Densho Digital Archive - Miyoko Uzaki Interview (denshovh-umiyoko-01-0014)

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KL: Would you talk to us about how your father's health was affected by coming to Jerome?

MU: He had his first stroke after I graduated from high school, or before, just before. He had his second stroke after we went into camp. He couldn't do anything. He would sometimes wander off. Mother had to watch him very carefully. Other than that, we just had to be careful that, watch so that he didn't fall or, you know.

KL: He died pretty soon after you arrived.

MU: Yeah, he died in October, shortly after we arrived. It was the first, at least the first Christian funeral that they had in camp. I don't know if there were any others, because some of the people from San, south, southern California, Santa Anita, had been moved in earlier than when we moved in, so I don't know if there were other deaths in the family, or in the community. But in the Fresno area, from the Fresno area, our father's was the first death.

KL: What do you recall of the memorial service?

MU: Huh?

KL: What do you recall of the memorial service?

MU: There were a lot of people there. They had it in the barrack. The place was full. And I recall, I was sitting in the back, and my mother, I don't know, for some reason came to the back and she said, as she looked over the congregation, she saw like a flame here and there, and she said, over the people, I didn't see it.

KL: Do you have a sense of what that meant to her?

MU: I think she had, she had some Christian background, so I think she realized that God's spirit was there.

KL: That's a pretty profound beginning to your time there.

MU: Yeah, it was.

KL: I'm sorry about these questions. They're, they've got to be somewhat difficult to answer, and they're hard even to ask, but what did, what was the experience of your dad's death for you? It sounds like you were close to him.

MU: Well, we had just moved in, and so a lot of things were still unsettling. We, he had been ill for some time, so... and the life in camp for him was difficult. And when he had his stroke, we knew that it wasn't gonna be too long before he'll pass away. But it was hard, very hard.

KL: How was it different to have him die in the camp than it would've been if he'd died at home?

MU: I don't think there would've been too much difference, but dying in a strange place and dying at home, or in the community, I think there's a lot of different feeling. Not maybe to him, but to the family, being in a strange place, a new place.

KL: Was there anyone, any people or anything that was a support or a comfort to you?

MU: Yeah, we had, look at all the people that came to his funeral. [Holds up photo] Those around here were all relatives and from the community, and of course, being the first Christian funeral, I think there are a number of people here that, we didn't know who they were, but out of sympathy, I think, they attended. I don't, I don't think the funeral, if we had it at Fresno there would've been maybe half of the people. There were a lot of people there.