<Begin Segment 8>

TI: And how would you describe the relationship with your, with these young Nisei doctors and your father? What kind of relationship did they have?

FK: As far as I know, it was quite open. There was a lot of conversation constantly. And my dad used to be very scholarly and bookish, and he subscribed to all the AMA and all those different journals. And he had piles of books and magazines that would come weekly, monthly, and he'd put out an article and say, "Read this. It's about such and such certain event, and a certain technique, and you've got to keep up with the latest." And I remember right before the war started, Dad together with Norm Kobayashi came up with something, it had something to do with sulfa drugs for wounds or surgery or something. And, well, there was another doctor, George Kawaichi, his son (became) a Supreme Court judge or something up in the Bay Area, Kawachi or Kawaichi (postwar).

TI: Kawachi.

FK: Yeah. And his wife was Margaret Kawaichi, she was Nisei Week queen way back in year one. [Laughs] But together with, I think, George and Norm and my dad, they wrote up this paper and sent it to AMA and had it published. And that was like getting the Nobel Prize. There was so much commotion, I remember, 'cause Dad had that thing reprinted and mailed it out to everybody he could think of. Because for a Japanese to get printed in the AMA was the height.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. And was this about that sulfa drugs?

FK: Uh-huh.

TI: And by any chance do you know about what year, was this like you said, '40, '41?

FK: Right before the war broke.

TI: Interesting. I may look for that.

FK: Yeah, because up until then, they didn't get any notoriety. After that, things happened, but then the war came.

TI: Did you ever hear them talk about, your father talk about the differences in training from his Japan training in med school versus, say, a Stanford and Cal training in med. school?

FK: I knew nothing about that. I couldn't even guess.

TI: Yeah, it would be interesting just to hear them talk about maybe the differences.

FK: Oh, absolutely.

TI: And what, perhaps, the American doctors learned from your father, perhaps what your father learned from them, just the differences.

FK: Oh, yeah. 'Cause unless you were up with the latest whatever, you didn't think a person was worth anything.

TI: That was your father? So your father had very high standards.

FK: Oh, yeah. And he'd always, if he had a Post-it or underlining, or what do you call these things, he would send all these articles to everyone he could think of. You had to keep ahead of the crowd.

TI: And did your father specialize in something? Like were there certain types of illnesses or cases that, in particular, they called your father in to help? Like maybe other doctors said, "We need help," and they called your father?

FK: They might have, but I wasn't aware of it. But I do remember once, before the war started, we went to Union Station down here in L.A. to see him off on a trip to San Jose with his surgery nurse. And they went on the overnight train to San Jose, and she took with her a certain set of surgery tools that she was supposed to hand-carry, and she was responsible for. And she told me about that a few years ago before she died, and I said, "I remember taking you down to the Union Station and wondering, 'How come you're going off with my daddy?'" you know. [Laughs]

TI: So there was something that he was really good at, that someone from San Jose requested that he come all the way up there.

FK: That's right, yeah.

TI: And it sounded like surgery tools, so he did surgery.

FK: Yes.

TI: He was a, performed surgery.

FK: I didn't know what was going on, but just bits and pieces, your ears are up all the time, you know.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.