Morita, Yoko (9/4/2018)

Anna Takada: Okay. This is an interview with Yoko Morita as part of the Japanese American Service Committee and Chicago Japanese American Historical Society Oral History Project. The interview is being conducted on September 4th, 2018 at the Japanese American Service Committee in Chicago. Yoko Morita is being interviewed by Anna Takada of the Japanese American Service Committee. So to start, can you please just state your full name?

Yoko Morita: My full name is Yoko Morita, formerly Arakawa.

Anna Takada: And can you tell me about where and when you were born?

Yoko Morita: I was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1935. My father was a Buddhist priest and he had a temple in Vancouver.

Anna Takada: Okay. And what, what's your birthday?

Yoko Morita: June 27th, 1935.

Anna Takada: Okay. And, and can you tell me about where your parents were originally from?

Yoko Morita: Yes. My mother was from Tokyo and my father was from Nagoya, Japan.

Anna Takada: Okay.

Yoko Morita: But they met in Tokyo while he was at University tra-training to be a priest.

Anna Takada: Okay. And what kind of priest was he training to be?

Yoko Morita: My father was a Nichiren Buddhist priest and we had a temple here in Chicago... Well, we, he started in Vancouver and then he went back a year for training, more training. And we came back. When we came back to North America, he was assigned to Portland, Oregon in 1939. And so then of course the war began in '41 and we all were sent to Minidoka.

Anna Takada: And how much do you know or could you tell me about kind of your, 00:02:00your parents' backgrounds as far as their families?

Yoko Morita: Sure. My father was one of six children and he was the third son. He had four brothers and two sisters. And my mother was in-- family in Tokyo and she was a family of five siblings, two brothers and three sisters. And she was the middle sister. Her family was two boys and then three girls, and she was the middle. And my father and my mother met in Tokyo while he was at Rissho University in Tokyo, which is the university that trains the priests for our temple.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And what was your mother doing at that time?

Yoko Morita: I think my, I don't think, well in that era, I don't think she was working yet. And she was still, let's see, they were married when she was in her early 20's, so, she was probably still living at home with her parents.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And, and so Vancouver, was that, so that was after his 00:03:00schooling. Was that a situation where he was assigned to go there or he decided?

Yoko Morita: No, he was, he wanted to come abroad, go abroad. And so they assigned him to Vancouver.

Anna Takada: Okay.

Yoko Morita: And it was an assignment really more than anything else.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And so did your mother go with him?

Yoko Morita: Well, my dad went in 1931 first by himself and they were talking about getting married. Her father said, "We have to get you married even in paper 'cause you know, neither of you may not be able to wait." 'Cause they knew he couldn't come back for four years. So, they got married and I believe she stayed at home with her parents though. And he came back for her in 1935.

Anna Takada: And, and then, so she joined him.

Yoko Morita: Then she, they came back together.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And so you were, you were born in '35.

Yoko Morita: In Vancouver, British Columbia.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. Did you have any siblings?

Yoko Morita: I, we are a family of five and I have two sisters and two brothers. And my sis-- the next one was a sister. Her first name is Yoshiko and she was born in 1936. And then I had a brother born in 1938. His name was Hirotada. And then I had a brother born in 1940 and his name was Tadayasu. His friends here in Chicago only know him as T-bone. And then I have a sister who lives here now who was born after the war in 1949.

Anna Takada: And what's her name?

Yoko Morita: Noriko.

Anna Takada: And what are your parents' names?

Yoko Morita: Yohaku. And my mother's name is Shizue.

Anna Takada: And so you were the, the eldest--

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: ...Of your siblings. And so how long were you in Vancouver?

Yoko Morita: We were in Vancouver until 1939 when we, he went back for additional training. We went back for a year.

Anna Takada: To Japan?

Yoko Morita: Wait, wait, I'm sorry. 1938 and then we came back to Vancouver in 1939.

Anna Takada: Okay. So do you have any, would you happen to have any memories of Vancouver or Japan?

Yoko Morita: No, not really because we left Vancouver in '39 and I was only four.

Anna Takada: Right.

Yoko Morita: Right. I know stories. Like, several years ago I, we went to the West, my sister and I went to the West Coast to visit and we decided to go to 00:06:00Vancouver to see if we could find the old temple, which we couldn't. But I was in contact with one of the ladies who was a member of the temple, and she said-- And we stayed with her and she took us around and she couldn't remember where the temple was either, but she said, "I babysat you when you were a baby." (laughs) So, it was fun. But, I have no memory of exactly anything about Vancouver or going back to Japan.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And was it Tokyo that you went back to?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: And then, so how long were you there?

Yoko Morita: We were there for a, a year. We left, we went in '38 and came back in '39.

Anna Takada: And I guess before I get into kind of your family's trajectory of where you were living and all of that, could you share a little bit about this 00:07:00particular, I guess, I don't know if you can call it a sect of Buddhism, Nichiren?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: And, kind of what, can you describe that I guess?

Yoko Morita: Well, I don't know if I could compare it to any other sect, but Nichiren was founded by a priest who trained to become a priest in a different sect and found that he was not happy with it and he started studying on his own and, and then founded his own in 1282 I believe. And he founded it, but he was persecuted because he was, this particular region at that time was very nationalistic. And so he was persecuted by the government. He was sent in exile. At one point he was sentenced to be executed. And the story goes that there was a storm and the, the executioner's blade broke instead of-- So they released him. And then he was basically a nationalistic and religion... A sect for more 00:08:00of the lower class people. It wasn't for the elite and the intellectual. But, and I think, I'm not really sure about you know, in comparison to others, but I think Nichiren is not the largest, one of the larger ones, but it's, you know it's, it's one of the older ones.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And is, are there any ways in which it is unique, I guess, from other sects of Buddhism, you know, more than origin story or, like whether in practice, or...?

Yoko Morita: I don't think so 'cause I don't know any of the others, but you know, the shin-- I think it's the Shingon that says "nami amida butsu" ["namu amida butsu"] as their chant when they pray most of the time, and ours is "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo". And you know, you're supposed to repeat that at, in, at, at any time for whatever reason. So that's, those are the only two big 00:09:00differences that I know. (laughs)

Anna Takada: Okay, okay. Yeah. And, and thank you for sharing. It's helpful to know more about...

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: Okay, so in '39 you were back in Vancouver?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: And were you all there 'till the start of the war, or...?

Yoko Morita: No, then we went to Portland in 1940.

Anna Takada: Okay. Oh, because he was moved to--

Yoko Morita: Yeah.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And so, do I have it right that he was, he was being assigned to different--

Yoko Morita: Definitely, yes.

Anna Takada: ...Locations and then he was kind of leading, leading the temple on his own there, or...?

Yoko Morita: Well, no, the Nichiren Buddhist organization here in the United States had an organization where we had a headquarter temple, which was at that time, was located in Los Angeles.

Anna Takada: Okay.

Yoko Morita: And we had, you know a head archbishop who headed the organization and, and the priests got together for their annual meetings and things like 00:10:00that. But we were in Portland until the war, and then we were sent to Minidoka because most of the people in, in Portland went to Minidoka.

Anna Takada: I see. And do you have memories of living in Portland before the war?

Yoko Morita: Yes, some in that-- At that time, you know, things were going fairly well for the Japanese Americans. And we had a separate home for the priest who, and his family. So we had a house and we visited and I remember going to different members' homes and things like that. But that's about it because I was seven when I, when we were in camp, when we went to camp.

Anna Takada: And were you enrolled in school, or...?

Yoko Morita: Yes, I, I went to kindergarten and first grade, but the first day in kindergarten, of course in my household, my father was a Buddhist priest, so 00:11:00the people he met 99% of the time were Japanese Isseis. So everything's in Japanese. My mother was a stay at home mother, so it was all Japanese. She really didn't need any English. And so when they sent me to school in kindergarten, first day, they sent me home and they said teach her some English before she comes back. Because in those days we didn't have television. You couldn't learn from watching. And of course turning on the radio made gibberish, so I didn't speak any English when I first went to kindergarten and I finished first grade. And I think by the time we went to camp, I had started second grade.

Anna Takada: Do you, I, do you have, do you like personally remember going to school, and...

Yoko Morita: No, those are only stories. Right.

Anna Takada: Okay, and did you eventually... Well, I guess another question. Did 00:12:00you go to Japanese school or Sunday school or anything outside of kind of your typical--

Yoko Morita: Yes, Saturday morning Japanese school.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. Do you have memories of that, or...?

Yoko Morita: Not before the war, but we did have Japanese school after the war again. And, and I do remember having, you know, going to class on Saturday mornings with a lot of other Japanese kids, members of our church. And so, but you know it's just Saturday morning for a couple of hours and you really don't... But in my case, because both of my parents only spoke Japanese, I maintained my Japanese, retained it a lot. And then when we came back, we started you know ikebana classes and my mother didn't speak in English, but she had a lot of American students, so I did translating for her. So basically, my Japanese was you know, fairly good. In fact, even today I'm pretty, pretty much 00:13:00literal already.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And, so you mentioned that you were, you were being housed by the temple.

