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TI: So let's, so you mentioned 1936 is when you graduated from high school, so let's talk about what you did after high school.

ES: I went into nurses' training.

TI: And why nurses' training? What made you decide nurses' training?

ES: Well, I think the thing that was kind of, it was a kind of a glamorous thing. I think when I had my tonsils out and I saw these nurses, white uniform and a cap and everything, and I thought, gee, that would be fun to be. I thought about that, and that's the first thing that came to my mind, is how can you do that. And they were treating, I was treated so well, and we were only there, I think, overnight and they came around and asked us what we wanted and got everything, and they were -- my sister and I, we both had our tonsils out -- and I thought how neat, these people. And we had a good doctor too and I liked the doctor, and I still remember his name. His name is Prime. And he is, I think, our family doctor. I don't think we ever had specialists at that time. So it was in this Salem General Hospital, and ever since then -- I think I was only about ten or twelve when I had my tonsils out -- I could think of nothing else but just to be a nurse. [Laughs]

TI: Now, did anyone, when you were making this choice, did anyone ever talk to you about, well, it'd be hard as a Japanese American to be a nurse? Did you ever have a conversation with anyone?

ES: There was a lot of prejudice. But we... I think, my best, my father's very good friend lived in Portland and I think my father talked to him about what I wanted to do, and Mr. Ito, he thought, well, that's a good idea. And his son was going into medicine, Bill Ito, and he was my, I think he was two years older than my brother.

TI: So he was going in, to become a doctor? Is that --

ES: Yes.

TI: Okay.

ES: In medical school. And we knew them very well as a family friend in Portland, and so he said that it was hard for nurses to get into, go into nursing. So then he knew this one surgeon who worked in the hospital, at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, and talked to him about it, and Dr. Kanto says, "There's no reason why a Japanese can't go into nurses' training here." And it was, they said -- and I think that was about, it was in the middle of summer and we didn't hear from them for a while -- and finally the application form came from the hospital. So then right away I applied and got in.

TI: Got into the training or the job with the hospital?

ES: No, to be a nurse student.

TI: A nurse student, okay.

ES: And that was, I think there were two other nurses in the Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland.

TI: That were Japanese American?

ES: Japanese Americans, ahead of me. And I didn't know that, but so then one of --

TI: But at Emanuel you were like a pioneer in terms of a Japanese American being a nurse.

ES: Yes, we were the first Japanese. And so I thought, well, it would be nice to have another Japanese go with me, so I went with Takako Ohashi. She wanted to be a nurse too and she happened to be a daughter of my father's friend, and so it worked out real well. So they put us in the same nurses' home as a roommate. Well, we didn't get along too well. And she was a, had a home life that was quite different than ours, from a small farm in Gresham, and I don't know what happened but we just didn't think right, we didn't do things the way I wanted to do and she didn't, she had some different ways of doing things, so I finally decided after three months of living with her that I would have to change my roommate. And that worked out okay, because she could get along with somebody else better than we, we two.

TI: So who was your new roommate? Was it a Japanese?

ES: No. So we, she went with another girl that got a roommate, and I went with another one, another girl. We just didn't think the same way 'cause she was from a small group of people and never went out very much, and I used to think that we just didn't fit. And she'd bring things from home from her parents and she never shared with me, and I always thought, wanted to share my things with her. And she didn't want to share it, so she'd be eating her food in the middle of the night so she doesn't have to share with me. I could smell her orange that she's peeling. I can still remember those things. [Laughs] But then after a while, after we graduated, well then we went on our own way, and she got married and I got married and everything was okay.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.