Densho Digital Archive - Doris Nitta Interview (denshovh-ndoris-01-0014)

<Begin Segment 14>

RP: You said that when we talked earlier that your dad kind of accepted the camp experience but your mother had a nervous breakdown.

DT: Yeah, but Mama had a... she had a breakdown. She had a breakdown, it was too much for her but she was always not a strong person. But my dad couldn't deal with all of this, well, I mean, did any man had a breakdown even if it was hard on him? My mom was kind of weak person so it was just too much for her. But we didn't put her in the hospital I guess there was... maybe there was a hospital, I don't know but we kept her at home.

RP: Do you remember what did she... do you remember what she said or how was she acting?

DT: Well, she acted... she said crazy things and she acted... well, she was in bed most of the time depressed. She never went out, well, we wouldn't let her go out. I don't know if she wanted to go out or not but she was in bed all the time.

RP: How long was she in this kind of condition?

DT: I guess about three months.

RP: And did she eventually kind of come out of it or what changed?

DT: Yeah, she came out of it. But she was not a well person so it was kind of rough on the family to have someone be sick like that. 'Cause I don't know if any other family had that problem and Papa was trying to kind of hide it and everything. But you can't hide anything when the people are living right next door.

RP: And in your opinion, did the camp experience contribute to that, to that nervous breakdown the fact that she lost a normal life and was living in the situation?

DT: I think so. 'Cause living on a farm, coming and going as you please and then you're cooped up in this small place. I'm surprised not very many other people... but maybe there were, I don't know.

RP: Your sister also had a difficult experience.

DT: Yeah, let's see. I can't remember exactly when she went to the doctor and she was okay when she was pregnant. And then she went to the doctor and they said that they can't hear the heartbeat, the baby. And so I don't know maybe about three months or so after we went there she had her baby, normal birth, but the baby was stillborn. So they had a funeral but she carried the bones or the ashes 'cause she didn't want the baby buried in Jerome, so she carried it wherever she went and she brought back to Sacramento and she had the baby buried at Sacramento Memorial. And then when her husband died, she buried him in Lodi, so she moved her baby, her firstborn to Lodi. And I noticed when I went, my brother-in-law's casket was... and then the baby was buried on top. It was kind of sad but then maybe a couple years later she had a boy that was born on Boy's Day, May 5th in Japan is Boy's, five-five he was born.

RP: He was healthy?

DT: Yeah, and then about three months later her husband... well, right after he was born, her husband moved to Detroit because he didn't want to go in the army so then he went to work for some army installation and my sister took her son who was about three months old or something. And she had to carry him on the train on the outside 'cause he cried all the way. He wasn't used to it. But the first born they named him, my brother-in-law's first Japanese name is Katsumi, no Katsuji, and my sister's name was Miyoko so they named him Katsumi, part of my brother-in-law's name and part of my sister's name. I guess my dad did that suggested what to name.

RP: You attended the funeral of your --

DT: Yeah.

RP: How did that affect you?

DT: Well, I don't remember too much about it and I don't even know if sister went because I think they probably kept her in the hospital. I can't remember her going. It wasn't a big funeral.