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: Do you, do you remember that, what that living situation was like or what the house was like itself?

Yoko Morita: It was a very nice house, you know with a living-- typical small house. And it was located next to the church, so the building itself. So it was nice. And, and for that time, I guess, you know I mean, the economy wasn't that great and the Japanese community wasn't that large, but they were able to afford to pay the rent for the house and buy us a car and that kind of thing. But, so-- And I, I do remember going on trips to call on, on our members you know, in the car and things like that. But that's about it.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And, if you had to guess, what kind of size would you say the, the temple was as far as members in Portland?

Yoko Morita: As far as members, Nichiren was probably one of the smaller ones. The Buddhist temple in Portland there was very large, but we had a very large building. I mean we had an immense building in comparison. And so after the war, we lived, we, we went back there in 1945 and stayed until 1951. And going pretty much far in advance, but because we had a large building, the Japanese community used it for Nisei dances. We'd move all the benches out of the way and clear the floor on Saturday nights and we'd have dances. We would also, after the war, when the Japanese films became available, we showed movies there. And we also had some Japanese celebrities come and put on performances. When we, in fact, 00:15:00when the building was built, it's unusual, but I don't know if you know Kabuki at all, but you know how they come off from the sides of the stage, from up and there's a pathway, well there's a hole in the floor that had a thing so people could come out from the basement and you know we cleared the alter back and put up the stage and so the Kabuki people could come off the stage. And it was, you know it was almost like a theater. It was, you know, it was a social center for the Japanese American community really.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. I'm gonna, I'm going to put a pin in this. I'm excited to hear more about what was going on, but before we get into that, 'cause we'll get into detail, because I want to hear more about it--

Yoko Morita: After the war, right?

Anna Takada: Yeah. Right. But, so going, going back to Portland, it sounds like your, your family was, you know, pretty well off--

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: You know, supported by the temple. And you know, your father had the services there. Can you describe, I guess, what happened at the, the start of the war and when the war broke out?

Yoko Morita: Yes, I could say that my father, because you know, most of the leaders of the community were picked up and he was picked up also, but I, he doesn't know why and-- I can't really explain, but he said that they took him up to the third floor of the city jail and showed them the cell that they were going to put him in. And then they told him, turned him around and said, "Go home." And the thing we assume is that he had only been in Portland a year or so, that he was not really developed to a, a community leader. I mean you know maybe he led his temple, but he was not a community leader. So, that's the reason why. He had been telling us that he told them that I was in school and he 00:17:00had to come pick me up, otherwise I wouldn't get, be able to get home. And so they said, "Okay, you can go home," but that doesn't sound very reasonable with the FBI, you know, but that's what he said. And of course his English was not that good, so I don't know what he heard or what he understood, but he did come home and he was not kept separate from us when we all went to camp.

Anna Takada: Okay. Is that something that you remember or just kind of what you heard?

Yoko Morita: That's what he told us. Right. And actually people ask us about, you know what was your travel like in, in going to assembly center where we were before we went to camp. I don't remember anything except standing in line, getting all those crazy shots, the inoculations, but that's about it-- and standing in line for food. But other than that, I don't remember very much at all about assembly center except what I've heard.

Anna Takada: So, does that mean that you, you probably wouldn't have any 00:18:00memories of Pearl Harbor and--

Yoko Morita: Nothing, nothing. I don't think I even heard about it until after you know, we were in school or after we came out. Because my parents, of course, I don't know whether it was because they were new to the United States. I mean, they were only in the U.S. for about a year and a half before the war began, and so, and they never talked about it, so... I, I don't think I ever really knew about it until after I got to school and I, you know we learned about a lot of stuff, which apparently, I think, come to think of it now is not until after I got out of camp. I mean, when I came out of camp, I was only in fifth grade, so yeah. In the first four years, in those days you only learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, so, not a lot of history.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. At this time, I mean you were, you were very young and I, I know it's, you know you probably don't have that many memories of it, but at 00:19:00that time, do you think you were, you were socializing with other kids or, from school?

Yoko Morita: Oh yeah, we had friends and we had school, and in camp it was, really had a, almost a social, I mean a regular community. And I, I know I took koto lessons, I took Japanese odori buyo lessons, and I also took what they call, I guess it's like, it's a children's dance. You know you sort of dance to children's stories and we did that. And, and then I did a little bit of calligraphy, but that's about it. You know, but I did do all those things in, in camp. So, and then my mother was an ikebana sensei and she started teaching ikebana in camp also.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And before camp, the young people or kids your age, were they mostly Japanese or Japanese American?

Yoko Morita: No, because of, our temple was located on the other side of the river from the Japanese community. In Portland they were all, most of them were on the southwest side of Portland across the river. And we were in Northeast. And I don't know why they ended up being in Northeast, but that's where it was until after the war. And basically, maybe because the land was cheaper out there, I don't know. But as far as I remember, and I know that this, it turned out, it ended up being mostly a Black neighborhood by the time after the war. You know so it was not the best neighborhood.

Anna Takada: So, you mentioned that you don't really have any memories of evacuation or anything besides the inoculations. Can you tell me what you do remember of that process, or...

Yoko Morita: Not of, of moving in at all. I don't even remember that I looked in and that's all there was. There was one big room, which everyone had and that we all-- there was no privacy, everybody, you know everybody slept in the same room and ate in the same room and that kind of stuff. But when you're six or seven years old, it doesn't bother you, you know? And my dad was able to continue with his work and, and he did have service, you know church services, temple services and things like that. So, actually, I, I just remember having fun and having my own friends, which I didn't have when we were living in Portland. Most of the friends that we did have would be from children of the members who only came on Sundays or on the weekend or for some meeting or something like that, but basically not. And then the members who in, in Portland, their children were all about 10 or 12 years older than us because my father was rather young and the members were... You know, most of the Niseis that I remember are from Portland 00:22:00are all gone. There isn't anybody left.

Anna Takada: And so besides those children of, of the temple, you also had your siblings.

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: And let's see-

Yoko Morita: And of course, before the war we didn't speak too much English, you know, so you couldn't mix with the neighborhood children either.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And which assembly center were you sent to?

Yoko Morita: We were in Portland Assembly Center, and it's-- I forget, but it was their racetrack. I forget what the name of it is.

Anna Takada: I'm blanking at the, on the Portland's one.

Yoko Morita: Right. I can't remember what, the name of it is at all. People have asked me. I should really look it up.

Anna Takada: And, do you have any sense of how long you were at the assembly center before going into camp?

Yoko Morita: All I know is what I've heard about six months before everybody was sent out.

Anna Takada: And, and then from there, do you know how you traveled?

Yoko Morita: On the train.

Anna Takada: On the train?

Yoko Morita: Again, I, the only stories I've heard. Right.

Anna Takada: I mean it's, it's still, you know It's still helpful to know what the, even the family kind of, lore stories.

Yoko Morita: Right. Well, we, we traveled together going in, my dad and, and there were four of us kids and my mom. We traveled together. And, and from the stories I hear about the blinds have to be down and things like that, but I don't e-- I don't even remember the train ride period. And it's a pretty long train ride from Portland to southern Idaho you know? Probably at least overnight.

Anna Takada: And so where, would it, would it have been in camp that some of 00:24:00your earliest memories are, or...

Yoko Morita: Well, I have some friends from there that I've kept in contact with, I've lost in the last few years, but I've kept in contact. I remember going to school. My memories of, of being, you know it was just-- The buildings were just built, there were no sidewalks, no nothing, so when it rained, it was a huge mud puddle. And the one story that I remember is going to school the first day on a very rainy day, we lost our shoes and we couldn't find them in the mud. So then, we had to go home and have my dad go follow us back and look for our shoes. That happened a couple of times, but you know, those are silly stories, but things that you remember as a kid. And then, we did you know, in, in the camps, we had Saturday movies for the kids, cowboy stories, cartoons, you 00:25:00know the, the cartoons that you see when you're little. And every Saturday we used to go to those. And I think that was probably the first time I was introduced to American movies. You know we didn't go to anything like that and I don't think we could have afforded to if we had at the time.

Anna Takada: Where were they screening those?

