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AI: Well, I also wanted to ask you if you thought that any, if there was anything in your Japanese heritage, or the way that you were brought up that affected the way that you practiced and in some way influenced you in a way that would be different than others.

RI: I don't think it would be just Japanese ways. I think it's just individual. I always believed that being kind to people probably was the best way and having integrity and being thoughtful. Because my patients, they were very kind to me. Like I would get their garden produce, I'd get their peas and sugar peas and tomatoes and beans. They would always come, bring things to me. And they treated me like their family, so they were good to me, so in turn I figured that I should be good to them. And everybody has feelings and you have to be careful to take care of those feelings. And just being thoughtful is the important thing, I think. When, when patients come to my office, they're suffering and they're either sick or they're, they're sad and all that, so, if you're conscious of how they're feeling and take care of that then I think you'll be okay.

I think just being kind is a, I think is a very important character trait for someone. You know, even if I can't cure them. And one time, one man said to me, "Ruby-san, in your practice," he said it sort of like, "you've killed a lot of people." Well, a lot of people have died, but I didn't actually kill them, but, I think he said it something like that in a joking way. And of course I didn't like it. I said, "Gosh, I don't kill them, they died but I tried to take care of them and I can't reverse the death," but, even in death if you're very compassionate and thoughtful, I think that goes a long ways. And I think that a lot of the widows who lost their husbands, I know lot of 'em died at home and I was there when they died, and I think they appreciated that, that kind of thing. You know, it's not that I had the best medical skills, I probably didn't. But as a human being if I tried to be compassionate and thoughtful, I think that goes a long ways. And I don't think that's definitely just a Japanese characteristic, it's just a personal kind of thing that I think is important.

DG: One of the things that comes to mind, your mentioning the incident where you got upset with the gentleman because he used a term that was stronger than you felt.

RI: Uh-huh.

DG: One of the things that comes to mind is that you have a lot of gaman.

RI: I have the gaman?

DG: Right, and you don't get upset when people...

RI: Oh, no. I'm pretty... what should I say? I don't get upset easily.

DG: Right.

RI: I'm pretty stable. So, I don't know if that's gaman, though. Gaman is suffering, but not showing it or doing --

DG: Well, but I think it comes from that.

RI: Oh.

DG: Your ability to...

RI: Well, I'm sure that I inherited that, maybe from my mother. She had to gaman when her stepmother was there, that kind of thing. But I don't know that my mother taught me that kind of thing.

DG: She lived it.

RI: Yeah, probably. Yeah, she lived it because she told me that she got interested in ikebana because she said that when things were bothering her, just doing a flower arrangement really helped her to calm down. So, she said when she was little bit upset, she'd do a flower arrangement. And she became my ikebana teacher. I think she was good at it. She also did shuuji until her hands started to shake so she couldn't hold the brush anymore. See, that's why I say I also had to admire my mother. [Laughs] She probably had gaman. Yeah, you're right.

But, being thoughtful of others. When I got that redress money, the immediate thought was, "Wow, I better reimburse some of the people who helped me." So when I was going to Texas, or maybe when I was going to medical school, I wrote a letter to the American Baptist, maybe it's called the Northern Baptist Convention, anyway, it was a Baptist organization, the head office, and I asked them if they would help me financially, you know, since I'm going to school. And they wrote back to me and said that since they are a church group they're not really giving money out, and in fact, they're collecting money, but that they'd like to help me, so they gave me fifty dollars. And in those days it was a lot. So, when the redress money came, I thought about them, I better give some money to them, so I made a donation to them and told them, "So many years ago you helped me so I'd like to pay you back." So, you know, my redress money went out here and there all over -- [laughs] -- and I didn't have any left, but I tried to make sure to pay people back.

<End Segment 52> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.