What her husband, Shigetaro, and her own children—Kiyo, Tomi (my mother), Shig, and Edwin—thought of the sudden acquisition of three more members in their family, no one knows. The Oda boys had a place to sleep and three meals a day; they were clothed and sent to school. Kiyo at nineteen was already out of school and helping at the store. Tomi, fourteen, and Shig, eleven, were the closest to the boys in age. Tomi in particular had lived through the family’s hard times during her formative years and had a natural sympathy for children in need. Edwin was just three and accepted his new brothers easily as three more people to play with.
When we look at old photos from the past, we try to identify the faces in it; but we often don’t notice who is missing. Henry, the eldest Oda boy, is not in this photo of the Takahashis, taken around 1936. By 1936, there were only two Oda boys. Henry, the eldest, had a nosebleed one day, and a fever. Friends came to give blood; but a week later, he was dead of some form of acute leukemia.
