Interviews
Building Japanese style fishing boats in Canada
They were all built by Japanese boat-builders who learned to build these boats -- some of them might have known that from Japan when they came over, but the majority I think is, are self-taught, or people who apprenticed and realized that they can do it, how to make these Japanese fishing boats. There was one, I went down to Fisherman's Wharf, when we first went to Victoria, that would be back in '84, '85, first went down there to see, to get crab. And somebody said, "You go down Pier 6, Edgy the crab man is down there, go see Edgy." So I went down to see Edgy, and when I arrived at Edgy, I looked at his boat and I said to Edgy, I said, "That is a Japanese fishing boat." And he said, "Yeah, built in 1933," and he says, "It's still seaworthy." It was over fifty years old at that point, but it was still in good shape, it was still working, in good condition. Dirty as heck, but other than that, you can just recognize the way the superstructure is made and everything. It just, and it's hand-built. In those days, they had to hand-build these things, and there were at least, I think there were about four or five Japanese (builders). Up in Prince Rupert area, there would be four or five Japanese boat-building areas, and then on the Fraser River there'd be a whole number of them. They were building these boats.
Date: July 25 & 26, 2006
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.