Oral History Program Elsie Okamoto Shiramizu Interviewed by Marci Farr 22 July 2008 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Elsie Okamoto Shiramizu Interviewed by Marci Farr 22 July 2008 Copyright © 2009 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in Special Collections. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Dee School of Nursing was founded in 1910 to provide training for nurses who would staff the new Dee Memorial Hospital. The first class of eight nurses graduated from the school in 1913 and the school continued to operate until 1955, with a total of more than 700 graduates. A new nursing school and home located just east of the hospital was completed in 1917 and all nursing students were required to live in the home during their training. This oral history project was created to capture the memories of the school's alumni before their stories disappear in the same way the Dee Hospital has disappeared. The oral interviews focus on how the women became involved with the school, their experiences going through training, and how they used the training. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management Special Collections All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Elsie Okamoto Shiramizu, an oral history by Marci Farr, 22 July 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Elsie Okamoto Shiramizu Application Photo September 1946 Graduation Photo Class of 1950 Elsie Okamoto Shiramizu September 16, 2009 Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Elsie Okamoto Shiramizu. It was conducted July 22, 2008 and concerns her recollections and experiences with the Dee School of Nursing. The interviewer is Marci Farr, and her husband, Danzo Shiramizu, was also present. MF: This is Marci Farr. We are interviewing Elsie Shiramizu at her home in Roy, Utah. It is July 22, 2008. She graduated in 1950. Thank you for letting us come Elsie. We appreciate you letting us visit with you about the Dee School of Nursing. We just want to know a little bit about your early life, about your education, your family. ES: I was born and raised in Salinas, California. MF: Tell us a little bit about your family. ES: We lived in Salinas which was lettuce country. My mom and dad were born in Hawaii. They are not Hawaiians per say but they were born in Hawaii. They were great people. MF: Tell us about where you went to school? ES: We moved around a lot. We were a typical migrant family that went from one farm to the other. We were happy. There were five of us and my mother had the sixth one when the war started. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, I can remember my mother saying, “Don’t they know there are natives of Japan in American too? They should not be doing things like that.” Because they hit the Pearl Harbor, we do not talk about it too often but I do talk about it. I go around to the schools and talk to fifth, sixth, or seventh graders. I do tell them I am not 1 doing this because I am dwelling on that incident but the fact that do not let it happen again. We were all Americans. Do not let it happen again. MF: You were born and raised in California, right? ES: Yes, that is right. May I have a copy of this tape too when we get through, please? MF: Yes, you will receive a copy. ES: Good. You know what? I have one of my mother, she was taped. Hers is all in Japanese; we will have to get somebody to translate it. MF: That is great. SL: What camp did you end up going to? ES: We ended up going to Poston, Arizona. There were three camps in Poston. There was another camp in the Southern part of Arizona. It was called Gila. Ours was Poston. When you are thirteen years old and you do not have to watch your brothers and sisters, I felt so scot-free. It never dawned on me the implication of what was going to happen. DS: Tell them about the holding camp. ES: The holding camp. DS: The camp you were in. That was terrible. ES: My husband has never been in a camp. He was born and raised here in Utah. He was just upset when he saw that even though it was his people by blood…that those stables that we stayed in, what they did is, we had to clean out the stables with all the horse manure smell and everything. But anyway, we do not need to go out on that. 2 MF: How long did you have to stay? ES: We went in at the end of April. My mother did not go in with us because she was pregnant and she was ready to give birth and so they said that she could not go in because there were no facilities at that time, to take care of her. It was about April 28th. MF: What year was this? ES: Pearl Harbor was attacked on the 7th of December 1941. And this was in April, about the 28th, 1942, when we had to go in to camp. ES: I have got all the papers and things here too, of