Essondale patient file for Juro Yoshikawa

From this file, LOI has digitized one textual record or image.

Juro Yoshikawa was admitted to Essondale on 11 March 1944.  He died at the age of 49 on 12 February 1948 of “bronchopneumonia due to general paresis of the insane”. Diagnosis was general paresis; a venereal disease control certificate also refers to neurosyphilis. A note glued to file said that in the event of death his wife Suye requested he be cremated and his ashes sent to Greenwood. The British Columbia Security Commission were reported to have made the arrangements. His ward notes indicate he was admitted from Kaslo under certificates of Drs. K.S. Takahara and W.H. Ormond, with consent of his wife. Medical certificates indicate that he attempted suicide by jumping in a lake. Social history states that his problem developed in August 1941 and he was sent to Kaslo in May 1942; “Worried about his mother in Japan, inability to return there and smallness of accommodation in Kaslo (5 in 1 room.)” Yoshikawa had 2 teenage daughters. He arrived in Canada in 1919 at the age of 18 and worked at pulp mill in Woodfibre for 15 years. His father Matakichi was a veteran of WWI (Canadian army). File indicates wife’s brother Mr. Shimada was helping the family financially during his hospitalization. Visit list includes only 3 visits from 1944-1948. File includes correspondence from RCMP, B.C.S.C, and regular letters from Suye Yoshikawa. On 1 September 1945, Mrs. Yoshikawa writes that “yesterday I heard from our supervisor that the one who signed for going back to Japan will be send out around December and we heard from him that we can’t take my husband along, but we signed for his sake, to take him back to his parents once again.” General Superintendent A.L. Crease advised her to contact the Deputy Provincial Secretary and explained that special arrangements would have to be made. Yoshikawa’s family moved from Kaslo to Midway to Greenwood over course of correspondence. File includes a notable correspondence between the hospital bursar, the inspector of municipalities and the Office of the Custodian regarding his account of property and assets. A letter from R.G. Bell at the Office of the Custodian to Mr. Yoshikawa on 3 December 1946 states “our records show the chattels declared by you to have been moved from Woodfibre to Vancouver for better storage. Some of these were shipped to you in July, 1943; some were sold at Custodian auctions at different times, the net proceeds being credited to your account; and some were discarded as unsaleable.” The same letter states that a $50 Victory bond, 16 ear savings certificates and a Manufacturers Life insurance policy “did not come under our administration.” File includes correspondence with Manufacturers Life Insurance company.

British Columbia. Mental Health Services created this archive which were transferred to the BC Archives from 1987 to 2000.

The digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective between 2014 and 2018.

This record was digitized selectively.