<Begin Segment 5>

MN: Now, after Pearl Harbor, do you remember the FBI coming around your neighborhood to arrest --

TS: Oh, (yes). They cut the wires, shortwave wires off our brand-new Philco radio.

MN: And were they arresting your neighbors?

TS: They arrested some people, but they didn't bother our family.

MN: Now, what were the rumors goin' around about why, why were the FBI agents arresting Japanese Americans? What were some of the rumors you heard?

TS: That we were spies. [Laughs] Most of them were gardeners and nurserymen or something like that (and working in) agriculture, but... couldn't have been spies.

MN: So the Terminal Islanders got kicked out of their home in the spring of 1942. Did any of them move into your neighborhood?

TS: (Yes), they did. Lot of 'em came around there.

MN: Did you get a chance to talk to them at all?

TS: No. I was too young then.

MN: I'm gonna step back a few years, before the war, 'cause your family went to Terminal Island quite often, you were talking about summertime. Can you share with us those stories?

TS: The beach, Brighton Beach. That was Little Tokyo Beach. Today it's a navy base there, but there was sandy beach there, Brighton Beach. It was all Japanese. I still remember pictures of that place. I don't know where they are now, but there were Model Ts parked there and all these Japanese guys that I knew.

MN: What did you do out there?

TS: Go swimming there. It's quite different. I don't think there's a beach there anymore. I think it's a naval base or something, (...) they used to call it Little Tokyo Beach.

MN: Did you have any interaction with the Japanese American fishing village on Terminal Island?

TS: No. Well, not at that time. Later on I got a job on a fishing boat and soon as we got out past the breakwater -- I thought I was gonna be a fisherman, that's why I signed up, and the (...) Issei guy told me, "You're the cook." I said, "I don't know how to cook." He said, "Well, it's just too bad." He showed me a room, about half the size of this room full of frozen food in there. He says, "There it is. Start cooking." My reaction was pretty bad. "I can't cook." I learned real fast. [Laughs]

MN: Now, how did you get to Brighton Beach?

TS: My mother used to drive us out there.

MN: So was it common for a Japanese American woman to be driving cars at that time?

TS: I don't know, but she sure was driving. She was always, I can only remember my mother driving us out every Sunday in the summer, we used, my mother was taking us out there.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.