Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Mary Kageyama Nomura Interview
Narrator: Mary Kageyama Nomura
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Torrance, California
Date: July 9, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-nmary-02-0006

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TI: Moving on a little bit, when you were about eight, your mother died. What happened?

MN: She... I would say, with her second husband, she had complications in childbirth, and she passed away at that time. So we had that little half brother, and my father, stepfather went to work diligently. And we took care of him, the little brother. And while we went to school, we took him to a little grocery store, Japanese grocery store, and had them take care of him while we went to the school and all that. And after he amassed, my stepfather amassed enough money to go back to Japan, he took his son with him, but offered to take my little sister and me, too. But my brother said, "Oh, you can't take the sisters because they'd want to separate them." So he bribed me. Of course, we both wanted to go, it was an adventure to go to Japan, my gosh, you know. But my brother bribed me. He says, "If you don't go, you stay here, I'll send you to music school for singing and dancing." Great, so I was bribed and I stayed. And very fortunate that I was able to do that.

TI: So your brother, the oldest in the family in terms of siblings, really wanted to keep the five of you together.

MN: Yes, yes.

TI: So it was him and the four sisters. But he's only, at this point, seventeen years old?

MN: Seventeen... let's see, I was eight, so he was nine years more than that, so seventeen.

TI: So he was seventeen.

MN: Uh-huh, so he quit school to support us.

TI: So your brother at this time was seventeen, your sister is sixteen, your oldest sister. And then you're eight, and your other older sister is about ten, and then you have another younger sister who is about four.

MN: Four, five, six, seven... uh-huh, four or five.

TI: Okay. So going through the ages again, so your brother's seventeen, sixteen, ten, eight, four. And your brother wants to keep the five of you together.

MN: Yes, they did come after us, the orphanage in Los Angeles. And my brother and sister said, "No, you can't take them. We can't separate them."

TI: But before we go into that, I guess I want to go back into your mother's death. Because you're eight years old, and through your description, it's clear that you really looked up to her. She was something, a really important role. How did that affect you, your sisters, your brother, when your mother passed away? Do you remember that?

MN: Oh, my. I really can't even say how I felt at the time. It was a loss, I went to the hospital where she had already passed away. I don't know if I was that naive or unfeeling, or what, but Mother was gone, that's all I felt, that Mother was gone. Since my father was gone when I was four, maybe I felt, that's what happens, that parents don't stay with you. I don't know. I can't really say what my feeling was, when my mother was gone. But I knew that there were only just the siblings left, and we knew we had to just make do. I didn't even know if we were gonna face sacrifices or what, I wasn't aware. I was too naive, maybe.

TI: Now, how about, you mentioned you recalled some of the service for your mother. What can you remember about the service?

MN: I remember it was at the old Koyasan Church in Los Angeles, which is not there anymore. They relocated to First Street. And I do remember going to the service and seeing her coffin and seeing her in the coffin. I just don't remember too much more after that, except for this, the burial service. We had to go to the Evergreen Cemetery, a long cortege of the cars, and had pictures taken. And then I remember I was in the limousine going to the burial, and I started to sing in the limousine. And my brother or my sister, one of my older ones, shushed me and says, "You shouldn't be singing." I said, "Oh, okay." That's how I was. I guess, I don't know, it's not that I was unfeeling, but I always had song in me. No matter where or what, I started to sing. That's all I remember, I was shushed by one of my siblings, says, "Don't sing."

TI: Do you recall what song you sang?

MN: No. And I remember -- this is something I will never forget -- is when after the service in the cemetery, oh, I'll never forget this. They put her coffin into the little space where they cremated her, and I could hear that oven going. I'll never forget that. I don't think we were supposed to have been there when that happened. But I'll never forget that. That's the last. I don't remember her being -- oh, her ashes were sent back to the Koyasan Church to be placed there for us to have enough money to bury her. We didn't have enough money to bury her, so we did not bury her ashes until after the war, when my father's ashes, her ashes, oh, I did have a brother who I never knew about, he passed away before (Mae) was born, so I never knew him. His name was Isamu, he died of blood poisoning as a child. But his ashes, Mother's, Father's, and my sister's, Fumi, Miriam's, ashes were buried at the same time. That's when we were able to buy a tombstone for the Evergreen Cemetery, so we buried their remains there at that time.

TI: Thank you for sharing that.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.