<Begin Segment 26>

RP: You returned back to the United States and where did you first come to when you came back from Japan?

TI: Oh, from Japan? Where were we? Gosh, I can't remember. Yeah, I can't remember where I went to being discharged from the army.

RP: Did you return back to Terminal Island at all?

TI: Oh no, no. I'd been there several times but... I guess you've heard of the memorial monument we have there? I've been there several times. But aside from that I don't remember going to Terminal Island.

RP: After the war?

TI: After the war, yes.

RP: And did you hear what, what happened on the island?

TI: Well, yes, just briefly. I don't know who I talked to but I asked what happened to the houses that we had there. Evidently the navy destroyed everything and there's not a building standing there, as far as I know.

RP: And so what did you, what did you get involved in once you came back? Did you look for a trade or go to school or...

TI: What happened... gosh, I don't know. That's a long time ago. Well, I went to a trade school, yes. I was walking down the street one time and a Caucasian guy gave me a paper about tile-setting. And I thought, well, I thought I'd look into that and I did. I got a job right away.

RP: And you stayed in that business for a while.

TI: Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.

RP: Did you start your own business?

TI: No. I didn't have that kind of nerve but last year I think it was, I got a letter from the, my union saying that I'd been a member almost thirty years -- no, fifty years. So, yeah, so this is March isn't it? March, yeah, it's fifty, my fiftieth year with the union. So I said, well, are my dues still continuing? And she said no. I don't have to pay anymore dues.

RP: Well, great. So you're a lifetime member.

TI: Lifetime member.

RP: Wow. And where did you eventually settle? In the Los Angeles area?

TI: Yeah, uh-huh. I don't know how we ever found that house that we're living in right now. But that area at one time had a large Japanese population, the Crenshaw area. And, well, before the war I guess they did have a lot of Japanese living there. But after the war it was a big Japanese area. And, but what had happened was the kids go to high school. They graduate from high school, go to college. And they get a job not in this area but it'll be elsewhere, maybe San Diego, maybe in another state. And the parents would follow the kids so there's hardly any... well, just very little Japanese living there in the Crenshaw area now. We had a lot of Japanese stores, food store. But there's not a single food store there. So we'd have to come into downtown Los Angeles or go to Gardena.

RP: Tosh, I just wanted to return to your father for a moment. He eventually was released from the internment camp, went back to Gila. Did you see him again before you went overseas?

TI: Yes, I saw him... I think I saw him but I can't be positive.

RP: Did he ever...

TI: He, they left camp and they settled in... what is that place in... there's a large community right now.

RP: Outside of California?

TI: Yeah, outside California.

RP: Colorado?

TI: Colorado I think.

RP: They settled there?

TI: I think they did. And then the trend was to come to Los Angeles so they came to Los Angeles.

RP: Did you ever ask your father about what went, what happened to him at the camp, internment camp?

TI: No, he wouldn't say anything. Yeah, it wasn't that, well, just say terrible, you know. They weren't beat up or they weren't, you know, any such thing physically.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.