Densho Digital Archive - George H. Morishita Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 10>

KL: Do you have any other memories from before the war started of your life in Flats? Like were you guys part of any community organizations or sports or church or anything?

GM: Well, some of the things I still ask people, I said, you know, they play games like jacks and all that. And I said there was two games that I don't recall anybody remembering, and it must have come from northern Mexico. Because years later, when I moved to Tucson, I met a guy, he was a Mormon, his ancestors were Mormons, and he was telling me that his grandfather, when the Mormon church said polygamy was out, he was one of the few that went to Mexico and all that. So this guy told me he used to go visit his grandfather, and that's when I found out about the Russians in my neighborhood, where they went. He said some of them settled in Mexico so that their children don't become so modernized and all that. Then he told me about... oh my god, I lost track.

KL: His ancestry was Mormon, and there was some connection to...

GM: Yeah, I'm sorry.

KL: No, that's all right.

Off camera: It was about games from Mexico.

GM: Oh, okay. But anyway, yeah, that's right, he's the one that informed me of that also. He said during Pancho Villa's time, a lot of the Mexicans from Sonora -- that's the border state -- wanted to get away from all that turmoil, so they came here. So that's probably why, I look back, all my friends' parents spoke only Spanish. So whenever I... and since my mom was a barber, she wouldn't allow me to bring my friends there, because the barber shop was in front of the living quarters, storefronts. So I used to hang out at all of my friends' houses, and only Spanish we spoke. But anyway, there was two games where we played with bottle tops, milk bottles, and they had the paper cover, and then you soften it up and throw that one down, and if you cover it, it's yours and all that. And then another one was with apricot seeds. And we dry it up, and you could get that from the stores and everything like that. And like jacks, except you have so many shooters and all that. And I said I've never seen anybody play that except for them. And then I also found out that... what do you call those Mexican open food mart?

KL: Like a bodega or something?

GM: Then when you see movies of Mexican towns and that store, vegetable stands, and all kind of... yeah, something like that. Well, anyway, I look back and I told people, I said, you know, I didn't realize it, but there was one in Flats before my time. And when I was a kid sometime in the '30s, well, they cleaned it up eventually, but it was abandoned, and we used to go there sometime just to play and all that. It was only when I saw a movie one time, years later, could have been John Wayne in Mexico, and I go, "I'll be darned, there was one of those things in Flats." But it must have been in the '20s and early '30s, and they abandoned it. Yeah, I remember that.

KL: Were you guys part of a religious community at all?

GM: You mean...

KL: Did you go to a church or a temple?

GM: Oh, well, my family was Buddhist. So yeah, I used to attend church. And for a while in Boyle Heights, Higashi Hongwanji, I think they call it, Mott and First. And then I found, and then, just before the war started, somewhere around there, I ended up in this Hongwanji down First Street. And years later, when I think my younger sister again told me, "Do you know why you transferred?" Because I used to really look forward to praying and you go up and put the ashes in the... you get to show off whatever.

KL: Not as fun as jumping on the train. [Laughs]

GM: Yeah, I was just a kid, yeah. But she said the Boyle Heights church, temple, he had a disagreement with the monk there. I go, "I'll be darned, Papa was hardheaded." So then I ended up down there.

KL: That surprised you, huh?

GM: Then I didn't go to church during the camp days, I know. But after the war, for a while, my father, on Saturday night, I said, "Papa, can I go down there?" "You gonna go to church tomorrow?" and I would say okay. And I used to drive my friends, and that was in the '40s, long hair, noisemaking shoes and all that. And finally my friends wouldn't go with my anymore. And then I finally told my dad -- and I have to give him credit, he was much more broadminded than me. I said, "Papa," I said, "you know, I go to the church, I listen to the bonsan, I mean, the priest, and he talks for about twenty minutes and he leaves." Then they start having a meeting, because they were only young adults, and I'm only fourteen, and I didn't want to go with the kids. And so I said, "Papa, then I'm sitting there for a half hour, and you taught me it'd be rude to walk out." I said, "I don't have to go to church and believe in God, do I?" and this and that. I said, "I'll follow in His ways." And I said, "Okay, can I have dollar?" [Laughs] And one of my sisters caught me and she says, "George, you pull that again," because I was hitting her, too, for a dollar. She said, "I'm gonna tell Papa not to give you a dollar, and I'm not gonna give you any more." I was trying to double dip.