During the centennial of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, we’re looking through our archives and sharing fascinating stories from our alumni over the past 100 years. First up is the story of Chiye Mori ‘32. 

A skillful writer and talented poet, Chiye persevered in her craft. She became an important figure in the formation of a Nisei (Nisei refers to a person born in the U.S. or Canada whose parents were immigrants from Japan) literary community in 1930s Los Angeles, and during World War II she was an editor of the Manzanar Free Press newspaper. In the 1932 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Chiye Mori won third prize in the Witter Bynner Poetry Contest for Pinned.  

Pinned 

Every morning
I go to the kitchen window, 
And look to see if the clothespins
Stained with the dew of many morns,  
And the dust of many noons,  
Are still there; 
And every morning
Their presence tells me, 
“Today will be like yesterday.” 
That long string of drab clothespins 
Seems to pin my very heart 
To the rope of hard reality.  
I am still looking for a day,  
When clothespins on a line 
Will not be there to tell me, 
“Today will be like yesterday.” 

Her interest in poetry would continue to grow, leading to her contributing a column on poetics in a student publication the following year. She regularly contributed columns and articles to numerous Southern California Japanese American Publications through the years. The increased tensions of World War II led to Mori and her husband being forcibly removed from their home and separated in 1942. She, along with her parents, was detained in the Manzanar War Relocation Center, a remote, military-style internment camp. Mori became the editor of the Manzanar Free Press, the camp’s bi-weekly newspaper. Following her 1943 release from Manzanar, Mori established a successful career as the editor of The Nisei Weekender, and eventually as a professor, artist, and designer. At age 86, Mori passed on May 15, 2001, in Honolulu, Hawai’i.  

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