“No one made a move …. except for one person ….
I often wonder who that girl was and often wished I could meet her again.”
Musubi – March 1942
By Yukari Marumoto Mikesell
It was the last day of school. I can’t really say it was the last day since it was I who was going to school for the last time – this school in Gardena. We were moving away from our home in California.
My mother had made us our lunch. It was the last batch of rice she had cooked and for our school lunch, she had made rice balls (musubi). We had no bread left, but we still had rice. She wrapped it in wax paper and put it in our lunch bags. I loved musubi with the pickled plum (umeboshi) in the center.
When it was lunch time in First Grade, we all opened our lunch bag and took out our food. My teacher looked at my musubi – wrapped in nori, so it was a nori musubi – and she took my musubi out of my hand and threw it into the waste basket! I was so surprised that I could say nothing. The teacher was appalled at this black ball and so she threw it in the waste basket and said to the other kids in my class, “Share your lunch with Yukari.”
“Well,” I thought, “maybe I’ll get a wonderful baloney sandwich!” I waited with anticipation as the other kids shuffled around and clutched their lunch bag or boxes. No one made a move to open their bags or said a word. It was quiet and movement was away from me – except for one person.
This person was always dressed in clean clothes, the same dress, all the time. I assumed she was poor. She came towards me and said, “I’ll share my sandwich with you!” Of all the sandwiches I could have had, it was the driest – no lettuce or condiments spread on the bread.
It was a dry lunch – but for me, years later, the finest unforgettable act in my life. Here I am in my 90’s and I still recall that simple act of sharing what limited resource was at hand.
I often wonder who that girl was and often wished I could meet her again.
I wonder where she is and how her life has been.
© 2025, Yukari Marumoto Mikesell
Yukari Marumoto, 6 years old, with siblings and cousin, shortly before her parents, Masaichiro and Asako Marumoto, made the courageous decision to move inland from Gardena, CA to West Point, Utah during the “Voluntary” Relocation period before the California border was closed to Japanese immigrants and their Japanese American children. Photo courtesy of Yukari Mikesell.
Yukari Marumoto Mikesell at the 2025 exhibit in Pasadena, “Cruising J-Town,” next to the 1931 Chevy that carried her family to Utah to avoid incarceration in a War Relocation Authority (WRA) Camp. Photo courtesy of Rob Buscher.
Yukari Marumoto Mikesell was attending First Grade in Gardena, California when this story took place. She worked alongside her parents before and after school as tenant farmers throughout her childhood. Yukari graduated with an Associate Degree at Weber College, and raised 4 children with her husband Robert E. Mikesell. She served as a docent at the Dayton Art Institute, the Denver Museum of Natural History, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium (for 20 years). She fought for redress as President of the Dayton, Ohio JACL Chapter in the late 1970’s. Yukari turned 90 years old on December 25, 2025.