Densho Digital Archive
Preserving California's Japantowns Collection
Title: Eddie M. Inaba Interview
Narrator: Eddie M. Inaba
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Jill Shiraki (secondary)
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: December 11, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-ieddie-01-0005

<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Okay, so let me ask, so let me make sure I understand. So after high school, you went to San Francisco to go to college.

EI: Yeah.

TI: But then you came back to help out at the store.

EI: I helped.

TI: And then there was a fire, and then you had to rebuild the store, so you were working there.

EI: Yeah.

TI: Let me ask you about the fire. Tell me about the fire and how that changed the town.

EI: Changed town completely. Buildings gone. I don't know, something happened. [Laughs]

JS: Were you in town when the fire happened?

EI: Yeah.

JS: You were, so you remember?

EI: I don't know. I remember taking the merchandise out of the store.

JS: Oh, so everything was gone. Where you lived and the store?

EI: Everything burned down.

TI: So can you... tell me as much as you can remember, describe the fire and what happened that day when the fire happened? Do you remember, like, how you found out about the fire?

EI: They have a fire alarm going on, this is in Chinatown, own section of the town. So we all get excited, put the clothing on, and we went out -- I don't know what happened. Lot of things happened after that.

TI: So did people help to try to put the fire out? Was there, like, water?

EI: Yeah, water, but they can't do it, they can't control. Too big.

TI: How about, did people get hurt? Were people in the fire, did some people get burned?

EI: Some get hurt, yeah. I don't know what happened.

TI: And do you know what the, in the Japanese area of town, what did people do? Did people go in the Chinese part to help with the fire, or did they stay in Japantown?

EI: Japantown, yeah. They have a Japanese section, about 30 feet or something, about. That's saved, Japantown's saved, Chinatown was all burned up.

TI: But during the fire, what was happening in Japantown? Were people trying to protect...

EI: Fight with, the flame coming to the Japantown. Lot of big flame coming down.

TI: Oh, so there were big flames coming over?

JS: So when you heard the fire alarm, were you sleeping?

EI: Huh?

JS: It was at nighttime, the fire?

EI: Yeah, yeah. Midnight.

JS: So you were in bed.

EI: Bed.

JS: And you hear the fire, someone told you to get up and get dressed?

EI: Yeah, so about three o'clock in the morning.

JS: Wow. And then you ran outside, and you just saw all the flames.

EI: Yeah.

JS: But everybody in your family was safe.

EI: Safe, yeah.

JS: And then where did you go, because everything was gone, your home was burned, your store. So then where did you stay? Did you stay at a friend's house?

EI: Yeah, friend's house, small house. Schoolhouse, the Japanese schoolhouse.

JS: Oh, you went and stayed at the Japanese schoolhouse?

EI: Yeah. Small place. We divide 'em up, like a base camp, everybody's sleeping in one...

JS: Were there other Japanese businesses in the Chinatown section?

EI: Huh?

JS: Other Japanese families?

EI: Yeah. There was about two or three.

JS: Two or three.

TI: How did the Japanese, the two or three Japanese families, how did they get along with the Chinese families?

EI: Well, we just get on, we were so busy. Mostly we were too busy, the Filipino people.

TI: So what happened to all the Chinese families after the fire? Where did they stay?

EI: Well, they scattered all over the place, and they come back, built the small home and everything.

TI: And so your family rebuilt the building, your building. How long did that take, and how did you get the money to build the building?

EI: Well, it don't take too long, about three months or something, we made a two-story building. And then for a Saturday carpenter, he come in and work for us. And had the bank of Alex Brown coming in, he supplied us lumber and everything, lumber company and started us off. And in the meantime, half built or something, we get some guy from Sacramento wholesale house, I think we had a little bit of cash when we were going out. We put a down payment, and keep on accumulating. Then we keep on, keep going.

TI: Okay, good.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.