Interviews
Getting good guidance
The doctor that my father had – his name was Dr. William J. Norris and he was on the staff at Children’s Hospital and Good Samaritan. And so – he was very kind – and one time I asked him, when I was older, I said,” I’d like to be a doctor.” And so he says,” Oh, if you do I can help you all I can.” Never did he say that, because you’re a woman…
So anyway, so I applied to medical school and at SC they didn’t take any the first year, and the second year they took 2 women so then I went to Chicago. And…I applied to Stritch Loyola and they accepted 4 women - one from San Franciso, and myself and 2 from Illinois.
So then, I kept in touch with this…my father’s doctor and so when I graduated, I said,” I think I’d like to be a surgeon.” And he says,” well - he used to call me Sake – Sake,” he says,” as a woman,” hey says,” surgery will be very difficult because you’d have to depend on men to refer cases to you. And so if I were you, I’d do family practice and see how you like it and if you still want to go into surgery I’ll do everything to help you.”
So I went into general practice and I liked it, cause I tooked care of – as I always say – skin and it’s contents, I took care of the children and mothers and did some surgery and all aspects of medicine at that time.
Date: March 31, 2005
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Gwenn M. Jensen
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Lesson learned from community college faculty
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i
Japanese school
(b.1924) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Interpreter for British Army in Japan after WWII. Active in Japanese Canadian community
Strict school policy of separating boys and girls in Japan
(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto
Growing up outside of Portland’s Japanese community
(b. 1921) Nisei businessman. Established "Made in Oregon" retail stores
Education in a Buddhist temple and a country school
(1914-2018) Founder of the largest gladiolus bulb farm in the United States.
Finding a way to keep donor kidneys longer in order to ship to matched patients
(b.1929) Pioneer medical researcher in tissue transfer and organ transplantation.
Closing the Japanese school and deportation (Spanish)
(b. 1932-2016) Peruvian painter
Differing responses by gender to the Hapa Project
(b. 1965) filmmaker and artist
American influences on Japanese taiko
Senshin Buddhist Temple minister and co-founder of Kinnara Taiko.
Learning Japanese at school and at home with family
(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.
Former child patient turned professional volleyball player
(b.1925) Sansei, cardiovascular surgeon.