Yoko Morita: In what they call the rec hall. Every, every block had the 12 barracks for living. And then we had a mess hall where we all ate. And then we had a laundry and, and shower room. It was, you know an open shower room in every block. And then one building that was called a rec room. And they were used for different things. Some were, one was used near us was used as a store that you could buy your necessary things. They brought in stuff, you know, some underwear kind of stuff, and the proper stuff that you needed. And then in other places, they were used as a theater and some places were used as a dance floor. I think, well the high school kids they had used one of... Because we had a high 00:26:00school there too. And then they probabl-- I think we probably used one of the rec rooms for our temple meetings or you know, for any kind of group meetings.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. Can you tell me about any of the, the other activities that you remember doing besides cartoons? There were temple meetings you mentioned.

Yoko Morita: Yes. Well, I did take o-koto lessons and then we, and I took dance, Japanese dance lessons and I took the children's, I forget what it's called, but it's a certain kind of dance and calligraphy a little bit. But other, other than that, I remember my dad played men's baseball. They had a, a league and they played, and one of the reasons I know that is because he broke a finger and he always had one crooked finger when he was playing baseball. But we were all too young to be in anything organized. And I understand that there were Boy Scout 00:27:00groups and Cub Scouts, but my brothers were too young to do that. And there was a pond near our bloc-- barrack, where it would freeze, and we would go ice skating in the winter and we were able to get ice skates from order from Sears and things like that. So we, those things we were able to get. And I remember going ice skating and swimming in this muddy pond. So...

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And was your mom, was she working at all?

Yoko Morita: Yes, she worked in, in the mess hall, I guess you would say as a waiter or a server or something. Basically though you weren't served because we went you know along a, like a, a deli where you just asked for what you wanted, and so--

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. And a question I should have asked earlier, was she working when, either in Vancouver or--

Yoko Morita: No, she was at home. She was a stay-at-home mom.

Anna Takada: Right. And she had, was, this was the start of having you and your 00:28:00siblings. And you said your father had services in the rec room or the rec hall?

Yoko Morita: I think. Yeah, rec hall.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. And do you have any sense of how, how many people of that temple were in Minidoka or attending?

Yoko Morita: Probably quite, not the numbers, but I would say a, a fairly large number. Only that, because there were, the Seattle people were in there and the Portland people were in there. And so, and the Seattle minist-- priest did not come to camp. He went back home or was on his way home. So the Seattle priest was that, so my dad, you know, we lived in block 29 in camp. In Minidoka there was from one to 44, so we were kind of sort of in the middle. And I think from 00:29:00both ends, the Seattle people were at the one end and the Portland people, we were mixed sometimes, but mostly divided that way. And so I'm, if I, I don't remember exactly, but I'm sure the temple might have been in, in, in our services were held in our block or near it.

Anna Takada: And I imagine that there was probably a mix of children in camp who were either speaking mostly Japanese or mostly English or maybe a mix. Would you happen to remember your own communication with...

Yoko Morita: My friends?

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm.

Yoko Morita: With my friends, it would've been all English by that time because I was in second grade and I was a regular school, you know, public school student Yeah.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. So you had developed your English?

Yoko Morita: Yes, my English, yes.

Anna Takada: Are there any other, any other memories or anything you would like 00:30:00to share about what you can recall of...

Yoko Morita: Of camp life?

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. Or even just stories from your family?

Yoko Morita: Well see now, after we went to camp, we were near the city of Twin Falls, Idaho. And I don't know how my dad found out, but there was a family, there were several families living in Idaho in Twin Falls, and they were Nichiren, and so he asked permission to go out to them to service them with their religious life. And so about once every two months or so, he was allowed to go to Twin Falls to service these people that, that they would put-- And the family was allowed to go with him, so we would be able to go with him. And because there were stores there, we would take a shopping list from all our members and, and buy stuff and bring them back for them, which is, so from what 00:31:00I understand, Minidoka was pretty much a very liberal camp. You, you were not considered as bad as, I think Tule Lake was considered a troublemaker camp and that kind of stuff. But I think Minidoka wasn't, so we traveled out to there several times a year to service the members there and, and had a good time. Yeah.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. Do you remember that?

Yoko Morita: Yes, yes.

Anna Takada: Remember going out?

Yoko Morita: Yes. Yeah. Going out. And I remember going into, of course in those days they were called 10 cent stores, well, dime stores, the Woolworth and Kresge's, and taking a list and buying this color thread and that color thread and this ribbon and this much yarn and that kind of stuff.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. And so were you going to an actual temple that was there for the community outside of Minidoka?

Yoko Morita: No, we just met in someone's home.

Anna Takada: Oh, mm-hmm.

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: And do you know how many people were kind of there? 'Cause the, so I'm-

Yoko Morita: There were just two or three families, so probably 10 people if that many, you know, even if just the older Issei generation came, it would be you know, eight or nine at the most I'm sure.

Anna Takada: And so I'm assuming that these are Japanese--

Yoko Morita: Americans. Yeah, yeah.

Anna Takada: --that were, you know they weren't on the, the, in the exclusion zones, so they didn't have to go to camp.

Yoko Morita: Right. They were with, outside of the 200 miles, so they didn't have to go to camp.

Anna Takada: Hm. Yeah, that's, that would be really interesting to you know, hear about what that dynamic was like.

Yoko Morita: Yeah, right, right. And I went to the Minidoka Pilgrimage this year for the first time, and I, we went through Twin Falls and there was a historic, well, I wasn't-- we didn't have the time to go through town slowly to find out where exactly they were or even to ask questions, but I, I thought if I had really had the time, I would've liked to run around and see if there are any 00:33:00there still from there or you know their children are still there or not, but you know, it's 70 years, so who knows.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. Right. And, and you're mentioning it's only a couple families.

Yoko Morita: Right, right.

Anna Takada: So... Oh, one other question I wanted to ask was if your father had any work in camp as well?

Yoko Morita: No, he didn't do any work. He would just stayed at, stayed with his temple people and stuff. My mother worked.

Anna Takada: And I'm not sure how this might have worked outside of camp too, but it sounds like he was you know, being housed by the temple.

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: So was that kind of where his living was coming from?

Yoko Morita: Yes. Oh, he did get a salary from the, from the temple itself, so that's what we lived on. And of course in Portland, most of our, not most. Many of our members were farmers. And so we got a lot of vegetables and that kind of stuff. You know, we would have potatoes coming out of our ears and apples, and--

Anna Takada: Well fed.

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: Did that salary, if you would happen to know, did, did that continue while he was in camp?

Yoko Morita: I don't think so, because I don't know that, that the, the people who are our members could have been, I don't think we were that organized that they could afford, you know. There was no membership fee, I, I doubt very, very much. I very much doubt it very much. But I do remember that after the war, when we came back to Portland, his salary was $50 a month, with, to be able to feed 00:35:00six of us. And my sister was born, so then, then there were seven of us, so $50, but rent, was rent free, you know. And I don't know if you know the Japan-- the Buddhist tradition, but people donate to the temple at the end of the year for you know, and mostly it came in forms of rice and shoyu and miso. And so, and basically it was for use for the temple during the year for their many festivals and meetings and stuff, the rice and, and that, you know and then the shoyu and so we were allowed to use that. So as far as the, the staples of Japanese food we had, you know then we had to buy our, our bread and our meat and, and eggs and things, but then we got the vegetables from our farmers, so it was $50 and that was a very little bit of money.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm.

Yoko Morita: Yeah.

Anna Takada: So while we're, we're talking about it, can you tell me about where 00:36:00your family, basically what happened after the camp and...

Yoko Morita: Okay. We went back to Portland and the house was no longer there. So we lived in the basement of the temple.

Anna Takada: Okay. Which was next door to your former house?

Yoko Morita: Yes. We lived in the basement. We did our, our cooking and stuff in the, in the kitchen that was made there, put there to prepare you know for the large festiv-- church affairs and things. And then my sister and I slept in the attic. There was an attic where my dad had his office and my sister and I slept up there and my brothers and my parents lived, slept in the basement. And so, you know. But Portland doesn't get real cold like Chicago, but it does get cold and you can't heat the whole building up for just the five of us, so we lived a 00:37:00very cold life. We had a gas burner in, in the living room downstairs and upstairs we didn't have anything. So my sister and I really froze. I mean, we get up some mornings, not, well, maybe once or twice in the five years we lived there after the war that our, our ink stands, the ink in our ink stands would be frozen, you know so it got cold at night. And my dad had a, a heater, an electric heater in his office to keep warm, but we didn't have one in our bedroom. So we took a very, very warm bath, hot bath, and warmed our bodies up and went in.

Anna Takada: Wow. And was this you and Yoshiko who--

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: And then your other siblings.

Yoko Morita: They slept in the basement where basically we kept warm with a gas burner, so.

Anna Takada: Do you know what year it was that your family left camp?

