<Begin Segment 16>

JK: So you became a general manager at around twenty- -- [coughs] -- excuse me, at around twenty-seven.

PD: No, about thirty.

JK: Oh, about thirty. Did you start working at Dobashi's before?

PD: As a kid, I used to work all the time at the store. I remember I just lived in the backyard, so I remember we used to work 'til, oh, nine o'clock or nine-thirty at night, and I remember going to the Japanese Hall every weekend to watch the Japanese movies, so I saw all the samurai movies, the judo movies, and a lot of, a lot of movies have the Japanese tradition. [Laughs]

JK: So who else worked in the store?

PD: Well, all the family worked in the store at one time or another, but my brothers worked there and my cousins, cousins worked there, and their sons and daughters, they all worked there at one time or another, but not that long. But everybody's kind of moved on, and... I don't know. Everybody's going off their way except now, it's my wife and I, and my cousin and his wife. And my son works just part-time, and he just, he's going to San Jose State right now, so he just works a couple, couple of days a week, two or three days a week.

JK: What are the pros and cons of having family work at the store?

PD: Well, it's hard to push authority amongst the family, so it's a, it's just a, you just do your own thing and do the best you can and hope things work out. So it's just... if somebody's not doing anything, it's hard to say, "Do your job," you know. [Laughs]

JK: And the positives?

PD: Well, you get to meet a lot of nice people, and I think it's, it's been a long family tradition, and you just get to know so many people.

JK: Did your family receive help from any non-Japanese?

PD: Well, during the... I guess it was during the time when my father was around, I guess he had a lot of Caucasian friends. My, my name Perry being, he said I was named after one of his good Caucasian friends, and I said, "Gee, there's hardly any Perrys name, name being Japanese that I know." [Laughs] So... and there was quite a few Caucasian friends among the family.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.