<Begin Segment 21>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: So talk about your training, what was the training like?

SA: Oh, I think it was superb. Again, this is looking back at it, but because it was (associated with) the Mayo Clinic, I hadn't realized we had the Mayo Clinic doctors. And amazing thing, like in surgery, the instruments were named, the ones they even use (today) here, you know, (are) the Harrison retractors, and their instruments. (Dr. Judd), Dr. Black, all these (doctors) actually created (medical instruments), the ones we were working with. So in surgery, I think (we had outstanding doctors). The two Mayo brothers started (the hospital and clinic) with the Franciscan nuns at the beginning (but added other factors). But Dorothy (Mayo), their sister, was mentally retarded, and yet she had the run of the city, so she'd say, "This is my hospital, this is my (city)," and she had free (ride on) the buses (...). Everyone knew who she was. And I thought it was great of them to let her roam like that and be free and independent.

TI: And what city was this?

SA: Rochester, (Minnesota). And actually, a lot of the real estate there, I'm sure, (were owned) by the Mayo brothers. We graduated and had a reception at the Mayo Foundation (House). Very plush place. They also controlled things like (entertainment places) -- it was a good thing that (because they didn't want post-surgery patients running around). The patients, (and) great amount that (came) in, this is like a last-ditch stand for a lot of people. We had (government) people from Washington, D.C., (and) people (from) the War Department anyway. But we also realized (at) the same time, that we had the best teachers and the best instructors because the Mayo fellows would (follow) a surgeon (or other doctors). And so, of course, for all of us as student nurses, (we listened and learned, too), we had galleries like you see in Gray's Anatomy (TV show). And (new drugs) came, Sodium Pentothal for the first time, Curarie, some of the anesthesia (drugs and) penicillin, we were granted that, and we watched the polio epidemic, (used) the iron lungs, something you never see anymore, but we manned that. I think we had a tremendous (education), up on a lot of the others, Johns Hopkins (Hospital was) the other one that was known. But I saw Helen Keller, I would have never seen her, (except she came to Mayo's for her physicals).

TI: And so how did you see Helen Keller?

SA: She came with Anne Sullivan, of course, but I was on night duty, which was good (...), because then her nurse, her specialist, they asked me if I wanted to see her, nobody was allowed, (but) then I got to step in (to her room). Of course, she's blind, but just seeing her lying there, you could just (see), she just oozes with nobility. I mean, you could see she was someone special.

TI: And how old was Helen Keller at this point?

SA: Gee, I don't quite know. I never did look up her age, but she was quite along in age. And I don't know what her diagnosis was, because she was there, but I felt so lucky to be able to even see her. Of course, you can't talk to her, it's nighttime, she's sleeping. [Laughs] I think she was asleep.

TI: How about other prominent people that came through?

SA: Well, I can't remember, but we had somebody from the Department of Defense, (pretty high up, "Happy" something), and he ordered his food from outside, (and) what impressed me, he wasn't gonna eat the hospital food, and they were running (outside to get it for him). And he, of course, had special guards up at the door, too. But I think the one incident that stood out was we had some of the returning vets from the war, (the nuns) were worried, I think, about us, too, because when we went in, we were not allowed to participate in some of the meetings until our probation time was over. I'm sure they didn't do that to the others. But for us seven (Japanese Americans) that had come in (from the class of '47 and) there were some prior to our coming because we weren't the first class there, (it was a worry to the St. Mary's Franciscan nuns).

TI: So you're talking about, because you were Japanese American?

SA: Yes, but they had started (with others before us). (Ms.) Taguchi (...) was already instructing in OB when we got there. She was supervising, maybe in a lesser categories, but she was an RN already, (when we got there), she was there, so that helped us, too. And her family lived on the outskirts, I think your father knows that, in a motel, and (her) mother was cooking Japanese foods as (much as she could). And that's where we loved to go because we could get something that we're used to (like rice, short grain). Otherwise, we're using kosher pickles for the tsukemono and (substitutes) like that.

TI: In general, how well did the Japanese American nurses, or the trainees, do at St. Mary's during this period?

SA: I think they did exceptionally well. Of course, you don't grade on a curve like you do in normal schools. It's more practical, so it's on what they observe you doing. I mean, they teach you how to make a bed, you do an IV, you do, learn how to give a bath when they're bedridden and stuff like that. It's procedures that they follow through on. But we did learn chemistry, and again, this is what was great about St. Mary's, they had the best instructors. They wrote the textbooks. So I still have some, but we didn't realize the value of the thing until, of course, later. Now, when we gather together, and we still get together yearly, the (St. Mary's) group, and we said, "Wow, we never realized Krug wrote the pharmacy book." We had the best teachers. It was just like Bailey (Gatzert school), it was specialties, (with excellent teachers).

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.