<Begin Segment 18>
TI: Okay, so let's move to December 7, 1941, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Do you remember that day?
WM: Yeah. I went to grocery store and Pearl Harbor, and everybody worry, worry, that's all. Nobody bothered after that.
TI: So just when people first heard, then people talked about it and were worried, but then after that, then people... but then eventually, the news came out that the Japanese will have to leave.
WM: Yeah.
TI: When that happened, what happened in Walnut Grove? When people...
WM: Oh, it was sad. Like Walnut Grove, too many people, half of 'em went to Amache and half of 'em went to Arizona. All the farmers went to Tule Lake.
TI: Okay, so three different camps.
WM: Yeah.
TI: So Amache, Poston, Arizona, and also to Tule Lake.
WM: Yeah, all the farmer.
TI: Farmers went to Tule Lake. But the town people...
WM: Half went to...
TI: Okay. But going back to right after Pearl Harbor and people are still in Walnut Grove, so your father has a shoe store.
WM: Yeah. After that, we got to go out, then Jews come, wait for how much they're gonna get it. My dad lose money that day, that time.
TI: Yeah, so describe that a little bit more. So your father has to do something with the store, so describe what he did with the store.
WM: Store, all that shoe, the Jew was waiting for Dad to sell the stuff. He lost money, he don't get half the price.
TI: And so this, he bought the whole inventory, all the shoes?
WM: Yeah. Only shoe [inaudible], we rent the house, you know, Portuguese people, for free. So my dad put all his shoemaker's stuff in the garage.
TI: Okay, so his tools and all his things...
WM: And machine.
TI: Machine, he put into the basement of the house.
WM: In the garage, in the garage.
TI: In the garage.
WM: One side, and he could put one car inside.
TI: And then he rented the house...
WM: Yeah, free.
TI: For free, no rent, but just someone to stay there.
WM: Yeah, just that, watch the house.
TI: And so who did he do that with?
WM: Portuguese, Portuguese.
TI: So a Portuguese family.
WM: They were nice, though.
TI: And did they stay there the whole...
WM: Three year, until we come home, then they go out.
TI: And then, but what happened to the store? So that's what happened to the house, what happened to the store?
WM: Store, it belonged to somebody, rent the place.
TI: So he rented the space.
WM: Yeah. So he just took all the equipment and, making, fixing, but all the shoe, all gone.
TI: And do you recall who he rented the store to?
WM: Brown, Alex Brown.
TI: Alex Brown?
WM: Yeah.
TI: Okay, so you rented it to the person who owned the land, I guess.
WM: Yeah. Like, we stay, they got to pay the place, the crew, rental, too. They couldn't buy the land.
TI: Okay, yeah, they couldn't buy the land, so they... but the building...
WM: Yeah, building belonged to them. If you go out, they'll sell your house, it's all gone.
TI: And when Alex Brown rented the building...
WM: Yeah, town, only town. But the other side, they used to have different guy on...
TI: Okay, and that would be the Dye family. But the Browns, so during the war, what happened to your father's...
WM: Store?
TI: Yeah. Did anyone use it?
WM: Somebody used it, I think.
TI: Did you ever hear your father talking about the Brown family?
WM: [Shakes head] He didn't say much to me.
TI: And what was your impression of the Brown family? Do you think... yeah, what did you know about the family?
WM: Nothing much.
TI: Okay, so let's summarize a little bit. So you're, you know you have to leave Walnut Grove, so your father takes all... so he has to sell his inventory...
WM: All the shoe...
TI: ...at a really low discount, so he didn't make much money there. Then he moves all his equipment and tools to the basement of the house.
WM: In the garage.
TI: And a Portuguese family rents the place, and then he then rents the building back to Alex Brown and then someone else uses it.
<End Segment 18> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.