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

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KL: Do you know your paternal grandparents' names?

GM: Yeah, Kooro. I think my father and mother were actually related. And then I was told that his mother couldn't take him, so he was supposed to be raised by his father's family, but there was a Morishita couple in the village, and they could have been relatives, too, distant relatives, so they raised him. And when he was fourteen, I think -- well, when I came back from the army, I said, "Papa," I was just kidding, I said, "Papa, I like Kooro. I think I want to change my name." He just about hit me. And that's when he told me, he said, "Look, I only knew Morishita when I was fourteen. My father was dying, and he told me that if you want to use Kooro, that's okay with me." Then he said, "But George, that's all I know, is Morishita." I said, "I was just kidding you."

KL: Was Morishita his father's name or the family...

GM: Adoptive father.

KL: Adoptive father.

GM: Yeah. Who died when my father was fourteen, and so my father told me, when I came out of the army, that his father, adoptive father, told him that, "If you wish to use Kooro, that's okay."

KL: Did he have contact with his mother, do you know, very much?

GM: Well, he just told me that, when I went to see him in '67, that the few times they talked, he did say that he felt fortunate he had two mothers and all that kind of stuff. But I didn't know he had half brothers and sisters, he never talked about it. And when I was in... the village was out in the boonies, and I still remember my sisters said, "Oh, George, you're coming from Los Angeles." I said, "No, no, no, this is great." But after about three days, all I heard was the river and the frogs, and I said, "Neesan, don't we have any relatives in the city?" 'Cause she told me there were some people in the country. And she said, "Well, Papa." And I go, "Papa? What are you talking about?" And I had two aunts and an uncle and a cousin that were my age.

KL: They were Kooros?

GM: No, they were not Kooros. Because his mother remarried, his natural mother.

KL: And Mr. Morishita just raised your father?

GM: Yeah, Mr. and Mr. Morishita, they had no children of their own, and they raised my father. They just had him.

KL: Do you know their first names, by chance?

GM: No.

KL: What was your father's full name?

GM: Buichi. But I know in Japan when I was over there, a lady that was his age said, "You know, your dad used to go by Takeichi." I guess the Chinese character, you could read it either way. But he said, "I guess after he went to the United States, he changed it to Buichi." But we always knew it was Takeichi.