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

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KL: You started to tell us earlier about your mom setting up the barber shop inside your house, or inside your apartment. Eventually, once that barber cubicle was there, would you kind of walk us through, if we walked in the front door or your apartment, kind of go around and tell us what we'd see?

GM: Yeah. Originally they had each barrack broken into four equal apartments. I think they used those plaster boards, I forgot, one per person, I'm not sure. So the door came in closer to one end of the apartment, it's more rectangular shape. And so my dad just put a wire across, and then put sheets there. So maybe a third of the apartment became a barber area. And that's right, the stove was on that side too. So when, in the evening, when we cooked something on the stove, in the wintertime especially, kids would do that, potatoes or whatever, it would be on the side where the barber shop was. So she just had one chair, and then they brought this one mirror. I remember she had a mirror there, and my dad put a cooler. Lot of people put a swamp cooler, I guess you call it that, and then he had that built there.

KL: Where was that installed? Was it in the wall or the ceiling?

GM: No, in the wall. I guess they cut a hole in there, and they just had a fan there, gunnysack, whatever. But I remember we had that.

KL: Did he have a hose or anything? Was there a dripline or did he have to wet it or somebody would have to...

GM: No, I think, I'm not sure if he had a hose to it, you had to pour something there periodically. Because there was only one faucet in every barrack, and it was on the end, Apartment 3. I don't recall him having something brought back there. I think he must have had it where my mom or I had to pour water. I don't remember doing that.

Off camera: Did he cut a hole in the wall, or did he use a window?

GM: Oh, you know, I'm just wondering, maybe it was a window. Although I know that my father did, a lot of other people did it, they cut a hole in the wall and made a small door on the other side. We had one, because I remember I used to go out there sometime.

Off camera: And that was on the living part of your apartment, not the barber shop?

GM: Yeah. No, I think it was, would be toward the barber shop, because it was all on one end. I think my father, I'm pretty sure my father had that door before the barber shop. [Laughs]

Off camera: Okay.

GM: Yeah.

KL: Do you have a sense for why he cut the extra door?

GM: Well, somebody else, somebody started it, and I guess he wanted to.

KL: It would be helpful for the customers, they could just come and go.

GM: Oh no, no, the door was not... it was just about that big. Because I used to have to sit there and look out. The back end of the men's bathroom was there, and the women's, and at night, I used to wait 'til I see somebody go into the men's room, then I'd go, because I'd be scared.

KL: You wanted someone in there with you?

GM: Yeah, I wanted somebody in there. Because my friend Eddie who lived in the apartment number 1, the son of a gun, one night I'll never forget. We took a shower together, and he finished fast, and he ran out before I was ready. And he was on his porch now, so I could see him through the window, and he's saying, "Oh, George, there's a boogeyman," trying to scare me. And I'm begging, "Please, Eddie, no, no." And then I still remember I finally... he said, "Okay, George, I'm going in now." And I dashed, and I got right to the door when my sister Susie was there, and she went, "George, your hair was straight up." [Laughs] You know, you're kids, you get scared of those kinds of things, I sure was.