<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Okay, you were talking about, you went as far as Newport Beach and Santa Monica, which is actually not very far compared to now.

JM: And Catalina (and San Clemente) Islands.

MN: Now, when your father went out to the ocean, did you miss your father a lot?

JM: No. We had so much activities, in fact, my mother used to push us out so we don't get in the way. So we were busy playing.

MN: Your family, did you have a shortwave radio where you could contact your father?

JM: Yes, every family did. That's the only way they could contact their father to find out what's happening. And (...) we used to listen to the shortwave radio and hear them talking. When the war broke out, every family had a big pole for antenna to catch the shortwave radio, and they thought that we were listening, (and) were contacting Japan. That's one of the problems. But it wasn't. We were just listening to the fishing boats.

MN: Didn't every family also have a big pole to dry fish?

JM: Right. [Laughs]

MN: What did you call those poles?

JM: They used to make himono. They'd dry the anchovies, sardines, mackerel.

MN: Now, when your father wasn't out in the ocean, what was he doing on shore?

JM: Usually they're working on the nets, because the nets have to be patched. There's a lot of (torn areas that had to be patched).

MN: What was the net made out of?

JM: Before, it was twine, then later on they started getting nylon so it was stronger. But it still tears and had to be repaired.

MN: So when you say these nets are big, how big are these nets?

JM: One fathom, it's about six feet, and usually it's about two hundred fathom long. It's about five fathom deep.

MN: That's a big net. How heavy were these nets?

JM: Pretty heavy. Nylon, it got lighter. But on the nets, see, when they pull the net, pull it up and put it down, each man has a certain amount, so you have to get that, but you have to leave a slack in between 'cause the guy next, he's pulling too, but he takes the slack off, you pull the nail from the (guy's fingers) next to you. So they're always cussing each other out, seems like they're fighting, but they're not fighting. That's the way they talk. That's why Terminal Island guys, when they talk everybody think we're always fighting, but that's the fishermen language. In fishing everything is rush, rush, double time, triple time 'cause you have to bring the fish in before the net (tears), and when you have a lot of fish in the net it (tears).

MN: So it seems like every time you fish you assume the net's gonna break?

JM: Yeah. Lot of time it doesn't, but, because we'll bring it in fast enough. Sometimes we have hundred (tons) of sardine in the net. One time we had so much fish it took the whole net underneath the boat and came up on the other side. Then you can't pull the net, I mean, boat back 'cause the net is under the propeller (...), one time in Newport Beach the school was so big we lost over half of the school. By the time we saved the fish there was only about twenty-five, thirty ton out of a hundred ton school. So when you're so much in a rush you can't talk nicely to each other. You got to talk real fast. So when we went to Manzanar everybody think that we're really bad 'cause of the way we (spoke). [Laughs] So I used to explain to them, "That's the fisherman's language. We're not fighting. That's the way we talk."

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.