<Begin Segment 33>

TI: Cedrick, I mean, we actually cruised through all these questions, and I'm wondering, in ending, is there any, when you think about your life, what are some of the important things to you in terms of how you lead your life? I mean, what, in terms of if you were to give advice to someone younger...

CS: Oh, you mean for... well, in my case, I'm glad I'm back to my original ambition of trying to be a bridge between Japan and America, I'm still able to do that.

TI: And why do you think that's so important? As a Japanese American, why is it so important to keep that bridge?

CS: Well, I don't know. I guess I love both countries, and I'd hate to see one bashed unfairly, you know. Japan was being bashed unfairly, and I knew it was wrong. And I want, right now I'm glad that the countries are close together now.

TI: Good. So Martha, do you have anything, questions or anything like that? Okay. So Cedrick, we're out of time, so I'm going to end the interview now. So thank you so much for doing this.

CS: Well, thank you. Help spread the 1800 story.

MN: Unless you want to add when you married your second wife, Millie.

TI: Oh, sure.

MN: So you want to just add that in?

TI: Yeah, just to finish the family. So what happened to your first wife?

CS: She had cancer and passed away. And in the meantime, a good friend of ours in Chicago had written to my parents that there was the perfect girl for me, you know, but they didn't say anything. And then about two years later, I started to date. And that's when my parents said, "Hey, Mr. Sumida talked about this girl, would you like to meet her?" So I said okay, so we exchanged photographs. And she sent me two photographs, one I liked. The other one, she had a fur coat on, and I thought, "Gee, that's too sophisticated for me," you know. Not knowing that in Chicago, everybody wore a fur coat. So in our exchange, correspondence, I was very careful. "Dear Madam" type of a letter. Then she had to come here for a wedding of her friend. And that's when I first met her, and I said, "Boy, I got one week to convince her to say 'yes.'" So I never worked so hard in my life. But later on I figured, I think she was chasing me, too. [Laughs] I didn't have to work so hard. But she gets mad when I say that. So we got married.

TI: And how long ago was that?

CS: Oh, I was married to her longer than the first wife, so that was, let's see... this is terrible. If she were here, she would clobber me. [Laughs] Let's see.

TI: But do you remember about long you were married to her?

MN: Oh, about thirty years, thirty or more years.

TI: And then she also had cancer?

MN: Same cancer that went to the brain. So it's good when it goes to the brain, 'cause it's fast. She had (stomach cancer), and that would have lasted forever, but it went to the brain.

TI: And how long ago was that?

CS: 4/2/02. I remember one date.

TI: Okay, so 2002. And her full name was?

CS: Mildred Setsuko Sasaki. Her father was a minister (...) from Japan.

TI: Very good. Well, so Cedrick, I think we have it. That was good. Thank you very much.

CS: Thank you.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.