Yoko Morita: The family left camp in August of 1945. We were probably near 00:38:00towards the end because they were beginning... But my dad stayed back to make sure that all of our members from our temple got out all right and then he came back. He wanted us out in August because he wanted us to start the school year. So we started out. And we started out, and then we had an accident on the way to the, to Twin Falls to catch our train. And so then we had to go back for a couple of weeks before we could go back out. But there was a lady, one of our, the members went with us and she had broken a couple of, none of us were hurt seriously, but she had broken a couple of ribs, so she had to end up waiting a couple of months before she could get out and so...

Anna Takada: Oh wow.

Yoko Morita: Yeah. But we did, and then when we got back to Portland, we didn't have any place to stay. So in Portland, there were several Japanese families that owned hotels, so they let us stay in one of those rooms until my dad came and the temple was ready for us to go live in.

Anna Takada: Hmm. Let's see. I'm going to... I'm sorry to interrupt this. I'm 00:39:00just going to check on something outside.

Yoko Morita: Sure.

Anna Takada: Just so that we can keep our, our sound. But I'll be right back. We can come right back to it.

Yoko Morita: Sure.

Anna Takada: I'm sorry about that.

Yoko Morita: No problem.

Anna Takada: All right. I'm so sorry about that.

Yoko Morita: That's all right.

Anna Takada: Okay. All right. So to pick right back up. So the, the accident on 00:40:00your way to, and I'm sorry, it's Twin Falls?

Yoko Morita: Twin Falls.

Anna Takada: Twin Falls. This was in a car?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. And who was, who was all in the car? How many?

Yoko Morita: My mother, the four of us kids and a, a member whose name was Mrs. Sasaki and she was a member, was going to help my mom with the four of us kids in the train.

Anna Takada: So you all were going to go back to Portland together?

Yoko Morita: Together.

Anna Takada: And so after that you went back to camp? Is that what you said?

Yoko Morita: Yes, we did go back to camp until they were, you know we were able to be, we, most of us, we were all kids. So we were just bruised. And I don't remember how long we stayed back, but we did have to go back out again and had to be back in, we wanted to be back in Portland by September 1st when school started.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. And I'm, I'm sorry, did you, did you make it for the September 1st start?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: Okay.

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: And was it the same group, your, your family and family friend who went?

Yoko Morita: She didn't because she was in the hospital with the broken ribs.

Anna Takada: Okay.

Yoko Morita: She came back, I think probably, I don't know how much later, but she did come back along. Maybe she might have come back with my dad. I don't know.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. And do you know how long your father stayed back before joining you?

Yoko Morita: I think probably 'till sometime in mid-November.

Anna Takada: Oh, okay.

Yoko Morita: Yeah, when the camp was almost completely empty when they said, "You got to get out." I think it's November or October that he came home.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. So you mentioned kind of the living situation immediately 00:42:00after camp and, and staying in the temple. Can you tell me more about kind of what that was like going back to Portland for you and your family?

Yoko Morita: Going back to Portland again, I was 10 and we were busy with school, so I don't remember if I had any real reaction as to whether I enjoyed it or whether I'm bitter about it. We did live in the basement and it was, you know, but we had a lot of room in the basement because it was a big temple. We could play and ride our bikes in the basement on a rainy day. It was fun, you know as we grew up. And we, we had problems because we were constantly breaking stuff and I think that the church board members weren't very happy, but we did, we did. And it was inconvenient in that there was no heating and the only way you could heat hot water was to turn, burn the, turn the furnace on, which was 00:43:00wood burning, so we had to burn in order to take a bath. And so that was kind of inconvenient. We had to, you know, "Okay, we got to start the furnace up," at least to warm water up because there was no water, separate water heater. And so we did that. And so we did get some warmth you know when we, but you didn't burn it very long, so that was it. There was a lot of chores connected with living in the temple because of course people came back from camp and didn't have the money. So it was a wood burning furnace to heat the, the temple itself, the chapel part of the temple. And, and so that had to be cut and then it had to be moved indoors or stacked up and couldn't pay anybody to do it, so us kids ended up doing it. There were a lot of things, we didn't have a janitor, so us kids ended up doing the janitorial work, you know, cleaning all the bath, the public bathrooms. And, and we had, there was no private bathrooms for us in the living 00:44:00quarter, so we used the public bathrooms as, as our own. And then when, after a big service or a big function or something, and we had 500 people in the temple using toilets and clean those out. And it was really quite a, you know it was... And we had the, we had to move, we were the ones who moved the benches to the side so they could have their dances and then we had to move them back on Sunday morning or after they go home to move them back so it could be used for the temple again. And so basically the four Arakawa kids were the janitors for four or five years.

Anna Takada: Wow. Yeah.

Yoko Morita: It's, because they couldn't, they didn't have the money to you know pay for a janitor and the members were all too busy to do that kind of stuff, so...

Anna Takada: And did services start back pretty much immediately when you...

Yoko Morita: Well, once we got back, the services began immediately and it was a, you know, fairly large amount of people and we did have a Sunday school on 00:45:00Sunday mornings and we had, we did start some Nihon-gakkou again on Saturdays, so things were going along pretty well.

Anna Takada: And if your father wasn't there, was someone else leading the services?

Yoko Morita: I don't remember that he ever left very often for anything.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. Well, when your family came without him, when he was still in camp?

Yoko Morita: Well, I don't think we had, had any kind of services, because the, the temple itself was not open.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm.

Yoko Morita: Yeah. It wasn't open until, I think, until he came back.

Anna Takada: I see.

Yoko Morita: And then during the war, the basement was filled with members who wanted stuff stored, their personal belongings that they couldn't take with them, stuff, but a lot of it was missing too when we came back. They were broken into it and a lot of it was missing.

Anna Takada: Would you happen to know if your family had any belongings there as well?

Yoko Morita: Yeah, we had stuff there. We had, when I was born, my grandfather 00:46:00in Japan, do you know what the Hinamatsuri dolls are?

Anna Takada: Yes.

Yoko Morita: Yes. Well he sent my, me a whole set and pieces of it were missing, not all of it, just pieces of it. And so I miss those every year when I put the, you know, I still have them, they're like, what now? 83 years old because I got them when I was born but, and I, every time I put them up I think, "Oh, that piece is missing," and I know they're missing 'cause I, I missed them right from the beginning. Why they didn't take the whole set, you know?

Anna Takada: And so, I, I'm sorry that for that little interruption--

Yoko Morita: That's all right.

Anna Takada: ...but right before that you were mentioning some of the living arrangements for people getting out of camp.

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: And, would you mind just going back to that and explaining you 00:47:00know, where people were going or, or how they were able to find housing?

Yoko Morita: I don't know how the others found housing, but the people, there were several, one, two, maybe about five families that owned hotels in downtown Portland, which is more or less sort of Japanese town. And I don't know whether all the people who, who didn't have places to go back to stayed there until they found something or not. We were probably the last, and of course I wasn't involved with a lot of that stuff. Maybe if I was older, I might have been, but I don't know how or where they lived until they found a place to live. But most of them ended up in southwest Portland. Portland was divided in quadrangles and Japanese... Well, before the war, Northwest Washington was Japan, Japantown. And by the, by after the war, I believe the Chinese took over. And so it's mostly then everybody moved to the southwest. But the church was located in Northeast 00:48:00across the river. And I don't, I don't even know if we had a, even a member of one family who lived there on that, even near the temple.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. And I'm, I'm sorry if I missed this, but your family, were you staying like immediately after camp, were you staying in one of these hotels?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: And so it was your... So by this time it would've still just been you and your three siblings and your mother.

Yoko Morita: Right. And my mom. And she sort of, I guess you would say earned our stay there by helping them you know, make the beds and cleaning the rooms and things like that for a couple of months.

Anna Takada: Mhmm. So that was kind of making the living--

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: ...working there.

Yoko Morita: Working there.

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm. Do you remember what that, that room was like or how long 00:49:00you were staying there?

Yoko Morita: Well, we only stayed till my father came, so probably just a few months, but we, we started out and it's in southwest Portland. So we started school in the Southwest District School. I mean you know the schools even today are according to school districts. So we started there, so we continued going there. That meant for us, we had to take a bus from across town to get to school every morning and at night. And my sister and I graduated from that particular school, but the boys, the school decided had to go to the school in their neighborhood. So they went to a school in our neighborhood, back in our neighborhood.

Anna Takada: At this time, do you remember what grade you were in? Was it fifth grade?

Yoko Morita: I went back in fifth grade and finished fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth.

Anna Takada: Okay. Graduating the Southwest District School?

Yoko Morita: Yeah, school.

Anna Takada: Do you remember the name of the school?

Yoko Morita: Yes. Shattuck.

Anna Takada: Shattuck? How do you spell that?

Yoko Morita: S-H-A-T-T-U-C-K. And, and friends that I had made in camp were also in that school. Most of the Japanese had gone there so... And they all went on to Lincoln High School, which was in the Southwest. But I ended up going to Washington High School on the other side of the river, which is closer to our house. It was really my district high school.

