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

<Begin Segment 29>

KL: I'm trying to think, because I want to ask more about Manzanar, but I want to hear about your marriage, too, and your wife. But I kind of lost track of the discussion about Tule Lake. You said your parents discussed the "loyalty question" and ended up staying, but you wrote, I think, or told me on the phone that you had a friend who went to Tule Lake in your block?

GM: There was one, yeah, there were some people from Block 5 that went to Tule Lake. I've never seen them again, but I still remember February '44? I'm not sure, it was wintertime, I remember. And this one two and a half ton truck or whatever you call it came to our block and maybe about a dozen people got on there. And then the friends were yelling, "Banzai, banzai," you know. I still remember that. And one of my very good friends, his family went to Manzanar, I mean, to Tule Lake. Now I did meet a guy that his father chose to go back to Japan, and Kaz's older brother was an adult, so he didn't go back. But Kaz was my age, so when the war ended he was fourteen, a minor, so he went back to Japan with his dad. And then not until he was eighteen did he come back. I remember that. He was really... he came back, by the time I met him he was okay, but he said he was so bitter against the Japanese because he got in a fight every day because he's an American, and he would fight every day. He said, "I vowed I would come back here," he grew up by the time he came back. Then I met him again in the army, I met him in high school for a while, and in the army he was a translator and I used to use him to write things for me and all that.

KL: Who was the friend from Block 5 who went to Tule Lake? What was his name?

GM: Last name was Nakamura.

KL: How did he feel about going, do you know? Did you guys talk about it?

GM: No, no. He was a little older than me, but I know his family, he was one of the younger, he had older brothers and sisters. But I think he was a little older than me, so I don't remember, I just remember as he was leaving, I was very close to him. And I think it was '44, I'm not sure exactly.

KL: How did you respond to the trucks pulling up and the banzai shouts?

GM: It's a natural thing, I guess. I can't remember any emotions and all that, just, I'm going to miss him.

KL: Did you keep in touch with him at all, did you guys write?

GM: No, lost contact, no. Unfortunately, I'm bad that way. As I look back, I broke friendships with people all my lifetime.

Off camera: The friend Kaz you mentioned, you met him after the war, many years later?

GM: Oh, this guy that went back to Japan? I met him briefly at Roosevelt High School, I think, when he first came. I think I met him then. And then when I was in northern Japan, I ran into him. He was in a special, he was an interpreter, translator, and I happened to be working the courts and boards where they have court martials and all that. So I used them...

Off camera: What's his last name?

GM: Sakamoto.

Off camera: And is Kaz K-A-Z?

GM: K-A-Z, and then U-O would be the full name. But I, like I said, in Japan, I used to be tough. Like one time, we weren't... anytime a GI would damage a Japanese property and all that, we want to find out. And I'm not the CID or whatever you call it, so I wanted to get some information, and I asked Kaz, "Please call the police station and introduce yourself, identify who I am, and we want a copy of it." We're not the CID or something like that. So anyway, I go down and pick it up, and then a few weeks later there was another occasion for me to ask for that. I go down there, and the desk sergeant said, "Oh, they're all in the meeting in the conference room." Okay. I open the door and there's a bunch of cops having a meeting. And one of the guys, not the chief, but he's a little bit to his right, yells, "That's him." I found out that they were looking for that report, they gave me the wrong one. And he said, "That's him," and I just turned around, because I spoke Japanese by then, and I just told the police chief, "You ought to fire this stupid guy." I said, "I had this interpreter call specifically because I don't speak Japanese that well," and da, da, da. And he's the son of a gun, that stupid... and then I turned to English naturally, "You son of a..." and that was bad. I look back at that, I couldn't think of it. [Laughs] He probably thought, "He's a GI?"

KL: Before I ask about the end of the war, are there other things you guys wanted to hear about Manzanar, events, places, people?

Off camera: I don't think we asked about your experience with leaving camp? Did we touch on that?

KL: No, not yet. What do you recall of...

GM: Coming out?

KL: Well, before that even. You guys were in camp when the war ended, is that correct?

GM: I think so, yeah.