Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Yuriko Yamamoto Interview
Narrator: Yuriko Yamamoto
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: April 24, 2012
Densho ID: denshovh-yyuriko-01-0009

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MN: Now, your family, they were living in an apartment, but your father found this big, two story house at Harvard Boulevard. How did you feel about moving into this big house?

YY: Well, we did look around, and I love this small house. This other house is too big, and I don't know, I just felt creepy in there, somehow, like somebody had died there. But my father had an idea of having my mother teach sewing, so above the garage is a big room there. So he wanted her to teach but she became ill. That was his idea, I think, it had an upstairs, and I just hated to go upstairs to go to bed, because this closet door, I'd be facing, but I have a dresser that faces the back, and the closet door would just slowly open up. Maybe draft, but I was so scared and I just wouldn't go to bed until everybody else went to bed. Something happened there.

MN: And that's when your mother's health started to go down also.

YY: Yes.

MN: What was, what health problems was your mother having?

YY: I don't know if it was change of life, I don't know what it was. She had extremely bad headaches, but I think it was Christian Science where they don't believe in doctors or whatever, I don't remember. But he didn't take her to the doctor. Medication maybe but I don't know. She got worse and worse.

MN: So once your mother started to get really sick, did somebody else come and do the cooking and cleaning?

YY: No, until after she died. She was doing it all along, sick as she was.

MN: And what year did your mother pass away?

YY: Yeah, when is it? I was thirteen, so do your math. [Laughs]

MN: I'll look at the year again. Where did your mother pass away? Where?

YY: In the house.

MN: How did you find out your mother passed away?

YY: Well, my father called me. I was in Japanese school and they called me home. He said to me, and he was upstairs and I was downstairs, I said, "Why did you call me?" He says, "Mama died." I was afraid to go up. As a child, you don't like, never seen a dead person, especially your mother, so I was frightened.

MN: So you're thirteen years old, so you understood death.

YY: Oh, yeah. Mother and I were very close. She used to curl my hair and take good care of me.

MN: How did your brother take the news?

YY: Well, it was only my brother Tak. It's hard to tell what boys feel, you know.

MN: Do you remember who made the funeral arrangements?

YY: I'm sure my father did.

MN: And was it through Fukui?

YY: I think so. My father took it real hard, 'cause he would talk to people and the tears would come into his eyes. Me, too. I mean, I dreamt about her about a year. I dreamed that she'd sit up in her coffin, and I said, "Oh, you're not dead, you're not dead." But for a whole year I think I dreamt about her, that she'd come back. Meanwhile, I was living with my guardian parents, so she had a schoolgirl, she was like a big sister to me. So she slept with me, so that was nice. I was counting the days my father would come back on the calendar, but he never came back. The war broke out, so he didn't come back.

MN: Before we get into your guardian family, I wanted to ask you, do you remember where the funeral was held, your mother's funeral?

YY: It was a small Buddhist place, in someplace, it's on First Street, I think, on the left side, your right side. You go in, it was a small Buddhist church, I don't know what it was called.

MN: Probably Koyasan then.

YY: Probably, you walk in a little farther. You know, all that chanting and all that stuff. And my mother was, never used makeup, never wore makeup. Very slightly, coating, I remember she had powder, but they made her up with rouge and lips, and I thought my gosh, (that's) not her. If I was older and they let me see -- 'cause I was kind of afraid to see her, but if I had known now, I would have said, "Don't put so much makeup." My father should have known better. But I dreamed she'd sit up, I said, "You're not dead, you're not dead." It was awful.

MN: What happened to your mother's clothes and her personal belongings?

YY: I don't know. Maybe my father had given it away. I have no idea. There's nothing that I could wear.

MN: Were you able to keep anything of your mother's?

YY: Things that she made, like she made (crocheted) gloves, and of course, real fine gloves. Little things like that, but not too many. You know, by the war, when we, she had things, pearls, and she had the crystal necklace, I don't know what happened to them. We just took what we can and that was it, to camp.

MN: What happened to your mother's remains?

YY: Oh, (my father) cremated her and took her to Japan and buried her.

MN: And is this when your father asked you to go to Japan with him?

YY: Yeah.

MN: And why didn't you go?

YY: Because I felt that he was going to leave me behind.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.