Meet Steve Hiromoto, who holds on to mementos almost lost to time
Through the end of September, we’re celebrating the people who, every day, make life in the Sacramento region meaningful and interesting. Through 12 stories, a collection of short profiles, you’ll “Meet your neighbors.” Read more here.
If history is a collection of stories, Steve Hiromoto is a library.
His garage in Clarksburg, where his family has lived for four generations, is full of boxes that aren’t his.
For the most part, they’ve come from people who didn’t know what to do with them. Comprised of old family photos, records and memorabilia, they’re physical pieces of lives once lived in and around the Delta.
Too valuable to throw away, but taking up room on a shelf.
So, they come to Hiromoto.
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President of Holland Doshikai and board member of the 1883 Clarksburg Schoolhouse project, he preserves the heritage of Japanese Americans who helped build and sustain this corner of the Delta.
The work is personal, less an academic pursuit than an honoring of names that are familiar to him — neighbors, teachers, friends.
People like his own parents, who farmed in Clarksburg until they were sent to the Tule Lake and Gila River internment camps during World War II. When they returned landless, they chose to stay and re-plant roots.
Hiromoto then spent a lifetime cultivating the soil, just like his parents and grandparents did. A link in an unbroken chain, twisting its way through the history of this region and state.
Now retired, Hiromoto spends time working through the boxes in his garage, pulling out pictures and displaying them at the 1883 Clarksburg Schoolhouse museum. Usually, he’s able to identify the individuals in the photos, writing their family names in the captions.
When he can’t, he looks to others for help. Recently a couple of descendants have come through the museum and seen a familiar face, helping him put together more pieces of the puzzle.
When all else fails, he has an ace up his sleeve. His 102-year old mother, still here after all these decades, and still sharp as a tack.
