Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1720/

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.


atomic bomb atomic bomb survivors cancer children hibakusha marriages radiation

Date: September 3, 2019

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Masako Miki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Howard Kakita was born in 1938 in East Los Angeles, California. His family took him to Japan in 1940. His parents and younger brother came back to the United States in 1940, to take care of the family business, but Howard and an older brother, Kenny, stayed in Japan.

When the war broke out, his family in the U.S. were incarcerated in Poston, AZ. On August 6, 1945, the Atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. Howard was 0.8 miles from the hypocenter and survived. He and Kenny came back to the U.S. and reunited with their family in 1948.

Howard pursued a career in computer engineering. After his retirement, he joined American Society Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors (ASA) and has been actively sharing his A-bomb experience. (September 2019)

Yuki,Tom

Felt no hostility in Los Gatos, California after the war

(b. 1935) Sansei businessman.

Sekimachi,Kay

Marriage to Bob Stocksdale

(b. 1926) Artist

Yamada,Mitsuye

Her mother came to the U.S. with a group of picture brides

(b. 1923) Japanese American poet, activist

Kataoka,Mitsuru “Mits”

Experimented using portable video systems with kids

(1934–2018) Japanese American designer, educator, and pioneer of media technologies

Teisher,Monica

Interracial marriage trends

(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States

Ninomiya,Masato

Japanese language education for children

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

McKenna,Sabrina Shizue

Impact of Coming Out on Her Family

(b. 1957) Jusice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.