<Begin Segment 6>

JK: Are there any memorable, any other memorable stories that your family shared with you about that prewar era?

PD: I guess, I don't know, it seemed like in the olden days, the community was a lot closer, and they had, they had their festivals and they had the sumo and they had the baseball. 'Cause a lot of people talked about the baseball teams that San Jose had, and they, they'd go to the community center, and looked like they had a good time. Everything, everybody was close, and everybody just knew each other more.

JK: And did your family experience any prejudice or discrimination before the bombing, before the war?

PD: They didn't talk about the discrimination too much, about that time, but I know that they were told that I guess there was a lot of people that got hurt from it, and they did destroy a lot of valuable sumo outfits that my father had, and he had a lot of sumo robes and a lot of traditional Japanese items that they burned, and they were sorry that they did. And I heard people had swords, and they just threw 'em in the outhouse and buried 'em or whatever. So there was a lot of things that people lost before going to camp, because you were only limited to, very little to take to camp.

JK: Did you ever find out who these people were that burned some of the...

PD: No, they had, they burned 'em themselves. People destroyed what valuables they had, or memorabilias connected to Japan to prevent their ties or, if there were too much ties to Japan, that they would get into trouble, so that's why they were destroyed, I think.

JK: Have any of the articles been saved from his wrestling days?

PD: Oh, I do have some trophies thrown in some old suitcases, but most of the trophies that he won were donated back to the sumo clubs. They just, I guess they must have just, just changed the plaques or something at the time, and just gave, gave 'em back out.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.