Densho Digital Archive - Mas Okabe Interview (denshovh-omas

<Begin Segment 3>

KL: And you had siblings, right? Tell me who else was in your family growing up.

MO: I had... there were nine children in the family, two older sisters passed away early.

KL: What were their names?

MO: Hanako, she was the oldest. She went to Japan in '35, I think it was, with my younger brother and my older sister. Two sisters and my younger brother went to Japan with my mother back in '35, and then my oldest sister Hanako and my younger brother, they both died in Japan on that trip. They both became ill and they passed away.

KL: What was the other sister's name?

MO: Yoshiko.

KL: And the brother, the younger brother?

MO: Yuki, Yuki. Yukio and Hanako passed away.

KL: Do you know what happened to them?

MO: They became sick.

KL: They get sick?

MO: Yeah. I guess in those days they didn't have penicillin and stuff like that.

KL: What was the reason for their trip?

MO: I don't know. I think... I don't know if they went to school. I don't think so, they just went, you know. And I guess their stay was extended because they became ill and they had to stay there. So they stayed there for two years, and I don't think they went to school.

KL: Who did they stay with?

MO: Probably with my mother's folks, my grandparents. That was in Aichi-ken also. I think that's where they stayed, I'm not positive.

KL: Do you know those grandparents' names? Did you ever meet them?

MO: No. I met them, but I can't remember their names.

KL: When did you meet them?

MO: I met them when we went back after the war.

KL: Okay. We'll get to that, I'll ask you about that later then. So Hanako and Yoshiko and Yukio all went, and Yoshiko came back. Who were the other siblings?

MO: Let's see. There was Ben, he passed away early.

KL: Is he after Yoshiko?

MO: I think he was above Yoshiko, I'm not positive.

KL: He passed away early, too?

MO: Yeah.

KL: What happened to him?

MO: I think he died in infancy. And then there's George, he's below Kiku. There's Hanako, Kiku, George, Jimmy, Ben, Judy, myself, Yukio, and Takashi. Is that nine? [Laughs]

KL: Hold on, I'll count. That's nine, that's a great memory, too. [Laughs] You had a lot of people... well, I'm an older sister, so I can say, looking out for you, right?

MO: Yeah. Yeah, my older brothers used to take me to movies and things like that on weekends.

KL: It's a lot of people, but the ones that you knew that you grew up with, would you tell me just whatever stuck out to you about them? Just a little something about each of your siblings?

MO: Well, George was the oldest boy. He was not as warm as Jimmy. Jimmy was the second oldest son. Jimmy was kind. He used to take me to the movies, he used to play with me and stuff like that. George couldn't be bothered with me, you know, one of those. Yoshiko, she was nice.

KL: Is Yoshiko also Judy?

MO: Judy, yes, Yoshiko and Judy are the same. And she came back from Japan, when the war started, she had contracted tuberculosis, so she wasn't able to go to camp with us. So she was left behind in Sacramento, and she was there all during the war.

KL: In Sacramento?

MO: Well, she went from Sacramento to some other tubercular sanitarium, you know. She eventually wound up in Weimar, W-E-I-M-A-R Sanatorium. That's between Sacramento and Reno, I think there's a facility there, and that's where she was. So she never went to camp.

KL: Do you know how she contracted TB?

MO: No. I guess it's... because I contracted tuberculosis myself later. I guess it was common back then.

KL: I read that I think one in seven people in the United States had it during the '30s or '40s. But she didn't learn she had it until it was time to go into the camps?

MO: Yes, time to go to camp. Kind of sad to just kind of leave her by herself, because she was, what, about thirteen, fourteen at the time. My parents kind of worried about her. We tried to get her to come to camp, but they wouldn't allow that. Because they didn't have facilities for tubercular patients.

KL: How did you, how did you learn she had it?

MO: I don't know. I guess they do exams before they go, I don't know. I don't recall.

KL: Did they test you? Did someone test you?

MO: I don't recall that either. I don't remember. I just remember packing up and going, you know. Anyway, it was sad to leave. I imagine she felt deserted.

KL: Did you write to her?

MO: Oh, yes, we used to correspond.

KL: So you'd hear from her sometimes.

MO: Tried to write as often as you could.

KL: Do you remember your parents' reaction to learning that she had tuberculosis, or that she couldn't come?

MO: No. I imagine they were devastated. But what are you going to do, you know, under the situation?