<Begin Segment 35>

MN: And then L.A., what did you do in L.A.?

CH: Hey, I'm broke. Everybody had a car. I had to borrow. Going on a date, I got a junk car, all the air and gas leaking all over on a date I used to go like that. No money. So I, only job I could find is going fishing. So I got on a fishing boat, then I went to Monterey, sardine season, Monterey. That boat wasn't too good, didn't make too much money. But going back to before the war, I used to make seven, eight hundred dollars a month, September, October. That's big money. Ten times money the gardener working, and fruit stand worker. Then after the war, I went Monterey, fishing, but they had a strike, that's why we couldn't work. So I came back to Terminal Island again, fishing over there. But that boat, fishing, no good. So what happened was, I know that my Italian friend, went school together. I saw him in the wharf, you know, at the dock, "Hey, Oihe, what you doing here?" "I'm looking for a job." Fernando... Napolitano, something like that. Luciano. "What you doing?" "I'm looking for a job, too." But you know what? I found a job. Yeah, looking for a job. "Why?" "It's scab, we're gonna be a scab, it's big strike. But this one boat, they want to go South America, Central and South America. Would you work, take a chance?" "Sure, I'll go anytime." How's the boat? That boat is one of the top boat in the San Pedro fleet. So I told my other friend that was broke, "Hey, you want to go with me to Central and South America?" "Hell no, I'd rather have fun on the shore." Hell, I'm going. I went with the Italian guys, with my friend, together. And that boat made, the first year I made something like eleven thousand bucks, the boat. All eleven thousand dollars all saved now. You know why? I ain't got no time play. No time to play. When I come shore, you're out already. I had three bank accounts. I was rich. But you know, one vice I had is gambling. All gone when I quit. But I still got GI Bill. GI Bill I had, I went to school. I was gonna work in UCLA, but they told me I got to go to Santa Monica, City College first, when you get good, they ship you to UCLA, something like that.

MN: But hold on, hold on. Let's go back to Costa Rica. You were there for two years, right?

CH: Yeah.

MN: Okay. Then you had all this money, you also had a cabaret.

CH: No, no, wait a minute. You don't get paid right away. The skipper, "Whatever you want, take it." So they got to put it on the books. So I know the mayor and the chief of police, I go do anything, 'cause I cheat 'em. All the people are poor. They're poor, man, those people. No education, hey, I mentioned about Japan bombing Pearl Harbor, they don't know where Pearl Harbor or Hawaii is. Never heard of it. That's why, over there, it's funny thing. Costa Rica is a seaport, the biggest seaport in Costa Rica is Punta Renes. Punta Renes you called it, that's where we was. That's where the Van De Kamps seafood and Starkist tuna company was there. That's where we unload the fleet. But since I treat all the little kids, the shoe shine boys, I had about eleven shoe shine boys following me all over. I got a room over there, all sleep over there. 'Cause they're all from the country. I feed 'em, I do everything. What they make, you know, they either spend it themselves or give it to the father and mother in the country. They all come out to the town. The town consists of about ten thousand people, you know, that port. Yeah, all that merchant, they all go to the port. So hey, I treat those guys good. That's why, then there was a Chinatown. It's amazing. That's why I talk Spanish little bit, I learned. And then Chinatown, I told 'em, hey, over there, Chinatown. They say, the Costa Rican word, they got a word, I know it but I won't say it to you. They say Chinese just like Jew, okay. Chinese, they're telling me, the Costa Rican guys. They're like a circle, they got all different business going on. And the outside people come, they pay this guy. And this guy pay this Chinese, and the money's coming in, never going out. And meantime, that's why the people, they start hating these Chinese people. But before the war, there was four veterans from Japan come fishing over there. Four veterans now, all veterans, commercial fishing. You know what these guys telling these Japanese? "They're the number one people in Hawaii. They hire all Costa Rican as a crew, and they treat 'em real good." So you know, when I was around there, they come around. "You Japanese? I heard you're Japanese." "Yeah, why?" I look at their son, three, Ichiro, Jiro and Saburo. What? Yeah, I look at 'em, real ainoko, you know, not one family, there are a few of 'em like that. Yeah. That's why I treat 'em so good. That's why when I came back to the States, one guy from Costa Rica came, he came and visited me, he remembered. And that guy there, I was married to Flo that time.

MN: Florence.

CH: That guy, he brought big tuna like that. And he told me, "Hey, there was a guy, he brought one tuna." "Who's that? Know his name?" "Yeah, him. He came to see you." But I was working, that's why I wasn't home. And they still remembered. And then not only that, but going kind of ahead, but, you know, there was a, my skipper, he made a boat, thousand seven hundred-some boat, he want me to go, go to Africa. Okay. You know, that big boat carries seventeen hundred ton of tuna. So every trip he made something like, big money anyway. Big money. So he wanted me to go, so maiden voyage to take all the Fish & Game people, police department and fire department, we went out maiden voyage to see how everything operate. And on the boat, I got two Costa Rican friends, they remember me. "Hey, Kareche, what you doing?" My name was Kareche, that means Carlos in Tiko. Tiko means Costa Rica census. Costa Rican people. Yeah, you talk to that guy. Amazing that kind of thing, you keep, small little people, they remember. That's why all the people, kurombo kid walking around, I give 'em fifty cents or one dollar. "Remember, I'm Japanese. You become a mayor, remember what Japanese did to you." I tell all these little ones. You don't know how good these people gonna be.

MN: Is this where you learned how to smoke pot?

CH: Huh?

MN: Is this where you learned how to smoke marijuana?

CH: When I was in Colombia.

MN: Colombia.

CH: I went to the big marijuana company. Marijuana company, can, one dollar. One dollar, big can. I went to, this Colombian, he took me. He's my good friend, that's why. He was a dishwasher on a boat, but he was a Colombian. Only Colombian. He said, "I'll take you to..." what do they call that now? We don't say "marijuana," you know. It's mota. "Mota, I take you." [Laughs] He took me this way, that way, he'd look around like that, up and down, you know, where there's a lot of shack around there. That Colombia, Buena Ventura town. Vacchio? It was Vacchio, Columbia, or Buena Vista, one of the town, I forgot. Took over there, I went to the factory, they got a lot of leaf, that thing. Big screen like this, they put that thing, it's dry now. They go like this, all the fine ones all driving down, like that, all the junk ones. The other ones, they go someplace, I got the good ones. One dollar. No, five dollar. Five dollar, I tell 'em, can like that. I know it's a contraband when they come to L.A., Terminal Island port, I hid it under that net. The custom, they're not gonna, they're looking for not that, them days, they're not looking for marijuana, you know, mota, they called it. They're looking for whiskey and cigarettes. See, whiskey and cigarette, they don't have tax. There's a blue kind of stamp on each one, tax. Over there, that's why we could buy one bottle of whiskey real cheap, and cigarette, too. That's what they're looking for. So whiskey, we get the seabag, right, when we come aboard. They spot us, 'cause, "Hey, wait a minute." "What?" I know it's a customs officer. "Throw your bag up in the air." I know what they mean. I throw it up in the air, nothing happened. "Okay, go home." They want the bottle to crack. So when I used to throw dance party or house party or beach party, all the women's club used to come, 'cause everything, I had everything. And my club was a good, good entertaining club. That's why growing up I had lot of fun.

<End Segment 35> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.