<Begin Segment 10>

RP: So you first worked at, in a library at Manzanar?

SK: I worked in the library, yeah.

RP: Did you --

SK: Cataloging, that wasn't my type of, cup of tea. And typewriter, I'm not very good at that, but all that. No, I said, "This isn't for me." And finally they asked me, 'cause I would help the, I don't know, somehow, in Burbank there's a Dr. Thompson and Dr. Leggett and Dr., the other doctor there, and I said, "Gee, being a lab, working in a lab should be nice." So I went up there, and they says, and then that's, well, with little experience -- I didn't have much experience; all I knew is what I learned in the school, see -- and then, so anyway, this one fellow, he taught me what to do. He's the one that showed me. I even forgot his name, but he's the one that started me on this, and that I enjoyed.

RP: What did you do?

SK: Well, in the lab, under the microscope, in those days everything was under microscope, see. And then there was, one time there was a bunch of these soldiers, and they had, we had to take their Wassermanns, their, for VD and all that. Then under the microscope we had to test, see if there's any VD and all that, and we did all that. All that, the microscopic things, and I used to get, take care of patients, put the tourniquet on and take the blood out and see if they're, some had tuberculosis. One had this terrible disease... what do you call it? That young fellow died in a couple days, though. He had this most horrible high fever. Meningitis, spinal meningitis, and that's really contagious, you know. Yeah, I felt so sorry. He was banging his head against the headboard there, all bloody back there. And poor thing, had to take his blood. Somehow I was very good. I'm not sick, but in taking the blood, I never gave a hematoma. Some of the blood veins are down so deep you can't, but you put the tourniquet on and feel it, you can tell where the vein is, and I used to, I was pretty, I shouldn't say that, but I was pretty good at that. And in the middle of the night they used to, with the ambulance, rickety old ambulance, they used to pick me up. That was one of these things that I had, it was an emergency, so okay. And then a couple time, three times I think, it was an emergency and just happened I had the blood that, to help this patient, so I gave blood three times over there. After that, they gave me a strong, come to think of it, it was like Johnny Walker whiskey, and a big steak for me to eat after that. [Laughs]

KP: That was in Burbank?

SK: I was up in Manzanar, in the hospital.

RP: Whiskey and steak, huh?

SK: Pardon?

RP: A steak and whiskey.

SK: Yeah, nice steak, gave me a shot of whiskey.

RP: I could get used to that.

SK: Yeah. [Laughs]

[Interruption]

RP: This is tape two of a continuing interview with Sumi Kozawa, and Sumi, we were just talking about your, some of your experiences at the hospital. It sounds like you got some training, but you learned on the job.

SK: Yes. It was very interesting. I had a good teacher there too. You know, I've forgotten his name. Then there was a Japanese fellow, he was also a lab tech and he helped me a lot too.

RP: Now, did you have much contact with some of the doctors at the hospital?

SK: You mean...

RP: Like Dr. Goto or Dr. Little?

SK: No, not especially. No. When you say contact, I don't know. No.

RP: Did you have conversations with them?

SK: Well, not too much. Yeah, I was really busy, busy doing my work, see.

RP: Were there other, how many lab techs do you remember there being?

SK: There was only three.

RP: Three of you.

SK: Three, yeah.

RP: Who were the other two folks? Do you know?

SK: Well, there's a fellow and then another, she did most of the cleaning and all that, and she was learning too. That was the only three of us. Then the big boss, he was awfully nice. He, I forgot his name. And then later on we had two other women technicians that came. One was, she was from the army. Boy, she was a big woman, real stern, but she was a nice person, though, nice person.

RP: Was she the head of the nurses?

SK: No, she was, no, not the nurses. The head of the nurses was Nurse Akita.

RP: Akita.

SK: Yeah, she was one of the head nurses here at St. Lebanon, when it was right here on Sunset Boulevard. Yeah, she was a Japanese nurse, and boy, she was strict, but she was a good nurse, real fine. She's the one that took care of all that autoclaving and all that. And then at first we were doing all the raw, live sputum, tuberculosis and all that, under the microscope, and later on it had to be autoclaved to kill the bugs, then we could do it. But before that we were doing all the live thing under that microscope.

RP: Really? Can you explain the process of autoclaving?

SK: That's the, autoclaving was sterilizing, to kill the bugs. I mean, see, they had to do all that, I think, what was it, not the material but when they used surgery and all that, they had to... what'd they call that? Sanitize all that, the gowns and all, before the doctors could do it. They call it autoclave. That's... so after they were finished doing all their cleaning and all that, they'll... there's a word for that. Anyway, and it was okay to do all the sputums and all that. Yeah, kill the bugs. Before we were doing the, under the microscope we were playing with the real live ones. The live ones, they're all wiggling around, you know?

<End Segment 10> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.