Densho Digital Archive - Helen Mori Interview (denshovh-mhelen

<Begin Segment 23>

RP: So, when and how did you leave camp?

HM: Leave camp?

RP: Yeah, when, do you remember when it was?

HM: Well, since my father was block manager he wanted to make sure everybody got out okay. So we were one of the last ones to leave Block 21. And we left on my twelfth birthday, 11/11/45.

RP: Wow, that is pretty late.

HM: Yeah, it was late. Most everybody was gone. I don't know what we ate. We must have had a kitchen still. I don't remember that part. Yeah.

RP: So on your birthday, boy, that's a memorable --

HM: Yeah, right on my birthday.

RP: -- experience to leave on.

HM: We were one of the last ones from 21 to leave.

RP: So, you were there for about three and a half years?

HM: Three and a half, three and a half years.

RP: So some kids your age look at, look at camp experiences as sort of an adventure or, or excitement or...

HM: Probably, probably.

RP: Did you see it that way, too?

HM: I didn't think of it as an adventure. It was just something we had to deal with.

RP: So how about leaving? How did you feel about leaving?

HM: I was glad to leave, are you kidding? Freedom. Even at a young age you know you're locked up, you know. One square mile for three and a half years? You're glad to get out of that place. Yeah, I was glad I was leaving. And I know I'd be able to see my relatives again and all that too. 'Cause they were in another camp.

RP: They went to where?

HM: Poston. My other relatives... and then on my father's side my relatives went to Amache, Colorado. But they lived in San Francisco when the war started. They, a lot of those people went to Amache.

RP: Did you correspond during the time you were...

HM: No. Oh, I used to get a letter every now and then from my cousin in Poston. She was an artist so she used to send short letters and draw pictures of flowers and people and dogs or whatever. Yeah. And she got to come to camp, our camp, when my kid brother was born. Yeah, she got to come and I think she stayed about a month. And she was so surprised at our... she said everything was white because in Poston, it's near the river, Colorado River? Everything's orange. She said everything is orange. And so when she came to Manzanar she says she was so surprised that our sheets were so white. And then our, of course our mountains, beautiful mountains are there. Poston's a desert. It's on the Navaho Nation, I think. The camp was on the Navaho... yeah, so it's desert. So she was, she thought our camp was pretty neat. But she, I think she stayed about a month, helped my mother. Yeah. She, have you ever heard of Winfield china? They used to have a Winfield china place in Santa Monica. They made earthenware. She designed several of those... you could ask him. They, she designed several of the patterns, big seller. Bird of Paradise was a pattern, Dragon Flower was a pattern, Passion Fruit, Passion Flower was another one. All three of her patterns they used for everything, cups, saucers, dishes... I said, "Oh did you get a commission on all that?" And she says, "No, they just gave me starter sets." Just a starter set, you know, cup, saucer, dish, that kind of thing. She was an artist. She didn't go to school either. It was natural born.

RP: How did you leave camp?

HM: Oh, how did we leave camp?

RP: Did you go by bus?

HM: We went by bus. Yeah. And I remember when we got to L.A. after... it was dark, darker... we left in the morning but we got there in dark. And I remember that fountain on Los Feliz, you know those big fountain on Los Feliz? That's what I saw and I said, "Oh, we're in L.A." Yeah. And then when we got to L.A. we lived in, we went to a hotel, one of the hotels in Japantown, stayed overnight. And then my cousin, my uncle from West L.A. picked us up in his Model T Ford and drove us to Riverside. So I lived there about a month in Arlington Riverside with my auntie and uncles that went to Poston, we lived with them for about a month. And then he was able to... you know, 'cause when you, when all these people come to L.A. from Manzanar a lot of 'em, they were from elsewhere before but they came to L.A. for, after they were released from camp. You couldn't find housing or anything and he had a heck of a time trying to find a place. And he finally found a hostel in... what part of L.A. is that? Almost near the Koreatown now, you know that area? Olympic and Vermont, sort of that area. He found a house that they were renting out one room per family. That's when the Wakitas were there. But the Wakitas were also in our block.

RP: Were they?

HM: Yeah.

RP: Huh.

HM: Yeah, but the Wakitas were there and we had a little room on the third floor. So I was there about a half a year and then we had to move to, the owner wanted to move back in so we had to find another place and only place my father could find was in Watts, Central and Jefferson.

RP: Was it a house or an apartment?

HM: No, one room in a building. Yeah, it was awful. I was so scared to walk to school because all the bars on Central Avenue, you know. And I'm going down there and they'd whistle and all that. I was what, seventh grade. I went to three different seventh grades. Chinawa Junior High in Riverside, Berendo Junior High in L.A., and then Carver Junior High in Watts. The school was near Vernon and... between Central and some other street, San Pedro I think. All black though, like ninety-nine percent.