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AI: So, what was your full name when you were born, the name that, were you given a Japanese name also?

BS: Uh-huh, it is Betty May Chieko Morita.

AI: And was your birthday, when were you born?

BS: Oh, May 30, 1933. And, at that time, at that time they must've been, my grandparents must've been living with my parents. Because when I was born I was, all of us who were born in Hood River were born at home. And when I was born, I was, I came out and I was, like a blue baby, and I wasn't breathing. And I was pronounced dead. And the doctor didn't even clean me up and he just... and he told my father, "Well, you have so many children," -- 'cause I was the eighth -- "and one more or less shouldn't matter." And he left, and didn't even clean me up. And so my grandmother was there and she said -- well, my mother, I guess, was sleeping and resting, and he felt, she felt sorry for my mother. So she got two washtubs, one with hot water and one with cold water. And she kept alternating me back and forth, I don't know for how long. And then put me in the basket that they had prepared for... and then, and put a hot water bottle on me. And the next morning I was crying. So they said, "Oh," and so they called the doctor and he was shocked to see that, that I was alive and breathing.

AI: Wow. What an amazing...

BS: Uh-huh, so I owe my life to my grandmother.

AI: Oh, my goodness.

BS: Because, you know, from a large family, we came from, at that time there were eight of us, lot of large families. They had deaths in the family, children that were young that died. But my brother, Junior, who is, he's four years older than I am, when he was, well, he must've been about two or three years old, he got pneumonia. And the doctors had given up hope on him. And so my parents brought him home and they took care of him at home and he survived. Well, my dad always wanted to be a doctor. That's what, that was his goal, anyway, he turned out to be a farmer then he had so many children he could... but he always, I guess when he would take a child to the doctor, he would observe the doctor and see what he would do. And he would use, use those methods. Well, when the doctor told him there was no hope for my brother, of course, he asked the doctor, "What should I do? What could I do?" And he followed the advice, so...

AI: And so Junior survived.

BS: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.