Interviews
On telling his wife he had radiation sickness and his son’s cancer
When we decided to get married back in 1962, way before you were born, '62, I told my wife that I have a background, the radiation. I had radiation sickness, that basically I told her I may not live that long. But I fooled her, I'm still alive. But you know, then we discussed—is there any possibility of offspring having problems.
I talked about the three traumas I had, the A Bomb, coming back to Yokogawa. The third one was when we came back to [the] United States, that was a traumatic event. Well, fourth one happened after we got married. We had three children, two girls and one boy. The oldest one being the boy. Well at age of five, he got cancer and died. So, now, is that because of the radiation? Or something else? I always inquired of the doctor, I said, “Gee, what do you think?” He said, “No, there’s no correlation between that and the death of your son."
But, I have two wonderful daughters. One, well they’re both I think close to 50 or one’s over 50. I have four grandchildren, two of each sex. And they seem to be pretty healthy. So maybe the death of my son was a fluke and something that would have happened had I not been in the A-Bomb.
Date: September 3, 2019
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Masako Miki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Witnessing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
Marrying Bob against family’s wishes
(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto
Impressions from interviews with Issei women (Japanese)
Tsuda College President, researcher of Nikkei history
Never married
(1913-2013) Doctor specializing in obstetrics in Southern California
Experiences in Hiroshima after the A-bomb
(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.
The horror of Hiroshima after the atomic bombing (Japanese)
(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.
Marriage and Family
(1914–2015) Nisei YMCA and Japanese American community leader
Four sisters had international marriages (Japanese)
(b. 1937) A war bride from Yokohama
Disrespectful Child (Japanese)
(b. 1937) A war bride from Yokohama
The Kids and Japanese Language (Japanese)
(b. 1937) A war bride from Yokohama
How she met her husband (Japanese)
(b. 1937) A war bride from Yokohama
Public views on marriage with non-Caucasian (Japanese)
(b. 1937) A war bride from Yokohama
Meeting his wife, Eileen
(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan
Discover Nikkei Updates
Be in our video celebrating Nikkei worldwide. Click to learn how to submit! Deadline extended to October 15!
November 12
5pm PDT | 7pm PET
Featured Nima:
Graciela Nakachi
Guest Host:
Enrique Higa
Presented in Spanish