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MR: So you started Lewis and Clark in what year?

JT: 1949.

MR: Can you talk about your college experience?

JT: Well, it was a prolonged one because I played baseball at Lewis and Clark one year. But in 1950, '51, I came down with pulmonary tuberculosis, so I had to drop out completely, was in the University of Oregon Tuberculosis Hospital at that time, and that took several years. And the treatment for tuberculosis at the time was just rest. They had some medications but not like they do now. In fact, they closed down those hospitals. But it took me several years to graduate because when I did go back, I couldn't take a full load. So I received my degree of bachelor of arts in biology in 1956.

MR: Did you live at the hospital?

JT: No. This was after I was released. After I was released, I still had to stay at home, couldn't go out for quite some time, and this is why it took so long to receive my degree from Lewis and Clark before attending medical school.

MR: When you went to the hospital, how long did you stay?

JT: I think close to a couple years.

MR: What did your parents do while you were there? What was your family life like with you living in the hospital?

JT: Well, it wasn't difficult for them to visit me because they lived in Portland too. I believe it was at, during the time that they had the laundry. And when they could come, boy, they would come to visit.

MR: So as a young man, you were living in this hospital and probably wondering what your future was, what were you thinking?

JT: Well, I did meet several friends in the hospital as they were patients as well, and there were some younger patients like myself. But it was there that I was convinced that I wanted to become a doctor. It also so happened that while a patient there, they allowed my appendix to rupture, and that was bad. I thought I was going to die from that. But it was all that together that made, that convinced me that I wanted to be, become a doctor.

MR: Was there anybody in particular, a doctor, a medical person, that inspired you?

JT: No one in particular. The only doctors that we saw were resident physicians and, of course, the staff physicians, but that was enough to convince me.

MR: After you left the hospital, where did you go?

JT: To our home. We had purchased another home on Southeast 53rd Avenue at the time and was confined to that home for a period of time. During that time, there was nothing to do. I was like a tiger.

MR: How did you spend your time?

JT: Reading, playing solitare, watching television, that was about all.

MR: When you went back to Lewis and Clark, did you retain your financial aid? You've been out of school so long.

JT: Yes, I did, because when I came down with tuberculosis, they had a program that the State would allow me to attend college, and they would pay for that. Or an alternative was if I wanted to go to medical school, they would take care of that. I chose the medical school.

MR: When did you graduate from Lewis and Clark?

JT: I received my degree in 1956.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.