My Exploration of the Japanese American Community in San Jose, Ca: My Interview with Arlene Damron

On Wednesday April 14^th I met Mrs. Damron at her specialty shop store Nichi Bei Bussan located on 140 Jackson st. in Japantown, San Jose. When I initially arrived I was amazed at the different things that were being sold there. I was introduced to a new culture just by observing the unique items on the shelves. There were different books sold that are based on different subjects. Nichi Bei Bussan is like a miniature version of the Macy’s department store. Instead they sold cultural clothing such as the kimono, martial arts uniforms and gear, bedding, art supplies, fabrics, Japanese figurines, and small nick-nacks. It was very interesting to see the cultural items that were being sold there. In the back of the store there is a small section devoted to the history of how the store was created. There are many newspaper articles and family pictures in frames that show the different generations who were behind the creation and start up of Nichi Bei Bussan.

Mrs. Damron is Japanese American and is the second generation born outside of Japan. She is distinguished as a member of the Sansei (second) generation. She was born in a horses stable in one of the ten internment camps, Topaz Relocation Center in Utah during World War II. Her family was one of the first internees who were moved in September 11, 1942. She explained that her grandfather traveled to America by boat from Nakano, Japan. The reason for his move to America was because he was the middle born child and was not going to inherit the family merchant business. Therefore, he came to America to see what opportunities existed here for him.

Before the turn of the century he founded Nichi Bei Bussan in 1902 in San Francisco. Her grandfather went into business with American suppliers. Japanese people would come in the store, fresh off the boat and wearing their kimonos and he would send them out the door wearing western cloths.

Mrs. Damron’s father, Masaharu Dave Tatsuno, who later inherited the business attended and graduated from Berkley University in 1936 majoring in business.

There was a photo of Mrs. Damron’s father Dave and her oldest brother displayed at the store. Dave and her brother who was two at the time held a hand lettered sign saying, “Evacuation Sale” because her father had to close the businesses doors. Now a copy of this photo is on a doorway at the Smithsonian Museum in the Japanese American exhibit.

Her father tried to sell everything because they did not have enough time before being sent to the camps. The items that they were not able to sell were put in storage at a home that they owned at that time.

At the time when her family was living in the camp, her father, Dave secretly filmed life in the camp with an 8-millimeter camera. He filmed daily life, church services, people gardening and birthday celebrations. He hid it in a shoebox, taking it out only when guards were not looking. She mentioned to me that watching the 48-minute silent film was the only memory that stands out in her mind about those dark times. In 1996 the Library of Congress placed “Topaz” on its National Film Registry to preserve its rich culture and history. It is now part of the permanent collection at the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles.

After the internment camps, Dave decided to reopen Nichi Bei Bussan in San Francisco. Since they no longer had the leased building, he decided to jack up a house and build the store from scratch underneath in 1946. They decided to close that store due to personal reasons and moved to their San Jose location, where they are currently located in.

Masaharu Dave Tatsuno who was and is still well known in the Bay Area Nikkei community for operating the Nichi Bei Bussan stores in San Jose and San Francisco, California was born in 1913 and passed away in January 2006 at the age of 92.

Mrs. Damron see’s the whole journey of the internment camps as a “testament to the enduring spirit of Japanese” where in Japanese it is called, “Shegata Ganie”. Shegata Ganie is like a cultural saying which means that some things can’t be helped, you just need to go with it, and you need to give the best to whatever life gives you. She shared with me that her grandfather told her father just before they were going to the internment camps to treat it as a great adventure. “You can’t always determine what comes into your life but you can certainly decide how you are going to respond to it, and that makes all the difference in your life.”

On the back of the photo it says: "To Eleanor Gerard from the Tatsuno Family Topaz Jan 1945" Standing: Dave Tatsuno, who was the head of the co-op, his wife, Alice Okada Tatsuno; Dave's three children, Sheldon, Arlene and Rodney; and his father, Shojiro Tatsuno. Dave began a branch of the YMCA at Topaz.