<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So let's talk a little bit about your father's business. So he was, so every day he would, did he have a car? He would drive up to Little Tokyo, to his office?

FK: Well, his routine was mornings, he would open the office, which was... the building's still here on Gardena Boulevard, 749 Gardena Boulevard. And he would have office hours in Gardena. There were three or four rooms there, set up for an office. And he would see patients in the morning without appointments, they would just come in, take them in sequence. And then my father had these young doctors working with him, one of 'em was Norman Kobayashi, and others lived with us. They were mostly, at that time, they were bachelors. Sometimes, along the way, people would find them a bride. But they would all break for lunch, my mother and our housekeeper would feed them lunch. And then they would change to their street clothes and all get into my dad's car, which was usually a four-door something or another, and they would drive into L.A. This is before, pre-freeways, and they would drive all the way up to Avalon or San Pedro Street, all the way up to Slauson, into Soto Street, to Boyle Heights and the Japanese hospital was there. And then from there, they would make hospital rounds, and then after the rounds, they would go into Little Tokyo and open up the office there and then see the patients there, and then reverse the procedure and come home.

TI: And about what time would he be finished? When he came home, about what time would that be?

FK: Well, they had no appointments. So when the last patient was seen, then they would close up and come home. Or, sometimes, they might have home calls to make, so they would have lists of people they had to drop in to see. And that was a typical day.

TI: So it sounds like a long, a long day for your father.

FK: Oh, yeah, it was. But they thrived on it, or so it seemed.

TI: Would he be home in time for dinner, or would he always come later?

FK: No, Mother would hold the dinner for him. So most of us kids would eat ahead of time, because we had homework to do.

TI: Now, when your father did all this, were you ever able to go with him or observe him while he worked, either at the hospital or in Little Tokyo or the Gardena office?

FK: Oh, sometimes we'd peek in, but usually not. Because it was grown-ups talking, we'd just get in the way.

TI: Now, I'm curious, it seems almost a little inefficient. I mean, it's these three different places, and I'm wondering, why weren't there other, like, Japanese doctors who took care of Little Tokyo and stayed there, and your dad had, perhaps this area, and then someone at the hospital? It seemed like your dad had to cover such a large territory. Do you know why that was the case?

FK: That's a good question. I don't have the answer.

TI: Because it seemed like he had this group of doctors that did a lot, but they went together.

FK: They did.

TI: And I was curious why they did that rather than having just a few just stay in Little Tokyo the whole day or something like that.

FK: I don't know. I wish someone was around to give the answers.

TI: Well, were there other Japanese doctors in Little Tokyo?

FK: Oh, yeah. There were a number, I'm sure. I don't know where you would look up such a reference. Are there any books left in J-town?

MN: They would probably be in Japanese.

FK: Oh. Well, no, because the doctors who worked for my father, were with him, they were Niseis.

MN: They were?

FK: Yeah. Back in 1930, one of the older Niseis was Dr. Lee Watanabe, he was from San Jose. And he was a graduate of Stanford, I think. And then...

TI: You mentioned Norm Kobayashi.

FK: Yeah, he was from Cal. And later on, there was Howard Suenaga, I think he was from Cal also, I'm not positive.

TI: So where did these doctors go after they worked with your father for a while? Did they then establish their own practice someplace else?

FK: Lot of 'em did. But I guess, I'm not positive, now, I'm sure you could research this yourself. But back then, even though you graduated medical school, lot of hospitals would not take you on as an intern. And even if you were hired as an intern, they paid, like, fifty dollars a month. I used to hear these numbers and they'd be yucking it up, you know. "Who could get along?" They were at the bottom of the totem pole. And if you're a "Jap," that's the least amount of chance you had. But because I think a lot of these Nisei doctors graduated maybe in the top so many percentage, but they didn't have a chance of being hired or brought on board.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.