Densho Digital Archive - George Kiyo Wakatsuki Interview (denshovh-wgeorge-01-0007)

<Begin Segment 7>

AL: So before that, what do you remember of December 7th?

GW: Before that?

AL: Yeah, what do you remember of December 7th?

GW: Just the fun I was having on the beach. When we lived in Terminal Island, I remember not too much of that because I don't think we were there very long. Because all I remember is when I would go out and take my fishing pole and go fish by the... there's a cannery, and then they have this outlet with water coming out, the cannery, and then that fish blood and all that stuff going out in the water, so all the fish are out there feeding. So that's where I would go fishing because that's where all the fish were. And I remember going fishing like that living in Terminal Island.

AL: So your family, this is one of the things that confused me, because there's like five addresses listed for your family right before Pearl Harbor, or four. Your family, were you living in Ocean Park when Pearl Harbor happened, or were you already on Terminal Island?

GW: No, we were on Terminal Island, just moved to Terminal Island.

AL: So why did your family move to Terminal Island?

GW: Because that's when my dad was fishing, moved his boat to Terminal Island, and that's where the canneries were. He would go out from Terminal Island and then come back and drop his fish for the cannery.

AL: What was it like moving from a Jewish neighborhood to Terminal Island?

GW: I guess it was like night and day, because a lot of the Terminal Island kids, the only thing they spoke was Japanese. I didn't speak Japanese, so I was like an outsider to a lot of the kids, and we'd get picked on, Jeanne and I at that age going to school. That's why they called the yogores when they came out of Terminal Island, Terminal Islanders when they left for camp, they were the rough ones. [Laughs]

AL: How do you translate yogore?

GW: As "hoodlums." [Laughs] That's the best description, I think, is we call them hoodlums because they were very rough and tough.

AL: So they were rough on you?

GW: In a way, but I never got into too many fights. I don't remember fighting too much when I was in Terminal Island.

AL: How long were you guys living there before the war?

GW: That's what I can't remember. I don't remember if we stayed there almost like six months or more than that. But it's just like a period of time just went like that, to me, that we lived in Terminal Island.

AL: Did your mom work away from home at that time?

GW: Yeah, she was working in the canneries.

AL: Do you know which one?

GW: No, not really.

AL: Was your whole family on Terminal Island together, or were they already married out by that time?

GW: I think they were all married out. The only ones, I think Jeanne and I and May were the only ones living there. I don't know if Ray was there with us?

AL: How much older is Ray than you? Because it says he was in school in camp.

GW: Yeah, Ray was in school in camp. And then I remember when he left camp, he was old enough to get in the Coast Guard, so he joined the Coast Guard. He must have been seventeen or eighteen at that time when he joined the Coast Guard. But as far as Ray, let's see, he maybe was four years older than I was.