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TI: So what are some other adventures that you had during this four year period during the war?

RM: Most of my adventures during that period -- well, of course, we were going to school in these private houses.

TI: Oh yeah, tell me about that. So what happened to, yeah, why these houses and not school?

RM: Yeah, well, Punahou is, was a very impressive facility even back then, and so the military engineers decided they needed it and so they moved immediately into the school and the school had to move out. And so we went to private homes along, in a bunch of areas. I think there were some in Kaimuki, I think maybe a new one. I think there were at least two houses, depending on the grade you were in, and we went to one. And we could walk there, which made it very easy. And of course kids always get in trouble going to school and coming home in particular, but if your parents weren't there or somethin' and you didn't have to be home at an exact time you'd get in all kinds of trouble, go down to the river, catch fish. There's all kinds of things to do, especially in Punahou. So I did it. I got in trouble.

TI: Because your parents were taken, did your classmates treat you any differently? Was there, you mentioned earlier some --

RM: That's an interesting, that's an interesting question, especially because it had to do with Punahou kids, and I'll say with a certain amount of pride that, that the Punahou kids were wonderful. They never mentioned anything about my father being suspected of being a spy or my mother and the fact that they were in camp. Almost everybody knew that. I'd tell 'em anyway, if they asked. There was one individual that was prevented -- one, just one individual that was prevented from playing with me, and I think he felt real bad about it, although we never talked about it. And --

KN: What was his ethnicity? Was he Japanese, or was he --

RM: Haole. Yeah, haole. Before the war his mother used to drive him down to our house to play with, but once it started, never saw him. After the war we did on very isolated instances see each other. In fact, even the mother talked to me. Nobody ever said anything. And of course it wasn't anything that I could, I needed to make an issue of, 'cause it... but we weren't real good friends after that anyway. [Laughs] The other thing that was striking was I had some friends that would invite me over, like two right off hand, right off hand, the guy that, Dougie Ackerman, that, did I mentioned built my house. We remained friends, great friends. And the other was Albert Limus, who lives on the mainland now, but he's a swimmer and a surfer and from that we had a lot of things in common, but, and a great athlete. But those two guys, we'll always be friends, and it doesn't matter whether we haven't seen each other for twenty years, we see each other, "Hey," just like the day before we'd seen each other. But they taught me a lot of lessons about people in general, and I think maybe because of that, of course, it was my job as being a flight attendant, where you're dealing with people all the time, I think that's probably the reason why I survived that job. It's very difficult. I'm trying to think of the president's name and my memory's failing me. [Laughs] But I had... I can see his face. He's short, stocky...

TI: The president of what?

RM: Punahou School.

TI: Oh, Punahou School.

RM: Met him on a flight one day and he says, "You know, I've been, I've been looking for years for some Punahou person to be workin' on an airplane. There you are." It wasn't a big deal. I mean, like most people were presidents of corporations or something like that, but not me, I'm a flight attendant. [Laughs] And I kind of dropped the ball there, but it was still a great job. It was good fun. And this guy used to go skiing every, every winter in Colorado, and so when I saw him I purposely went up to talk to him and he wanted to know how a Punahou graduate survived in this kind of environment, in particular the fact that I had started out at the hanger at United Airlines and, of course, at the hanger there were all these Farrington boys. "Hey Mori, I hear you went Punahou?" [Laughs] "Yeah, yeah." And of course, within a certain period of time, over the years, these guys would come back to me and say, you know, they'd want somebody to be the vice president of the union or something like that and they'd say, "One thing about you, Mori, you know how for talk." And that's the way I'd always come out of it. I'd come out a hero. [Laughs] So this president just looked at his, the guy that was with him, the aide, and he'd say, "Take that down, George. Take that down." [Laughs] It was very funny, but he really, really was impressed seeing me and talking to me.

TI: That's good.

RM: And I think that's part of the reason why I can just mouth off, I guess. I've had lots of practice.

TI: Yeah.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.