Hiroshi “Doc” Takemoto and Tsugie “Rose” Dairiki’s country thought their Japanese ancestry made them a security risk. In return, they created and anchored a corner of Placer County that was pure Americana.
Both born in the Sacramento area, the couple returned from three World War II internment camps and established Main Drug, a Loomis pharmacy and soda fountain which operated for the next 63 years. Neither member of the couple is alive today, and Main Drug has been replaced by an Ace hardware store at the corner of Taylor Road and Walnut Street.
Yet in the back of that store, Doc & Rose Ice Cream Bar carries their legacy on. Teens scoop cups of Gunther’s Ice Cream and fruit freezes for customers sitting on blue stools next to a crate of American flags. It’s a little slice of Mayberry intentionally grounded in quainter times, as Cassidy Myers-Sims wrote in a story published Tuesday morning…