Densho Digital Archive - Frank Shinichiro Tanabe Interview (denshovh-tfrank-01-0010)

<Begin Segment 10>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: Now, during this time, did you have to work? Did you have to help out at the store or what kind of things during the school year did you do?

FT: No. (The) only thing I did do was go to Alaska during the summer. I went in '36, '37, '38, '39, '40, '41. Six years, I went up to Alaska during the summer and worked in the cannery.

TI: So describe that. What was, like how would you get up to the canneries, where would you go?

FT: Well, in those days, each of the cannery had a foreman. And he (...) would select his (crew), and he would provide all the logistics for us. The first year I went, the foreman was a guy named Fujita, who had a restaurant in Seattle, a Chinese restaurant (...). I was fourteen or fifteen (...). I don't know why he picked me. He let me go with him (...) to Stevens Creek near Cordova, and (...) gave me a job as a slimer. (...)

TI: So what's a slimer?

FT: A slimer's a guy that cleaned the inside of the fish (after it was sliced open). (...) That was the first year. The next five years, I went to a place called Hawk Inlet, which is outside of Juneau. And the foreman was another guy, Nitta? (...) But I got some pretty good jobs there as, I started as a butcher (...).

TI: And so what's the difference between a slimer and a butcher? So slimers would clean it out --

FT: Actually what happens is (that) during the first (or) second week in June, and the fishing season is not open, so we work in the warehouse making boxes. The boxes come flat, and we'd open them up and then stitch the bottom. And cans come (...) flat, too. So there's a machine that makes the can round. And then put the bottom on (...). And then, the fishing season opens in, I guess about the (...) last week of June, or first week in (...) July. (...) We live in a barrack-type (building). And there's a kitchen and (a) recreation area. Well anyway, you wake up one morning, look out and there's a scow just loaded with salmon. And then what (happens is that the fish goes up a ladder from the scow) to a holding area (where) the different types of fishes (are sorted by workers into different bins) -- (...) sockeye, and humpback, and the dog (salmon). and then, the canning starts when the line opens (...). All the fish in one (bin) come down (where) the butcher (...) lines up the fish, (and a knife cuts off its head) And then (the slimer cleans the fish under running water).

TI: That's the slimer?

FT: Yeah, that's the slimer. [Interruption] (Narr. note: The fish is moved from the scow to a sorting area where they are separated by species and put into their respective bins: sockeyes (red), cohos, humpbacks (pink) and dog salmon. The kings are hand packed by pros while the others are canned in line, beginning with the butchering machine which cuts off the head, slices the fish, and cuts off its head. Then it goes to the slimers who clean the fish under running water. It then goes to a machine which cuts the fish into chunks and forces them into the cans, which then moves to a machine where the lids are sealed on the cans. The cans then move to a retort where the salmon is cooked in the can. After the cans are cooled, they are packed in boxes, 24 to a box and stacked in the warehouse for labeling and shipment.)

TI: And you're probably, it sounds like you're on your feet for a long time.

FT: Yeah, we start at about six in the morning, and then at ten, we get fifteen minutes for coffee break. And then we (have) lunch (...) hour, from twelve to one. And then (at) three o'clock, another fifteen minutes (break), and then (...) work 'til five (...). And when it's really busy, we go to dinner, and (...) back at six-thirty or seven (...) (and) work 'til nine, (...) sometimes 'til midnight. And then when we break for midnight, we have to, like the butchers (...) clean up their area. Steam clean it, because of all the fish parts (...) and so you get to bed about one o'clock and you get up at five, eat breakfast, and go back to work at six. And, so that continues until the end of the fishing season.

TI: So it's pretty hard, intense work.

FT: Oh, it's long, long hours.

TI: So why would you do that? Is it because the pay was good?

FT: Yeah, we'd get overtime pay. Time and a half (...) after eight hours.

TI: And how large, when, your crew, how large is a crew usually?

FT: Well, it was pretty big. I think there was maybe fifty people, I don't know. About half Filipinos and half Niseis, and other people.

TI: And how would the Japanese Americans get along with the Filipino Americans?

FT: Oh, got along real good. And then (...) there was a little village. I don't mean village, but housing, for the natives, Native Tlingits, (Alaskan tribe). And they were mostly ladies (and) girls, (worked as) slimers and (other jobs).