaka@yahoo.com so more images can be added going forward.

Also, if you played on any of the teams and would like to add player and coaches names, please send email with link and details, and or comment on each picture so we continue to add more details by team. tthanks!!!!

 

The Berkeley Bears played in the Optimist league the included other JA youth groups. Richmond Cubs, Eastbay Indians, Diablo JA, Oakland MYF, Oakland Rams, Mountain View Tri City, San Mateo, SF Falcons and SF Associates....

 

Berkeley Ohtani Basketball Link: Teams began in the 1930s and still going strong in 2019

www.berkeleyohtani.org/history-1/#history

 

East Bay Rising Suns org: Current Youth organization founded in the early 2000's

www.flickr.com/photos/eastbayrisingsuns/

 

San Francisco YBA Protos: Based with the San Francisco Buddist Organization 1930's to 1960's

www.flickr.com/people/160568183@N04/

 

Oakland MYF site: (Church teams based in Oakland, Ca. during the 1960's)

www.flickr.com/photos/160636683@N04/

 

NAU Nisei Athletic Union link:

ncnau.org/history/index.html

 

Mr Min Sano was the oldest of the Sano Brothers of Berkeley. (Min, Harlen, Tats, Tosh, and Yuk Sano) All of the Sano brothers were on the Berkeley Nissei AA team. Mr Min Sano was coach of the Berkeley Nissei Greens. Other J-A players on Berkeley Nissei Greens were: John Oshida, Jug Takeshita, Shig Yoshimine, Danny Fukushima, Hiro Higashi, Yuk Hibino, Kiyosuke Nomura, Kiy Uchida, Kay Takahashi, Ted Ida, Warren Eijima, Art Kuriya, Otto Oshida, Sus Ota, Fred, Yamashiro

who played in the NAU AA league and won many Nor Cal as well as state AA championships in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's.

Nor Cal AA champions: 1931, 1936,1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951. (8)

State AA champions: 1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951. (6)

 

For us as Berkeley Bears players we all looked up respectfully to Mr Min Sano as "Mr Berkeley Bears".

Thanks out to Darren Yamashita for updating all the NAU history that has spanned from the 1930's to present day (2018):

 

www.ncnau.org/history/index.html

 

www.ncnau.org/history/AA-NorCal-Champs.html

 

Sacramento Barons history link: (formed in the early 1970's and continues to have youth teams as of 2019)

www.sacramentobarons.org/about.html

 

Many teenagers /youth of the 1940's were part of the WWII camps... As they grew up into young adults and started families, became the leaders of the JA sports teams of the late 1950's/60's... (coaches, managers, etc).. Here is link that focus is the WWII camps and associated topics (442, etc):

  

Densho Org is J-A organization focus is to document and preserve J-A WWII Internment.. Many of the Berkeley Bears coaches/managers/parents were interned during WWII...

densho.org

 

Japanese American National Museum:

www.janm.org/

 

Japanese American Sports Organizations/Team pictures:

www.flickr.com/groups/3985776@N20/pool/

 

J-SEI org based in SF Bay Area:

j-sei.org/jseihome/

 

Article on Doug Kagawa, a former Berkeley Bear, his father was official photographer of the Berkeley Bears, and PG of his league champion at Berkeley HS:

www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2010/3/11/nikkei-heritage/

 

Mr. Kiyo Harano (deceased), former Berkeley Bears Coach and father of players Donald Buggs and David Harano, was an ace pitcher for the Oakland Merritts pre-war.

hojishinbun.hoover.org/?a=d&d=jan19410610-01.1.8&;

  

JA sports team article link from the 1941, pre Pearl Harbor:

hojishinbun.hoover.org/?a=d&d=nws19410622-01.1.8

  

List of USA cities with J-A populations of note:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_large_Japa...

 

Article and vid of Mr Min Sano:

 

www.malcolmxherestories.org/minoru-sano

 

The 1941 attack of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Japanese Army launched the United States into World War II. Tragically, the US Government responded to the attack by projecting suspicion onto all Japanese-Americans living in the US. On February 19, 1942, president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing that United States residents of Japanese descent be removed from their homes and detained in camps. This led to over three years of internment for most Japanese-American families living on the West Coast.

  

In Berkeley, more than one thousand Japanese American residents were taken from their homes and sent to Tanforan Assembly Center in San Bruno. Racetracks such as Tanforan, considered a luxury item during the War, were converted to detention centers. Residents who were forced to relocate to the racetracks had to clean horse manure out of the stables that would become their housing.

  

Minoru Sano was in his sophomore year at U.C. Berkeley when his education was interrupted by these events. The Sano family was sent to Tanforan Assembly Center for 6 months. They were detained in Topaz, Utah for another two and one half years. In Topaz Internment Camp the detainees, uprooted from their homes and jobs, were forced to live in barracks with minimal privacy in harsh desert conditions.

  

Minoru was given permission to leave Topaz to attend and graduate from the University of Denver. While in Denver he met Yaeko. They married in 1946, right after he finished his service with the US Army. Both Minoru and Yaeko are second generation American-born Japanese and refer to themselves as “Nisei.” Yaeko’s family lived in Portland, Oregon and made their living by growing fruits and vegetables. Nursery work was one of the few types of employment available to Japanese immigrants in the early 1900s.

  

The difficulty of obtaining American citizenship had an interesting affect on the real estate holdings of the Sano family. Minoru’s parents, first generation immigrants, were unable to obtain citizenship until 1950. In order to purchase a home in South Berkeley in 1927, they had to put it in the name of an Amer- ican citizen. So, Minoru Sano, their American-born son, became a homeowner at the age of 6.

  

A highlight of Minoru’s youth in Berkeley was playing football for the Lumpe Lions, a football team for Japanese American kids sponsored by the Lion’s Club and coached by Mr. Frank Lumpe, a teacher at Edison Jr. High. Minoru’s love of sports led him to help organize the Berkeley Bears Youth Organization, which provided opportunity for about 120 boys and girls of Japanese ancestry to play basketball and baseball. He did this for forty years. The Berkeley Bears taught that fair play is more important than win- ning. Their motto was “It’s the way you play the game that counts”. Minoru’s nickname when he coached the team was Papa Bear.

  

Though prejudice uprooted Minoru and Yaeko Sano’s lives, they held steadfast to their family and to the belief that “with hard work and fair play, ours will remain a worthy and a proud family community.” We thank them for the work they did and the lives they touched. We hope all people of the United States learn from the mistakes of the past. Let us remember to treat each other with respect and love, regardless of nationality or ethnic background.