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TI: So I'll ask this question. It's after the war, why didn't he go back to Steveston and go fishing?

MO: Well, I don't think he... he didn't like the work in Winnipeg.

TI: Yeah, so he didn't like that, so why didn't he go back to Steveston and fish?

MO: Dad, my dad?

TI: Yeah.

MO: Well, that's the only thing he knows, only place he could go back to.

TI: To Steveston, you mean, to fish? But why didn't he go back earlier? Why didn't he go back in 1945?

MO: Well, I don't know what year they allowed people to come back.

TI: Yeah, so that's what I read, I just wanted to kind of understand that.

MO: I think he went back in 1948 to fish.

TI: I think '49 is when I read that they let Japanese Canadians come back to the coast, West Coast.

MO: I don't know what happened in the States. Everybody could come back?

TI: Yeah, right away. 1945, people...

MO: '45?

TI: Yeah. But I know in British Columbia, they didn't let that until, I think, 1949.

MO: I don't know whether they were, there was restriction like that or not.

TI: But eventually your dad, he didn't like the seed company and eventually he went back to Steveston to fish.

MO: Yeah.

TI: Do you know how hard it was for him to start back fishing? I mean, was it easy for him to get a boat and everything and start fishing?

MO: Well, he was a good fisherman, so he went to this same... I think he went to fish for Nielsen Brothers when he went back.

BY: And so did he, he had a good reputation and so he got a job, is that what happened?

MO: Yeah, he was a good fisherman, so they knew him. So he didn't have a problem getting a cannery job, I mean, fishing.

TI: Okay, so the family then moves back to Steveston, your dad, your mom?

MO: When Dad went back, the only one that moved back was my mom, Harumi, and the one that... Ellen was born in Winnipeg.

BY: So were there very many Japanese who also returned to Steveston or was it much, much less after the war?

MO: I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if there's that many fishermen that went back to fish or not.

TI: Yeah, I'm sure it shifted a lot.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.