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Testimony 5

An anonymous account of a wife and daughter of a survivor discussing justice.
Recorded in 2018.

Your dad had the barber shop from [redacted year] when we got married. You remember he retired in the 1990s after my dad, your grandad passed away. Your dad retired the following December. I remember he said that one of his clients told him that he was abused by Nakayama. His client told him, “just make sure that something is done...that you bring it [the sexual abuse] up. If I die first you have to promise that something is done about [Nakayama]. People need to know that he [Nakayama] did this.” I am not sure now who [the client] wanted your dad to tell now. [The client] was an old friend of your Dad’s and they were both molested by Nakayama when they were young. 

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I don’t know who else he [Nakayama] did this to, I know Nakayama was in Bay Farm [an internment camp] and he used to come over to Lemon Creek, Popoff, Slocan [nearby internment camps] and he would go see all the widows I guess. And in Alberta, not in Lethbridge, I think it was in Coaldale or Taber that he would do the same thing. Too bad your dad wasn’t alive still. He would know a lot [about Nakayama], you know they talk a lot at the barber shop. That client died young several years later [mid 70’s] and nobody knew about Nakayama's abuse. Then your dad died [early 2010s] and still nobody knew about Nakayama's abuse.

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-Anonymized to protect the identities of the individuals mentioned.