<Begin Segment 19>

AI: We're going to go back now to your retail business as far as our discussion. What were some of the most important factors that kept you in the retail business and stay in Japantown?

DT: Well, actually, it was more of a necessity. I graduated Cal, took over the business in 1937, closed because of the evacuation, and then we reopened in San Francisco and after the war. And then I lost my son, and I came to San Jose to more or less get away from San Francisco, and we've had -- here in San Jose, we were very fortunate to be able to not only lease the property, but to buy the property, to expand the property, and then to buy another lot next to it and expand the property again. And so we've had students, many students -- well, actually, we opened on Sundays in San Jose, and I asked the students to work out -- I wasn't going to work on Sundays. And so we had a shift of three students in the morning, three shifts in the afternoon. The following Sunday, another group of three, and three in the afternoon. And so that's how we carried the thing on. But now, of course, I'm retired. After all, at ninety-one, why, you're not supposed to be around the store anyway, so I'm retired and thankfully my oldest daughter, Arlene, has been carrying the ball. Because my two sons, one of them is a ski instructor at Sun Valley, Idaho, he's sixty two, and he's still a ski instructor. And my other son, Sheridan, is in his own work, you see.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.