Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Nobu Suzuki Interview I
Narrator: Nobu Suzuki
Interviewer: Dee Goto
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: June 3, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-snobu-01-0019

<Begin Segment 19>

DG: So you had gotten married in '35?

NS: In '35.

DG: And then...

NS: And then '35 to '36. '36 is when he was graduated. But I couldn't stay for graduation because my father died the first of May. My mother sent for me to come home, and so I missed his graduation and came home. And my father had had a heart attack and died, so I came home at that time. But, in the meantime, I don't know whether it was March or thereabouts when, of course, applications were out for internships right after medical school. He had gotten a rejection from King County, which we were counting on to come back. So we called Dr. Swift right away.

DG: Now, who was Dr. Swift?

NS: Dr. Swift was the doctor that I worked for when I was in high school. He was a brain surgeon and quite well-known in Seattle area. But during my junior and senior years in high school, I think my mother felt that I should know something about American households. Therefore, she thought it would be good for me to work as a house girl -- a schoolgirl they used to call them in those days -- and be in a white household. And so I was there and going to Garfield at the same time. Dr. Swift was the one that we had counted on to get his internship. So we called him and he got busy and reversed the decision and he did get his internship at Harborview. So he came back and started, I guess it was July 1st when they start their internship. It was a two-year internship, so he was there from '36 to '38. And then when he was ready for finishing, we got an office in the Jackson Hotel Building. He had two rooms which he used as an office. His practice was slow, but then it was building.

DG: Were there other Japanese doctors in town?

NS: Yes, there were. Dr. Shigaya was the last new physician here. Otherwise, there were a couple of doctors who had had their training in Japan and who had offices in Seattle. So the only doctor with United States medical school was Dr. Shigaya, until Paul came into the picture. And he was -- in order to augment his income, he worked in the emergency department working nights at Harborview. That was his position in '41 when war was declared. At that time I wasn't well myself. I had a bout of pleurisy and I was taking it easy and being in bed, but I called him. Then not long after the declaration of war, why, he had to quit.

DG: So did you expect the war to come?

NS: Huh?

DG: Were you surprised?

NS: I was surprised.

DG: What did you think about the war?

NS: Well, I had no thoughts of...

DG: Were you worried for being Japanese?

NS: No, I wasn't worried for being Japanese. I just was worried of what was going to happen with us. Of course, being in the social work field, I knew that something was going to happen, and it certainly did because most people lost their jobs; just because they were Japanese, they were laid off. And so I immediately went to, I think I went to the Family Service first, which was a private agency and asked them what kind of help that they could give to families who were large and had no means of support, excepting for the fathers who had been laid off. And they had limited finances, but they helped a little bit. Then, of course, it got worse.

DG: So what about your husband's job?

NS: My husband, I think he quit or he was laid off at Pearl Harbor time.

DG: From the King County emergency?

NS: From the emergency. So he was home.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.