<Begin Segment 7>

SY: So did you know when you graduated what your next, what you were gonna do next?

YY: No. My father told me to go to pharmacy school. But I thought maybe I would save more money by going to junior college and take all the necessary things that wasn't involved in pharmacy, so I spent a year at Compton College, then I went, I just went to USC for about a year in the pharmacy. No, not even a year, I just went a semester 'cause the war broke out in 1942, '41, 1941.

SY: So when you graduated from high school, then you moved back with your parents to Terminal Island, and then you commuted from Terminal Island to Compton College? Is that how you did it?

YY: Uh-huh.

SY: And that, were, was that common for kids your age to be going to school on the bus?

YY: No, I had a car, so I don't know how the other kids went to school. [Laughs]

SY: You actually had your own car, not the family car?

YY: Well, nobody used it because my mother hadn't had, didn't have much places to go to anyway, so I would use the car all the time. So I used the car to go to school and back.

SY: So can you describe what Terminal Island was, where, how it was situated, where it was exactly in Los Angeles?

YY: It's right across the harbor from San Pedro, and it's right next to Long Beach, and there was a beach they used to call Brighton Beach where everybody, Japanese used to go there all the time. And Terminal Island, the Fish Harbor area was all Japanese. I don't know how many families there were, but it was mostly all Japanese. Maybe there was one or two other different minorities there, but it was all Japanese.

SY: And that was someplace that people originally settled when they came from Japan, most of the people? Or did they move there after they came?

YY: That, I don't know. They had a pretty good, pretty good sized shopping area called Tuna Street, but, and we were on Seaside, so we were a little further away from Tuna Street.

SY: So where, where exactly did you live and where exactly was your father's pharmacy?

YY: Our store was on Seaside, and what was the other street? Anyway, address was (102 Terminal Way), I think it was. 'Cause we were, and we lived up above the store. We had...

SY: It was the same building. And was it right on the water or right across from the water?

YY: No, it was about a block away.

SY: A block away. And were there other homes around you, or was it all businesses?

YY: Mostly it was all business. There was homes -- no, there were homes on Seaside, come to think of it.

SY: And how did you actually get from San Pedro to Terminal Island?

YY: Terminal Island, well, they had a ferry, and it must've went pretty frequently. I used to go there on Sundays to pick up the newspaper and bring it to the store to sell, the Sunday paper.

SY: You had to go on the ferry and go across?

YY: Across, uh-huh. And the kids went to San Pedro High School, like my sister was going to San Pedro High. They had to take the ferry across every morning and afternoon when they're coming home, they take the ferry.

SY: And you just, it was like a commuter thing where you have to pay and then take the ferry every day?

YY: I'm pretty sure you had to pay, but I don't know how much it was. I guess it wasn't too expensive.

SY: How about when you drove to school? How did you get there in your car?

YY: Let's see, I would... I'm trying to think. There's a, there was a road out on Terminal Island, instead of going to San Pedro, the other way out, so I'm trying to think how it was. I can't even remember that. [Laughs]

SY: But there was definitely a way to get there in a car without having to take the ferry.

YY: Uh-huh. 'Cause the people used to come from the L.A. area into, going to Brighton Beach right there, and I know they didn't go across the ferry.

SY: So did you end up going back and forth, other than going to school, often? Or did you stay pretty much on Terminal Island when you lived there?

YY: I spent quite a few hours away because I had friends that I'd meet. And when I went to Japanese school it was in a place called Keystone, Keystone Japanese School. Every Saturday I would go there for Japanese school, so I made a lot of friends there.

SY: And where was that?

YY: Keystone is now called Carson.

SY: So it was a short drive from Terminal Island.

YY: Terminal Island.

SY: And why did they have a Japanese school there? Was it...

YY: Well, I guess they had a lot of Japanese farmers around there, and they all come from different areas I guess.

SY: So it was a fairly large Japanese school?

YY: Well, I wouldn't say it was large, but there was quite a few students there.

SY: And did other kids from Terminal Island go there? Or just --

YY: No, Terminal Island, they had their own school.

SY: And why did you decide to go to Keystone?

YY: Well, because I met, when I started going to the Compton JC I made friends there and they went to Keystone.

SY: So the Japanese schools, then, were pretty advanced by this time, because you had been... so did you constantly move up a grade in Japanese school?

YY: Yeah.

SY: Same as in regular school.

YY: Right.

SY: And did they have other activities at Keystone?

YY: No, not really. [Laughs]

SY: And what kind of courses did you take at junior college?

YY: Well, things like English, and I remember taking a chemistry class, and mathematics, I took geometry, solid, I remember taking solid geometry, JC.

SY: So your father really, was it your choice to go, to learn to become a pharmacist?

YY: No, it was my father's choice.

SY: That was his ambition for you. And how about your sisters, did he ask them to...

YY: No. My youngest sister became a teacher, but my oldest sister, I don't know, I don't know how long she went to school.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.