<Begin Segment 29>

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

TI: From your nursing career, you did this switch in careers.

SA: Well, I mean, we just graduate with an RN, it doesn't matter where we go in. But I thought I'd start in on the floor, at least acquaint myself with the hospital, but gee, I was put in surgery and I'm there the next afternoon. I thought, "Wow." Scrubbing in, I thought, "Wow, this is amazing."

TI: But then, but then you started going to the University of Washington.

SA: Yes, I did. I took the summers off, whatever vacation time I could get in, and I didn't carry (many subjects), but I (did) take two years' vacation time, lump it into one so I can get at least six weeks, or enough time (to) put in some education courses. Actually, it was in (the) nursing courses first, 'cause the degree I got (was a) Bachelor's out of the UW in Public Health and Nursing Administration, which I never used. I did go out to (do) Public Health in the internship field work to Tacoma. I didn't like it at all.

TI: So how did you get into education from that?

SA: Well, because I lost my son. I got pregnant, and my son, my second son, (Jon), was only a year old when he died. But he had (...) a ureter (problem, it) was constricted. It was (a) kind of a minor thing, (but) maybe there was more to it than I realized, but (...) at that time, you couldn't read the (nurses' or doctors') notes. I know I went to (the) Children's Orthopedic (Hospital) and I asked if I could watch the surgery, and they said, "No, it won't take long, just go wait in the other room." And then I realized when I saw the code (light go on), and then I saw these doctors and they were not in scrub suits, (but in clean) suits. I knew something (happened to my son). So I turned (to Reverend) David Nakagawa, (our) new pastor. It was his first (...) church, I didn't realize it (then). His wife (Vicky was only nineteen years old). And I told them to go and pray (for us), 'cause I saw (the doctors) coming (...) and I didn't know what had happened, but I said, "(Please) run down (to the) small chapel (and pray for us)." I said, "I will join you (later)." And of course they came to tell me that they had lost him (on the table). And they could not tell me why, but the surgeon then told me that he would talk to his father, and then he would let me know, 'cause his father was also a doctor back east somewhere. He never let me know. But what was so cruel, I thought, was when we left the hospital, they stopped us at the accounting (desk), and since we had lost our son, they wanted full payment. I thought that was really cruel, and my husband was so upset. Of course we paid, but he said if that person who was at the accounting office wasn't a woman, he would have slugged 'em. She (also) had only one arm (...). But anyway, it was just hard to take, when (...) you've just lost (your baby son), to hear that. And I thought, "Wow, they can't even wait." And of course the (hospital) charts were closed (to us). Years later, it was opened, and that was when (we found out that our son, Jon, died from a surgical error).

(What hurt us more) was when (we) tried to bury (Jon) at "Babyland," this was after (World War II), they refused (him) because he was Japanese. (We) couldn't bury him there. And I told them at Washelli (this) last Memorial Day, I told Steve Hopkins, "You know what happened here (at Washelli in 1956, and) why we have the grave? Because," I said, "we couldn't bury him in Babyland, so we had to buy a plot. (On a granite stone), it's a flat one, but I (had engraved) "Beloved Gift of God" and I drew a picture of a little boy (...) angel, you could still see (he's still) there. It was, again, a racial thing. And it's terrible when you're already in grief and then you're told (it was a) surgical error (...) in the paper later (...). And then to go out there in your grief and then you're told that you can't bury him in Babyland. (...) You're short enough on cash but you've (had) to buy a plot. (...) But I was (...) grateful that I could (...) write something on the stone. (...) John's grave is (still) out there.

TI: I'm sort of stymied for, in terms of how you were, how you got through this, this time period.

SA: Well, I don't think I got over it for a long time, but you know, I had Brian, (your older brother) Danny's friend (to look after). And of course, my mother's after me (to get out of the) nursing profession. So I started taking education courses, I had my (B.S. already in nursing so) I was able to move a lot of the 300 subjects, as you probably know, into (my requirements for education) which was great (and) they must have been short on teachers, too, because (even if I was) eighteen credits shy, (they let me) into the classroom. (...) My cadetting supervisor and (the teacher) I was cadetting under in Seattle Schools (...) didn't get along to the point that (the cadet supervisor) yanked me out of Wedgewood school and put me (into a teaching job. She) asked me where I wanted to go. And I wasn't even through (...) with methods (in) reading, (but she said), "That's all right," she says, "I'm getting you out." And since it was mid-term, I couldn't go into another school to take cadetting again. She told me, "You're ready for teaching," and I said, "I am?" And she said, "Well, you've been teaching," the three times (she had come), she said, "I've seen enough, you can teach." (...) So I said, "Seattle." So I came into the Seattle school system on an emergency certificate which was okayed for K-12, and it was signed by Mr. Chichester, (the superintendent of the Seattle Schools).

TI: And this was about what year?

SA: (1959-60), something like that. So I spent more time in education than I did in nursing. And then (to top that), they moved me (in) two years (to) a reading specialist (position). (And I ended up at the school library in) Montlake. So I had to go get my master's (in library science). Well, I didn't have to, but I (didn't) know how to run a library, (and since) I'm teaching remedial reading, (too). (...) I went after hours to get my master's in librarianship. (...) At least when I (entered into) education, I (had the same hours as) my son (and) that was what I was trying to get, the summers off. Nothing idealistic. I hate to say that, but I do love children, it helped. (I loved teaching)

TI: And so you had three sons, you had Brian, Jon, who died...

SA: Yeah, died, Jon.

TI: And then your third son's name?

SA: It's Richard.

TI: Is Richard. And I never asked, but how did you meet your husband?

SA: Oh, he was recruited by Boeing, believe it or not, in 1949 he came (to Seattle). He finished at (the) University of Michigan, he also has two degrees, but they're both bachelors, one from Albion College in liberal arts, that's where he went from the (internment) camp. He was in Amache, and he went on his own money, which is amazing, but finished up with the GI Bill (at the) University of Michigan in (electrical) engineering. Boeing came out to recruit, and so he came to Seattle. And of course, the only person he knew was the Japanese minister at our church, and he lived at the manse with him. (So) since it was (also my) church and I'm there, (we met).

TI: Okay, so you met through church.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.