the camp life. MF: How many years did you have to stay in the camp? Was it just until the war ended? ES: Yes, until the war ended. But then we were probably one of the last families to leave because I was the oldest. My mother stayed outside the camp. She was pleased that way except that it split up our family. My dad had to take care of five of us as and that meant that I had to be the big sister. MF: So you were not scot-free anymore. ES: No. MF: You had more responsibility. ES: That is right, in some ways. We went into camp about the 28th of April 1942; my brother was born May 2nd, so you can see that it was close. MF: Very close. ES: Yes. My mother came in after. MF: After she had the baby? 3 ES: Yes. MF: Okay. ES: It had kind of disrupted our family life too. MF: I am sure. ES: The situation was not the most ideal. People say, “Well why did you not object to all that?” But then when you really think about it; we are of the same background and civil rights were not in place at the time. MF: It was not. You had twenty more years for that. ES: We learned how to obey and learned how to withstand any hardship. MF: You had to deal with it. ES: Yes, it was a natural thing at that time. MF: When did you finally come to Utah? What made your decision to come to Utah? ES: Well I think it must have been somebody upstairs watching out for all of us. MF: That is great. ES: My mother came in and joined us and we were there until about July 4th of 1942, in that kind of a situation. From there we stayed in camp. We had a good time. We really did. Being a teenager, learning how to dance, my mother said, “When you really think of it,” she said, “probably, good came out of this whole mess.” She said, “Before, we lived in a little Tokyo area in California. We were in little groups and did not mingle with the rest.” That is the same as the people who are from other countries, Italian town, and also the German town, and all of them. They did not have to go in camp. MF: That is true. 4 ES: Anyway, she said, “Now, we have people of Japanese background in every state of the Union, the way the United States should be, almost like a tossed salad.” You have lettuce, carrots, and all that but at the same time you are part of the whole. Before, we were part of the part. I think, you know, things have a way of working out. MF: That is true. When did your family finally get out of the camp and how did you make it to Utah? ES: The reason we made it to Utah was because of a lady from Ogden, Utah, which we had no idea where it was, came to camp looking…if you had sponsors, you could get out of the camp. We had no relatives or sponsors and I was the oldest…nobody wanted…my sister was next, our boys did not come on until later. They could not help with the farm work. We were not marketable as far as our skills. Anyway, there was this lady, we did not know because the communication is different from now, now you have a cell phone so you can get in touch now, anyway, what we did was she came because they told us we were going to go to New Jersey. MF: Really. ES: That is where that frozen food place was. Bird’s Eye Company. My mother said, “If you take us over there, when the war is over, will you send us back to California?” The government naturally said, “No, it is a one way ticket.” My mother said, “Then I am not going.” My mother did not budge but in the mean time there was a lady that came to camp looking for my dad. My dad had an uncle that was living here in the United States but he did not know where. 5 Anyway, this lady found us and so we came to Layton. Our first address here was in Syracuse. Like I said, we were not marketable because we couldn’t top beets. We would pick tomatoes, and here we are years later. We can laugh about it now. MF: How old were you when you came to Syracuse? ES: I went to Davis High junior year so I was…we were in camp three and a half years so we went to camp and then from there…I also want to tell you there were a lot of people that touched our lives that really helped us along, really, when I think about it. MF: That is great. ES: Even Davis High School had a girl counselor. Bea Carol was her name. She has since died but anyway, the counselor was very good and she said, “What do you want to do?” I went to see her because I wanted to drop out of school to help my mother with canning the tomatoes in Clearfield. SL: Did she tell you to stay in and then go to nursing school? ES: That is right, you know the Army Nurses Corps cadet program had just ended, with World War II, so the Dee Hospital did not have any more nursing students to follow through. They came up with a “unique idea” of giving scholarships. MF: Okay. ES: Two to every high school to start out with. MF: Oh good. ES: Mrs. Carol said, “If