Densho Digital Archive
Oregon Nikkei Endowment Collection
Title: Kay Sweeney Interview
Narrator: Kay Sweeney
Interviewer: Alison Walcott
Location: Portland, Oregon
Date: February 26, 2003
Densho ID: denshovh-skay-01-0005

<Begin Segment 5>

AW: So let's go back to when you got back to Japan. And what was life like in Japan now after the war?

KS: Oh, it was so pitiful. People did not have no food, first of all, and it was difficult. We did not able, we could not able to have rice and Japanese staples. But our meal was just a dumpling, and nothing there in it even no vegetable very much inside. Anything in the food we can eat we put it in the dumpling, and that was our food. And then there was some American supply food that came later on. And one day, it was said that they, one day the sack person taken care of this, sacks, it was say for animal. This sack say for animals, but that was for Japanese people. And even though we were glad something, we're able to have some grain we're able to have, but that American food was for animals. [Laughs]

AW: So after that time you stayed in Takashima City for a while, and what did you do after that?

KS: No. I was called to the Kokura National Hospital. There, Kokura was a very nearest to city place from the Korea and, no from the Korea and from the port. So there are many soldiers and civilians came back from overseas those days, and we were taking care of them. And some of them are very, very, was sickly; some of them were malnutrition; some of them were, needed surgery, so we had to taken care of them. If a person able to traveling, we take them to the, few together into the nearest national hospital, their own birthplace, so the family can help them. And other than that, we took care of in the hospital. And as they get better, we send them back by group every time, and we were traveling together with them. That was my, we're traveling together to their native place.

AW: And these were Japanese?

KS: Oh, yes. They are Japanese soldiers, former soldiers and civilians.

AW: So they were coming from their overseas destinations and getting --

KS: And they were working in the oversea, and now they are coming back after the war.

AW: Was it an American military hospital or was it a Japanese and civilians --

KS: No, that was Japanese hospital. This Kokura National Hospital used to be Japanese army hospital in the area, largest one. And yes, I worked there about four, four years or so.

AW: And did you have many experiences with the Americans during the postwar time?

KS: No. There wasn't many Americans soldiers stationed in Kokura area. But those days, American medical field is very progressed than anywhere else in the world. So we wanted, we wanted to learn American medical technology, and then also we get to know more American and speak English. So I ask, I ask my employment to the, Camp Kokura. Camp Kokura was a general depot. They were supply depot to Korea. So it was very near from Korea, nearest place in Korea. So I worked there as a health supervisor. The Camp Kokura has about seven, eight thousand Japanese employee working there repairing, anyway, repairing or making parachute or something like that, and so I was working for those Japanese employee.

AW: In a hospital or --

KS: No. It wasn't a hospital. I was in the level office. Yeah, I was in the level office employee. But some of those have sick leaves like that. I had to go their home and check how their conditions, how their treatment goes on, so on. And after that, I went to the American army hospital in Fukuoka City. And my English was very poor, but they were more than glad to, me to be there, come to work for them. So I moved to the Fukuoka City, American hospital, army hospital. There I have many, many experience, and I have met many people. And I met so many show business people there too. And when I was working there, I saw Marilyn Monroe and Bob Hope and James Mansfield and Joe DiMaggio, and so many people visited our hospital to see our patients, so that was very, something to, extraordinary. I never seen like the people. And at the army hospital who I was working at the surgical department, I saw so many United Nations soldiers. Some of them were from French soldiers, and some of them were Australian and Turkish, and so many I don't remember anymore, so many, but we able to communicate by some way. They always, French soldier, I never forget, had lady's stockings. So I said, "Why do you have the stockings?" [Laughs] It surprised me. And they said, they show us. They wrap around their neck, and, "This is my girlfriend's stocking," and Korea was so cold that we were, wrapped around our neck and just by mascot they showed. And the British soldiers show us, first they show us their wedding picture. They were holding their bride on the doorway, their home doorway holding high, you know, their brides. And those things I saw so many, and we laughed at them. [Laughs]

AW: That must have been such a neat experience though to have contact with so many different people.

KS: Yes. I have so many different nationality, and people send them there. It was very much good experiences to me. And yes, human beings are always same, you know. They like same things what you like. So I could be their own place, and I, we prayed they going back to their own land safely after that.

AW: And so during this time, you were learning English. Is that why you decided to study in the United States?

KS: Yes. I had some very, very basic English in my high school, high schools. But I went to the evening schools to take English, and lot of GI was teasing me , "Why do you have to go school every night? Why? You are already grown person. Why do you have to go school so much?" but I didn't know how to explain. "Because I wanted to," I said, "and I may go back to Japan, no, I may go back to Jakarta or I may someday able to go America, so I like to prepare for that," I said. "Oh, that's very good idea," he said. [Laughs] We learn so much American customs, and we were very comfortable at there, and American nurses were very nice to us too.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.