Densho Digital Archive - Yukiko Miyake Interview (denshovh-myukiko-01-0015)

<Begin Segment 15>

SY: So what was it like being married?

YM: I went to Grandma all the time to ask her what to do. I think she might have been very exasperated because I was very childish, but then she might have realized it was her fault too. She never raised me to learn how to cook. I didn't know how to cook. I mean, maybe I could iron a shirt or two. God, I was really a child, a very immature.

SY: But then ten months after that you had a child. Kako was born.

YM: Yeah.

SY: What was that like?

YM: Wonderful.

SY: You grew up quickly.

YM: I certainly did. And I used to go to this one drug store -- I forgot the name of the drug store -- and finally he told me, he says, "You know, you come here every day to ask me what to do." He says, "Why don't you buy a how to raise a baby book?" [Laughs] But then finally we found this doctor that took care of children so I used to take Kako there all the time.

SY: Was that because she was always sick?

YM: Yes. She was a sick child, but we found out later that it was because I wasn't feeding her well. And I was giving her my breast milk, but my breast milk wasn't agreeing with her so she was losing weight, and so we finally took her to the -- what you call these child...

SY: Pediatricians?

YM: Pediatrician, and he told us. And fortunately as long as I fed her and kept her clean, she was a very, a very easygoing child to raise. She didn't have problems at that time.