Densho Digital Archive - Charles Oihe Hamasaki Interview (denshovh-hcharles-01-0038)

<Begin Segment 38>

TI: Let me ask a little bit about the monument near Terminal Island. How was your brother connected to that monument?

CH: He started it all. He was gonna make it at Terminal Island, the monument. Terminal Island, but that place, that place where you make the monument, it wasn't the ideal kind of place. So the best place was on Terminal Island toward that fireboat station. That's where we made it at Terminal Island. Of course, us guys, $250,000. But since we know the architect, one of my friend's son is an architect. He did it for free. That's why, you know, this society, education is good, but number one is who you know. That's the number one, who you know.

MN: And this is Tamikazu, the one that...

CH: Yeah, Tamikazu. That guy there, he's smart. He's an intellectual. He graduated from University of Minnesota or Michigan, then graduated from SC and graduated Tenri Daigaku in Japan. But when he talk, he can't talk. He could write. Anybody could write. You could think and write, mistake you go over. When you make a speech, you can't go back, "Oh, I made a mistake." You can't say that. Writing you can do anything. That's why when I wrote an article in Rafu Shimpo for, what was...

MN: Hirahara.

CH: Hirahara, Naomi, I said, "You think I could put that thing?" "You wrote that?" "Yeah, I wrote it myself." Look at, "Yeah, I'll put it in for you." See, when I wrote that thing I could think, and I could turn this thing around, put it on top, you could paragraph everything just right instead of jumping off from here and into another. I don't have no education to be a journalist or people who write. [Laughs] So the monument, yeah, we donated a lot of money, all the Terminal Island people. And we donated Keiro home, the hall, we made that, and we donated a museum, a lot of money to get a space, the Japanese space, Terminal Island space. You know what, what's the guy, the promoter? What's that guy who tried to raise money? Kobayashi? No.

MN: Fred Hoshiyama?

CH: Yeah, Hoshiyama. That guy, he came to a meeting, he's talking, talking, talking. You know, I told him, I told my friend, "Hey, this guy's a con man," I told him. "No, you shouldn't say that thing." "Yeah, he is. You wait, what they, speech." I'm telling these guys. I'm telling, "He want money to raise, that's why he's talking nice and sweet to us guys. He's got to organization people. Tuna Street gang, Cannery Street gang, Albacore guys, Barracuda gang, he put everything. These guys got leader, you go to different family, raise money. This guy's a con man. You watch what he's gonna say." Then he said, "You know what? You people, since you're gonna donate, we'll give you twenty-five square feet of the area in the museum." You know what I told him? "Hoshiyama, you sure you're telling twenty-five square feet?" "I'm sure I'm saying twenty-five feet." I think five or six years later, I went to museum. Where the hell is that twenty-five square feet? There's nothing. Only a few picture here and there. So I told them, "I told you. Remember what I told you?" I was right all the way. He's a promoter, that guy. Tried to promote himself. I know a lot of crook, gang people. They're smart. To be a crook, you got to be a smart guy. A dumb guy, he never can be a con man, right? They're all intelligent people. So I get all the information, then I learned a lot of things from each different personality, all different people, right? That's why you talk to people. So that's why I tell my brother, "You're too intellectual. You got to go to any people's level. You got to talk to poor people, dumb people, medium people and intelligent people. You got to be versatile. Then you get to know the people and they like you. Just 'cause you're smart you're gonna be stuck up? No, that's the wrong attitude to have, I tell him. That's why I got lot of friends all over.