<Begin Segment 3>

MN: Now, your parents' home on Terminal Island, did they own it?

JM: No, the cannery owned the homes. They built all the homes for the workers, the fishermen and the cannery workers, so all the homes were rented, but you had to work for the certain cannery to rent the house.

MN: How many canneries were on Terminal Island?

JM: Oh, about five. Four or five.

MN: Which was the largest cannery?

JM: Van Camp Seafood and French Sardine were the biggest.

MN: Now, for us non-Terminal Islanders, can you explain to us where East San Pedro refers to?

JM: East San Pedro is, they named it Terminal Island because it's east of San Pedro and it's west of Long Beach.

MN: And on the island itself is, what area of the island is East San Pedro?

JM: Southwest side. That's where the fishing village was.

MN: The Japanese fishing village? Where did the non-Japanese people live?

JM: There was another section, it's in northeast, they had another community over there. But in Terminal Island, the Fish Harbor, there was only one Russian family, one or maybe two, and they all spoke Japanese.

MN: So the, why was the Russian family living in that area and not in the northeast side?

JM: [Laughs] I don't know.

MN: And they spoke Japanese because they were around so many Japanese?

JM: [Nods] Because the kids went to the same school we did, and we all spoke Japanese, rough, Terminal Island Japanese. They learned the Terminal Island lingo.

MN: So you're talking about, like, regular school, everybody spoke Japanese at regular school?

JM: Uh-huh, and Thursday was English speaking day, so we all had to speak English. [Laughs]

MN: Was that strictly enforced?

JM: More or less.

MN: What was the grammar school called that you went to?

JM: Mildred O. Walizer School.

MN: So once a week you had a "speak English" day.

JM: Right.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.