Anna Takada: And can you tell me a little bit more about what that was like for you kind of reentering a public school after your experience in camp?

Yoko Morita: Well actually school in camp, except that they were all just Japanese 'cause we were, it was more like a public school. I didn't think it made too much difference. We had, I had only Caucasian teachers the three years I was there, so I didn't, there were sev-- there were some niseis who were 00:51:00certified to be teachers who worked, but I don't think there were that many 'cause I don't rememb--, I remember my teachers from camp. In fact, I kept in contact with my second grade teacher 'till she died in 1960 or something like that. We corresponded very periodically, but we did.

Anna Takada: What was her name?

Yoko Morita: Mrs. Nicholson.

Anna Takada: Do you remember the names of your other teachers?

Yoko Morita: And my fourth grade teacher was Ms. Schmidt. Those are the only two I remember. And Ms. Schmidt I also kept in touch with until she died about 1970, maybe six-- in the late sixties. But when I got married in '58, I sent her an invitation to my, or at least an announcement, and she wrote back, she says, "I'm happy that you're getting married, but I'm sorry that you're not continuing teaching." Well, I intended to continue teaching while I was working, but she 00:52:00never got married and she gave her life to education. So I think she expected me to not get married either. Most of the teachers were Quakers. Most of the Caucasian people who did anything with the camps were Quakers.

Anna Takada: And at Shattuck?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: How, like... Can you just tell me a little bit more about that school like what class sizes or...

Yoko Morita: Class sizes were probably about you know 25, 20, 30. And that neighborhood was mostly Jewish. So, and we had, I remember being pretty much integrated into the group. We didn't have any problems. And I don't remember any... You know a lot of people went back, and there was still a lot of discrimination against the Japanese. I don't feel-- I didn't feel any myself, 00:53:00and the teachers there were welcoming. And I remember I kept in contact with some of my teachers there too. I like to keep in contact with friends. In fact, I still have friends in Portland from grade school that I, when I travel, we get together for lun--

Anna Takada: Wow.

Yoko Morita: Yeah. So I like to keep in contact with my old friends. And so I had a good experience and I was pretty much of an organizer in that school. Ended up being you know, pretty active in school, school activities. Ended up being the, the top of the safety-- You know in those days, we had safety patrol kids who directed the kids across streets right from school and stuff, and I was organizing them. And I did a lot of that kind of stuff. So, it was a good school experience for me. I liked it very much.

Anna Takada: What were some of the other activities you were involved in?

Yoko Morita: Well, we had sort of a local base-- basketball thingy. But other than that, not really. Just you know, safety patrol and maybe student government 00:54:00type stuff. I was not, we had plays and things like that, but I was not in that sort of field of activities.

Anna Takada: And so when you first got back to Portland in, close to, September '45, your father was out. And you were staying at the hotel, but when you came, you moved into the, the temple.

Yoko Morita: When he came, yes.

Anna Takada: And, and you guys were the, the groundskeepers?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: Of the temple. And so was it through, through this time to... This entire time, are you going to Shattuck?

Yoko Morita: Yes. Then the last, then the last two years, I was at Washington High School. I spent, did my freshman and sophomore year there.

Anna Takada: Okay. And how about that as a high school? Was it also--

Yoko Morita: It's pretty much integrated. Although most of the Japanese kids went to Lincoln because the, their homes are, most of them are over there. And, then, and by then, a lot of them had scattered all over. So there were several from, going to other different school-- high school. But Lincoln was primarily the school that most of the Japanese American kids went to, I think. I'm not sure. At Roosevelt, there were my family and probably two others that were Japanese American, and the rest of them were Caucasian, you know, just out of diversity.

Anna Takada: And would you happen to, to remember any conversations about camp, or were people curious you know, why?

Yoko Morita: Not in Portland? They knew. I think they knew because we left from there. But when we moved to Chicago, and I was sitting with my friends at lunch 00:56:00and we were talking about camp. And they said, "You went to girls camp for three years?" And I said, "No, no, no, no. That's a little different." But most of them thought I had gone to a Girl Scout camp for three and a half years.

Anna Takada: So can you explain how your family, so you, you've completed your sophomore year of high school, and...?

Yoko Morita: Okay. Then my dad traveled the United States where many Japanese Americans had relocated after camp to find out where many of them had locate-- relocated. I think he spent six weeks on the train going from one city to another. And we came home in early August and said, "There's a big congregation in Chicago. So that's where we're going." So in two weeks, we were in Chicago. I mean, we picked up and left immediately almost, again, so that we could go back to school in September.

Anna Takada: I see. Do you remember your reactions to that news?

Yoko Morita: Yes. I didn't want to leave, of course. You know, I had friends, and I had two years, more than half, oh half of my high school life left. So I didn't want to. But when you decide to leave, you decide to leave. And that's it.

Anna Takada: Do you have any idea what happened to the, the temple?

Yoko Morita: Well, they, you know we moved within two weeks of the time. But they, I mean he, my dad was replaced with another minister who, at the time, was in Sacramento, and he moved his family up to Portland. And there was you know the exchange ceremony and all that that goes on when you have a change of leadership. And, and we left.

Anna Takada: One thing that I did just want to touch on before getting into life in Chicago, was you mentioned the, the activities at the temple that took place 00:58:00after the war.

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: That was at that temple in Portland, correct?

Yoko Morita: Yes, yes.

Anna Takada: So before we, we talk about Chicago, can you tell me a little bit more about, about those activities and kind of what the, the community was like post-camp?

Yoko Morita: Right. Well, the, the Nichiren Buddhist Temple in Portland was a large building. And so there were a lot of community activities, particularly social activities. The Niseis held their dances there, and I don't remember how often, maybe once every month or once every other month, but they would have a dance. And they, and, and we would have to clear all the benches to the side so that they could, and, and all the carpeting and everything had to be moved and things. And they, I think the Niseis had a good time you know? It was the entire Japanese community that came, not just our members. So it was for the Portland 00:59:00Japanese American community. And so it was good. And then when movies started coming from Japan, we would show movies on Saturday night, Japanese movies. And of course, that was for the Isseis, and not particularly for the Nisei community. And of course, at that time, still there were a lot of Isseis left. So it was a, a very big crowd, you know? And my brother and my sisters and I would help sell sodas and that kind of stuff during the movie, or before and after the movie. And we ended up moving the benches and we'd clean up, and, and move the benches back, and for the service on Sunday morning. And then after-- For a while, we had a regular group of people coming from Japan, celebrities, movie stars, actors, singers, dance troupes. And we, the, the altar in Portland was huge, and we just moved all of the religious stuff back and pulled the 01:00:00curtain across. And you could really have a, a nice play type stuff, you know? I mean you could put on a play very easily. And, and then as I mentioned before, you could almost put on a kabuki if you wanted to because of they had that sidewalk coming up. And it was things that the Japanese American community... I mean there was no Japanese TV like today, where you could get TV Japan or anything. So it was something for the Isseis to look forward to. And it was fun. A lot of them are well-known Japanese people, actors and actresses, who came. I don't know if this generation of people would remember, but Misora Hibari was one who came, and she's a singer, a very, very popular singer. And she was 13 when she came, and she was a national star until she died in, and I think she died really young. She died when she was 51 or 52. But she was one. And the man, and I don't know if a lot of people who would be watching this would know, but 01:01:00there were, was a samurai who played the Blind Samurai. There's a whole series of movies that he made. He was a blind samurai, and he defended the poor and the defenseless. And he came, couple of times, and was part of the program. So we met a few very interesting people.

Anna Takada: What was his name?

Yoko Morita: I can't remember. I wish I could remember.

Anna Takada: And was this, some of these arrangements, was this through the temple? Or how are you kind of getting--

Yoko Morita: I don't think, no, I, I think it was a, maybe the Japanese, Japanese Chamber of Commerce or some Japanese group that brought it. But we were the only place that could house them. You know they, they, they dress, we had room for them to change their dressing and everything in the basement, and then come up. So it was, and I, you know I have never been in any of the other churches or temples in Portland, but we held, we're the only ones who held that 01:02:00stuff. So I'm assuming this.

Anna Takada: Would you happen to remember, by name, any of other organizations or, or groups that would've been coming together and helping to organize these types of--

Yoko Morita: Not that I know of, no. I don't know. All I know is they came, and we were the temple, you know, the building that had the space and could house them. But that's about it.

Anna Takada: Okay. One other question I had before getting into Chicago is, of course, you were very young when the war started, and you know, even after camp. But there are certain... So obviously the people probably most impacted by the 01:03:00camp are, are the adults, you know the parents.

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: People trying to make a living or go to school or--

Yoko Morita: The college aged Niseis.

Anna Takada: Right. But I'm curious to know how certain information was kind of passed down to you. So like for example, your father was picked up by the FBI.

