Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Ramsay Yosuke Mori Interview
Narrator: Ramsay Yosuke Mori
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda, Kelli Nakamura
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: February 28, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-mramsay-01-0010

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TI: And so, but the FBI came that, later on in the morning to pick up your father and grandfather?

RM: Yes. I think the FBI man's name is Shivers, and he's the guy, of course, that had, had Patton's list with my grandfather's name on it. And when they came they took my grandfather and my father.

TI: Now, were you home when that happened?

RM: I was there for the evening, evening pickup. I don't that clearly remember, the first pickup was my father and my grandfather, but there were army jeeps, military and police. I think two gentlemen in suits were Shivers and then I believe the other man, I'm told, was John Burns, eventually became the governor of Hawaii. That time he was the captain in the police department.

TI: How interesting. You mentioned the second pickup, so describe that.

RM: I think the Military Intelligence people took a look at the morning's take and they found Iga Mori on there, my grandpa, Motokazu Mori, but they actual one that they, they thought was a spy, which was my mother, Ishiko Mori was not there, so in the evening they came back to pick her up. At that time they saw my brother, who was hangin' around, trying to see what the hell was goin' on, and they said, "You, come along with us," and took him along as well.

TI: This is Victor you're talking about?

RM: Yeah, he was like eighteen years old, seventeen or eighteen years old. So he stayed in jail, actually. They threw everybody in jail at first, 'cause the police didn't know what to do with them. Especially with a guy over seventy, what do they, how is he gonna, how is he gonna be fifth, fifth columnist, you know? Blowing up, shootin' soldiers and blowin' up stuff at that age, not a very good choice anyway. So by, as it turned out they let him go on Christmas.

TI: And so they let your grandfather and your brother, they let them go? So Victor and --

RM: Yeah, when they found out, he was a Punahou junior, I think it was, and not only that, a good student --

KN: Yeah.

RM: -- they let him go, but they treated him like a, any common criminal they would've picked up. Hardtack and coffee was all they had for that week, no real food. Course, they were, they were under tremendous stress at the time, too, I'm sure.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.