Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Yukiko Miyake Interview
Narrator: Yukiko Miyake
Interviewer: Sara Yamasaki
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 4, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-myukiko-01-0027

<Begin Segment 27>

SY: I understand when you were in camp you became very ill.

YM: Yeah.

SY: What was that? What happened?

YM: I don't know what happened, but I became very ill, and I went down to ninety pounds, but to this day the doctors didn't know what was wrong with me.

SY: What were the medical facilities like?

YM: Oh, terrible, terrible. But on the other hand, there were a few people that I knew died at the hospital because they did something that wasn't right. But on the other hand, there were a few that lived because the doctor did right so I cannot accuse the doctors, but I'm sure most of them weren't really doctors. We used to have a name for them. Maybe I shouldn't say them, we called them butchers. And most of them, my friends, never liked to go to the hospital. If possible we stayed in bed and tried to take care of ourselves because we saw so many, not that many, but enough tragedies to make us realize that the doctors didn't know anything. Well, that's how I felt.

SY: What kind of tragedies did you see?

YM: There was Mrs. Suyama. She had a baby and they were so happy, and next thing I knew she had died. They had pulled out her -- I don't know for sure, but she had gone to the dentist and he should have never touched her teeth, but he did. Pulled it out and she died in -- oh, my. The baby never knew her mother. The father was really lost.

SY: So she had a baby and then she went to the dentist.

YM: Uh-huh. She shouldn't have gone to the dentist, but she did because her tooth was -- yeah, she had a toothache and she went to the dentist, but I don't know what they did because I wasn't there, but they told me that they pulled her tooth out and she died. But maybe it was something else, but anyway they said, "Don't go to the doctor. Don't go to the doctor. Take care of yourself." Well, they will help us or something.

SY: Or don't go to the dentist. [Laughs]

YM: Yeah. Don't go to the dentist, but they said, "Don't go to the doctor."

Yukiko M. Interview - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved. - <End Segment 27>