Densho Digital Archive - Dave Tatsuno Interview II (denshovh-tdave-03-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

WH: How was it when you came back to San Francisco?

DT: Yes.

WH: Tell me what it was like getting started again.

DT: Well, it was, the town was black. The blacks had moved into the Japantowns, so it was all black. Nighttime, noise until midnight and all that. But the people, the blacks were very friendly to us, and then the people, other people like, I went to the wholesalers, oh, they were glad to see me. They were all nice, all very nice, they all felt sorry that the whole thing happened. So I found very little bitterness.

WH: Did you reopen your store?

DT: Yes, I opened the store in 1946, July the 15th. And until then, for one year, I helped evacuees.

WH: How did you help them?

DT: Oh, I spoke at the University of California, I spoke a San Francisco State, I met all the trains coming in, I took them to jobs, I got lists a mile long of all the things I did. Hundred and -- maybe more than a hundred-something, I have a binder full of the things I did for them. Then I finally... not a nervous breakdown, but I had a, kind of a physical run-down, and I figured, well, I helped the evacuees for over a year, so that was enough, and I terminated it. Then I decided to reopen my San Francisco store, and in July the 15th of 1946, we reopened the store. And you know, we couldn't find a location, 'cause we had a store on the corner which was leased, and someone else was in there. We had a, we had a three-story residence next door, and somebody said, "Dave, why don't you jack the whole house up and put a store inside?" I said, "Can you do that?" An Issei carpenter, Mr. Honda. He says, "Oh, you can do that." "How much will it cost?" "About two thousand dollars." [Laughs] At that time, it cost us six thousand, but we lived upstairs while the house was being lifted. And so we reopened the store on the July the 15th of 1946.

WH: What was the address of your store?

DT: 1625, same as our home. Yeah, and then --

WH: 1625...

DT: 1625 Buchanan. Yeah. And then it happened that was July, then the following July, just when we were going to celebrate our first anniversary, our son died. Tonsil operation. Seven-year-old boy, happy, and I took him to the Stanford hospital at that time, and bang. Oh, that really hit us, and we couldn't stay in San Francisco. So we moved to San Jose, and we came around looking at Japantown here, small Japantown, that's how we got started. And opened the store here in '48. See, '46, '47 he died, '48 we opened the store, and we lived in the back of the store for three years until my brother-in-law said, architect said, "Why don't you enlarge the store?" Well, we had to get out, we had to look for a house. We came around here and "For Sale" sign by the owner, as I told you. And built, house was built for five kids, and we had five kids. So we got together on that, you see, and we got in here. So it was one circumstance after another, and very interesting. Then flying a quarter million miles for the Y all over the place. Then I did diving, scuba diving, too, diving in Hawaii, diving in... diving in the Caribbean Sea off of Mexico. Sharks around. I'll have to show you some sharks.