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VY: What other things did you do while you were there in Hiroshima?

MK: Yes, I met a Canadian American, a Japanese American from Canada, who was teaching English at the Nagarekawa Christian Church right in Hiroshima. So somehow I befriended him, and he asked me if I would be interested in also taking one of his classes to teach basic English conversation, so I took that up in the evening. They were mostly young Hiroshima University students, mostly male. And I had a few, maybe two or three women, who were already office workers, not students, who joined the class.

VY: Now, do you think that's because most of the university students were male?

MK: You know, it might be, at that time.

VY: Now, this is also where your father was originally from. So did you have family there as well?

MK: Oh, yes. My youngest aunt, my father's youngest sister, he happened to be her favorite brother among, I think, seven siblings. And so when he left Hiroshima, she followed. Not right after, but sometime after, and when he left Hawaii to go to California, she didn't know that, and so she got stuck in Hawaii. And she married a Japanese and raised her family there. And so I was able to visit her and she was happy to see one of her favorite brother's children, and that was one high spot.

VY: How did you find her? Did you already know where she was?

MK: Yes.

VY: Okay.

MK: I was corresponding with my cousin, her children. They were older than I was, of course, but we were corresponding.

VY: Did you have any relatives there that were affected by the bombing?

MK: In Hiroshima, yes. In fact, when I was working at ABCC, one of the drivers of the Ford station wagon to pick up the patients, was married into the Kaneta family. And he figured I must be related because we write our Chinese characters in the same way. And so he told my aunt that he would like to bring me over to meet her. And she was a little bit skeptical upon meeting her for the first time, and she looked at me very sternly. Then I started to tell her about my background, and only I would know what the family was about, and naming my father and knowing that my father's youngest sister was married in Hawaii. So then she realized I was a real family member. And I met one of her, I guess it was her daughter-in-law, who was married to my cousin. And right after the bomb fell, when they heard about it, they were living in the outskirts of Hiroshima, I think called Asa-gun. So they were not affected that much, and he thought he would like to go into the city to see what he could do to help. Of course, at that time, they didn't know about the radiation or the effects of whatever. And so he went right into the city, and I don't know how long he remained there, but within three months he died of the radiation effect. Just going after where the bomb fell.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.