Interviews

1. Difference between experiences of youth and older people in WWII camps

2. His experiences in Chicago after WWII

3. Finding a way to keep donor kidneys longer in order to ship to matched patients

4. Creating a registry to study the outcome of transplants

5. Using tissue typing and blood tests to determine paternity

6. Developing the tray used in determining HLA types for tissue typing

7. The HLA and transplantation history books

8. Developing the micro test was the most important accomplishment

9. Continuing to work to improve transplanting success

Terasaki,Paul

(b.1929) Pioneer medical researcher in tissue transfer and organ transplantation.

His experiences in Chicago after WWII

I don’t recall any real discrimination. So, Chicago was pretty good in that sense. And at school, I didn’t sense anything. There were a fair number of Japanese in the school. I’m not exactly sure why, but when the Japanese went to Chicago, they tended to cluster to just maybe for some kind of a feeling of ease that they went together. So, at this high school, there were a fair number of Japanese also.

Chicago discrimination Illinois interpersonal relations United States

Date: February 10, 2004

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Gwenn M. Jensen

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

Interviewee Bio

Paul Terasaki, born in 1929, is a UCLA Medical Professor Emeritus and a pioneer in tissue transfer research who continues to speak globally on tissue typing and organ transplantation. In 1991 he edited a volume entitled History of Transplantation: Thirty-five Recollections.

He and his wife Hisako, a renowned painter, take a strong interest in U.S.-Japan relations and the affairs of the Japanese American community. Together they established an endowment at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center to fund fellowships for UCLA graduate students from Japan pursuing research on the historical and contemporary experiences and issues of the Japanese American population. Additionally, a Paul I. Terasaki Endowed Chair in U.S.-Japan Relations supports a distinguished teaching program designed to bring experts in the field of Japanese studies and U.S.-Japan relations to UCLA. (February 10, 2004)