<Begin Segment 31>

SY: So you ended up working as a diet tech for twenty years then?

NS: Uh-huh. At UCLA.

SY: And was it something that ever got boring for you?

NS: No. Except every day, just same thing, and I have to... it was fun because I meet lot of people. I had to go into the sickroom and I'd talk to these people, too, you know. And then, "What would you like to have today?" and then a lot of people are interesting, those people in the hospital. So that was very, the twenty year went fast for me.

SY: And I remember you saying that you never took a day off?

NS: Never. Not one day I was sick.

SY: You've never been sick?

NS: Lucky. [Laughs] I don't know what cold is. I don't know what cold is, I never had a cold.

SY: Never in your whole life you don't remember ever having a cold?

NS: No, no.

SY: Is that something that ran in your family?

NS: Well, Mama was strong, very strong. She was never sick until she died. And she died quickly. We didn't know what's the matter with Mom. I think she kind of got old and just went fast. Heart attack, I guess, or something. Doctor didn't find out what's wrong with her.

SY: You never knew the cause?

NS: Never knew. Never knew why she died.

SY: And how about your dad?

NS: Because she had twelve kids, don't forget. [Laughs] She had no kidney trouble. Yeah, I was surprised. We were shocked when Mom was in -- she didn't feel good, she told me. "Doushita no," I asked her. Funny, she said, she didn't feel right. Before you know it, she's gone. And my brother said, "You know what? Mom's lying down." And my gosh, she's gone. Just like my husband. My husband had a brain hemorrhage, though, but that's why I didn't know that he -- I'm sleeping with a dead man. Just imagine, all night. And trying to wake him up in the morning. He was gone. He's cold and hard. Isn't that something? And he didn't make a moan, and I'm a light sleeper, and when he snores, he snores. I used to push him and put him to the side. But that night, not a sound. Isn't that something?

SY: So how old was she when she --

NS: Seventy-nine. And my husband was sixty-five. Yeah, so Mom was... I don't know, she went so fast.

SY: So you had a lot of... well, I guess your older, and your older brother is now --

NS: My oldest brother, he was in Washington, D.C. He worked over there.

SY: Oh, so he passed away.

NS: Yeah. Well, I didn't even know, he never did say anything. And my other brother told me he passed away and I said, "How come?" I said, didn't he want to come back and bring his body here? He said, no, he wanted to stay over there and be taken care of there. So we didn't even see him. We didn't say goodbye to him, we didn't get to see him at all and how he was, that I don't know anything about him, because he wanted to be kept quiet.

SY: But yet you have never been sick.

NS: Knock on the wood, where's the wood? [Laughs]

SY: And so when you left -- oh, maybe you could talk a little bit, you mentioned that you were in a bad car accident.

NS: Oh, yes. Well, I told you my father was sick and he went to the hospital. And he was in Japanese Hospital downtown.

SY: Tell us when it was? This was before the war?

NS: Yeah, this was... let's see, when was it? Well, anyhow, I remember we went to see my father, and then before, I didn't get to see my father because the automobile accident was just before we met my father. So like I told you --

SY: So it was on the way. On the way to the hospital.

NS: I told you my brother was going on East First Street around there, Second Street, East First or Second Street. Anyhow, downtown. Anyhow, this car was coming awfully fast, and I told my brother, "You know, that car is not gonna stop, you know." He said, "Oh, yeah," and he put on the brake. But then he didn't make it. I mean, the guy went right through, but he tipped the car, my brother's new car, just imagine, but it was a big car. So anyhow, he turned over two and a half times, and he and I was thrown out of the car. Both of us, not even a scratch. I looked all over myself to see if I got hurt or not when I got outside, out of the car. Not a scratch. I look at myself, feel my head, see if I got hit or something. I was fine, my brother was fine. And he was so worried because... I was worried about him because I couldn't find him. He was on the other side of the street, see. He was knocked down that much. He said, "No, I'm not hurt." God must be with us.

SY: So you weren't even, you were conscious the whole time.

NS: Not even a scratch. Yeah, I think so, or something. No. But then I saw the car coming, though, and then I knew the car turned over, so how could I be unconscious? I mean, I didn't get hit. That's why 'til now, I still remember the car turning over two and a half times. And then the car went on the other side of the street, and then my brother was on the other side of the street. I was there, right there by the car. And I said, "Oh, my gosh, the car is all beat up." It didn't look like a car, I remember that.

SY: So he lost his brand new car.

NS: Brand new car. And two of us, not a scratch. I look at myself, I look at myself, I hit myself, hit my head and everything, I'm fine. Amazing.

SY: And your brother, this was your older brother?

NS: Yeah, right above me.

SY: Okay, so not the oldest brother.

NS: No, my oldest brother... no, not the oldest brother.

SY: So your older brother somehow had managed to, this was before the war, had bought this car?

NS: No, no, no. No, no, no. My brother was always in Chicago, my oldest brother.

SY: No, the one that in the car accident?

NS: Oh, no, yeah, he bought the car, my brother bought the car.

SY: So he managed to buy a new car before the war.

NS: Yes.

SY: And it was a brand new car and he got in this accident.

NS: Yeah. It was a Chrysler, it was a big car. He got a bargain... I said, "How come you want to buy a big car like that?" Well, he had a girlfriend and he wanted to take his girlfriend out, so he bought a big car. I said, "How come you bought a big car like that?" I didn't like the car, it was so big. It was a Chrysler, I remember.

SY: So he was working.

NS: Yeah, yeah. He was... now, what kind of work was he doing? He had a good job. Gee, I forgot what he was doing. But he was getting good pay, too, so he wanted to buy his own car, he saved up enough down payment. And then poor guy. I don't think he even had it for one week.

SY: And your father was, do you remember why he was at the hospital?

NS: Well, see, he got sick all of a sudden, and he couldn't take the pain. Oh, I know, he had an ulcer. He used to drink, you know, and he was so, he couldn't sleep at night 'cause hurting stomach so much, so he said, he'd hold his stomach like this, then Mama said he had to go to the hospital. So he was in the hospital already, Japanese hospital right away. We thought he might have cancer. I don't know what happened.

SY: So is there a reason that he went all the way to Little Tokyo to the Japanese Hospital?

NS: Well, because there was no Japanese hospital in Gardena. He wanted to go there.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.