<Begin Segment 15>

MN: Now I'm gonna change the questioning a little bit. I want to ask about your husband, Jack. When you met him did you know he was a hibakusha?

JD: Not when I met him, no, I didn't. I didn't even know that he had been in Japan for that matter, but I, but he did tell me later on. And I think maybe I asked him about, too, as we were dating, and, but he didn't think too much about it, about being a hibakusha or anything. But many years after our marriage, because my mom was still living with us and we were taking the Nichi Bei Times for her, I would read the English section and I remember reading this thing about the doctors coming and there were gonna be some reporters asking about, about the aftermath of it for these people like him. And so I said, "Jack, you ought to go to this examination. You may feel like you don't have anything, but I think it's not gonna cost you anything and if you have to donate something donate it, but I think it might be well worth it." So he started with that, and the doctors, of course, have been coming every other year and he's been going every other year. He's been actually helping out with the logistics of setting up the tables for the interview and exams and whatnot. He doesn't do the exams himself, obviously, but he does set up and he tries to be the receptionist at the desk, so he checks in all the people that come in and things like that, so he's been involved with that for all these years. And of course they're coming again in, it's either June or July that they're coming this year.

MN: When your mother found out you were dating a hibakusha, did she have any problems with that?

JD: I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so. Of course, they knew the family from before the war. Let me go back to something. When my sister got married, the first thing my dad asked my sister was where is Hiromi from, wanted to know, because there's this eta thing, the mentality of that. That's why my father was asking, "Where is Hiromi from?" So when, then Mag had to go and ask Hiromi, "Where's your family from?" And when she got the response, or when she gave the response, then my dad was happy with that. So I remembered that, and so I had to find out where was he from and that's when I found out he was from Hiroshima, so when I, when we decided we were gonna get married I told my mom and dad, "Well, he's from Hiroshima-ken." [Laughs]

MN: You and Jack don't have children.

JD: Correct.

MN: Is that a decision you made?

JD: Yes.

MN: And why is that so?

JD: Well, I think like a lot of the people who are hibakushas in Japan, they were afraid they might have deformed kids or their sons or daughters would not be able to marry if the other spouse or whatever, spouse to be, found out that they were A-bomb victims, and so I guess consciously we just decided not to have any kids, yeah. We have a friend who, Mariko-san was a womb, was in her mother's womb when the A-bomb struck, and as she was growing up her mother said, "If you ever get married, do not have children." So Mariko married. She married, she immigrated to the United States, lives in the East Bay, married a hakujin guy, but she never had children. And she does go and gets herself examined because she was in her mother's womb at the time she was born, at the time the bomb happened. Yeah, so it's all these unknowns. And yet there are hibakushas who've married and have very healthy children. So, so I don't know.

MN: Now, you mentioned eta earlier. Were there eta families in Topaz?

JD: Oh, I'm sure there were. I mean, if they were from the whole Bay Area I'm sure there were, yeah. I mean, I don't know who they were, but I would expect that there must've been some. I think all camps had them.

MN: Okay, I've asked my questions. Anything else you want to add?

JD: I don't think so.

MN: Okay. Thank you very much.

JD: Oh, thank you.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.