Interviews

1. Japanese Hospital: My Father & Mother

2. About her father

3. Maryknoll Sanitarium

4. Beach & America

5. World War II Incarceration

Kuroiwa,Margaret

Daughter of an Issei doctor.

Maryknoll Sanitarium

My father was very generous – that’s another trait of his – he was very generous, and he donated thousands of dollars to…I guess establish the Maryknoll T.B. Sanitarium. And it’s in Monrovia and because – that’s where Dr. Tashiro went and, you know, recovered…and probably, maybe there was a lot of T.B. with Japanese people too. So as children we went there several times and my sister told me that - I don’t remember this - but she said, “the cookies were really good.” So there were a lot of different cottages, you know because I guess what the patients needed was sunshine and air and so the sisters, you know, would cook and everything and then, you know, deliver their trays to them and so on.

Date: February 3, 2010

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Eiko Masuyama, Carole Fujita, Yoko Nishimura

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Margaret Kuroiwa is the third daughter of Dr. Daishiro Kuroiwa from Saga-ken, Japan and Agnes Haruyo Ogawa Kuroiwa. Her father was a prominent Issei physician who worked at the Turner Street Southern California Japanese Hospital, and was one of the five doctors, along with Dr. Tashiro, to file the lawsuit against the State of California. His practice was in Boyle Heights and in the Taul Building in Little Tokyo. He also treated tuberculosis patients at the Monrovia Sanitarium. She and her 4 sisters were born at the new Japanese Hospital on First and Fickett. (April 11, 2010)