Densho Digital Archive - Kitako Izumizaki Interview (denshovh-ikitako-01-0018)

<Begin Segment 18>

MA: So after your husband was shipped off, you decided to go back to Poston?

KI: Yeah, because I said, I told Poston, "Well, this baby is a government baby and no matter where I have it, it's going to be free anyway." So they said, "Oh yeah, come on back." Because by that time, in '44, there was a quite a bit of empty spaces because people were starting to go out. And so they gave me a great big room all to myself, the one that when we first went in, that whole room was for the whole family, but now I got one -- they didn't give me a little apartment, they gave me a whole big room to myself, so I had lots of room.

MA: And then you had, was it a daughter in camp in '44, you said?

KI: Yeah, '44.

MA: And what was that, I mean, how were the hospital, hospitals in Poston?

KI: Well, the hardworking people were all Nihonjins, and I think they were more adept than the people that were above them. I remember the colored nurses and a doctor, and I guess if I had my druthers I would have picked another doctor maybe, but then when you're there you just take what you get. 'Cause I knew that I was going to have the baby when I got up in the morning 'cause I had what they call a show in the morning, but I didn't have any pains or anything, but I couldn't eat, I just wasn't hungry. And toward the evening, my mother says, "Well, I think you shouldn't stay here because the hospital is so far away, so you better call the ambulance and, have you be in the hospital." So when the ambulance came, he said, "Okay, where's the patient?" and I said, "It's me." And he said, "You're not sick," and I said, "No, I'm gonna have a baby," so, "Oh, that's the kind of patients I like to take." And I just sat up in front with the, you know, I didn't lie down, I just sat up in front because I wasn't feeling any... [laughs]. And the doctor came in, I think it was about seven or eight o'clock and says, "Oh, she's not going to have anything. She's not gonna have the baby tonight." And then by ten o'clock, here she was, the baby was here, just a couple hours.

MA: And what's your daughter's name?

KI: Sandra. In fact, she's visiting here from London right now. I told her, "I'll bring the junk car with me so you could take the car, better truck and go someplace," and she said no. She makes her yearly visit for Obon, you know, so she's here right now.