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BN: Oh, okay. Lost my train of thought... oh, I was going to ask you about, your father had some eye problems from fairly early on? I wonder if you could talk a little about that.

SM: My father knew he had early stages of glaucoma of his eyes way back when he was in college. In fact, I read about it in his autobiography, in his book, and he wrote about knowing that he had glaucoma. And in fact, he also wrote in his book that he was very depressed when learned, because at that time it was almost certain blindness after a fairly short period of time. In fact, in his book, he wrote that he had contemplated suicide as a means of trying to solve the problem. But then he also wrote that his religious belief in Christianity helped him to find a path, a way to survive, and for that he was very thankful. And I think that's what turned him to Christianity as a religion, because he was able to find a goal in life and pursue it, even though he might become blind. And I think that's the reason why he was so strong in being a Christian. But the important thing is, after he came to San Francisco, he found a very good eye specialist, a specialist who was an ophthalmologist surgeon, and he was able to see him and do whatever was needed, the procedures needed in order for him to maintain his eyesight. And this is back in those days when they don't have medication like they have today, and as a result, the skilled professional was essential. In fact, he was so good, my father was able to see quite well until he went to camp. I have photographs, family photographs, and he's looking at the camera, so that clearly shows he had good eyesight. And as a result, when he went to camp, there was no one who knew how to take care of glaucoma. Most of the doctors were general practitioners and very few specialists. And what's significant is General DeWitt would not let my father go back to see his specialist, even on a short visit. So that was clearly a very inhumane action on the part of DeWitt. So what happened was my father became blind relatively quickly, and I watched him go blind in a relatively short time. And that was really a tough, tough time for our family. But again, it was my father's belief in Christianity that saved him. And I can talk more about that later on what happened after camp.

BN: Right, yeah, we'll definitely get to that.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.