Essondale Patient File for Nobue Wakita

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 Nobue Wakita

Description

Title Proper 93-5683 BOX 0990 FILE 36477
Date(s) 1955
General material designation
This file contains a textual record.
Scope and content
Nobue Wakita was diagnosed with Schizophrenic Reaction, Chronic Undifferentiated type. She arrived in Canada 1938 and lived in Kelowna. Wakita had 3 sons born in 1940, 1942 and 1944, all placed with an aunt when she was admitted to hospital. File includes correspondence over guardianship of her children. Social service notes blame Japanese culture for Wakita’s difficulties integrating into community. Suicide attempt made with scissors in 1955. Her first admission was 12 August 1944 from Grand Forks one month after her last son’s birth. She was subsequently diagnosed with postpartum depression and placed on suicide list immediately, several attempts recorded. Social service note indicates husband Tsunejiro hospitalized at New Denver Sanatorium. File includes letters from husband, who laments that Nobue is not able to receive visitors. Correspondence with Depot of Labour indicates that Dept of Labour/BCSC not responsible for her medical bills because she lived outside the protected area at time of PC 1665. Correspondence refers to potential repatriation and discussion with family members about viability. Last correspondence concerns a pregnancy in 1947 (later file reveals this was terminated) and potential sterilization. Wakita died 11 May 1961 of cardiac arrest at age 45.
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 Nobue Wakita
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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.