Essondale patient file for Matsu Shono

Warning

The LOI Research Team has flagged this record for containing sensitive information. This record contains the following sensitivities:

  • Details or graphic images of serious illness (mental or physical) or mortality of identifiable individual(s).
  • Could cause undue or disproportionate dishonour / embarrassment to self or family.

Essondale patient file for Matsu Shono

Description

Title Proper 93-5683 BOX 0301 FILE 19293
Date(s) 1941
General material designation
This file contains a textual record.
Scope and content
Matsu Shono was admitted to Essondale twice; once in 1936, and finally in April 1941, from Whonock B.C. She died at the age of 48 on 21 December 1942 of apoplexy of the brain due to essential hypertension. Her mental health diagnosis was psychosis with somatic disease. She was born in Fukuoka, Japan. Her maiden name was Suyemitsu. Her visit record indicates regular visits from her husband and children until 12 April 1942. Her husband Konosuki is listed as a farmer. File includes a letter written by her son on 24 May 1942 from Picture Butte, Alberta, informing the hospital that the family had left for a sugar beet farm on 16 April and “I believe we can’t visit her anymore, until we come back.” Medical superintendent E.J. Ryan informed her husband of her worsening condition on 1 December 1942, and her son wrote back inquiring into her condition on 18 December from Iron Springs, Alberta. File includes correspondence with the British Columbia Security Commission.
Name of creator
British Columbia. Mental Health Services created this archive which were transferred to the BC Archives from 1987 to 2000.
Immediate source of acquisition
The digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective between 2014 and 2018.
This record was digitized selectively.

Metadata

Title

Essondale patient file for Matsu Shono
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Terminology

Readers of these historical materials will encounter derogatory references to Japanese Canadians and euphemisms used to obscure the intent and impacts of the internment and dispossession. While these are important realities of the history, the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective urges users to carefully consider their own terminological choices in writing and speaking about this topic today as we confront past injustice. See our statement on terminology, and related sources here.