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SY: And that was, can you tell us a little bit about Japanese Hospital?

CI: It was run by the Japanese doctors. And very well thought of, I think, among the medical community. And they started because they weren't given privileges in some of the other hospitals, so they started their own hospital.

SY: And that was back before the war?

CI: Oh, yeah, way before the war.

SY: Way before the war. And during the war, do you know what happened to it?

CI: No, I don't. There's a book out, though, you know, there's a book.

SY: And when you worked at the Japanese hospital, when was that?

CI: Had to be in the late '40s before I went into training. I went into training in 1947 and so it was before then, couple of years before that that I worked as a nurse's aide.

SY: And how long did you do that?

CI: About a year or two.

SY: So quite some time. So you got to know the hospital pretty well, the Japanese hospital.

CI: Well, pretty well. But you don't learn too much as a nurse's aide. [Laughs]

SY: Can you say where exactly it was?

CI: It's on First and Fickett.

SY: So it's right in Boyle Heights area.

CI: Uh-huh. I think the facility is still there but it's not Japanese Hospital any longer.

SY: And all Japanese patients, by the time you were there?

CI: Mostly. Mostly Japanese patients.

SY: And doctors and nurses?

CI: And doctors, yes. There were a couple of, I think there was one or two Hispanic nurses who had trained at County, knew the community. I can remember one RN that was a Mexican, Hispanic.

SY: And when you worked there, it was just on the side while you were going to school? It was kind of like...

CI: No, it was only two weeks during our vacation, because we were given two weeks off every year. That was supposed to be our holiday and so we were supposed to rest. But then we wanted money, so Kazzie, my roommate and I, she worked there as a nurse's aide also. And then we asked to be roommates in training. And so we would work there during our two weeks off.

SY: And so all this time that you were going to school, how were you making money other than working part time doing these little...

CI: Well, we weren't making money.

SY: So how did you support yourself?

CI: Well, they gave us twenty dollars a month stipend, but you were there as a student and you were there. I mean, 24/7. Nobody... I mean, when they found... they didn't find out that we worked the two weeks because we weren't supposed to even do that. But one time, this teacher that I used to go to County with, the teacher that taught anatomy, she called the Director of Nurses and said, "May I speak to Miss Ozawa?" Me. "And what is the nature of your call?" She said, "Well, I would like her to babysit my little girl." My teacher wanted me to babysit. She said, "Well, she can't do that." Said, "No, you can't speak to her." So she wouldn't let me speak to her. And Dr. Memmler told me later, she said, "Well, I wanted you to babysit but they wouldn't let me speak to you." So we weren't allowed to -- and you wouldn't have a chance to work. We were there going to school and doing the practical part, so nursing.

SY: So they were very strict then.

CI: Oh, yes. You can imagine the attrition rate. We started at 150 of us and we only graduated fifty.

SY: Wow. And you were... what were your parents doing when you were going through...

CI: Well, they were just doing...

SY: And you were sort of on your own now then?

CI: Oh, yeah. Well, you were there, they took care of us and fed us. Any of the student nurses, we had our own cafeteria, and we had our own doctor. We had the student nurse's doctor. There were two of them that took care of us.

SY: Wow, so it's almost like you were going to a four-year university with all the things that they did for... I mean, it sounds like it was difficult.

CI: Well, yeah. There weren't that many four-year schools at that time. But then there was... I'm not sure how they came around to it, but they wanted to make it so that the nurses all had degrees. At that time, if you had an AA degree which I did, you were very fortunate. And then later on, now, all the programs are collegiate programs. Either you get an AA or you get a BSN, Baccalaureate in Nursing.

SY: So when you graduated from that program, I assume you felt... did they place you into your position or how did you...

CI: No. But if you graduated from... and at that time, any nurse that graduated from a nursing school, hospital nursing program, they were all pretty much uniform. So you could go to any hospital in the United States and the standards were almost identical to the nursing school that you went to. So you could get a job anyplace. It was almost like that. It's not like that any longer, but at that time you could go to anyplace.

SY: And so where did you end up going?

CI: I stayed at County, worked in the operating room there.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.