<Begin Segment 13>

TI: Well, when your family got the notice that they would have to leave, what happened in terms of the stores?

SK: We had a sale to get rid of most everything there. But we had a Italian neighbor, drugstore. It's called International Drug. Well, anyway, they were old family friends, too. I mean, they were there ever since I can remember. But they said they would hold the merchandise, whatever was left, and keep it for us. And they were kind enough to hold it someplace, I don't know where. Most of our store, store goods were kept in their basement.

TI: Oh, so these neighbors stored the merchandise that would keep, and then kind of watched the property for you?

SK: Oh, yes.

TI: Did you ever hear any conversations or have conversations with them about that and why they did it?

SK: No. I mean, my folks are not here, so I don't remember, but they were kind enough to take all the merchandise.

JS: What was the family's name?

SK: Isnardi. He was... a very wealthy family now. I mean, his son, I just read recently that his son gave a hundred grand to the city just the past few months.

TI: Now were other Japanese stores able to do similar things in terms of having neighbors?

SK: I don't know. I'm just concerned about our family. I didn't know what they did.

TI: So your family had two stores. They had the, kind of the grocery store...

SK: No, I forgot to tell you that in the early days, our neighbor was a Japanese, I guess you would call it sukiyaki house. Nozu, N-O-Z-U, that was name of this restaurant. They moved down toward the end of the block, and my father was able to have both stores. It was a general merchandise store, hardware and all the groceries. They were... so Sunday used to be a big business. The rest of the town were closed for business, but in those days, only business open, only stores that were open were in Chinatown, so-called Chinatown. And I remember when the war was declared, there was people in the store. It didn't create that much incident. I mean, I don't remember. I remember being in the store, but I just can't remember if anything happened. But...

TI: Okay, so let me sort of make sure I understand. So it sounds like the stores, originally there were two stores, but they merged into one and became a general merchandise store. And what's interesting is in Fresno, most stores were closed on Sundays, but in Chinatown the stores were open.

SK: Open.

TI: So that was a busy day for you.

SK: For most of the businesses.

TI: And how did business change after December 7th? After that Sunday...

SK: Well, I don't know about other families, but I can only tell you about what happened here. But they must have disposed of all their merchandise, and I'm sure we had a lot of sales there. I really don't know how they got rid of their merchandise, but when we went to the assembly center, which was a fairground, that's where we met. But the funny part of it is, the people I grew up with, I never did see anybody. There was just too many people.

TI: This is at the Fresno fairgrounds.

SK: Yeah.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.