(English/Japanese) I think it was 1917. Spain Flu was all over the world. That’s why the Japanese doctors decided to, I think, open the hospital for the nihonjin (Japanese), you know.
I was born in Los Angeles. From what I’ve heard, I was born at a place relatively close to this old hospital. It was an old house. Our house was facing the north, the hospital ha (was) facing the west. So we didn’t really have anything to do with each other. We didn’t know what was happening at the hospital.
I think Dr. Tashiro was probably the leader back when they built the first new hospital.
I remember the baby doctor the most, Dr. Ito Kyuji. That’s because Ken and Kyoko would catch colds a lot, so whenever winter came I took them to the doctor often.
I think when Ken was born, and I was in the hospital, I think there was a big earthquake then. There was this one Chinese patient who was having surgery, but when the earthquake happened, he ran out into the hallway.
That might have been in 1933. The nurses were kind to me, so I think things were good on that end. A new hospital has different types of new equipment, after all, so I think it was good.
Date: February 3, 2010
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Eiko Masuyama, Carole Fujita, Yoko Nishimura
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Journal feed
