CALIFORNIA: High-Flying Flag

The little town of Calipatria (pop. 2,500), a cluster of small stores and business buildings surrounded by the truck farms of California’s broiling Imperial Valley, has always had one claim to fame: it is located 184 ft. below sea level, and fondly calls itself “the lowest-down city in the Western Hemisphere.” Last week Calipatria got a raise in stature, if not elevation, as it demonstrated how far the Imperial Valley has come since the old days—and Pearl Harbor days—when inflamed feelings against Japanese settlers brought persecution and bloodshed.

Among the oldtime Japanese residents of the valley were Takeo Harry Momita and his wife Shizuko Helen, who operated a series of little drugstores from 1927 until 1942 when they—along with 110,000 West Coast Japanese and their American-born youngsters—were herded into Army relocation camps for the duration. In 1945 they came back to the valley amid uneasiness and tension, scraped up money for another store, entered their children in public schools. When they moved to Calipatria, things began to get better; the youngsters began to run off with honors in school, and son Milton was named president of the high school senior class.

In 1954 Harry Momita received his American citizenship under the McCarran-Walter Act. His drugstore became the social center of the area, and Helen used to open it at 8 o’clock every morning so that everyone could gather for coffee. Last year Harry served as president of the Calipatria Chamber of Commerce.

Last fortnight, as the Momitas were on their way to Los Angeles to see their children, a speeding auto sideswiped them, killed Helen and sent Harry to the hospital with cuts, bruises and shock. As he lay there last week, “not caring whether I lived or died,” Calipatria’s Mayor Ed Rademacher marched in with a group of friends and quietly asked for the keys to the drugstore. “We’re going to keep it running for you,” he announced, “and a lot of people have volunteered to help.” The druggist from neighboring Brawley called up to say that he would handle all the prescriptions.

Other citizens began contributing five-and ten-dollar bills for a memorial to Helen Momita at the Los Angeles Buddhist temple. When he was consulted about it, Harry asked that the money be used instead to help fulfill a long-standing dream of Calipatrians : to build a 184-ft. flagpole so that the American flag could fly at sea level above “the lowest-down city in the Western Hemisphere.”