Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Yae Wada Interview
Narrator: Yae Wada
Interviewer: Patricia Wakida
Location: Berkeley, California
Date: April 12, 2019
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-476-13

[Correct spelling of certain names, words and terms used in this interview have not been verified.]

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YW: Even on the train... oh, I tell you about coming from camp to Cleveland? I had my baby, I had her diapers or whatever, I had my clothes, and I had a bucket with five bottles of milk in it. I was having a hard -- and the baby, I was trying to carry her on the train. And the person that helped me was this porter, this black porter. And the black porters, the way they make their money is by helping customers, and they get the tip, that's how they make their money. But he was grand to me, and he was going to help me, and I had to say, "No, thank you." And he kind of insisted because he knew I needed help, and I said, "I don't have money to tip you." And he said, "That's okay, that's okay," so he helped me to get on the train. And, as a matter of fact, when I got on the train, once I got on and the train started moving, he said, "I have an empty room." And in those days, the train was old, but if you paid money, they had rooms, private rooms. And it was couch-like, that opened up into a bed, and they had a small bathroom with a toilet and a small basin, which was enough. And he said, "Nobody's going to use this room until we get to Cleveland, Ohio." And I said, "Well, that's where I'm getting off," and he said, "Yes." So he said he'd let me use the room. And I said, "I can't pay for it," he said, "That's okay." And after we got into the room, he even said... he saw me taking out my bottle with the milk, and he said, "I'll go heat it up for you." And he was showing me how I could heat it up in the basin, because there was hot water there, and I could put the bottle in there, and he knew exactly how to measure it. He said, "I have children." He said, "I know what you're going through, I have children." He was the first person that helped me. And so this black butcher, this porter, after you meet nice people like that, I had a little more faith in people.

And then the doctor that treated my baby... oh, I lived near a hospital, a private hospital, and this hospital was run by a doctor who had a couple of sons, they were both doctors. And my baby was, I knew she was going to die if I didn't do something, and I didn't know what to do, and I couldn't take her to a regular hospital because I didn't have the money. So I went to this little private hospital and I told them right off I didn't have the money. But if somebody could tell me how I could keep the baby alive, I just want to talk to a doctor. This doctor came out and he took care of it, he said, "Don't worry about anything, just come." And then he saw the baby, and I still don't know, to this day, I don't know what it is he gave her, what he did, but he played with her, and he said he had a young baby, too. And I knew that was true because on his desk there was a picture of his wife with this little baby. And he said his baby had this same kind of thing, and he was exercising my baby and playing with her hands and making her move, and he spent a lot of time. And he told me, "You come back tomorrow, come back the next day." And then he said, "While you're here, let me look at you." He said, "Do you mind?" After he looked at me, he gave me all these free samples and I said, "Wait a minute, Doctor, I said I can't pay for it." And then he said, "No, these are free samples that they give to physicians," and he said, "I want you to bring the baby and I want you to come," because he had some more samples. He gave me all these vitamin pills and calcium pills, I forgot what it was, but I had a stack. And then every time I came, he showed me how to treat the baby, and don't let her... and he told me that he felt that a, maybe, heart problem. But he was supposed to do some checkups, but he didn't. But anyway, so I had all these people helping me. You know, I started getting back my faith in people a little bit. Because by that time, really, you get scared of people, you don't know what to do, you don't have anything to pay for anything. And even these young kids that come out of camp and they don't have anyplace to sleep... you know, I see homeless people in Berkeley now, and they're just kind of sitting around doing nothing. And I think about all these young kids that were looking around for jobs, and all they get is people that call them names. It was hard to see that.

PW: So I know that you're pregnant, too, with a second child at this time. So did you deliver it there in Cleveland?

YW: Yes. So I went to the same doctor, so he took care of me through my pregnancy. I remember when she was born, she was the only girl baby. It was an osteopathic hospital, but there was a maternity section, it was just a small one, and I think there was three beds on one side and three on the other side. And they all had boys; my baby was the only one that was a girl. And so when they brought her into me, they had a pink hat on her and they had a pink little blanket on her, they treated her real nice because she was the only girl in that hospital. So I felt very comfortable there.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.