[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 28, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S1536]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IN MEMORIAM TO DAVE TATSUNO

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I take this opportunity to honor 
the life of Dave Tatsuno, whose courageous documentation of life in a 
Japanese-American internment camp contributed immensely to our 
knowledge of this dark time in U.S. history. Mr. Tatsuno passed away on 
January 26, 2006. He was 92.
  Mr. Tatsuno, born in 1913 to a family who had come to the United 
States in the late 19th century, was raised in San Francisco, in my 
home State of California. Mr. Tatsuno changed his first name from 
Masaharu to Dave when he successfully ran for student body president of 
his junior high school; Masaharu was too long to fit on his campaign 
posters. In 1936, Mr. Tatsuno graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree 
in business and went to work at Nichi Bei Bussan, a department store in 
San Francisco that his father founded.
  After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin D. 
Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which forced ``all persons of 
Japanese ancestry, including aliens and non-aliens'' into internment 
camps until the end of World War II. Mr. Tatsuno and his family were 
forced to move to the Topaz Relocation Center, an internment camp in 
Topaz, AZ. Over the next 3 years, Mr. Tatsuno secretly filmed life in 
the camp with an 8-millimeter Bell & Howell camera that Walter 
Honderick, his supervisor at the internment camp's co-op store, helped 
smuggle in. Because the camera was forbidden, Mr. Tatsuno kept it 
hidden in a shoe box, taking it out only when guards were not looking. 
These images of daily life in Topaz--of church services, of people 
gardening, of birthday celebrations--have left viewers with a stark 
image of what life was like during those hard years.
  After the Tatsuno family was released from the internment camp, Mr. 
Tatsuno's footage of life in Topaz was turned into a 48-minute silent 
film, ``Topaz.'' In 1996, the Library of Congress placed ``Topaz'' on 
its National Film Registry, which was established in 1989 by Congress 
to preserve culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant 
films. Mr. Tatsuno's film is one of only two home movies on the 
registry's 425-film list; the other film is Abraham Zapruder's footage 
of the John F. Kennedy assassination. The original footage for 
``Topaz'' is now a part of the permanent collection at the Japanese 
American National Museum in Los Angeles.
  After the war, Mr. Tatsuno helped his father reopen Nichi Bei Bussan 
and took over the business when his father retired. Through this work, 
Mr. Tatsuno became a prominent and respected businessman and civic 
leader in San Francisco and San Jose, where he eventually made his 
home. He also remained engaged and interested in film. His compassion 
and thoughtfulness inspired many others and he will be deeply missed.
  Mr. Tatsuno is survived by three daughters, Arlene Damron, Valerie 
Sermon, and Melanie Cochran; two sons, Rod Tatsuno and Sheridan 
Tatsuno; his sister, Chiye Watanabe; four grandchildren; and two great-
grandchildren. I extend my deepest sympathies to his family.
  Dave Tatsuno played down the importance of his role in chronicling 
the history of the Japanese-American internment camps, always giving 
credit to Walter Honderick. But Dave Tatsuno will long be remembered 
for his courage and perseverance in difficult times. His film will have 
a lasting effect on many generations to come.

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