Densho Digital Archive - Helen Mori Interview (denshovh-mhelen

<Begin Segment 17>

RP: So other than the poem that is in the restrooms at Manzanar, did your mom wrote other poetry in...

HM: She wrote a lot of poetry.

RP: In Manzanar?

HM: She used to win a lot of contests. Yeah. Rafu Shimpo and a lot of the other Japanese vernaculars, they had poetry contests every year. Like, sort of like the imperial family one. And she won many of those too. Yeah.

RP: Did, was there an organized group of poets in the camp that you're aware of?

HM: Yeah, the different tanka clubs were like organized group.

RP: In the camp?

HM: In Manzanar. No, no... I don't know about Manzanar. It was after, after the war. L.A. had various tanka groups.

RP: So she wrote poems about her experience at Manzanar.

HM: She wrote many poems about her experiences and quite a few are about how she felt going to Manzanar or how Manzanar was or, yeah. My brother made that little booklet. We want to publish a book. When he gets it all together. And I want her handwriting in it. This booklet he made for us doesn't have her handwriting in it, of the poem, actual poem. But, he's working on that. I said, "We're not getting any younger. You'd better hurry up 'cause I want to see it before I die." I'd tell him. I always tease him. "How's it coming along?" [Laughs]

RP: So you, do you have her original poems that she wrote?

HM: She, he has it. 'Cause he's gonna do the book.

RP: Wow, that'd be great.

HM: Yeah, he has it.

RP: So if you could explain to us a little bit more about this, this amazing award that your mother earned after camp.

HM: Oh, well, every year the Imperial family, well, the private... every year the Imperial family issues a title or a theme for the poetry contest, which they have every January. And the year my mother's poem was picked it was 1951 and the theme was morning sky, asazora. And she wrote a poem with that as a theme and her poem was one of fifteen out of twenty thousand, I think she said twenty thousand poems, that came from all over the world to the Imperial palace. And hers was one of the fifteen picked. And it was the first Japanese American to have a poem selected. And I think there was one, only one other Japanese American selected, the poem was selected from Watsonville and I think that was ten or fifteen years ago and I don't remember her name. Other than that I never heard of anyone, any other American poems to be picked. So it was quite an honor. She had a big old party and I didn't get to go to that either because I had to watch my brother. I had to... I lost out on a lot things 'cause I had to babysit. Eleven years between us, you know. But, it was quite an honor. Even when I think about it now. Even my kids, they're starting to realize what a big deal it was for our mother to get her poem to get picked. And they're starting to appreciate it now I think. 'Cause when she was alive I don't know that they even appreciated the fact that it was such an honor for her. She always said, "My takara," my... what's takara? What's that word? Takara is treasure. Her (Imperial paperweights) for that was her treasure for life.

RP: What did you think about the National Park Service putting your mother's poem in the restroom at the site?

HM: Oh, to tell you the truth, I was very disappointed it was in the restroom. I was very disappointed. And when I told the kids about it they said, "Oh my god, are you kidding?" They couldn't believe it. They said, "Why didn't, why wasn't it somewhere else in that museum?" And I said, "I know."

KP: Well, it probably gets more noticed in the restroom than anyplace else.

HM: They don't care about the notice. They just think it was insulting for it to be in the restroom. 'Cause, I mean, she's a, well, in Japan and other parts of the world she's world renowned, you know. It's just that the people here in America don't appreciate the, what a big deal it was.

RP: You don't go around boasting about, "I've got poems in the restroom."

HM: Yeah. Well, not even boasting about anything. It's just, we just thought it was insulting that it was in the restroom. It could have been someplace else, I think. Not with the picture with toilets and all that stuff.

RP: Right.

HM: You know, 'cause she was talking about her being in the Nihon furo and then realizing well she's still a prisoner, you know what I mean. That's a concept that's completely different so. I shouldn't even complain.

RP: Well...

HM: But, you asked me so I'm telling you.

RP: Sure.