Densho Digital Archive - Susumu Iwasaki Interview (denshovh-isusumu

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RP: Did you have other activities or events that you did at Japanese school?

SI: Not really. The only thing is, see, my dad put us through kendo, which is your fencing. And all three of us used to go to our kendo practice.

RP: Your older brothers?

SI: Oh yeah, two... I got two more older brothers.

RP: And the kendo practice was held at the, at the church?

SI: No. It was at the... we had what they call a community center like. It's a hall.

RP: Fisherman's Hall?

SI: Well, I guess you can call it Fisherman Hall because they used to have all the meetings and shows and that's where we used to practice every week.

RP: So when did you first start taking kendo?

SI: I can't remember. Like, I was, must have been about five or six years old. And I did it for about maybe, about eight years, nine years. So, in fact... well, this is after, but I met my kendo teacher in Japan.

RP: The kendo teacher you had in Terminal Island?

SI: Pardon?

RP: The kendo teacher from Terminal Island?

SI: Oh yeah, yeah. He was a dentist and also a teacher. He was pretty good. In fact, not to brag too much, but we were, Terminal Island kendo group was probably about the best on, in Southern California. I mean, I think... we used to go to all these contests in different cities and we were always at top. That I can say.

RP: Terminal Island excelled at baseball, too.

SI: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: You had a, you had a good team.

SI: Yeah, the Skippers was the, the older group. And they were pretty good, too, they... that was the only entertainment for the older people to go and see baseball every Sunday, most every Sunday anyway.

RP: And the, the field was on Terminal Island?

SI: Oh, yeah, uh-huh.

RP: Where was it?

SI: In fact it was right near the Christian church. Then afterwards they, they built another Christian church which was a Baptist church and which is, it's in conjunction with the other church. And the other church, the older church part, they, that's where the Japanese school was. And we used to go there and then for the services was at the other newer building. And I can't remember, the guy named Reverend Nagano was, used to come down from east, East L.A, which was on Second... remember I told you Second and Evergreen? And I remember, I still remember he used to come at evening and we used to go there for something, kind of like a club like. And he was teaching us like Morse code and stuff like that. I mean, it was just little things with the kids, liked to do. And I still remember him.

RP: So who did you hang around with when, as a kid on Terminal Island? Was...

SI: Well, just mostly the neighbor kid, neighborhood. And then we used to go like summertime, we used to go to what they call Dead Man's Island. And we used to go out there and we used to make our own pup tents with gunnysacks. And we used to spend the summer over there. So that was fun. And that's where I first learned how to swim. The kid next door, he threw me in the water and I had to swim. But...

RP: So how far was Dead Man's Island from Terminal Island?

SI: Oh, I would say about a mile, mile and a half.

RP: So you, so you swam over to the island?

SI: Oh, no, no. See, in those days the island was connected. They already connected the Dead Man's Island onto Terminal Island. It was a government land, but they let us go there and pitched and camped. And the immigration was on the far, furthest end of the island. And then this was before they built the prison over there. And so we used to go camping over there and it was a lotta fun. So...

RP: How about Brighton Beach?

SI: Brighton Beach was a little farther. Even, we still used to walk all the way. We used to have what they call First Beach, Second Beach, and then Brighton Beach. So in those days I think... I wonder, I wonder if there was the airfield over there then. I can't remember that. But anyway, Brighton was beyond that, right next to Long Beach. Actually, part of it was in Long Beach.

RP: Where... that was kind of a social area, a kinda of a place for recreation. I heard there was dances there, too, and other activities? Do you remember that?

SI: No, I don't think so, no. [Laughs] In those days, you worked as a teenager, too. The only socializing that we used to do was in school. But that was during the day.