<Begin Segment 6>

RP: Do you have any memories at all of Park City, growing up there?

TM: No. None at all.

RP: Too young.

TM: Yeah.

RP: Uh-huh. So after Park City the family moved back to California?

TM: Yeah.

RP: Where did you settle?

TM: Terminal Island.

RP: Your father took up fishing?

TM: Yeah. Because he had a lot of countrymen that were fishing. So he would get on their boat. But when he got there it's, they were, he had a place to go. Yeah. And then my mother would be working in the cannery.

RP: There were, I think, four canneries at, on the island.

TM: Yeah.

RP: Do you remember which one she worked at?

TM: No, I don't remember.

RP: Did your father ever, ever own his own boat or he just...

TM: No. No, he was one of the crew members, yeah.

RP: One of the crew.

TM: Uh-huh. And, the, everybody on the boat was from Esumi. You know, my mother's family's... yeah.

RP: So he felt very, sort of a kinship with everybody there.

TM: Yeah, right, right.

RP: Did he ever tell you about some of his trips going fishing? How far would...

TM: Oh, they were daily fishermen. They didn't go a long distance. You know they would, they were fishing just locally, yeah.

RP: And what were they after? Do you...

TM: Huh?

RP: What kind of fish were they...

TM: Oh, they were fishing mackerel, sardines, and... not the big fish.

RP: Did you ever go out with your dad on a fishing boat?

TM: No. I hated fishing. I despised living in Terminal Island.

RP: What was it about that?

TM: Oh, it smelled. [Laughs]

RP: Anything else that was kind of repugnant about, about the community? Was it too... some people say it was very "Japanesey."

TM: Uh-huh. Oh, yeah.

RP: And...

TM: But it was good playground. We all had friends and none of us have to work. You know, we grew up just playing. And, oh, we lived there 'til I was eight years old. So that's only, what, four years?

RP: Four years.

TM: And then we went to Japan, 1930. Yeah. Uh-huh.

RP: Do you remember, when you lived in Terminal Island, did you live in housing provided by the cannery?

TM: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

RP: Small rooms? Remember much about it?

TM: I don't know. It didn't bother me. [Laughs]

RP: Uh-huh. You were into play.

TM: Yeah.

RP: And you attended kindergarten in...

TM: Yeah, well, I showed you the picture. I think I went there 'til third grade, yeah.

RP: But your most vivid memory of Terminal Island is the smell?

TM: Yeah. [Laughs] And I never wanted to be a fisherman, yeah.

RP: That cured you.

TM: Yeah.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright (c) 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.