Densho Digital Archive - Shizuko Kadoguchi Interview (denshovh-kshizuko-01-0005)

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PW: Now, in the late 1930s, the Manchurian War was, was starting to... they started in the 19-, late 1930s, would it be?

SK: Yes, I don't exactly remember, but yes, the Manchuria was the first, wasn't it? And when we graduated from high school, Shinajihen is the Chinese, China start. And that time I came to, came back to Canada.

PW: Now, your father passed away first.

SK: Uh-huh.

PW: And then...

SK: And my brother passed away.

PW: Also at the same --

SK: My brother was twenty-nine years old.

PW: But had he come back to Japan at that time, or was he in Canada?

SK: He was in Canada.

PW: Oh, I see.

SK: But those days, they didn't take care too much, you know, so my older brother send back.

PW: When your parents came back with you to, to Japan in 1930, what did they do when they came back?

SK: Came back? We have to stay in my uncle's place 'til my house built. And when the house built, after my, everybody was so, you know, really, you can't believe it. It's just like oshin. I saw oshin, really I remember. I was lucky so far, but some people can't eat on... so my father liked to buy lots of rice, and, what shall I say, that hundred pound to the, if they want to, my father said, "If you can't make it, return, you don't have to." But I don't know, ittan with a, the rice field, how many rice you could get. My father said, I don't know exactly the business that time, so lots of people was very thankful to my father. But he never collect the money or rice, because he doesn't like that collecting. He could always give away, but, so my mother used to go and collect. [Laughs]

PW: Now, your mother passed away three years after your father, then?

SK: Uh-huh.

PW: Then tell me what happened.

SK: My mother passed away, and that time was, the Buddhist way is, I think it's the forty-five days or forty-nine days, you have to look after akaenda. After that, I came. My brother said, "Come to Canada and stay two years and learn English and go back; this is the way." So I just opened my house to my relative to look after for, but Japanese government, we're not there after the war, so they sold.

PW: So then in 1940, you returned to, Woodfibre, and then to go to your brother's place, is that right?

SK: Yes, uh-huh.

PW: Now, it was ten years since you've been away from Woodfibre. What was it like when you returned to Woodfibre?

SK: Well, I remember that as the mountain edge side, so it's not like Vancouver, it's not a city, so I remember everything. And I saw all the friends when I went to school in Woodfibre, but it's only a year or year-and-a-half, I think, was there. But still, it's a Japanese, almost Japanese there, family. But I couldn't talk with it, I forget every English, yes or no. Even that -- of course, right now, too, still, I can say "yes" or "no," quick. So if they, if I say, "Yes," and they turn face, some, "Oh, no." [Laughs] I change to it.

PW: Now, shortly after your return to, to Woodfibre, I understand you got into some, another health problem.

SK: Yes. Oh, this pleurisy, is I had a cold and a cough and cough, and I had water in my lung. Woodfibre doctor said -- it's a company's, the sawmill's doctor, so he could sew the, you know, the cuts or everything, but I don't think that kind of sickness he could handle. So, of course, it's no hospital, so we have, my brother took me to Vancouver, and to a specialist, and I couldn't speak English, so he have to hire the interpreter. [Laughs] And the Sansei, one Sansei nurse was there, but she doesn't understand Japanese. So he hire interpreter, older man, I don't know his name.