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: And then released. And I'm just wondering like, if you would happen to remem-remember if there was a certain time that you, your family was talking about this, or that this information was shared with you? Because of course you were a child, so I don't know how much--

Yoko Morita: Yes, I think most of it was after we came to Chicago, and we talked about it. Because like I said before, when we first moved to Chicago and my friends, when we talked about my being in camp for three and a half years, 01:04:00things started, you know people started talking about it. And so until then, I don't think we talked about it at all. I don't even remember that my dad had been you know, pulled away at, at the beginning of the war. So we... And then, of course, so when we came to Chicago, and he established the temple, we had members, not only from Portland but people from California, and people who had just, you know from all over who moved to Chicago. And there were several families that were Peruvians that came, were sent up from Peru because of the war. And they, too, talked. They started talking about their experiences. So everybody started talking about their experiences. And that's, I think that's when I really first heard about it.

Anna Takada: And at this time, would you say you were teenage age?

Yoko Morita: Yeah, I was 16, 15, 16?

Anna Takada: Okay.

Yoko Morita: Because I was a junior in high school.

Anna Takada: Okay. In that case, so your, you moved to Chicago. Your father was 01:05:00interested in starting--

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: ...the Nichiren Temple here.

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: So can you, can you sort of explain what that move was like?

Yoko Morita: Oh yeah. My dad, this was the first assignment that was not an assignment. He chose to move here. And so we came here in, in August of 1951, and we stayed at a member's home for a week. There were seven of us by then. You know, and to have more than seven people in the house for more than a week, it's a little bit... So we found an apartment on Clark Street. I don't, you're probably too young to remember, but there used to be a, a Japanese grocery store on Clark Street called York. We lived upstairs from them. And we had one bedroom and a living room, and a, an ice box, not a refrigerator. We had to buy ice every week to keep our food cold. We had one bedroom. And we, so the five of us 01:06:00slept, I was a teenager, I was 15, my sister was sixt-- 13... 14. My brother was 12, and then 10. And my youngest sister was 18 months. She was really late, 18 months. But the four of us slept in this one bedroom with two beds together so that all four of us slept together. It was just really a bedroom with all beds. That's it. And we lived there for about six months until we found a building that we bought for the temple. And this apartment we shared, we shared the bath and the toilet with... The rest of the building was just boarders. So they were all single men, and us as a family. And that's where we lived for six months.

Anna Takada: Oh, the, you're still talking about the one on Clark Street.

Yoko Morita: Right. And then we bought the building on 1620 North LaSalle.

Anna Takada: I'm sorry. I'm so bad with the, the addresses in, in Chicago still.

Yoko Morita: That's all right.

Anna Takada: But was that still kind of like LaSalle, Clark area?

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: 1620?

Yoko Morita: Do you know where the Moody Bible Church is? Across the street from there.

Anna Takada: Okay.

Yoko Morita: North and LaSalle.

Anna Takada: Okay. Do you remember your first impressions of Chicago?

Yoko Morita: It was a dirty town. It was a coal-burning town, and everything was black. Just, just really a very dirty town. Because Portland was a very clean town. And the first winter we came was a bad winter for us. Well, snow was always here. You know, in Portland, you didn't have snow. Once, that last year we were in Portland, it snowed about a quarter of an inch. And school closed 01:08:00because it's a very hilly town, and you know in the mountains. And so school closed. And we came here to Chicago. And the first winter, we had three feet of snow, and the schools didn't close at all. Not even the delayed opening. But immediately, the snow turned black. And I remember my dad writing to his family in Portland saying-- I mean in Japan, saying, "Guess what? Chicago has black snow, not white snow." Because it stays around so long you know with the cars and everything splashing up. It does really turn black towards the end. But then it, and as it fell, you could see the soot falling on the snow too. So it was really a very dirty town, as far I were concerned. But we bought the house at 1620 LaSalle, and my brothers were still in grade school. So they were able to walk to the grade school. And then my sister and I went to high school, and we could walk if we got up early enough to walk. But we usually ended up taking 01:09:00public transportation.

Anna Takada: Would that have been Waller High school? And how about your brothers?

Yoko Morita: They went to LaSalle Elementary School, and my youngest sister did too. Noriko. Then we all graduated from Waller, all five of us.

Anna Takada: Wow. Let's see. I'm wondering if you could describe for me a little bit more about what that area was like. So I, six months is, it's a fair amount of time to, to live in any one place. So this Clark Street apartment above York grocery store, can you kind of, paint a picture for, for what that area was like 01:10:00at that time?

Yoko Morita: It was really, kind of, I don't know, not the very best neighborhood, you know? There were a lot of, I guess today you might call them, homeless people. Or people who wander around. You were not too easy to go out at night, that kind of stuff. But there were, you know there were bad Japanese group. And we did a lot of... In high school, there was a, a I guess, it's called, you call it, a delicatessen, or place where teenagers gathered called Ting-a-ling that we used to go for ice cream and stuff after different things. And then there was a community center there called the Olivet Institute, where the Japanese Americans had a lot of their dances and activities.

Anna Takada: So, were there any other businesses or, or buildings in that area 01:11:00that stick out to you if, if you're reminiscing of...?

Yoko Morita: Well, the Chicago Midwest Buddhist Temple was just a few, few blocks away from us.

Anna Takada: On LaSalle?

Yoko Morita: Not on LaSalle, they're on North Park Street Avenue, I think. More, well you know, LaSalle is a fairly major thoroughfare. They're more into the neighborhood.

Anna Takada: I see.

Yoko Morita: Yeah. And I think they're still there.

Anna Takada: And York was a, a Japanese-owned grocery store.

Yoko Morita: Yes.

Anna Takada: Can you, can you tell me more about York Grocery Store? Your memories of it?

Yoko Morita: Yes. Well, it was a small grocery store. You know it just had Japanese foods, whatever you could get at Japanese. But she also eventually moved up to north of Belmont after, do you know the Sandberg buildings that are 01:12:00built down there on LaSalle Street? The high rises between Clark and LaSalle, between North Avenue and Division? You know?

Anna Takada: Okay.

Yoko Morita: Okay, well, when they built that, they tore the all those little buildings down. And she moved up to, and she was a member of our temple, her family was. And so you know we did all our, of course, all our Japanese grocery shopping there.

Anna Takada: What were some of the, the Japanese items that you could get there?

Yoko Morita: Well, almost everything. You know the, the rice and the tofu and, and the canned goods. And some of the vegetables, if they could get the vegetables. Just about everything Japanese.

Anna Takada: And let's see, were there a lot of Japanese Americans living in that area when you were there?

Yoko Morita: Not a lot, but there were a few families. In fact, we had a couple 01:13:00of members who lived not too far from us. But our members were scattered from all over Chicago, South Side and North Side. Basically, Chicago was divided into the two, the Hyde Park area and the Waller area. Right?

Anna Takada: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And, and so where was the, the temple?

Yoko Morita: On the first floor of the building. It was a family home, but we, we took one of the walls out between the, I guess that would've been their family room and a, and a dining room, and made it a, and our membership was probably about 30 or 40 families. And so, you know, and it's just the Niseis or Isseis who came. So maybe 20 or 30 people came every Sunday.

Anna Takada: It was mostly Isseis?

Yoko Morita: Yeah, mostly.

Anna Takada: And was this the 1620 North LaSalle?

Yoko Morita: Yes. It was, we converted the first floor into a... And so then we lived on the second floor and third floor.

Anna Takada: Okay. And as far as your, your personal life as a, a teenager, you know, new to the city.

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: Can you just describe you know kind of what--

Yoko Morita: Well, at Waller you know, there were, was a large number of Japanese kids. And as, as at Hyde Park, well, basically Waller and Hyde Park were the JA schools. And we had, my group of friends, there were probably 10 or 12 of us, who I guess you'd say we formed a club and call ourselves the Skyleens. And we are, you know the Chicago Niseis and Sanseis had made their own clubs. And there must have been close to 30 boys clubs. And, and we you know 01:15:00made up basketball teams and baseball teams and had competition and that stuff. And the group that I belonged to was the Skyleens, and, and it's, you've mentioned before there was the, the clubs kind of council. I forget what, the Girls Club Council. And I was a member of it. I was not a leadership in that because I was one of the youngest ones. I think we were the youngest group of women because, I mean, as far as Niseis go, we are the youngest. We're the last of them, you know, so we were the last. And, and the one group in Hyde Park. And then last night, I was trying to think of their name, I can't... I think Tonko might have been in it. But, so you know. And we would have our... Because we were not particularly not-not accepted, but we were-- separated ourselves from the Caucasian community as far as high school goes. So we had our own dances, 01:16:00and we had our own basketball league and baseball league and that kind of stuff. So we kept busy. But we also had, I had to work because my dad's temple was so small that he went to work when we came here. He worked, in, in fact the, the man whose house we stayed at the first week, worked as a, I don't know what his job was, but he worked at the Edgewater Beach Hotel. And so he got my dad a job there in their accounting department. And the accounting department that he worked in, their busiest day was Saturday and Sunday. And my dad, of course, had temple on Sundays. So I went in on Saturday and on Sundays, that he couldn't go in. And I worked there. And what we worked in was the Liquor Control Department. And what we counted was the receipts from the bars and the dining rooms, to see how many li--, how many drinks they sold. And then we had to compare it to see none was stolen. That was our job. And we, he, he worked Saturdays. Well, I 01:17:00worked every weekend, but we worked, had to be at work at six o'clock. And so I had to get up at, what, five to get on the, on the subway to get to Edgewater Beach. So I never got to sleep in late. At five days a week I went to school, and Saturday and Sunday I went to, to work. And of course our basketball games are on Saturday and Sunday, so... And we could quit working as soon as we finished and balanced our books. Right? And I would work like crazy to get out of there, and the guys would say, we got paid by the hours. And the guys would say, "Yoko don't work so fast. We have to you know, stay here as long as we could." So that's what I did.

