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MN: Well, let's go back to Terminal Island. [Laughs] There was a benshi on Terminal Island. Tell us what a benshi is, and how did you get in?

CH: Benshi?

MN: Benshi.

CH: Oh, you mean a movie? Oh, movie was only ten cents. Where you gonna get the ten cents? We were seven or eight or nine years old, around there, you know, before, before the war, 1933, '34, '35, they didn't have movie. I mean, they had movie but they didn't have the speaking type of movie. They had a benshi, you know what a benshi is? He'd get on the side of the movie and he'd imitate woman's voice or different voice, and that's the movie we used to watch. And that guy was, you got to be pretty talented to use different tone of voice. We used to watch that guy and we'd peek over there from... no ten cents. That's why one guy sneak in and open the door, and about ten guys go in. All the kids. They got wise, they close the door, still we got to climb that school playground or fence, then we used to peek in and watch. Once a week we used to do that.

MN: But you also watched American movies also.

CH: Oh, American movie, yeah. And seven or eight, too far to go. Take the ferry, you got to pay five cents to go --

MN: Oh, this is later on.

CH: -- across, the ticket, come back, five cents. There's five cents movie, but you got to get fifteen cents to go back and forth. And when the earthquake, 1933, March 10. March 10, 1933, there was a big earthquake, 6.2 earthquake, Long Beach. Long Beach was the center. So we were in Terminal Island, earthquake. So where we gonna go? We didn't have no car or no place to go, so my mother and all the neighbors look out there, tsunami. Tsunami. So boy, all of us -- you know how it happened? When the, oh, that Saturday night we had a Japanese movie like benshi. So to reserve our seat, you know what a zabuton is, the cushion? We had to reserve for my mother and father, about six guys went over there with that zabuton, the cushion, to reserve. We were going like this and all of a sudden, [makes sound effect]. "What the hell is this?" We saw all the building going, moving like that. It's made out of wood, so nothing came down, but wow. Because you know what? There were a few Issei over there, "This is an earthquake," in Japanese. "Jishin, jishin, get out." So we run like that outside, and we go see that thing, and there was a big old water tank near us, and all the strut on the big water tank, way up there, about a hundred feet up, start breaking, pow, pow, pow. And the telephone wire, it'd go boom, boom, boom, snap all over, like everything. And that thing cracked open, you know, it's sand, see, cracked open.

So my mother and father told, the neighbor told us to go to the wharf and see how much the water's rising. Maybe tsunami. So we rushed to the wharf and you know, usually the, from the pier to that thing is about, anywhere from ten to fifteen feet difference every time. The water was that much. We're right there. I run home, and water that much, "Oh, the tsunami gonna come." So few people ran to San Pedro where, take the ferry, higher ground, few families took the boat and went straight to the ocean. We didn't have no car or nothing, so some farmers came from someplace to pick us up and we went to Dominguez Hills. We ran up to there, and all the people were scattered. Terminal Island was empty. Them days, from San Pedro, some other, Wilmington, there's a lot of mix, finger, itchy finger they got. They come and steal. So there's a few people left over there watching over the Terminal Island. But that water came that much up there, it never came. 'Cause Terminal Island, that much more, the whole island would be sunk. 'Cause it's only that high. So those days, boy, every time, aftershock, I didn't know about aftershock them days. One big earthquake come, maybe fifteen second, another one come and another one. All night it's coming. Them days, San Pedro, Friday, they had a track meet at Long Beach Poly, Long Beach Poly High School. They had a track meet, you know. So all the Japanese guys, they were on the track team, they were, track meet, so you know what happened? My friend said, "Today I jumped twenty-two feet." "How can you? You only jump twenty feet." "Yeah, but when that earthquake came, it was two feet harder." I don't know if he's telling the truth or not. He keep on telling, "Yeah, you might be right." That's why I keep on telling him. He told everybody. [Laughs] Well, that was a big one, man. It was bigger than the Northridge. Oh, he doesn't know Northridge, earthquake.

MN: Now, Charlie, you know, when you were a kid, your parents were both working. And so let's say you went to see a yuurei movie, a ghost movie, and you got scared. So where did you go?

CH: Yeah. I used to go, I'd go to movie, and there's a lot of, you know, movie, scary movie. But when the movie was... I used to look around and then run like hell, nobody following me. Then I'd go home, and I'm the only child, see. My other sister was married already. Looking under the bed and everything to see if anybody, nobody did, but still I'm scared. So I used to go to the cannery where my mother was working. See, nobody home, cannery working. So you know what? All the can, can, they... all the can, they got a big box like that where the can come in. And empty, I used sleep in there until my mother finished working. Before that, if nighttime come, I used to go to my friend's. There's a lot of kids around, but, hey, six o'clock, everybody got to stay home. So I used to play with 'em until about eight o'clock. Then I used to go the cannery and sleep over there in the box. So that's why I asked my mother, "Mama," I didn't know, "Mama, don't I have sister and brother like next door and other people?" "Yeah, you got four of 'em in Japan." Huh? Yeah, I found that out... I don't know, when I was pretty old, you know. Yeah, seven of us, six or seven. See, I was the only guy. All the other guys were, them days. At least fifty percent, huh, they sent to Japan? Everybody had big family. Fifty percent, they went Japan.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.