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TI: So let's talk a little bit about Steveston and what you can remember. So describe Steveston. What was it like for you growing up there?

MO: Well, it's a pretty good place, a lot of Japanese, I got a lot of friends. And we used to go to... I went through high school, you know. So when you go to high school, we used to take a tram from Steveston station to Cambie, it was about half an hour.

TI: Okay, so it was the actual train that you would take?

MO: A streetcar.

TI: Streetcar.

MO: Yeah. And then after, generally after school, I think I'd go to a Japanese school for an hour or so.

TI: And do you recall where you went to Japanese school? I was reading something about, I know there was a Japanese school where the Japanese Fisherman's Benevolent Society, by the hospital, there was a school there.

MO: Yeah, I think so, yeah.

TI: Was that the school that you went to?

MO: Yeah.

TI: And describe that. Like in your class, how many people were in your Japanese language school?

MO: Oh, Japanese people? I mean, my room is maybe half a dozen Japanese.

TI: And were there other classes going on at the same time as yours?

MO: Yeah.

TI: Like about how many, do you think?

MO: How many people?

TI: Yeah, like how many people total were there during that time?

MO: Japanese people? Maybe about ten.

TI: Going back to Steveston, you said there were quite a few Japanese there. What other races were there? Were there very many white people there in Steveston, too?

MO: Yeah. There was Japanese, I mean, there was white people there.

TI: How about any other races? Like were there native Canadians there or other races besides white and Japanese?

MO: I don't think there was any... I don't remember having any relationships with white people.

TI: So when you think about Steveston, what kind of work did people do in Steveston?

MO: Mostly fisherman, and there was farmers. There was... I think there was two or three Japanese confectionary store. They handled Japanese food.

TI: Do you remember things like restaurants there?

MO: I don't know if there was a Japanese restaurant when I was growing up.

TI: How about a hotel or something like that? Do you remember hotels?

MO: Hmm?

TI: Like hotels? Were hotels...

MO: There's a Steveston Hotel was run by hakujin, though, white people.

TI: So fishermen, farmers, you had the stores, how about like canneries? Was there a cannery?

MO: Yeah, there's about three or four fishing canneries. I remember Gulf of Georgia, Nielsen Brothers, and another... there's about three scattered on the Fraser River.

TI: Wow, good memory that you can remember that, that's really good. And so I'm thinking of the salmon industry, and it feels like it comes in, what's the right word, like different seasons. Like during fishing season, the place must be really busy with the fishing boats and the canneries. During that time, did people from outside come to Steveston to work or was it just pretty much the Steveston people?

MO: I don't think so, I don't think so. Some of the ladies were working in the cannery, and before the war, I don't think my mother worked there, but she worked after she went back.

TI: Went back after the war. Well, when it was, like, not fishing season, what was Steveston like? Was it a lot quieter or did it just seem pretty much the same all year round?

MO: Oh, it's about the same all year round.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.