Densho Digital Archive
Japanese American Museum of San Jose Collection
Title: Perry Dobashi Interview
Narrator: Perry Dobashi
Interviewer: Jeff Kuwano
Location: San Jose, California
Date: October 29, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-dperry-01-0010

<Begin Segment 10>

JK: What financial impact did the evacuation have on your family? You were mentioning earlier about a lot of debt.

PD: Yeah, well, those days are past and I don't know, we just... we worked hard, and the store became successful at one time, and it did go through times where we did a lot of things. After coming back from camp, we sold... I don't know, they sold Mercury outboard motors and fishing hooks and fishing poles, and they sold shoes and farming equipment and hats and all kinds of stuff after the war.

JK: So going into camp, what was done with the stores? Did anybody look after them?

PD: Well, the store was kind of boarded up, and there was a couple of families around that took care of the Japanese community. I remember there was a shoe shop next door that took care. I can't remember the other fellow's name that took care of the Japanese community, just slipped my mind. [Laughs]

JK: And your home?

PD: We boarded up the home, and it was kind of, it was... I remember coming back, I remember a lot of weeds there.

JK: Did you hide any assets?

PD: Not that I know of.

JK: Or more or less your family. So it sounds like, so were all the stores, were they, were they boarded up and saved, or any of them, did any of 'em have to be sold off, closed down?

PD: I remember when we came back, the Buddhist Church had the, it was... they had a big building, and they had a lot of families living at the Buddhist Church. And there was a hall there, and quite a bit of number of rooms and there was some housing across the street. So...

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.