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AI: Well, and then, of course after your medical school and you received your medical degree in 1948 and then went to your internship, which you talked about a little bit yesterday, at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh. And I was wondering, at that time, you mentioned how much prejudice that you received when you had applied for your internship and had been refused.

RI: Uh-huh. My prejudice was in trying to get an internship in which the hospital grants you the permission to work in their hospital and obtain training. And the hospital is responsible for supporting you, giving you room and board and the training, so I suppose that the hospitals were the ones that were prejudiced against Japanese. I don't know about other Asians, but anyway, Japanese. But, I think once we got in, Kazuko and I, we worked well, so I'm sure that we got accepted readily. So my feeling is that Japanese people, even if we face prejudice, if, once we are in, if we work diligently that we could prove to other people that we're okay, you know, just as good as they are.

DG: Were there other minorities?

RI: In, in internship? No, I was the only one. I was the only one, even among residency staff. I was the only Japanese. I don't think there were -- no, there were no Chinese, no other minorities. Our medical school had one or two black students, but not in my class. There, I think almost every class might have had one Asian. It could've been Chinese or Japanese, but very few black students, one or two.

AI: And during your internship, I was wondering if you ever got any impression that some of the hospital staff felt that you were taking a place that should have gone to a man. Did that ever come up?

RI: I don't think I ever faced any feelings like that. I think that maybe -- because there were plenty of other men interns. Like, if I guess that there could have been like nineteen male interns and one female, I don't know that I displaced somebody, because I worked just as hard as they did. And they all accepted me. So, I never felt that once I got in that I was resented, and the hospital people accepted me readily. The nurses were nice to me and very helpful, so... of course, you know, since they said that they had no living quarters for female interns, I lived with the nurses in their, in their complex, wherever it was. So, I got to know the nurses, too.

AI: Another thing I was wondering about during your internship year, was whether you got any strange reactions from patients who might have been surprised that, first that they were being treated by a doctor who was a woman, but also a Japanese American?

RI: Well, I don't remember any negative reactions. So maybe I wasn't looking for any prejudice. But I don't remember anything negative. I don't remember that I was disliked or asked not to come back. In fact, I remember other incidents where they accepted me and, and accepted me like a friend. In fact, even now, every Christmas I get a Christmas card from one patient who was there. And she was from Pennsylvania in the coal mine area. And she, every year sends me Christmas card. And at that time I think she also gave me a gift that her sister had made. And we made good friends. Because as an intern, instead a, of a attending who comes to see a patient and goes back to the office, interns stick around and we were there, if something happens we'd go there again. So we'd become closer to a patient than maybe someone else might. So, I think they... I don't remember any rejection of any kind. So, it might have been, I might have been the first Japanese female intern there at that hospital. I probably was.

AI: Well, was there anything else about your internship year that comes to mind or that was memorable in some way?

RI: No, the internship was in Pittsburgh. And Pittsburgh at that time had lot of coal mines close by and so it was always very dusty. And when I ever had a chance to go out, outside, go downtown, take a bus then I knew that my hair felt like it had coal dust in it, and my face felt grimy and all that. So, I think it's been cleaned up since then. But in those days it was still part of the coal, coal mine area.

AI: Well, so at the hospital, then, did you see miners who were suffering from lung disease? Or, what kinds of things did, illnesses did you see there?

RI: I don't know that I was impressed with any special disease, because, in internship is called rotating internship where you are put from one, one area to another, maybe surgery, obstetrics, medicine, pediatrics, like that. So, I don't remember being especially impressed with respiratory diseases, but there probably were. But I don't know whether this particular hospital might not have been particularly noted for respiratory diseases. It was called St. Francis Hospital and it was a Catholic hospital. And there were a lot of nuns who were around, nursing.

DG: Were there any things that you felt, being Asian, that you could kind of share with some of the others as far as how you approached people or how --

RI: When I was an intern? No, not particularly. Probably more as a female, which is, I would say, it's hard to describe, but little bit closer to a person than a male would approach. I don't know how to describe it, but, female -- not wiles -- but female... sensitivity. [Laughs]

<End Segment 35> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.