Discover Nikkei Logo

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1174/

Making patients feel comfortable by using patient's regional dialects

As far as I know - I didn't know the difference. It was after the war, when you hear things that people are saying. But at that time, I wasn't aware of anything about class or position or whatever. Because none of my parents, neither of my parents made us aware of such things. But it was... I don't know. My father loved to talk their kind of language, sometimes it's coarse, sometimes it's... it's just like some people talk to each other in, like they're Okies or, you know, hillbillies or whatever. But there's a Japanese group that talked that way also, and he would use that, certain phrases to make them feel at home. And I'd hear this kind of language and I'd think, "Oh, must be Mr. so-and-so who's here." I mean, you could kind of tell by the twang or whatever. It was interesting to listen to. And my father wasn't the kind who would whisper, and, you know, it was always loud and backslapping kind of...

I*: And your sense was he did this just to make his patients feel just more comfortable?

Uh-huh. 'Cause it's just by chance that he was where he is, or at that time, where he was. I don't think he believed that he was all that high-falutin'.

* "I" indicates an interviewer (Tom Ikeda)


Japanese hospitals

Date: September 21, 2009

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Tom Ikeda, Martha Nakagawa

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Nisei female. Born April 30, 1928, in Los Angeles, California. She grew up in Gardena and her father was a prominent medical physician in the Boyle Heights neighborhood. During World War II, removed to the Poston incarceration camp, Arizona. Left camp with family to work on a sugar beet farm in Colorado, and eventually returned to Los Angeles, where father reestablished medical practice. She passed away in November 2016 at the age of 88. (April 2020)

Margaret Kuroiwa
en
ja
es
pt
Margaret Kuroiwa

Maryknoll Sanitarium

Daughter of an Issei doctor.

en
ja
es
pt

Discover Nikkei Updates

NIKKEI NAMES 2
Vote for Nima-kai Favorite!
Read the stories and give a star to the ones you like the most! Help select our Community Favorite.
PROJECT UPDATES
New Site Design
See exciting new changes to Discover Nikkei. Find out what’s new and what’s coming soon!
NEW SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT
We’re on Instagram!
Follow us @discovernikkei for new site content, program announcements, and more!