Densho Digital Archive - Helen Mori Interview (denshovh-mhelen

<Begin Segment 19>

RP: I know you were pretty young to recall maybe any of the, anything about the riot, you know the...

HM: Oh, the riot?

RP: The violence...

HM: The riot is all what I heard.

RP: And what did you hear?

HM: Well, I heard that there was a riot and I thought I heard that they were complaining, the block managers and all those people were complaining because they thought the army was pilfering sugar or coffee, a lot of that kind of stuff, and selling it on the outside. Because the camps weren't getting enough for their, what that they were supposed to be getting, something like that. And so they all had this meeting at this assembly hall and it was getting all rowdy and loud and everything. And then the army started shooting the crowd. That's what I heard. I wasn't there so I don't know. I didn't see and I was so young I didn't realize. Later on you see films about what happened in Manzanar. And I think one or two died, something like that. But, you know, right after the camp you don't talk about camp because it was such a bad experience, you just didn't talk about it. And now that we're older we're starting to question, gee, how come this? How come that? You know.

RP: Like how come...

HM: And now our parents are gone. We can't even ask 'em how come anymore. So, a lot of it was what I read, you know, books and things.

RP: Did you ever have an idea of how your mother felt about all this? Did she ever...

HM: She never said anything, she never said anything.

RP: Could you read her non-verbal cues, her face, her...

HM: Of her what?

RP: Could you, could you kind of get a sense about how she felt, non-verbally?

HM: Not really. I mean, after all, she got married in camp, starting a new family, you know. So, only thing is my stepfather was not healthy. He was asthmatic so he always had, whenever he caught cold his asthma got really, really bad. And I went to City College one year and the... in fact, the year I graduated from high school he was so sick he barely got out for my graduation, from the hospital. And the following year I went to City College one year and then, and then it was bad again, enough to be hospitalized. So I quit school to help support the family 'cause... my mother was working as like a maid for this Chinese herb doctor, dollar an hour. Which, you don't get much, you know. Here she's a college girl working as a maid. But, and then my father couldn't work then. He was working at a mattress company, Sealy Mattress Company, something like that. And I think that dust and all that other stuff was not good for his lungs. 'Cause he would get real sick. But I quit school to help support the family. They said, "Oh, one year, one year." Well, I knew it wasn't gonna be one year. It was gonna be for the rest of my life. They said, "Oh, one year, one year."

RP: Was he hospitalized in the camp hospital too?

HM: No, not in camp. Camp was dry. Dry air, that was good for his asthma I think, despite the dust. Yeah. He didn't have to go hospital for asthma or anything.

RP: So he became a block manager in, in Block 21.

HM: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

RP: Do you remember what he did as a block manager, some of his duties?

HM: I think they just, it was just administrative for the block. If anything happened, they went to him. You know, that kind of thing. And then he had to find out what, what to do or whatever. Only thing I had to do was I had to pass out the Manzanar Free Press and I don't remember if it was once or twice a week, but to everybody. So I remember having these Manzanar Free Press in the wagon, I had a wagon, and I had to go to every room in each barrack and leave the paper, for the whole block. Yeah.

RP: And that was, what, two three times a week or so?

HM: I don't remember. Twice a week, or once a week. I know it was once a week. Maybe it was twice a week. But we had a very active journalism group in Manzanar.

RP: So you got to know everybody in your block.

HM: Oh, a lot of times they weren't even home. I just opened the door and put it in.

RP: Just leave it in.

HM: Yeah. Nobody locked their doors in those days, not in camp.