Anna Takada: It sounds like you were keeping very busy.

Yoko Morita: Very busy for two years. But then my mother started teaching Ikebana. And she, her, it, it really became a business for her, and she, you know we were able to, dad was able to quit working because she was making enough of a livelihood for us because we did not charge our members membership. They 01:18:00just donated whatever they could. And so, there was no regular income coming from the temple, and there was no support coming from the headquarters either, now. You know so we, we had to work.

Anna Takada: Do you know why that would've been, that the, where your father was formerly salaried, why coming to Chicago that...

Yoko Morita: He decided he didn't want to be. He said, "I'm going to make my own living, I'm going to do..." 'cause he knew that they could never afford, the small membership could never afford to be able to pay a salary for a man. I mean, I was heading for college in a couple of years, and so was the rest of my family. So, he decided that he would not ask for a salary. He came here voluntarily, and he said, "We will make do with what we can do." And we did.

Anna Takada: So...

Yoko Morita: They donated. You know they, there was a contribution box at, at the church, but it was never anything that they had to give, or that there was a 01:19:00membership due, or anything like that at all.

Anna Takada: So would that mean that your father, this temple was kind of independent from the...

Yoko Morita: No, he was within the organization, but he didn't get a salary, because the salaries were paid by the members of that particular temple, not from the headquarter organization or anything.

Anna Takada: Right, but formerly, they were, they were paying the housing, and things like that.

Yoko Morita: Right.

Anna Takada: Okay. And where was your mom teaching ikebana, or how did that work?

Yoko Morita: We cleared chairs out from, from Temple, from the temple service, and we'd put the tables out, and, and they, it was in the chapel, because that was the only large room. And she would have about maybe 15, 20 students per session, and she had five classes. And she would gather all the material for the 01:20:00classes, we would go to the wholesale florist, and then she would divide it up so that it would be the right, right number of, how you know, what she wanted them to use for that particular lesson. And then, she would have, the school became known as Mishokai and they would have a show, an exhibit, once a year. And, in order to do that, we had, because she had five classes, we had over 100 students. So we had to have different material. You couldn't have the same thing for all of them. We had to have something for all 100, and she and I and my brothers would drive around Indiana, north Illinois, Wisco-- Wisconsin, and look for wild materials that would hold, and then we'd buy the flowers and, and divide it up so the students would all have their own arrangements. We'd start arranging on about eight o'clock Saturday morning, and the first year, we 01:21:00finished the last arrangement at 10 o'clock Sunday morning, when the show opened. And so, you know, we worked through the night, and we'd go home and take a shower, and we'd be back to open the show up. And so, we, we did it at McCormick Place almost every year, and I can't remember what the first year was. But then, I got married, and I had my kids, and I helped her with her thingy. My children slept under the grand piano at McCormick Place during the nights until we'd finish whatever we had to finish.

Anna Takada: And, and so, this was some kind of like citywide showcase, or...

Yoko Morita: Well this was a show to... exhibit for our stu-- our students to show what they have accomplished, or what they could do. And it was publicly, you know it was open to the public. We broadcast, we did newspaper articles, we bought... I mean we have lots of newspaper articles announcing our show. We were on... I don't think you guys would probably remember, but Lee Phillips had sort 01:22:00of a community TV program, and every year she, we would ask her if she would take us on. And so, my mother and I would go on for about two minutes and talk about Mishokai and what the ikebana was, and advertise our show. We had a pretty broad attendance of people who came.

Anna Takada: Wow.

Yoko Morita: At least a thousand during that one 10-hour period. It's pretty good.

Anna Takada: And was your mother... Was she trained in Japan?

Yoko Morita: Yes. In fact, she started... When, when they got married, and they came, when she came back with my dad to Vancouver, the students knew that she was an ikebana instructor, so they wanted her to teach. And she never intended to teach. And she told me once, she said, "I almost told your father, 'Send me back, 'cause I don't want to teach. I want a divorce.'" But he wouldn't send her back.

Anna Takada: So it sounds like helping your mother with this, with the school 01:23:00was just another responsibility of yours is that--

Yoko Morita: Yes, and I scheduled my college classes so that I could be home for her daytime classes, so, so I could help her. Because, by then, by the time let's see, by the time I was in college, it was two years later, and we had probably about 30% or 40% of the people were Caucasians. And so we, we had you know, but after years and years and years, most of them knew. I mean the, the terminology, they knew, and most of them came knowing something about it, so they could... And with her hand, and, and fixing whatever you know, arrangements that they had made, and she said, "Well, turn this a little bit this way and that way." They could. Maybe they didn't get the philosophy behind a lot of it. Some of them did. Most of them probably did not, but they knew what to do. And, and she had a very large, large number of Caucasians, and all kinds of people. We had commercial florists, mostly housewives, but mostly, we had commercial 01:24:00florists. We had a, a child psychologist. We had a, you know a pediatrician, said it relaxed... And men who said that it relaxed them to come to class afterwards, to, doing the ikebana. It was a real large number of people who came and diversity was one of the things, and she taught for 30 years so...

Anna Takada: Okay. Going, going back to your own personal life in Chicago... I'm wondering, well first, how was, what was, I'm wondering if you could tell me, or describe, what Waller was like in... Let's see. That must have been '50? 1950?

Yoko Morita: '51. 1951.

Anna Takada: 1951. So what was Waller like at the time? I know you mentioned 01:25:00there was a fair amount of Japanese American students.

Yoko Morita: Right. Well okay. Compared to my high school in Portland, Waller was a pretty wild school. My high school in Oregon was almost a sleepy town kind of school you know? Things were well organized, the kids were pretty civilized, I would say. But at Waller you know, you had to have a pass to get out of your classroom to do anything, and there were hall guards, and I just hated Waller my first year. And then, I, I got to know my, my class advisor, faculty advisor, and she pulled me along, and I, I really got to like Waller a lot. I became very active in student government. I ran for a student government office you know, and senior class office. And I never got active in any of the school activities, but just student government, and I ended up liking Waller, pretty much. But it 01:26:00was very, very different. I, I wrote back to my high school classmates in, in Portland, saying, "This is a lousy school." But of course, now, it's one of the preeminent schools now, but Waller at that time was a small, small neighborhood school, and it was really quite bad.

Anna Takada: As far as quality of education?

Yoko Morita: Quality. That's right.

Anna Takada: And you mentioned your involvement in, in girls, a girls club, the Skyleens.

Yoko Morita: Right, right.

Anna Takada: For people who are totally unfamiliar with the Chicago Japanese American community, how would you kind of describe or explain that to someone?

