Ethel and the Japanese Family she helped survive the Internment. July, 1949

Ethel and the Japanese Family she helped survive the Internment. July, 1949

Ethel Anna Pelicoff Bloom was a very remarkable woman. A wife and mother, she also ran a Real Estate business, which was somewhat unusual for a woman of her time. She traveled extensively, usually without her husband. When Lawrence called her and told her to "pack up everything and come to Los Angeles", she did. Sold the Philiadelphia house. Took a train across country with 2 year old Mort and 1 year old George and pregnant with baby Hi. She often traveled across the country, driving, which was saying something for a woman and considering the roads at the time.

She was a great mother in law, a great grandmother, college educated, and was a bit of a suffragette who reminded folks of Eleanor Roosevelt. She was active in politics, to the point that, although, a life long Democrat, she changed political affiliation to Republican in the 1946 California primary, so that she could vote AGAINST Richard Nixon.

In short, she was pretty special. And one of the really special things she did was help out a Japanese family protect their property when they were ordered to leave everything immediately and go into one of the internment camps early in 1942, shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Judging from the date on the photo, and the fact that several of the people appear to be Japanese, this might be a photo of Ethel and members of the Sakioka family. Many Japanese lost everything when they were forced to sell for pennies on the dollar, but Ethel helped one family maintain their farm land. The story is that when the war was over, she turned back to the family, the property and the profits, with every penny accounted for.

She did all of that, never taking advantage of their situation in any way.

Mort´s book at page 89 tells the story in detail.

Before World War II, my mother’s real estate office was in West Los Angeles, because that’s where we lived. West L.A. wasn’t anything like it is now; it
was all open bean fields. My father built a small building on Pico Boulevard and
that’s where she had her office.
At that time, the whole area between Sepulveda and Sawtelle Boulevard,
which is now the freeway, was open land. there was a Japanese man named
Sakioka who owned and farmed all that open land — from south of national
Boulevard all the way north to Sunset Boulevard. He grew celery and, at Christmastime up near Sunset Boulevard, he grew poinsettias. He was a very savvy
businessman, and he made a lot of money. Mr. Sakioka was one of the leaders
of the Japanese community.
My mother had made real estate deals with him — she had sold land for
him and sold land to him, so they knew each other well. During the war, when
the Japanese were notified that they would be sent to internment camps, my
mother realized that Mr. Sakioka was to be away for an unspecified amount of
time. She asked him, “What are you going to do with your properties?” He
said, “I don’t know. I’m worried about it.” She said, “How would it be if I were
to take care of it all until they let you come home?” And he agreed, and was
quite relieved.
So, she took care of Sakioka’s properties, and saw to it that they were leased
and that the rents were collected .She accounted for all of the rents, kept complete records, and paid the taxes. It was agreed that she should pay herself a reasonable commission for her work. She was able to preserve his entire
“kingdom” until after the war.
When he and his family came back, everything was all intact. that was a
huge thing. to show his appreciation, he took my mother and a couple of other
89
people who had worked with her on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii. they
went by ship since you couldn’t fly to Hawaii in those days. It was a very luxurious vacation, and they went for several weeks as Mr. Sakioka´s guests.

July, 1949

1949

1949