<Begin Segment 11>

VY: Okay, so let's talk about after the war and your time in the '60s. What kind of work did you do in the '60s?

MK: That was the year I was going back and forth from Seattle to L.A. And then, let's see, I spoke about the Issei History Project, having worked there for about a year. And then the second time I went down, I worked in the engineering department, and my boss, who was a young Mr. Ron McClain, I remember. I just found his name card the other day. And it was, at that point, when I was also involved in Japanese culture, so I met some people. And a Professor Noboru Inamoto from USC was going to take some twenty members of his class to Japan on a two-week tour. So he invited me to come along if I would like, and I told him that if I were going as far as Japan -- I always wanted to go -- but I wanted to live there and experience life there, and not come back in two weeks. And so he understood, and he said, "Oh, talk to so-and-so, she's a medical technician," a Japanese American woman who was coming back from Hiroshima, she did her stint there. And to talk to her, and I was able to meet her. And she told me, by coincidence, the American secretary was not feeling too well, so she was coming back, resigning from her secretarial position. And so then I talked to a Dr. Magden, I think his name was, at UCLA, who oversaw the whole U.S. program going to Hiroshima, sending his doctors and other personnel. So I talked to him, and put in my application. And this was under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, who paid all my way and everything. But in the meantime, my boss at the nuclear engineering department said, "Oh, you'll never get a chance like this. Go." And he almost encouraged me, in fact. So then I got word from the National Academy of Science, "Get ready in four months." And so I was able to do that and be on my way. And that was in 1960.

VY: And what was the name of the organization that you went with?

MK: In Hiroshima? Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

VY: Okay.

MK: And at that time, they had a co-joint Japanese research and American research, working together on the casualties, the victims of the a-bomb.

VY: So what were they doing exactly? Were they studying the...

MK: The people who were radiated.

VY: And were they trying to treat them, or was it more just gathering information?

MK: I believe there was some kind of treatment going on at the same time. There were other Japanese and American medical staff members who looked at the patients, checked in on the patients. And we had a fleet of those dark green Ford station wagons, which would go to the homes to pick up these patients. But the patients were very wary, because even they were discriminated against by their own neighbors for some reason. I guess they heard about the radiation sickness as they called it, and they didn't want to be a part of that.

VY: Do you think people were afraid of the radiation, they could be affected by the radiation or something?

MK: That might be part of it. And, of course, you know how marriage is so important in Japan? That no one would marry anyone who was affected by the radiation. And so the people who were the patient would tell the drivers to, "Please stay on the outskirts, and we will come to you," to get into the car. Because the neighbors would be aware of them coming.

VY: So do you think these folks were keeping it a secret, or do you think the neighbors actually knew, but the patients just didn't want to remind people that they were going through this?

MK: I think that's it, they didn't want to remind the neighbors of it.

VY: How often did they do that, these green station wagons that went and picked people up?

MK: I don't recall how often that was. I was mainly in the office, so I was not a part of that.

VY: And what kind of work did you do in the office?

MK: I took phone calls. When the American doctors needed anything, I guess I tried to help them out in some way. But my Japanese was not that strong, so Dr. Yamamoto, who was a chief on the Japanese research side, would help me out, because he was able to speak some English.

VY: So he would kind of translate for you?

MK: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.