<Begin Segment 31>

DG: Let's talk a little bit more about your husband developing his practice.

NS: Well, up until his, opening his office -- I think it was almost ten years before a new doctor came to Seattle and so the climate was ready for him to open a practice. He had a pretty good practice until the war; and then, of course, the war kind of interrupted a bit, but then he resumed again when he came back. And, of course, that was one of the things he liked to do and the only thing he wanted to do and so he did that until he retired. He was eighty when he retired and...

DG: Well, right after the war in the early '50s he was one of the only Japanese doctors, wasn't he?

NS: No. There were -- there was Dr. Shigaya and there were a couple of Japanese doctors, Dr. Kato and Dr. -- I don't know whether Dr. Koike was still living. Anyways, those were the only doctors here in Seattle, the Japanese doctors.

DG: And was his clientele mostly Japanese?

NS: I think there was an osteopath in there too. I forgot what his name was. Yes, most of them were Japanese. Uh-huh.

DG: Now, there's a interesting side light. He went to school with a couple of prominent people. Who were they?

NS: He went to school in the same class with Wallace Graham. You mean, Wallace Graham? And he became President Truman's physician, and so it was interesting. One year we went to Washington D.C. and saw the White House and then also Wallace. He was here in Seattle, to visit the governor here, so we met him then.

DG: Well -- and he also went to school with the governor.

NS: And he also went to school with Governor Rossellini, so we were invited to the Governor's mansion for a dinner. I don't know whether that was for Truman or whether it was for somebody else, but, anyways they were friendly. Governor Rossellini's brother was a fellow intern with -- he was a doctor and fellow intern with Paul, too, so they were good friends.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.