<Begin Segment 5>

AI: And Dave, what about your education? What schools did you attend?

DT: Well, I went to grammar school in Japantown, then I went to... then in junior high school, Hamilton junior high school, I was very active then. I was president of the student body, and I was a, a editor of the school paper on my low ninth year, and I was, on my high eighth year, I was a debater for the school, and I used to go to the junior high school to debate. So we were very active in junior high school. And incidentally, that was a time when I was living alone, you see. My father, the whole family went to Japan in 1924, right after the great, 1923 earthquake. Then my dad brought me back alone to San Francisco, and left me in care of the, a guardian who was running a San Francisco store. Only thing is, he was a drunk, and he would drink morning, noon, and night. And can you imagine at the age of thirteen, fourteen, I was eating my dinner in the corner restaurant every night, with a meal ticket. And so people don't know that. They think, "Oh, gee, Dave had a wonderful, easy time of life." But you see, so I had a very difficult time, and finally the meal ticket ran out. So what did I do? I went to Hojo grocery store in the neighborhood, and I said, "May I charge, tsukete kudasai, charge my food until my parents come back from Japan?" So I, at the age of thirteen, fourteen, I was cooking my own dinner, sukiyaki, tempura, all kinds of food that people -- that's why people are surprised that I could cook well. At the age of thirteen, fourteen, I was cooking my own dinner. 'Til finally, what happened? The bill kept on mounting, and my parents hadn't come back. So they said, "Gee, we're sorry, but the bills are stacked up quite a bit, and we don't know when we'll be paid, so we'll have to stop it." Then at that time, I had become active in the Japanese YMCA, and Fred Koba, the executive there, heard about it. "Dave, you come and eat at my house." So every night, I used to go to the Koba family, and Mrs. Koba used to feed me. What a story. I mean, average person don't know that.

AI: That is...

DT: "Oh, Tatsuno-san, Nichibei Bussan, had it easy, soft." You see? But they don't realize the real stark story of my childhood. I don't know if I should say any more.

AI: Well, that is a very fascinating story, but it also triggered in my mind, if you were supposedly born in San Francisco and then went back to Japan and returned, is that not the definition of a Kibei, and what do you call yourself? Nisei, Kibei?

DT: Well, no, I was there only about nine months, you see.

AI: Oh, okay.

DT: And then I went to school there for five months. And, you know, going to school there at the age of ten, I became a Japanese in the five months that I... all the classmates, Tanaka-san, Takaoyu, Saburo, they became such good friends in Tokyo. And so when I came back to the United States, I really missed them. I really missed Japan, 'cause I was ten years old then, you see.

AI: Sure.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.