Discover Nikkei

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Voluntarily Moving to Salt Lake City, Utah

You know when the executive order was issued my parents and some of their relatives from Fukui and friends from their villages they decided they didn’t want to wait around for the government to come and pick them up and take them God knows where.

And Utah was a place where a lot of Japanese nationals went.

I remember we came to Salt Lake City, the actual city and my folks got an apartment there to live in. And I, I went to they took me to a school and I was so excited I could hardly believe it. You know, when I actually was there in this kindergarten, it was just like thrilled. You know, I just thrilled to be in school and but then later on, it was so sad to be told that I couldn't go there regularly. I was either I wasn't old enough or whatever, but so just very disappointed.

But we did live in Salt Lake. My folks got a job with the Brown Floral Company who is a big, big floral company right there on the Jordan River. And Mr. Brown and his family were very kind to us.

My mom and dad both worked for him. Did various jobs, you know, in the floral company. And I hung out with their son, David. And we got into so much mischief. We were always having problems.

We were there for a number of years. And I remember it was it was a very OK time.

We lived close by and when when my dad was coming home from work, I would meet him part way and he’d give me a piggyback ride. And, you know, we would trot home kind of thing. And it was always fun for me.


Brown Floral (firm) Salt Lake City United States Utah voluntary resettlement

Date: May 13, 2022

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Evan Kodani

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Reiko T. Sakata was adopted from an orphanage in Los Angeles in 1939 at 5 months old by Issei parents. To avoid incarceration, the family moved with other Japanese to Salt Lake City, Utah until 1948. Returning to Los Angeles, her parents ran a laundromat in East Los Angeles, where she grew up. Years later, she and her parents moved to Torrance. Reiko graduated from Torrance High School, then went to the University of California, Berkeley. After Reiko got married, she and her spouse moved to Kent State, Ohio and witnessed the “Kent State shooting.” She received her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina in Business Development, and served as a faculty member there in Organization Development and Business. She returned to Southern California to help her parents before they passed away. Prior to her retirement, Dr. Sakata was an entrepreneur and businesswoman in a variety of industries and fields for 32 years. She currently lives in Monrovia, California. (May 2023)

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