Densho Digital Archive
Twin Cities JACL Collection
Title: Helen Tanigawa Tsuchiya Interview
Narrator: Helen Tanigawa Tsuchiya
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Bloomington, Minnesota
Date: June 16, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-thelen-01-0018

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MA: And so what type of work did you find after the war and after moving to Minneapolis?

HT: Well, when I first came here, I didn't know what to do. I was trying to find a secretarial service. And then I went to the, I thought to myself, "I wonder if there's a civil service or something?" There wasn't any. So I went to the University Hospital and then I went to apply for a job and they gave it to me right away. And then work in the stenographic office. And I transcribed all dictation and they had it on a tape, on cylinder tape. I don't think you've seen it. And then it would fall and break. It was just terrible. That's where I met my doctor. He was sort of like an intern there. So I've known him for many, many years.

MA: And this is the doctor you ended up working for so many years.

HT: So many years. What he did was he would come in and he'd say, "Helen, would you do this for me?" And I'd say, "Okay." So I never took a lunch hour while I worked at the U. I would work, finish his work and then do it, and then I don't think he ever knew that. And then he'd bring, started to bring more work at my house. He used to work at Mt. Sinai and that's where all the Jewish doctors worked. And then I lived, my home was close to Mt. Sinai, so he would stop by, drop my work off, then come by and pick my work up. That was second. That's when I first, I quit my job when Frank, my Frank was born, 'cause my husband said, "You can't, I don't want you to work. Watch the baby." So when we first, we moved out of that house and came to St. Louis Park and I talked to all my doctors that I were before because they were all interns and when they get a job. So I worked for Dr. Lannin who is, who was the, the sports of University Hospital. He was orthopedic surgeon. And then the pediatrics, and then Dr. Shapiro and there's a whole bunch of others that... I didn't earn much, I was just charging a dollar an hour or whatever just to get it started. They said, "Wow, you got a business." I said, "Yes, I know, but I didn't earn that much." But it was just I was able to save with my -- although my mother-in-law stayed with us. I took care of her for fifty years. Everybody thought it was my mother. "How can you take care of your mother-in-law?" I said, "Are you kidding? We got along real well." There are some times something happened when you just don't say much, didn't say anything. We really got along real well.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.