Densho Digital Archive - Gus Tanaka Interview (denshovh-tgus-01-0010)

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LT: So you and Teddy and your three children, Maja, John, and Susie, joined your father and mother in Ontario. You live with them, and you also opened the Tanaka Clinic on January 2, 1959?

GT: Is that it? Yeah.

LT: So how did being Japanese affect your professional practice here in Ontario, Oregon?

GT: You know, it's hard to say. But I felt that I was seeing significantly fewer Japanese patients than I originally expected. But I was so busy with my practice, it really didn't matter. And my associations were more with the Caucasians, probably because that's the way I grew up back east. I had developed virtually no significant new friends of Japanese origin when I was back east. As a matter of fact, you would think that I was Jewish by choice.

LT: And then for your father to return from the Santa Fe detention camp and find that other doctors in Portland, and even the two hospitals where he had privileges before were not accepting, which prompted his desire to come to Ontario, did he feel that he had a thriving practice here, being a Japanese American in Ontario?

GT: I don't think he was all that busy, but he was busy enough. And a matter of fact, a lot of his patients he was seeing here in Ontario, he took care of before the war in the Portland area. And as he got older, he realized that he was starting to fail professionally, so he wouldn't hesitate asking Dr. Jim Elanagan, who was one of our associates on our team, or myself, to see the patient in consultation. And oftentimes he'd just say, talk to the patient, and say that he would like to refer that patient to us to take care of.

LT: Well, you have a long medical career in Ontario as well as in Oregon. And looking at the list of honors and awards and affiliations that you have, it's very extensive. Could you identify one professional or community responsibility or activity that you participated in that had a lot of meaning for you, and explain? There were so many, but I'm going to ask you choose just one.

GT: Well... I guess I must have too modest an opinion of myself. Teddy just whispered that I became president of the Oregon Medical Association, and I was appointed by the governors, one Democrat, one Republican, to appoint me to state commissions and so forth. I think in many ways I was more widely known down in the Willamette Valley than back here at home. But I just figured that most of these just come as a natural consequence of working hard. I personally don't think I did that much good, but maybe I did.

LT: You continued to be asked back. You served with the Oregon State Board of Medical Examiners (two terms, 1974-1986) and as president of the Oregon Medical Association from (1971-1972). You were involved in so many organizations, you were named Outstanding Doctor by the Oregon Foundation for Medical Excellence; you were named the Nisei of the Biennium in 1994 by the Snake River JACL. The list of commendations goes on and on.