<Begin Segment 8>

SY: So I kind of would like to get a sense of Terminal Island back then, and your father's pharmacy and what kind of business he had, so can you describe his store and what that was like, who came?

YY: Well, it was about half the size of the store we had in Los Angeles, and he still had his liquor license so he was able to sell liquor. And that was the big thing over there because when the longshoremen used to come to work at night they would always stop at the store and buy something to, they always stopped and buy something. But I don't know how the drug business went because most of the time I wasn't there.

SY: So he, it was, it was pretty small, then. It was a tinier place.

YY: Right.

SY: And did he sell other things besides liquor?

YY: Yeah, he sold the newspaper and magazines and things like that.

SY: So his clientele was a lot of the people who worked there, and then...

YY: Yeah, well, the people that come out, the workers that come off of the ships that come, and the longshoremen that goes, work on the ships.

SY: So how was, how busy was it?

YY: It was busy at night. I remember 'cause I used to help at night.

SY: And they would come in and buy, so he sold all different kinds of liquor?

YY: Right.

SY: And then his, how about the Japanese patrons, were there very many of those?

YY: There was a few, but there were more others than Japanese, 'cause there were two other drugstores on the island. There was one on Tuna Street and that was the closer, that was just inside the Japanese population there.

SY: So they mostly went there. And did he have relationships with the doctors to get the drugs prescribed?

YY: I don't know how many doctors there were on the island. I know there was a dentist, but I can't remember any doctors.

SY: So there was no, like, hospital care nearby. The closest --

YY: Well, you go across the street, I mean across the bay to San Pedro.

SY: That was the closest hospital.

YY: Uh-huh.

SY: So when he decided to move there, he must've known that that was the situation, right, mostly?

YY: Yeah, I guess they had to tell him what it, what was better than having a store on First Street.

SY: And how many, can you sort of give us a sense of how many Japanese Americans were in that area?

YY: I don't know, but there was quite a few.

SY: And did you make friends? Did your parents make friends with a lot of families in the area?

YY: I think my father knew quite a few people there before he went, 'cause there were a lot of people from Wakayama living in Terminal Island.

SY: So you think that might have been the connection, that that's why they went to Terminal Island?

YY: That, I don't know, but... and I don't know who told him about Terminal Island, but all I know is that he said we're gonna move. [Laughs]

SY: And they were, would you say most of them were fishermen that lived there, most of the Japanese Americans?

YY: Yeah, and the ladies were cannery workers.

SY: The wives. So they might have, is Wakayama, like, a seaport? Is that...

YY: Well, it's, it's right on the ocean, so, oceanside.

SY: So do you know what kinds of fish they caught?

YY: I know that they went to catch tuna, and I don't know what other ones they, I know they used to come back with a lot of squids. My father's friends would bring him buckets of squids when they came in. Mainly they used that for fishing.

SY: They had mostly small fishing boats, then. And were they --

YY: Well, the ones that went down south, they went out into the Mexico area for tuna. They were much larger boats. They would be away for couple of weeks and come back.

SY: So were there many people your age or your sister's age that lived on the island back then?

YY: I'm pretty sure. I didn't make too many friends because I was, it was only a little over two years that I was there.

SY: And you were leaving every day to go to school. Did your sister, do you know if your sisters...

YY: Probably, 'cause she went to San Pedro High School, so made a lot of friends at school there.

SY: Was San Pedro High School, was it a lot of Japanese Americans there during that time?

YY: All the Japanese from Terminal Island went there, so I guess so.

SY: So you have no sense of how many families were there.

YY: No, I'd want to guess ten thousand, but that's not it. It was maybe a little over five thousand.

SY: So quite a few. It was a big, big community. More, did it feel like more Japanese than Boyle Heights or about the same?

YY: Yeah, there was more Japanese there.

SY: In Terminal Island.

YY: Yeah.

SY: So it was quite a big community. And how many of other nationalities? Do you remember who lived there?

YY: I don't know, there was some white people there, but not too many. And then further away from the fish harbor, there were some people living there too.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.