Evening Tribune (San Diego, CA) - Thursday, June 5, 1986

Frank M. Yamada, 92, leader of Japanese community here

Private services for Frank M. Yamada, 92, a San Diego business and cultural leader who personified the struggle of Japanese immigrants in the United States, will be held at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow in Lewis Colonial-Benbough Mortuary.
Burial will be in Mount Hope Cemetery.

Mr. Yamada, who helped found the Buddhist Temple on Market Street, died Tuesday in his Southeast San Diego home.

Mr. Yamada's history here "was an immigrant's story, one of survival," said his daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Yamada.
"He accepted all the suffering, but he accepted the struggle," she said. "They (the immigrants) always came back."

Born in Japan in 1894, he came to the United States at age 16 and lived in this country 75 years. Starting out in the truck farms of the southern part of the county, Mr. Yamada founded and operated various restaurants and businesses during the next 50 years. His first restaurant was the old Frisco Cafe on Fifth Avenue.

Mr. Yamada's early successes came to an abrupt halt with the start of World War II. He was arrested on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and he and his family spent the next five years in internment camps near Santa Fe, N.M., and Poston, Ariz. When he returned to San Diego, he found most of his holdings had vanished. He started over again, his daughter-in-law said, first in the landscaping business and then broadening out to other businesses, including a pool hall in the downtown area.

His wife's family, the Obayashis, started the old Miyako Cafe on Market Street, which was later moved to Pacific Coast Highway. The Yamada family is still involved with the operations of the New Miyako Restaurant on Rosecrans Boulevard.

Mr. Yamada also was interested in preserving the Japanese cultural tradition, his daughter-in-law said, and to that end was heavily involved in the Buddhist Temple. "He was part of all the activities," she said. He also realized his greatest dream, she said, of "getting an education for his children. Mr. Yamada was also a part of the movement to gain reparations from the government for Japanese immigrants for losses suffered during the internment period.

Survivors include two sons, Eugene and Joseph, both of San Diego, and three grandchildren. The family suggested donations to San Diego Buddhist Temple.