Talk:Pat Morita/Archives/2019

Mother?

The beginning of the bio section says his parents immigrated in 1912, but the death section says he was survived by mother Dorothy, born in 1913. Which is right? Triviaa (talk) 13:04, 30 October 2016 (UTC)

That's a great question. You've pointed out a clear contradiction, and after some investigation, I can say that at least one of the assertions is incorrect . . . and perhaps something else is at play as well (see below).

1. Note that none of the article's sources attached to these assertions actually support these two statements.
2. Following a brief google search, I didn't see any reliable source indicating his parents immigrated to the United States in 1912, and I didn't find any journalistic accounts contemporaneous with Morita's death in 2005 that state that he was survived by his mother. If these exist, please point them out to me.
3. From the national archives which contains information on Japanese American internees, I think we can infer that the following is a link for Morita's father Tamaru [1], based on the surname, reasonable year of birth (1897), relocation camp, and that the listed birth place (island of Kyushu) is consistent with the article. None of the other Moritas matches these characteristics so closely. However, it does list his immigration year as 1915 rather than 1912.
4. From the national archives which contains information on Japanese American internees, I think we can infer that the following is a link for Morita's mother Momoye (Momoe)[2], based on the surname, reasonable year of birth (1903), relocation camp, and that the listed birth place (island of Kyushu) is consistent with the article. Again, none of the other Moritas matches these characteristics so closely. However, it does list her immigration year as 1913 rather than 1912.
5. From the national archives which contains information on Japanese American internees, I think we can infer that the following is a link for Morita's brother Harry (Hideo) [3], based on the surname, reasonable year of birth (1920) -- consistent with this article, relocation camp, and that the file number 308543 directly follows Tamaru and Momoe's file numbers (308541 and 308542 respectively).
6. From the national archives which contains information on Japanese American internees, I think we can infer that the following is a link for Dorothy Sueko Saika [4]. It does list her birth year as 1913, which would in all likelihood make it impossible for her to be the mother of Pat's brother Hideo (born 1920). Although she did go to the same relocation camp as the Moritas and lived in the same general area, her file number 305146 suggests that she not was part of the Morita family. Furthermore, in that day and age, it would be very unusual for the wife of Tamaru Morita not to have taken on his surname.

So, what to make of this? I think we can reasonably conclude that Dorothy Saika was not the wife of Tamaru and was not the mother of Hideo. It is tempting to speculate whether Pat might have been the illegitimate son of Dorothy. He was, after all, born twelve years after Hideo. At the time of his birth, Dorothy would have been 19 years old and Momoe would have been 29. But this is all unsupported conjecture, and I didn't find a reliable source stating that Dorothy was his mother. There could be one -- feel free to help me locate one and we can insert it in the article.

— Myasuda (talk) 15:43, 30 October 2016 (UTC)

It should be remembered that it is not unusual for persons in the entertainment industry to alter their official biographies for privacy reasons. It should also be remembered that a great many people a century or so ago, fibbed on official documents for a variety of reasons. I am a genealogist and discovered many years after her death that my great grandmother was not as old as she claimed to be. She stated on her immigration papers that she was 18 years old but in fact was only 16. She would not have been permitted to travel alone at 16 going from Ireland to the USA. She kept up the fib on all federal documents such as census and immigration but on her marriage and death certificates it states she was two years younger. I also found some church records indicating she was younger. So she lied to the federal government but told the truth to the church and local officials, people she knew. Her grave stone gives the younger age. I have since discovered this was fairly common among immigrants in that time frame. So Mr. Morita or his parents may not have been 100% truthful either when immigrating or at internment camps or after the whole thing was over. For all we know Mr. Morita was unofficially adopted by someone and in the interment camps knew a Mr. and Mrs Morita and borrowed their names. Without doing serious genealogical research on Mr. Morita, there really is no way of knowing and it does not look like that has been done. National Archives are very useful but like census records, they are only as good as what was reported to the record keepers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.190.183.221 (talk) 09:40, 9 April 2019 (UTC)