Yoko Morita: Well I think we, I, I came in late, because I came in as a, as a junior in high school. But I, I, my assumption is that, because we didn't, we were in high school, but were not going to the high school dances, or going to a 01:27:00lot of high school football games, and stuff. At least at Waller, we weren't. I think maybe at Hyde Park, they might have been more, because there were a lot more Japanese Americans down there. But, so we formed our little, our own group socially to... I mean, diversity was there, but we didn't mix. You know like, at, at that time, the blacks sat with the blacks, you know the Asians they sat with the Asians, and you sit, sat in your own place for lunch, and all that. So, that was what it was. And so we, and I don't know why they, we were the last of the Japanese American clubs to form, so I don't know why the first ones began. Most of them are probably 10 or 12 years older. And, but we did have a social club, and there were enough of us in our age group that we could have a dance once a month. And this council was to sort of schedule the different dances, so the different clubs didn't hold a dance at the same time. It was so that we would all go to each other's dances and things, and that's what it was about. 01:28:00And so, that's how it was formed. And then, I don't think there was another, younger group... of, of girls, at least... who you know formed a club. And even today, we have... Well, my husband belonged to a group in Hyde Park that were called the Ro Babes. I don't know if you've heard of them, but they were a pretty active bunch of guys. And I, there, and I don't know, didn't know them, any of them, until I met my husband. And, after we all were out of college and married, the Ro Babes held a reunion, I think every 18 months. And at that time, they were young, married kids with, with kids, and so it was a they brought all their children and they, you know, for a weekend, spent at, in mostly I think Tahoe, and Vegas, and that kind of place. And, but at that time, we were married, and, and my husband was assigned to Tokyo. He worked for the United 01:29:00States Treasury Department. He was a customs officer, and he was assigned to the embassy in Tokyo. So, no way can we afford to come from Japan to come for a weekend with a family of three kids, so we didn't join them. But eventually, all the different clubs asked to be part of that reunion. So now, we have what's called the All Chicago Club reunion, and we met every 18 months in Vegas until about four years ago, maybe five years ago. And they have a meeting here now, once...you know those 18... And I have not been able to attend any of them, but it's been active. And so, you know we've, in Vegas with the spouses and everything, we had almost 200, I think about 200 people at these thingies for a long time, and a lot of the people were in their eighties and nineties when we were still in our seventies. So you know there were, all the people were there, and it was interesting. It was fun. It's fun to get to go back and see 'em. And then, people came from as far away as Hawaii. The, there were a couple of Ro 01:30:00Babes who were living in Hawaii, and they came every year.

Anna Takada: And, as far as the Skyleens, about how big, or how many girls were in that group?

Yoko Morita: I think there were eight, or nine of us, maybe 10.

Anna Takada: And so, it sounds like for a lot of people, including yourself, these, these groups had, made quite an impact on you.

Yoko Morita: Right. That was our social life, really. You know and, and we dated the guys from these other boy's clubs. There was a, the Lancers I think are, are from, from Hyde Park, and the Ro Babes are from Hyde Park. The Lakers, I think are from Waller, or that area. But you know there, they were, and so, it was two or three boy's clubs and two or three women's, girl's clubs that got together. And so, all of us had maybe 10, 12, 15 members, and we would have a dance. There 01:31:00would be, that's a fairly large, you know... And, and, I think we all sort of, when you look back on the couples, we've all married the kind of people we dated in high school.

Anna Takada: You've mentioned a few of the groups already. Can you remember some of the, the others or...

Yoko Morita: Yeah. The Dawnelles were older than us. There was... Gosh, I don't remember all the names. I, if you had asked me about them, I could have remembered them. Gosh, I can't really remember. I know my sister-in-law, who was about eight years older than I, she was in a club also, but I don't know what her name group is, was either. And my daughter's mother-in-law was in a group, but she also is about 10 years older than I. So, the groups were you know, when we got together as a all Chicago group, there were like maybe 15 or 20 years between the difference of the youngest ones and the older ones.

Anna Takada: So we have just a few more minutes left. Before we wrap up, I do want to ask about the, the Nichiren Temple. And if you could kind of explain you know if, the, the trajectory of that temple, if you guys moved locations at any point, or...

Yoko Morita: Yes. Well the temple on LaSalle Street was our home. We bought the building. My dad and my mom paid for the building. And so, when he retired, he didn't, we didn't really want to give the temple to them. They would have no place to live. So they, my dad started what they call it, a penny bank, and the members dropped in pennies every time they came to Temple, and, and explained in that thingy, that it continues to get $10,000, which is basically nothing, really. And then, some more years, they got $10,000 more. And then my dad, while 01:33:00we were living in Japan, he came and stayed with us for a month, and he toured Japan and collected money, and he collected like... I think $30,000 or $40,000. And then, more came in from Japan after that, and they were able to buy a new building, which the, the temple bought, the members bought. And so, it's over here on Paulina Street. And that, and they came, I think it was in 19-- late '70s or early '80s that they established a temple there. And so then, LaSalle Street became home for my parents until they retired, when they sold their house, right?

Anna Takada: And, so and it's still on Paulina...

Yoko Morita: It's still there. Yes. Yes.

Anna Takada: Do, did somebody, after your father's retirement, did someone kind of take over?

Yoko Morita: Yes, in fact my father left the, the Chicago temple, but then the 01:34:00priest in Toronto suddenly passed away, so he moved to Toronto by himself.

Anna Takada: Your father?

Yoko Morita: Mm-hm, for about three years. And he'd come home every three months or so for a couple of weekends, 'cause we had a priest here at, in Paulina Street, so that's what he did. And then, he retired then he was going to retire, he retired, to come live with us in Florida, 'cause we were living in Florida. My husband's with customs, and he was in Florida. And so, he, they came down, but the Portland temple was, the priest left. And he said, "I don't want to just sit at--" he was still fairly young. He was in his 80s, and he said, "I still want to work some more," so he went back, but he only, he found out that he could only, not do it anymore. So he just stayed there for I think a year, or a year and a half, and then came down to live with us in Florida permanently. And then, when we moved, my husband moved to, retired, we moved back to Washington 01:35:00DC, because our children were in that area. Florida's too hot, and I didn't like it, so we came back. But that's why you know, my dad retired in 1983. My mom retired in '83 also, from her flower...

Anna Takada: And so, you still have family in Chicago?

Yoko Morita: I have one sister.

Anna Takada: And so, so has she stayed... Which sister is this?

Yoko Morita: Noriko.

Anna Takada: Noriko. So the youngest. And did the rest of your siblings, after college or, or high school, did they all come back to Chicago, or stay in Chicago?

Yoko Morita: My, after college, my, my younger brother, T-Bone, taught in Chicago for a year and a half, and was a, he's a physical education teacher, and 01:36:00he was, his first assignment was Waller High School. So he was a teacher at Waller High School while my youngest sister was a freshman at Waller High School, so you know she said there was some conflict there. And then, my brother went... From high school, he enlisted in the Army, and he stayed in the Army until he retired. And he ended up living in, near Fort Lewis in Seattle, Washington. And I got married, and we were here in Chicago until 1969. And then, we moved to, we moved to San Diego for a year. Then, we moved to Washington, DC for six months. Then we went to Japan for five years. And then we, then we came back to DC, and then he was assigned to Florida, and he retired down there. So, but I didn't like Florida, and we kept our house in, in the DC area. So we came back and retired there, 'cause our kids said to us. "You guys stay in Florida, 01:37:00we're not coming to visit you. It's too far from anything."

Anna Takada: And, as far as... Because it sounds like you've made a home in several different cities, not just in the U.S., but in the world. When you think of Chicago you know...

Yoko Morita: It's still kind of home, you know? In Japanese, it's furusato. Your home. Because we, I, although, to think of it, it's a short, one of the shorter periods of my life, because I came here as 15 and I lived here when we were, when I was about 31. 10 or 12 years, only. Although, maybe it's the second longest, because DC we've been now almost 30 years.

Anna Takada: Certainly over some formative years, I would imagine.

Yoko Morita: Yes, yes. And our children, our children were all born here, 01:38:00though, our three children. And then, but they all lived in San Diego for a while for school, and Chicago for a while in school. Five years in Japan, and then finished, in Virginia, their high school years. And they're all now in college, and out, well some of them.

Anna Takada: So unfortunately we're, we're really coming to time, but one thing I like to ask people kind of before we wrap up is if there were any kind of, if there's any kind of message or legacy that you could leave with your children and your grandchildren? What's something that you might like to, to leave with them?

Yoko Morita: I think I would like to, for them to remember a lot about... Because my mother was a, a ikebana sensei, and my father was a religious leader. 01:39:00I want them to remember a lot of the cultural things from their ancestors, the things, the, the festivals, the meanings of life, the things we do. Also, to go to temple. And so far, there's no Buddhist Nichiren temple in Washington, but both of us, my daughter who lives in Washington, in the DC area and myself, we have a butsudan to which we say our prayers and you know give incense to. And I would like my yonsei grandchildren, to continue that part of our ancestry, and, and so forth.

Anna Takada: And are there any final thoughts, or anything that you'd like to share before we wrap up?

Yoko Morita: I think we had, our particular family had a good life so far, and a lot of it, some of it is because we were in camp and we moved to Chicago and dispersed. And I'm sorry that we've lost our language, a lot of-- and many of 01:40:00the cultural things, because right now, I have a lot of Japanese American friends in the DC area, but they're all Sanseis, you know younger, older Sanseis. And I'm the youngest Nisei, and I'm the only one in the group that speaks Japanese, and I, I think that's sad, but what can you, that's the way it goes. So, I would like for us to be able to remember the Japanese culture. Though we live in America, there's a lot of good from the Japanese culture.

Anna Takada: Well thank you so much for coming in and sharing.

Yoko Morita: Thank you. Thank you.