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TI: So let's talk about, other than school and just, and Japanese language school, what other activities did you, did you have?

JS: Well, of course we, like all kids, we played baseball and stuff like that, but I was never a very good athlete myself. And some of the Japanese American kids were very good. They didn't have the physical attributes that some of the others had, they were always smaller. But for their size, they were very good athletes.

TI: Okay, so school, sports, let's talk a little bit about Japanese language school. How was, how was that for you?

JS: Well, it was also difficult, and I was not, I was not a good student there, either. But we managed to get through.

TI: Now, as a family, there were quite a few kids and your parents. Do you ever recall doing anything like vacations or anything social that, as a family?

JS: Well, the social events were like picnics, and going to Alki beach, Fauntleroy, we used to call it Lincoln Park in those days.

TI: Yeah, it's still, it's still there, Lincoln Park's there, Alki. And so what kind of, when you say picnic, what, a community picnic, what would that be like? What kind of activities?

JS: Well, you know, one, the Japanese language school had an annual picnic, and of course they would have races, and they would have a blindfolded, you know, you would try to smash a watermelon and things like that.

TI: And how many people would be at this?

JS: Wow, how many people? Well, when I think about it now, I don't know exactly what the accurate numbers were, but several hundreds, could be up to five hundred.

TI: And this was at a place like Lincoln Park, then, where it was quite large?

JS: Yes.

TI: So you talked about school, and you said you weren't the best student. You talked about sports and you said you weren't necessarily the best athlete.

JS: [Laughs] No.

TI: What did you like to do as a kid? What was your, like, favorite thing, when you think about what Turk Suzuki liked to do as a child?

JS: Well, my dad used to take us fishing, and I enjoyed that.

TI: And this was salmon fishing out in the Sound?

JS: Yes, both salmon fishing and rock cod fishing and things, perch fishing, and even shiner fishing. Do you know what a shiner is?

TI: Yeah, those little shiners.

JS: Okay, yeah.

TI: And so you'd do that off the dock, or would you guys get a boat?

JS: Well, we would do most of that off the dock, but they used to have a boathouse that rented rowboats on the waterfront. It was the Charles Street Boathouse, and my father used to love to fish himself.

TI: Now, you, you kind of grew up more downtown, so outside Nihonmachi, and so it's kind of a different neighborhood, so I don't know as much about what, what that was like. Can you describe what the surrounding, sort of, community around your hotel was like?

JS: Well, most of it was business-oriented except for the public library that was just across the street. And the public library did have a, a lawn area, and some cinder paths through the... it was a pleasant area, and we used to play ball there and play tag and things like that.

TI: And although it was business, you said there were other kids around that neighborhood that grew up there?

JS: Not very many. But there was a school that was within... one, two, maybe three blocks of where we lived. That was called Central School, and logic would seem to indicate that that's where we should have gone to school, but my dad was also impressed with Ms. Mahon, and so he wanted us to go to Bailey Gatzert.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.