Helen Murao

In the following essay, evacuee Helen Murao recalls the difficulty of maintaining a normal family life during the Japanese American relocation. Among a sizeable population of Japanese for the first time, Murao, a fifteen-year-old orphan when she was evacuated from Portland, Oregon, took on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers. When they were transferred to the relocation camp at Minidoka, Idaho, Murao, determined to maintain the cohesiveness of the family unit, intensively supervised her brothers' lives while working a job and trying to finish high school.

Iwas born in Portland, Oregon, in 1926. . . . I had gotten through my sophomore year in high school when evacuation came about. I did a year of high school, such as it was, in camp and then finished up in Madison, Wisconsin.

My parents died within three years of each other...