<Begin Segment 8>

MN: Let me ask you about the women on Terminal Island. Did they help patch up the net?

JM: No.

MN: What did they do on Terminal Island?

JM: They helped the mothers, clean the house, cook.

MN: What about the canneries, did they work in the cannery?

JM: Oh, yeah. Each cannery has a different blast, horn, so when the boat comes in you know where they're gonna go. So if they're Van Camp (Seafood) they'd have a horn for Van Camp, so when they (...) hear (their horn) they come to the (cannery) day or night.

MN: So you're on Terminal Island growing up, what kind of food did you eat?

JM: A lot of fish. And I hated fish. I liked sardine. We used to cook it on the fire outside and that was delicious.

MN: How did you cook it? Did you just cook it and put a little shoyu on it?

JM: No, we just cook it with salt on them. Then we'll put shoyu when we eat it.

MN: So you eat a lot of sardines, and what, what other seafood did you eat?

JM: Anchovies, mackerel. Mackerel didn't taste (as good). It's not like hamachi. Hamachi, they catch in the cold area, the ocean is cold so the fish has a lot of oil. That's why it tastes good.

MN: Mackerel's known to have a lot of oil.

JM: Yeah, not the local mackerel.

MN: The water wasn't cold enough?

JM: Uh-huh.

MN: How, how about, like awabi?

JM: Awabi? Yes, we used to boil it, dry it and make it hard, then we'd get a knife and carve it and eat (it). That was good.

MN: So people went abalone diving, and was there octopus, too?

JM: Hmm?

MN: Octopus, tako?

JM: Yes. But we didn't eat too much tako.

MN: What's isomono?

JM: It's small sea snails. And a lot of time, when you take it out it curls (...), and that's good.

MN: How did you eat those?

JM: Boil it, salt water. Then you peel it with a knife, I mean, needle. You'd poke it and pull it out. Isomono was good.

MN: What area did you find that?

JM: By the rocks (in areas) like Point Fermin, (Palos Vede), in that area. They had a lot of rocks down there.

MN: So what did Terminal Island smell like to you, growing up? Did you notice the fish smell?

JM: Not really, 'cause you're used to it. We used to watch these hakujin people coming, they had, their nose (closed), with a pin, they, so they can't smell it. [Laughs] When you go out for a (week or so and) come into Terminal Island, then you could smell, but when you lived there you're used to it. And that's a healthy smell.

MN: Now, during the Great Depression, I understand the Terminal Island canneries closed down. How did your dad make a living?

JM: They took the fish to the farmers and they traded for vegetables. My father had a real good friend, had a big hog farm so we used to go there. He used to give us baloney, wieners, (and) pork.

MN: Was that the first time you ever ate meat?

JM: No, we had meat at the market.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.