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

<Begin Segment 37>

KL: Have you been back to the site of Manzanar at all as an adult?

GM: Twice.

KL: Tell us about those visits.

GM: Well, the first one was, I think it was just the year before the thing was...

KL: Around 2003 or so?

GM: Somewhere in there. I took my daughter and my niece, and I was still living in Arizona, and I found Block 5. And I couldn't find the kendo place because the trees were all gone. And then none of the apple trees were around. But I found the foundation, they had those things, and I found the toilet holes and all that. And I found another set, I said, "Okay, this was the women's and that was the men's." And from the men's, you look, and there's Building 11 right there, and then I was Apartment 3. And I said my friend Eddie lived in Apartment 1. And then one time I was at the cemetery where they had that, all the activities.

KL: At the pilgrimage?

GM: Yeah. And then there was a family, the woman, she was with her kids, and she might have been a little younger than me. And she was having a hard time, they were asking her some things, and so I started telling them, because from what I remember, said, okay, over there was Bairs Creek and this and that. And then I was pointing out what was here.

KL: Were you with anybody else in 2003?

GM: Well, I took my daughter and niece, yeah. And we just walked, Frank or whatever, the superintendent, he said, "Oh, yeah, you could walk up there." So we went, and they had some signs, Block 11 or something, I said, "Okay, we were right next door do that." And I saw those little concrete slabs out there, and there were toilet holes, drainage holes, and I said, "Oh, okay." And I looked around and I said, "Okay, this is the women's."

KL: Did your daughter and your niece have questions for you or what was your conversation like?

GM: I don't remember that too much, but it was nice. I went the following year just with my daughter. And that was the one that...

KL: Was that when you were at the pilgrimage, or this was a private...

GM: No, both times I went, but I went on my own car. But one time I went to Independence, there was, yeah, this gal from the newspaper told me, "Don't go by bus because you'll miss a lot of things." So my daughter and I, so that must have been the second year. We went to Independence...