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TI: And so I now want to kind of talk about your experiences on Terminal Island growing up. You're actually the first person I've interviewed who grew up in Terminal Island, so I'm going to ask you, what was it like for you?

SM: Well, Terminal Island was, especially the Japanese community, there was about, oh, three thousand people. And the, all the menfolks were fishermen, and the women, they were, they mostly worked in the cannery.

TI: So with three thousand people, that's a substantial number. It's almost like a small town.

SM: Uh-huh, it is.

TI: And so did it operate like a small town, there were stores, churches?

SM: Yeah, there were stores. There was a Baptist church and a Buddhist church. And, well, the elementary school, we used to call it, it was all Japanese students, no Caucasian. Well, in fact, there were two, one family of Russian people that lived among us, and these Russians, their kids went to the school, too. And they spoke our broken Japanese like we did.

TI: That's interesting. So with Terminal Island before the war, did, as people walked the streets, would it be common to hear people speak Japanese in the streets?

SM: Well, broken Japanese. Not what you'd call...

TI: Now if you were to leave Terminal Island and go to another, was there a definite change? Did it feel a lot different? Did Terminal Island as a community, was it kind of unique in some ways?

SM: Yes. Well, the thing is, since we were all, you know, we spoke broken Japanese, and not too many English, they kept us half a year longer in our, in elementary school before we went to junior high school across the bay to San Pedro.

TI: Oh, so that was because, primarily because of the language?

SM: Yeah, uh-huh. Because they tried to help us out a little bit more. So we were a little bit older than the people in our class when we went to Japanese, I mean, junior high school.

TI: Because on Terminal Island, they just had the elementary school, then when you got to a certain age, you had to go to...

SM: Yeah, they kept us half a year longer.

TI: Now in your elementary school, like in your class, how many kids would be in one class?

SM: Oh, I would say twenty-something.

TI: Okay, so a regular size class.

SM: Yeah, a regular size class.

TI: And your teachers, were they Japanese or were they...

SM: No, Caucasian.

TI: And when you think about kind of the going out after school, for instance, did you go to Japanese school?

SM: Oh, we went to Japanese school, most of the kids did. But I don't think we learned anything. [Laughs]

TI: And why was that? Because people didn't pay attention as much, or...

SM: Yeah, you just, kids... you're not interested in studying, you know. Well, we must have learned something about the culture or whatever, you know, but not much.

TI: Now, you mentioned earlier how your father was a fisherman, and oftentimes the mothers would work in the canneries. Did the children ever have to help out in any way with the fishing?

SM: Well, no. The fishing part of it is, well, you know, when they go out to see, I mean, you know, the kids are all home and they can't help anyway, see.

TI: But when the ships came in, did you ever have to, like, clean the boats or anything like that?

SM: Well, as far as... well, most of the kids were young then. When the war broke out, I was eighteen, but majority of the kids would be much younger than I am.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.