Densho Digital Archive - Helen Mori Interview (denshovh-mhelen

<Begin Segment 14>

RP: Tell us about Mr. Abe. What kind of guy was he?

HM: My stepfather?

RP: Yeah, your stepdad. Did you get along with him?

HM: Yeah. I used to call him "ojisan, ojisan" for the longest time, even after they got married. Ojisan means gentleman friend or what's the, what's the definition for ojisan? Mister.

Off Camera: Mister.

HM: Mister. [Laughs] And I didn't call him Daddy 'til my brother was born and he started talking and we had to teach him to call him Daddy so then I started calling him Daddy. I thought what's this stranger doing in our house and living with us? You know, I was thinking. I was already what, ten? But he was nice.

RP: And he was from...

HM: Strict. Very strict.

RP: He was from Fukuoka?

HM: He was from Fukuoka, Kasuya-gun.

RP: And tell us about this, Kasuya-gun was kind of pretty much active in getting together, I mean, staying together.

HM: Yeah, there were apparently in Manzanar there were a lot of people from Kasuya-gun so they had like a club. And they're still an active club even now. Last year they published a hundredth anniversary and they had a big party too in L.A. for their hundredth year since forming. And Mr. Fujino and his older brother and some of the other old-timers, they formed the club. And they were the initiators of the Kasuya-gun in, before the war even. Yeah. And of course in Manzanar too.

RP: And so you gathered to take a photograph of the --

HM: Oh, for that group?

RP: -- group that was in Manzanar.

HM: Yeah. Yeah, we, we took a group picture with Mount Williamson in the background. Then we had Toyo Miyatake in camp so he came and took the pictures and... they were, it's nice.

RP: So your mom really got to know Mr. Abe while they were together in camp.

HM: Oh yes. Oh yes.

RP: Right, uh-huh.

HM: Yeah.

RP: She, she remembers that poor guy who lost his...

HM: Huh?

RP: She remembers that poor guy who lost his...

HM: No, she didn't realize it was him 'til later, way later when they were talking and then she realized he was the guy that she had heard about. Yeah.

RP: Were you, I imagine you were part of the wedding? The wedding in camp of the, of your mom and...

HM: Are you kidding? I didn't even know they got married. She didn't even, she didn't even let me go to the ceremony or nothing. They must have went to a... there's no mayor in camp so I don't know who they went to.

RP: Justice of the Peace perhaps?

HM: I don't even know that we had a Justice of the Peace, maybe they went to the camp director. I don't know. You know, I never did ask her. But I wasn't invited to their wedding or nothing.

RP: So you don't really know that there was a wedding in camp?

HM: No, I... no, there wasn't a, no, there was no wedding I don't think. I think they just got married in front of somebody. You know, "I pronounce you man and wife," that kind of thing.

RP: Yeah.

HM: No, no reception, no nothing.

RP: Maybe a priest or a...

HM: At that time my mother was Christian and my father, stepfather was Tendai Buddhist so I don't know which priest they would go to.

RP: They can get married twice. One is for Christian and one for Buddhist.

HM: [Laughs] I really don't know how they did it.

RP: There might have been a, they might... I know of couples that were allowed to go to Independence...

HM: No, they didn't go out of camp.

RP: They didn't go out of camp?

HM: I don't think they went out of camp. We weren't allowed of camp at all compared to some other camps. I was so... I see, I see documentaries on other camps... I thought gee, they didn't even let us go out of camp at all, you know. They were really strict with us. Maybe 'cause we were in California, huh.

RP: How about school trips? Did...

HM: No, never.

RP: Never went out of camp --

HM: Never.

RP: -- for class?

HM: Never. Some, I remember some white kids came to our camp for Thanksgiving or something. But we were never, we never went out at all.