Mas Masumoto (left) and Shizuko Sugimoto in 2013.
Mas Masumoto
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Mas Masumoto
Mas Masumoto (left) and Shizuko Sugimoto in 2013.
Mas Masumoto
This story is a part of the My Unsung Hero sequence, from the Hidden Mind crew. It options tales of individuals whose kindness left an enduring impression on another person.
Rising up, Mas Masumoto was vaguely conscious that he had an aunt who’d been separated from the household within the Nineteen Forties. Her identify was Shizuko Sugimoto, and she or he had an mental incapacity. As was typically completed in these days, she turned a ward of the state. The household by no means talked about her, and assumed she had handed away.
However in the future in 2012, Masumoto acquired a stunning telephone message from a funeral house employee named Renée Johnson. She wished to inform Masumoto a couple of consumer in her 90s that he would possibly know – a girl named Shizuko Sugimoto.
Johnson advised him that his aunt had been residing in an assisted residing facility. She’d had a stroke and entered a hospice program, whose employees contacted the funeral house to start preparations for Sugimoto’s eventual demise.
Sometimes, when the funeral house took on shoppers that had been beneath the safety of the federal government, they’d merely handle the final rights and care for the physique. However when Johnson found that Sugimoto appeared to haven’t any members of the family, she made a particular effort to find them – and located her solution to Masumoto.
“She seemed up within the 1930 census, discovered Shizuko’s identify with my mother’s identify, and proceeded to telephone me so Shizuko wouldn’t die alone,” Masumoto recalled. “It was wonderful for Renée to undergo all that work when she did not should.”
Mas Masumoto.
Mas Masumoto
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Mas Masumoto
When Masumoto advised his household, he requested them to sit down down. “And I mentioned, ‘You bear in mind Aunt Shizuko?’ They usually all mentioned, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, she handed away a very long time in the past.’ And I took a deep breath and I mentioned, ‘No, Shizuko’s alive.'”
His household was shocked.
“Everybody mentioned, ‘No, that may’t be, that may’t be proper.’ After which I advised them the story of what occurred. They usually all paused and mentioned, ‘We have to see her. We have to go see her.'”
The household did get to fulfill Sugimoto; she lived one other two years after they reunited. They had been additionally capable of thank Johnson.
Masumoto and his household proceed to be thankful for Johnson’s extraordinary efforts, which uncovered a bigger story in regards to the efforts to maintain Sugimoto’s existence hidden.
“Renée opened the door to a household secret,” Masumoto mentioned. “For my dad and mom’ era and grandparents, this was a secret that individuals had. And it introduced disgrace to lots of people. And folks had been handled wrongly by changing into invisible and hiding these sort of information.”
Masumoto went on to put in writing a e book about his aunt’s story, launched in 2023, titled Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Household Farm. It is now a finalist for the Nationwide Guide Critics Circle Award. And it began with the quiet effort of a funeral house employee, Renée Johnson.
“We had been pressured to re-examine and probe our circle of relatives secrets and techniques, and I wish to thanks for that,” Masumoto mentioned. “As a result of you have got modified our household historical past, and in addition opened my very own eyes to know that is a part of the legacy that I carry. And all because of you.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are launched each Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Mind crew, report a voice memo in your telephone and ship it to [email protected].