<Begin Segment 19>

TI: So when your family returned to Ketchikan, tell me about the building, the house and what happened to that.

RO: I remember the first thing we had to do was reroof it, which we did. My dad, my dad's a handyman. And then inside of the structure we have all these compartmented areas where Blanco, the Filipino foreman, must have been renting the small units to his workers, so that had to all be taken down. It wasn't much, but... I didn't, I didn't see anything different when we went back to school or such.

TI: How about the store? Was the store pretty much the same, or what changes happened in the store?

RO: The store basically was the same, and I'm trying to think of when we went back what we, I think we had a liquor store. See, we had a lot of different businesses, but the thing is we had the liquor store a little bit before we left for camp. But I know, like my dentist, he allowed us to pay what was owed in liquor, which was... [Laughs]

TI: So like a, like a barter.

RO: Exactly, which was fine. Ketchikan in the weekends, during, especially the fishing season, is quite a town, a lot of activity, especially the bars and stuff.

TI: Now, I'm curious, with your family owning a liquor store, were you ever asked by your friends to get a bottle or something?

RO: No.

TI: So you never, never were put in that position?

RO: No. Never. I just remember stealing a package of cigarettes out there when we went swimming.

TI: [Laughs] Okay. So tell me the relationship between, after the war, with Blanco and your family. So he took care of the building and then you guys came back and got it back. I mean, what was the relationship like with Blanco after the war?

RO: It was fine.

TI: So his barber shop was, stayed the same place.

RO: Barber shop was there. We didn't have to pay him anything for, 'cause he was leasing, not leasing but doing his own thing with the building. But it wasn't really damaged badly or anything. It was fine.

TI: So the arrangement was as long as he kind of watched over the building, he could use it and lease, rent spaces, and when you guys came back it was just there for you.

RO: Exactly. You know, we became an ice cream parlor too, and there used to be a gang of kids called the Pioneers, and my brothers, other Japanese kids were members of that with some others, Native Americans and a couple Caucasians, and it was like a gang today in a way, but very mild in comparison, and they used to come in the store for ice cream and play the jukebox and just hang around. But a lot of 'em are gone now. They were good, good kids. It was pretty good clean fun.

TI: How many of the Japanese families came back to Ketchikan after the war? Earlier you mentioned maybe around, a little under sixty were there before the war, and so what happened to the population after the war?

RO: Tatsudas came back, I know that, and I know the Suzukis did not. They, they had this real good business, really good business, a laundry. And I'm trying to think if Martha was up there after.

MO: Martha and them didn't go. She didn't have a father. He died in, before the war?

RO: No, no. Harry.

MO: I forget what he --

RO: No, he didn't die before the war.

MO: Was it during camp?

RO: I think it was after.

MO: I think it was in camp.

TI: But it sounds like, though, the population went down, though. It was bigger before the war and then it dropped.

RO: Exactly. (Yes). I guess the people that were there decided that maybe it's not gonna be the same, you know? They had no idea what their reception would be.

TI: And how about your parents? Did you see any difference in terms of how they approached life or their business after the war compared to before the war? I'm looking, like was there any impact because of that time in the camps for your parents that changed them?

RO: It's like my dad, it's like the Niseis do, they don't talk much about what they endured or stuff. But no, I think their reputation -- this is an incident when I was in the service. I came back, discharged, and there's this alley next to our store, and I had this pickup and I was backing up in there, and I accidently knocked the trim off the side of one door, and the guy next door in the hardware store come out and yelling like heck. And so I'm yelling back at him. The cops came, start talkin' to me, and he says, "What's your name?" "Bob Ohashi." "Oh, are you Buck's son?" That's all there was to it, see?

TI: So once they knew who you were, then you were, you were fine.

RO: That's all there was to it, (Yes). See, that's the way the reputation of the community was, actually.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.