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This oral history is from an interview conducted by the Oral History cluster of the Landscapes of Injustice project.
Well let me try.So he got a big cloak and put it on, from the driver, and he went under the bus, and he fixed the bus. That's the kind of guy he was.
Grandpa, what did you catch today?
Oh girlie-he always called me girlie-
Girlie, I just got a couple of french safes.
He'll come back some day.Because he just gave it back. Yeah, no he didn't really need a boat. He had a good job as manager. But he was proud to have it. They were a very close family. Quite nice.
Oh yeah, my mother, she came from-she knows people at Sea Island. But she died.You know,
I was so sorry I didn't do it earlier. When other people were around.That's why I say I'm not doing any research. Well there's one fellow, Terry Slack (?), who lived on Iola Island. He might know a lot that could go into this. But I'll let him put it in himself, because it's not what I know. And I didn't really want to-I didn't have enough time to do proper research. So, just what I know. And that's for the Sea Island Historical Society? Yeah. To sort of fill out the history that they're gathering? Yeah, they didn't know very much about the Japanese either. So they will when I give them the book. So I don't know how much more I can help you with because I don't know a lot. Well that's already a lot of wonderful stories, thank you. I do have a couple more questions. Do you remember in the 1980s when the Redress Movement was happening? No. No? Yeah, I was just curious because in the 1980s, Japanese Canadians were trying to get acknowledgement from the government for the internment. Well, I knew that the government had acknowledged, but I didn't remember- Right. It wasn't something that you remember at the time? No. Okay. I'm always curious about people who were around at the time, what they thought of it. Especially if they had some kind of personal connection. You mentioned before we started recording that some of the items in your home are Japanese origin. I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about what that means to you to have them here and where they came from? Well, I cherish them. Do you want to see them? Yes.
You've got a lot of Japanese things, but you've got to have something from Korea, too.Wow. That was funny. I have this table for example, when I moved here, my dining room suite was too big for this room so I gave it to my daughter. And I bought this, but it was made in China. You can't find a Japanese manufacturer, so I got a Chinese one.
Tick off what you'd like to have.It was funny because some of them wanted just all the expensive stuff like my sterling silver and my good dishes and things like that. Other's they wanted the sports equipment that my husband had. It's funny. Anyhow, I was trying to downsize a bit, and I've got to get my Japanese-I've got to get Rita over and get her to see what she'd like. Because if there are things that are sort of Japanese oriented, she might like them. I don't know. Maybe she doesn't. Can't put words or ideas into other people. Just let her see. But my grandson thinks she'd like them. The problem is that all those those kids.,they're all married but they live in tiny places. It's all they can afford. And so, they don't have a heck of a lot of room for furniture and things, you know. So, I don't know. Maybe sell it and get some money.