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MN: Now, when you started working at the cannery, you also collected the mackerel liver.

CH: Right, exactly. Mackerel liver was used for some kind of medicine over there. Shark medicine and mackerel liver, they used to make some kind of medicine out of that. That's why we had to, when the mackerel come in, you know, they got the knife and they cut the guts open, and they throw away. Why throwing away? This old man got smart, he got all the guts, from the guts he took the liver, about that big. You know the Hill & Hill coffee can? You fill up that, get twenty-five cents. So go fast, about ten guys working. You know, twenty-five cents, sometimes we went three or four. That one dollar an hour. My mother was making only thirty-nine cents an hour, we were making more money than our mother. And that was good, but once in a while. You don't catch that much mackerel.

TI: Who would buy the livers?

CH: Gee, I don't know. He was taking someplace, that guy. I don't know who was selling. But shark, shark... that liver was a good liver. That shark you got to catch, but there wasn't no shark catcher. Only once in a while it comes in the net. But fishermen, this is later year, but fishermen make the most money than the gardener. Fishermen, you know, you don't find too much lazy guy when you catch the fish. You could see dollar in the net. That's why they got to hustle not to lose the fish. Even a lazy guy work hard. [Laughs] If you, one hole like that, all the fish go out. That's why everybody work hard. I did fishing for... I come back to that later, maybe.

MN: Well, you know, when you were a child, you said you collected stamps?

CH: Oh, stamp collector? Oh, yeah.

MN: Yeah, where did you get the stamps?

CH: I used to go a stamp collector, stamp was cheap, you know. Like ten cents or something, whole bunch of stamps, you get it from... I was fascinated by looking at Santa Lucia. "Where the hell is that?" In Nicaragua. I don't know where that kind of... Panama, we don't know where it was. So I had to send the money to collect stamp. And I used to collect Japan stamp. Japan stamp, you know, you get it from Japan, and whenever a ship from Japan come, we used to go over there. "Hey, Oihe-san," "Do you have any kind of stamp?" "Yeah, we got a few stamp," the used one, of course, not new one. "Come up here, and we'll give it to you." So we used to go over there, and they used to give us tamp. And those are sailor, Japan boat, asked you, "Hey, Tom, where you from?" "Hey Martha, where you from?" You know, he's asking us guys. We got about ten guys collecting stamps. So we went up there, and by the way, "I'll feed you zendai." Zendai. "What the hell is a zendai?" Zendai is the mochi and that, some beans in there kind of thing. That's the first time I ate that kind of thing. Boy, we were all hungry. Oh, we ate that thing after we finished eating that thing. They'd say, "Hey, by the way, Tom, what part of, your parents, what part of Japan you come from?" "Martha, what part of Japan you come from?" They're asking us guys. Hey, we don't know where we came from. So one guy knew. One guy knew, [makes sound effect], he said, you know. "Wakayama-ken, Nishimura-gun, Wakuka-mura," he said. "How about you then?" "We're all same place." We didn't know where we come from. But this one guy, he knew it. You know, so I went to my home, I asked my, that's the first time I asked my mother, "Where you come from?" So that's the time I learned. That first word, she told me the first thing, I remember. I never forgot. It's amazing when you're young, you remember things, you know that? I still remember a lot of things my father teach me. It's amazing when your mind is still brand-new yet, that's why you go, remember all the different kind of things.

MN: How old were you when that happened, when you went home and asked your parents, "Where are you from?"

CH: I must have been about seven, maybe. Seven years old, seven or eight years old. Nobody asks that kind of question when you're going to school, "What part of Japan you come from?" "Where you was born?" We're too busy playing. [Laughs]

MN: Now, the other ships also were coming, and you helped bring grocery to them.

CH: The what?

MN: You helped bring grocery to the people on the ship.

CH: Oh, yeah. That was, that was back in 1933/'34. '32, '33, '34, I was working on a grocery, I was helping, my friend had a grocery store, I was helping my friend's parents over there. So they load up the truck with a lot of merchandise and they go, all go to that port of Terminal Island harbor where all the big ships were docked. And L.A., L.A. Harbor you called it in them days. So all these ships, we take that truckload of merchandise, as my friend, "Hey, where we going with that truckload?" "Oh, there's a Japan ship coming, and we got to take it to them over there, I mean, sell it to them." So all the ship they had come, the ship name was Brazil-maru, Paraguay-maru, Peru-maru, Rio de Janeiro-maru, and Buenos-maru. There was five different ships, they all come. So I go over there, I look at all the Japanese people on that thing. I thought they're gonna come up. Kemomura immigrated over here, you know, so I told him, "Where these people work?" Oh, they're going South America. South America them days. So they bring that basket down, and, "Give me that and give me that, give me that," so we had to load it up. And you know, it's a funny thing, I talked to the Brazilian people that was here, I went to a party, Shinnenkan party, there were two Brazil people from San Palo, they came. And they, you know, those real wealthy people, they want to know the economic of this country right now. So I talked to these people, you know what I told them? I told them the same story. My grandfather was one of 'em, he told me. So he asked me, "Hey, how come you know?" "Hey, I'm old enough. I'm eighty-seven years old, so I know about that. I'm not one born like you guys." So he was amazed, you know. So he tell him, "Hey, Hamasaki-san, whenever you come to San Palo, come see me," he'd show me around. So I ask him, "What kind of business you in?" He's in the textile business, you know that? So you know, I know these are assembly, congressmen in Japan, he was an international wrestling champion named Antonio Inoki. He was from Brazil. When he came Brazil, I treated him real good, I helped him a lot. Then he became the world champion. He's the guy who fought Ali. You ever heard of that guy who fought Ali for fifteen rounds? If he stand up, he's gonna get knocked down. So what decision, Ali. Antonio Inoki, he's from Brazil. So we were talking about that. So be sure you ain't gonna go no Brazil. It's a dirty place, I know. I know South American, Caribbean islands, they're all dirty. Only the front is pretty. You guys never been around there, huh?

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.