<Begin Segment 10>

KL: Going back to your dad's work as a fisherman, did you spend time ever on his boat or other people's boats?

MS: My neighbor's boat which was a different type of a boat, it was a small boat which was manned by one or two persons, and they fished for barracudas and occasionally they would catch bonito, and they would go out for a day and come back with whatever they caught. And one, I think it was summertime, one summer I was invited by my neighbor who owned one of these little boats, and I went out with him several times in these real small, I don't know the name of this particular type of fishing boat. But it was quite enjoyable.

KL: Did you get to help at all, did you have tasks, or were you along for the ride? Did you get to help out, did they assign you tasks?

MS: Oh, yeah. See, what type of fishing they did was they would drag a line with a... what's the name of the hook that they used that has the shape of an insect or...

KL: Oh, like a fly?

MS: Fly, yeah, that has a fly on the end, and what you do is drag it behind the boat and sort of move it around, and that would attract the barracuda. And then when you caught one, you could feel it because of the drag, and you pull the barracuda onboard and really knock it loose from the hook and go for the next one. That's the way they fished for barracuda. But once in a while a bonito would get caught, and you could feel it right away because it's...

KL: They're big, right, bonito?

MS: No, not in length, but they're more powerful as a swimmer. They're harder to maintain and you really have to pull the line and drag it in.

KL: So you were doing that, you were actually fishing, hauling in...

MS: Actually, yeah, I participated in that. So in a way it was kind of exciting to see how many you could catch. So it wasn't a big haul that they were after, but I guess a good day is when you caught about ten or twenty of those.

KL: And you said you went out a couple times maybe? One summer you went out a few times?

MS: A few times, yeah.

KL: Do you recall the name of, did that boat have a name?

MS: They did but I don't recall.

KL: Yeah, that would be exciting.

MS: Yeah, my mother would pack a lunch for me because it was an all-day thing. And I experienced first how large or big the waves were after you leave the breakwater, and it's almost like when you're in the, not the crest but the...

KL: The valley, the low part?

MS: Yeah, valley. You can't see beyond that, the waves are real huge.

KL: Well, Terminal Island is unusual being so universally fishing based almost. I mean, in my mind there would be even, did you sense any kind of cultural significance, was it kind of exciting that way, too, to be participating in that as a young kid, or was it really, was it really part of identity?

MS: Yeah, it didn't add that much to your identity as a fisherman, but it was what was happening, what everybody was doing, so you just kind of blend in.

KL: Who were those neighbors? What was their name?

MS: You got me. [Laughs]

KL: That's okay. Were you ever on the boat that your father worked on?

MS: No.

KL: How big of a crew was it?

MS: Gee, I don't even know. The crew must have been, my guess is eight or less, but the crew wasn't that large. The difference about the ships that my father was on in the other daily ships were that the one that used to go out for a day used nets for catching their sardines and mackerels. However, the ship that my father was on, they used poles to catch the tunas. And I don't think they carried nets, so they had their own refrigeration which was ice at that time to preserve the fish until they returned.

KL: Yeah, and tuna is large. Yeah, so it's very different to catch these bigger fish.

MS: Caught one at a time and just threw it aboard.

KL: You said that those longer term ships would go up toward Canada and down toward Mexico. Did your dad --

MS: Yeah, I don't know whether they went as far as Canada or not, but I know they went down towards Baja if I recall.

KL: Did he always go toward Baja or did he have a particular route that his ship followed?

MS: I don't know, I don't know that.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.