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RI: My prejudice was after we graduated, then I had a very difficult time getting an internship. All the other students got internships immediately but then, Kazuko and I just couldn't get into any hospital that we tried to apply to. So finally the dean of the medical school got internships for us and both of us got an internship in Pittsburgh, but two different hospitals, but within walking distance from each other so we could visit each other. But, we had no inkling about what these hospitals were like, but they were willing to take us so I think I remember that. When the time of applying for internships and everybody's happy, "Ooh, I got into this, this hospital or that hospital." "Wow, I'm gonna be in New York next, next year," and this kind of stuff and she and I, we didn't have anything. I remember going in to the women's restroom -- well, of course it was all women anyway -- and actually crying because I was so disappointed and so upset. But, you know, I don't cry easily and maybe that was the first time I cried. [Laughs] But it was that much of a disappointment.

And so Kazuko and I, we both interned at, in Pittsburgh. I went to St. Francis Hospital and I remember that it, it was a very big hospital, like about 600 beds and about twenty-five interns. And in those days, the interns working in the hospital wore this white top which had a button across the left shoulder, and a round collar. Well, there was no jacket that would fit me. So, I remember the summer before I went -- the internship starts July first and maybe I graduated end of May. So I might've had that one month, and I made about half a dozen of those tops out of sheets, white sheets, so that it'll fit me. And, you know, we had to change it all the time and they get dirty, but that's what I remember. And then, I probably, I think I was the only woman among all other men interns. But I kept up with them. I don't remember that they thought I wasn't good enough. But I remember as an intern, helping one surgeon and assisting him in surgery and he said to me one time, "You know, you're a very good assistant because you anticipate well." Which means that if he's gonna do something, I already know he's going to do it so I make it easy for him or, or expose the area, or something. Anyway, I remember he made that comment and I thought oh, that was nice of him to say that. [Laughs] He was a very good surgeon.

AI: So that year --

RI: That was my --

AI: That year of your internship was 1948, then?

RI: 1948. Yeah.

AI: Because you graduated --

RI: From July 'til the end of June.

AI: And --

RI: So after that I had to come to Washington to take my Washington State License.

AI: Well, while you were interning, did, had you already decided what kind of practice you would like to have or what, what, how you would like to practice medicine afterwards?

RI: Oh, yeah. Well, I think that I thought just internship may not be enough. I should do a residency so I applied for a family practice residency. And in those days, that kind of residency was just starting. And I wanted to come back to the Seattle area because my mother and father, they were already back in Seattle. Well, I applied to Providence, and Harborview, and where else? Well, I just remember those two. But immediately it was, "No, we can't take any women doctors. We don't have any quarters for them to stay." But that was just a excuse, huh? So anyway, I could not get an intern-, residency, so I came back to Seattle, Kazuko and I took our Washington State License exams. And then I started practice. But Kazuko applied for residency in Detroit and I think she applied for internal medicine residency. But, maybe soon into her internship, maybe a month or two, she became ill and she was diagnosed with pleurisy which is a, part of, something like TB, tuberculosis, so she was urged to take time off. So she went home, her parents were in Spokane. So she went home and rested for about half a year, then went back to Detroit to finish her residency. But after that internal medicine residency she changed to radiology. So she, she ended up in radiology, practicing, or practicing for a clinic in Oakland. But that's how she retired as a radiologist. But it was very important that your health is adequate and good and that's why, probably her health broke down because of too much studying and too much work and, but, see, I was very fortunate. I never got sick, one of the assets of my life.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.