SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than a hundred years ago before the Golden 1 Center and DOCO, downtown Sacramento was known as JapanTown.
It’s the city block where the Capitol Mall and DOCO stand today. It was an area cultivated by immigrants for shopping and a place to gather. They even had their own basketball teams.
Basketball has long been a rich part of Sacramento’s history.
Before De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis and even Chris Webber ever dawned a Kings basketball jersey, downtown Sacramento was home to a different basketball team.
It was also home to a men’s and women’s basketball team. Marian Uchida remembers it well.
“This is the Wakaba’s. It means first leaf. I know because this is my uncle,” said Uchida.
The teams played in a church gym.
“It’s a regular-size basketball court. We could have 500 people in there, bleachers on the other side,” said Uchida.
Amy Emiko Kamikawa-Wong was on the women’s team when she was 17.
“We didn’t have any money for uniforms, so we had to make our own,” said Wong.
The teams even traveled for games, selling hot dogs to raise money.
“It’s kind of amazing to me because we are talking about the 1920s 1930s the depression era, where they got the money to send them because they sent to Seattle, Los Angeles, the bay area,” said Uchida.
Community support for basketball that started more than a century ago, living on today.
“Sacramento was known for their guys who played basketball,” said Uchida.
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