Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Susumu Oshima Interview
Narrator: Susumu Oshima
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Kona, Hawaii
Date: June 9, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-osusumu-01-0016

SO: Well, that morning, there was a lot of, I think I was reading about him, and then there were all different stories, too. But mainly he was, let's see, he was playing Hanafuda, he didn't have fun, he walked away, and he wanted to cut some wood with an axe, he asked for axe and no one would let him. And after walking around, then he snapped, and started to run for the barbed wire trying to escape. And the other internees said, "Don't shoot," to the guard, because you know those sentries, being in the service against the Japanese, they would be glad to shoot that guy. So that's what happened. "Don't shoot, don't shoot." He cannot get far, but he just pulled the trigger, and then he went down and died right there.

[Interruption]

TI: So when your father was shot and killed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, how did the family find out that this happened?

SO: Well, not immediately after what took place. But later on we found out. And then they would send a death certificate, that gunshot wound, he died from. So that's how we found out.

TI: Did your mother receive any other notice before the death certificate? How was she informed that your father was killed?

SO: Probably through the police department, through the army and then through the police department, they came to notify. I was at school.

TI: And do you know where your mother, was your mother at home or someplace else when she was...

SO: Yeah, she was at home. She was in the front of the store where the bench, so she was sitting there and talking with one of the neighbors. And then when she heard that, she just cried and cried, that's all.

TI: And how did you find out? Did they come to the school to tell you, or did you find out when you came home?

SO: No. Somebody came up to the school to notify that my father passed away. And all of a sudden I had a feeling, just, light feeling, lost someone valuable.

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