<Begin Segment 22>

MN: Now, your first full-time job out of college was with the Louisiana State Department of Health. Were you the only Asian American woman working there?

AS: (Yes).

MN: What was that like?

AS: I loved it; I really did. Because I had my internship at a public health (hospital, federal), and then I had connections, but then I went to, I went to the State Board of Health, and in those days, you know, were very, financially not well-off at all. And so I just got the first job that paid the most of all the offers that I had. There were other jobs in hospitals. I went to the public health, state. And in the state of Louisiana, (two) public health (lab) is in New Orleans, whereas in California it's in Berkeley. So I was very fortunate in that respect, and I was able to work there, worked in the microbiology department which I loved to this day. And I worked in parasitology, helped them out there. And then we had to rotate on weekends, so we'd have to work on weekends. I even ended up making my own media, so I'd have to bleed sheep. And so we had a sheep pen on the roof. Public Health was right in the city, right next to city hall, and it just so happened we had sheep pens upstairs on the roof. I was scared to death of them, but then these little black boys were so cute and they would run after the sheep and grab 'em and then I'd just put this huge needle in the jugular vein and I'd get blood out of sheep. That had to be done on weekends because we had to rotate (the) shift. And I worked with little baby rats. I hated rats, but I had to work with them for rabies. I had to knock 'em out with ether, and then inject the brain. This is what we did, but I loved the work.

MN: So you're working with all these kind of microscopic organisms. Did you ever get infected at work?

SA: Oh, yes. (...) One day I became seriously ill, and the doctor I went to, 'cause you know, he was sure he knew what I had, but I knew it had to be something else, and definitely told my boss on the phone, "I can't go to work and I think I have it." So I collected my specimen, my mother took it to the lab, and sure enough, I not only had one, but I had a mixed infection of two organisms. One was a Salmonella and another was a Shigella, which, you know, you hear food poisoning due to salmonella? I had one of those bugs, a bad bug. And it was because I was trying to make a vaccine at that time, the antisera, and I guess I was careless. So I'll never forget that, and it can be devastating. But I managed to get well. In those days, recuperated, so... but that was the only incident I had.

MN: You also discovered a new strain.

SA: Oh, that's... I was very excited, but I was sure, this is sort of strange, I better check it again. And I took... it takes, in those days, organism takes twenty-four hours to grow, to incubate, so I had to waste another twenty-four hours but I had to confirm it again, and that was confirmed, so we sent it in and I missed it by twenty-four hours. And another New York state (lab), they got the same organism. It just so happened, it must have been the season. And they named it after their Public Health doctor. So they said I almost missed having a bug named after me. That was an exciting event.

MN: Now, within a year that you worked here, you were promoted to supervisor. Did anybody have a problem, like, working for a Japanese American?

SA: (...) There's no discrimination in the South as far as Asians. They were very good to me; I loved it there. I wish I could have stayed there longer.

MN: Let me change the subject on you right now and ask about your dating life. Did you date a lot of people that came to visit your home?

SA: Oh, I wouldn't say a lot, but I did.

MN: I guess nothing serious happened.

SA: Nothing serious, but I think most of them were from Japan, so very interesting, and I really was able to rub soldiers with the nightlife, the fine things. Benefits, parties, operas, the works. I really enjoyed myself in that respect.

MN: And, of course, Camp Shelby in Mississippi is fairly close to New Orleans.

SA: Biloxi.

MN: Did you have a lot of Nisei soldiers who'd come visit?

SA: They came in and out.

MN: But you never dated any of those soldiers?

SA: Oh, couple of Air Force people. That's as far as it went.

MN: Did you ever think about, like, dating outside of your race?

SA: Never. No... that thought never occurred to me, probably because I had so much contact with the Japanese nationals.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.