Biography:
George Hajime Mori was born on May 11, 1914, in Los Angeles, where he was the first child of Kinro and Kise Mori. He had a younger brother and sister. Before the war and forced removal, Mori ran his own gardening and landscaping business. The family was sent to the Pomona Assembly Center on May 11, 1942, and arrived in Heart Mountain on August 18, 1942. They lived in apartment 2-12-D. George’s younger brother William also lived in Heart Mountain but in a different apartment with his wife. George answered No on Question 27 of the 1943 loyalty questionnaire and Yes on Question 28, adding that “as a citizen of the US unable to read or write Japanese.” Mori noted that his father was blind, which was one reason he did not want to serve in the military, preferring instead to work in war-related agriculture or defense plants. It is unclear from his War Relocation Authority records that Mori was charged or convicted for violating the Selective Service Act. The final accountability roster from Heart Mountain shows that Mori and his parents returned to Los Angeles on September 14, 1945, and Mori is listed in 1945 sports reports in the Heart Mountain Sentinel as playing baseball. George Hajime Mori died on March 7, 1979, in Los Angeles.