Densho Digital Archive - Kaz Yamamoto Interview (denshovh-ykaz-01-0020)

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RP: So, you came back from your defense job in Chicago and then your sister returned and got married in camp, right?

KY: Uh-huh, yeah.

RP: Uh-huh. Do you remember being there and what that was like?

KY: What, the wedding?

RP: The wedding.

KY: Well, it wasn't much of a wedding. Because it was held... see, we held, we had the meals in the, in the lunch room. The lunch room was two barracks put together, as you might know. And I don't remember too much about the wedding itself but I know they had the party over there. I don't remember going to the wedding. I don't remember at all. But I know they got married. And the following day, I guess the following day we decided to go to Chicago. Because that's all the purpose was, for them to come back to camp and get married in front of our folks. And after it was done, well, the only thing left to do was to go back to Chicago and I said, "Well, I want to go with you guys." And I found a, we walked, we walked all over the place. I remember it was right off of Fifty-fifth Street in Chicago, we first found an apartment for my sister and her husband. And it was the, it was a big apartment with a kitchen and everything like that. Because we had planned to have our folks come later on. And so it was a big apartment and what happened was before, before we start preparing for our folks to come, my sister got sick and she was laid up in bed all the time. She couldn't walk a straight line. And it happened to be a brain tumor that she had. And so you can imagine her balance, sense of balance was all shot. And so she couldn't go to work and she stayed in bed all day. I would come home first. My brother-in-law would come, come home later. And once I got home I would prepare dinner for my sister and I would feed her while she was in bed. And one day I was feeding her and something must have happened to her brain because her body stiffened up and as if it was attacking her head. And she collapsed and she fell unconscious. I thought she died on me right there. I was slapping her around trying to revive her. And she wouldn't come out of her unconscious state. And so I asked the manager of the apartment, "If you have a car, would you take my sister to the hospital?" Because of what happened. And he said, "Yeah, I'll be glad to take her." So he took her to the hospital. We didn't know what was going on. At that time, brain tumor was not a common disease. And in order to treat her they would have to go into the brain and the chances of recovery was very slim. Slim or none. And so we notified our parents in camp what was going on. We didn't know what was going on but we told my mother that she's in bed. So right away they prepared to come to Chicago, right away. And they came. And my brother-in-law was already out of camp and was living in Long Beach. And his brother and his father and his brother's wife, they got in their car and they drove non-stop from Long Beach to Chicago, non-stop, they just went. And after the, and they got to Chicago and she was still sick in bed. She wasn't dead yet. And they could see what was happening. So when she died my folks finally arrived in Chicago, and so we had a funeral right away. And my brother-in-law says he's gonna go back to Long Beach with, with his father and his brother. And so that's what happened. My sister was cremated and they took the ashes back to Long Beach and they buried her in Long Beach. Yeah. That was really a sad story. Eight months they had of married life. That's all.