Densho Digital Archive - Miyoko Uzaki Interview (denshovh-umiyoko-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

KL: Tell me a little bit about Yuriko?

MU: About who?

KL: Yuriko, and your other siblings.

MU: After high school, we had a, we started to go to church, Christian church, after we came back from camp. But, let's see... anyway, Lily went to a small school down south called American Soul Clinic, and with that group she went to Japan as a missionary. She went to Kyushu. That's the little island west, on the west. And that was 1945, 1944 or '45.

KL: Did she finish high school?

MU: Yeah, she finished high school.

KL: What was she like as a kid and a high school student?

MU: She was kind of serious. She had good friends.

KL: And Katsume?

MU: Katsumi.

KL: What was he like as a kid and as a young teenager?

MU: He had a sense of humor. Yeah, he was a good kid, good brother.

KL: Did he make you laugh?

MU: Uh-huh.

KL: And Aiko?

MU: Aiko? Aiko, when she was -- we had just come back from camp, 1945 -- she was a senior, and they would not allow her to -- we came back in May, so just before graduation. She went to classes for a while and when it came time for graduation, they would not allow her to graduate with the class. So she got upset and left home and went to Watsonville, and we didn't know about it, actually, the reason why she left, until much later.

KL: Saburo showed me her letter that she wrote to the editor in the newspaper, and some writing about her high school experience, and she sounds, she sounds very, very confident of herself and very sort of sure of what she wanted to say. Was she like that as a kid? Was she --

MU: I think so, yeah.

KL: She was pretty strong.

MU: Yeah.

KL: How did you notice that in her as a kid? What kind of, is there anything that sticks out, any example?

MU: No, when she wanted to do something, she did it.

KL: And what about Saburo, what was he like as a kid?

MU: Being the oldest, you had all these other responsibilities, so I don't remember that much.

KL: Yeah, he was, the other younger kids were kind of different than you. I mean, with you being an adult and being school kids and stuff. Was there kind of a divide, the older kids...

MU: Not really. Not really, but the older ones had responsibilities. The younger ones were more carefree.

KL: And do, is there anything that really defined Saburo or Tokio, in terms of personality or having, what they liked to do with their time?

MU: No, not that much.

KL: I don't know a lot about cerebral palsy. What was Tokio's life like before you guys had to leave?

MU: It depends on the severity of the case. My brother Timothy, or Tokio, he couldn't do anything for himself. Everything had to be done for him. And my mother was short, but she used to get him off of bed and put him on a wheelchair. It's amazing, I think maybe one time he kind of slipped off the bed and landed on the floor, but then other than that, she managed quite well.

KL: Was she his primary caregiver?

MU: Yeah. And my brother Kats was the only one at home, so he did a lot of, gave a lot of help.

KL: Can you tell us what your parents' relationship was like with each other? Sometimes one person kind of makes the decisions and another takes care of the kids, one's quiet. How were they with each other?

MU: Living on the farm, doing farm work, I think my father did, had, made most of the decisions. But when war started and he had his stroke, Mother had to take the lead.

KL: How was that for her? Did she talk about that, or did you observe how she felt about it?

MU: Well, I think it was hard for her, but she had to do it.

KL: What do you, what do you recall about -- oh, first of all, I wanted to ask you, you, how were you as a student in high school? You mentioned that you worked hard.

MU: I enjoyed school. I graduated co-valedictorian. I planned for both business course and college course but wasn't able to go to college, because --

KL: Did you --

MU: -- had to work, to support the family.

KL: Did you think you might attend college some day? Why did you decide to take those courses?

MU: Yeah, I had hoped to at least have the background, so if I do go to college I'll be ready. In, I graduated in '37, in 1949 I decided to go to college, and so went two years down south and then finished up in Seattle, Washington.