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カリフォルニアで遭遇した火事地元紙に書かれた記事のテキストです。何故か読めないPCが多いので、テキストだけコピーして貼り付けました。 San Jose Mercury Newsと言う、私もかなりお世話になった地元の新聞社です。 翌日（当日）にWeb版に出ていた記事のテキストです。
Man, 86, dies in fire at his East San Jose home By Joe Rodriguez Posted: 02/01/2009 07:27:46 AM PST More than a half-century ago, Shizuo and Michiko Itatani paid about $12,000 for a brand new house on Verna Drive in East San Jose, where all the families were like them - Japanese-Americans determined to live the American dream after many were interned during World War II. The small, secluded street hasn't changed much since. It's still very Japanese. But it's probably not a stretch to say that Verna Drive changed forever early Sunday when Shizuo Itatani, 86, died after running back into the burning home he had escaped with his wife. "My dad was always the kind of guy to do everything for himself, and he probably thought he could put out the fire," said Steven Itatani, 60, who lives nearby. San Jose firefighters said the fire was reported about 2:50 a.m. and extinguished shortly before 5 a.m. Firefighters discovered Shizuo Itatani on the floor of the garage. There he remained until about 1 p.m., as rescue workers reinforced what was left of the garage and upper floor to prevent a collapse and injury to others. Michiko Itatani later told their adult children that the couple had smelled smoke. Her husband had told her to call 911, but their phone line apparently had already burned. He told her to run outside and that he would be out shortly, according to his children. San Jose fire Capt. Barry Stallard said Itatani made it out but then ran back in for an unknown reason. "It's extremely dangerous," Stallard said, noting how quickly smoke and hot gases can sear a victim's lungs. "There are a number of fires where people were out - but then went back in and never came out again." As the sun rose over the east hills, more than a dozen relatives would gather with neighbors to embrace, speculate and remember the man who embodied the warm, suburban cocoon that was and remains Verna Drive. The scene resembled a memorial service more than the immediate aftermath of a tragedy. "My dad is missing the biggest event of his life," said Joanne Mine, one of his daughters. "He would have loved to see all these people in the street in front of his house. We can say this because we knew he lived a very good life." Itatani was a member of the Nisei generation, the first born in the United States. "My brother always said he was going to live to 100, just like our mother," said his brother, Haruo "Hank'' Itatani, 89. "I'm sure he would have because he was always his own man." With five brothers and sisters, Itatani worked on their parents' vegetable farm, picked fruits for other growers for extra money and belonged to San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin in Japantown. Haruo Itatani said his brother was a good student at San Jose High School who liked cruising around town in his car during the lunch hour. "He liked driving, driving, driving," Haruo Itatani said. "That was his hobby, even up to now." When the war broke out, the family was one of a minority of San Jose families of Japanese descent that avoided internment by the U.S. government by moving inland. Itatani and his family moved to Colorado, where they managed to survive by farming and working odd jobs. "My dad was independent, his own man,'' Steven Itatani said. "No way was he going to a concentration camp." His wife-to-be, Michiko, spent the war interned at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. After the war, Shizuo Itatani's family returned to its farm in San Jose, which was held for them by farming friends. The young man, however, soon tired of farming. He drove trucks, opened a business repairing wooden boxes and eventually became a gardener before retiring. He also met and married Michiko, and they raised six children on Verna Drive. Relatives and friends generally described him two ways: stubbornly independent, argumentative and demanding - yet extremely generous and protective of his family and neighborhood. "You didn't want to argue with my father," Mine said. "He was always right." Still, he attended every baseball and basketball game his children played. He liked repairing cars. When five of his grandchildren got their drivers' licenses, he gave them a repaired car and a gas card until they got through college and into their first jobs. "If you were his family or friend, he'd do anything for you," said Ryan Matsuura, 31, a grandson and electrical engineer. He was only 16 when Grandpa gave him his first car, a 1981 Honda Accord. At the same time, Shizuo Itatani's children said, he never voted or participated much in civic life. "My dad didn't care for politics at all," Steven Itatani said. "His thing was his family and this street." Jess Navarro, a Mexican-American barber, said he was the first non-Japanese 45 years ago to move onto Verna Drive. "I'm the one who ruined the neighborhood," he joked as a few Itatanis around him laughed. "He was very helpful to everyone, not just to family." When someone's car or lawn mower broke down, he was there to fix it. He kept an eye out for strangers and looked after neighbors' homes when they went on vacation. He invited neighbors on daylong drives around the Bay Area, and he enjoyed long-distance RV vacations with his wife and children. When medical examiners finally rolled his body out of the charred garage Sunday afternoon, family and friends were there to say the first of many more goodbyes to come. A memorial service at San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin is pending. |
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