you would like to stick around there is a possibility because of your grades that you could probably get one.” 6 MF: A scholarship. ES: Yes and it was a trial basis. MF: Yes. ES: I did get it. MF: Oh good. ES: I remember I came home and told my mother about it and we talked all night, the pros and cons, you know. Mom said, “Well you know that they can take your job away but not your degree.” At that time we considered a three year nursing program was a degree. It was a diploma program. We came to Syracuse and this is where we stayed. Then I met my husband. He was a member of our church, a Buddhist church. They had a Buddhist church in Syracuse. MF: Oh good. ES: At that time you could not get married. MF: In the program you could not get married. ES: That is right. MF: For your three years, right? ES: That is right. MF: Do you remember what year you went in? ES: 1947. MF: 1947 and you graduated in… ES: In 1950. ES: Have you seen this one? SL: Yes, we have seen this one. 7 ES: You have got that one. I am sure you do. SL: Yes. MF: The alumni book. ES: There is nothing written on mine. I did not do all my extra work until after. If you look at my name, I do not have anything written there. I was too busy trying to get going. MF: Tell us about when you were accepted into the program. You received your scholarship correct? ES: Can you imagine three hundred dollars took care of three years. MF: Really? DS: One hundred dollars a year. ES: That was really something to get one hundred dollars. MF: That is great. DS: You had to work at the hospital. MF: So while you were there did you receive any pay at all while you were at the hospital? ES: Not in money. It was just the classes. MF: Your food was taken care of. ES: Yes, we would go to the cafeteria; Even on Sunday to have Sunday meals. MF: Did you know your husband before you went into the program? ES: Yes, we were familiar. MF: So you already knew him. ES: Yes. 8 DS: They used to live in there I think. SL: Yes, the nurses’ home? ES: He waited. It was like this Sharon Unruh, she said, “Date,” his nickname is Date…she said, “Date is almost like an old shoe.” I said, “Why?” She said, “Because any time you want something,” she says, “he is there to help you out.” He was good. MF: When did you get married? Did you get married after you graduated? ES: Yes, 1951 in October. MF: What are some memories that you have while you were in nurses’ training? ES: The snow, I remember it was 1949, it was really deep. When we started nurses training, we started with the old regime of no fellows in the program, you cannot be married or you can not be a nurse, and all that but by the time our class graduated, 1950, we had other male nurses too. We had one. MF: Oh okay. ES: We had other male nurses. We had it so that even though there were only about eight or ten of us that started, a couple of them got left out but eight or ten of us got started, we graduated with about fourteen or fifteen or something because they picked up the ones that got kicked out before. MF: The ones that were trying to finish up. ES: This was not allowed before then. MF: It was kind of a big transition? ES: Yes. MF: You were moving into new areas. 9 ES: That is good. MF: It is nice that they let them come back. ES: I remember when we were “probees,” we received a hat and a rose after a probationary period. MF: How long was that? ES: Six months. MF: After you had your six months, that is when you had the capping and the pinning ceremony, right? ES: Yes. MF: Did that take place at the nurses’ home? ES: Yes at the Nurses’ home in the auditorium, it was a pretty nice affair. MF: That is good. ES: I hated to see the caps go. MF: Because of the tradition? ES: Yes. The ribbon was significant. If you got de-capped, it was awful. That was a fine for something you had done, like getting caught going through the window downstairs. MF: Oh, sneaking out. We’ve heard stories about that. Tell us about when you were in the nurses’ home. Do you remember who you roomed with? ES: When I first started I did not have a roommate. I was a “rare breed” too because being of Asian background and the rest of them were all LDS. There were two of us that were not LDS. My first roommate was Sharon. When we went to Montana for part of our psychiatric affiliation there was a different roommate. 10 Those are the only two roommates that I had. Other than that…I was kind of a loner anyway because I did not know how to…I did not know anything about the Mormons. SL: Do you feel like you were treated any differently? ES: By whom? SL: By the girls. MF: The other nurses. SL: Did they accept you? ES: They ignored me. They got to a point where we became family. Initially, you know, I was a rare breed. There were other Japanese in the cadet nurses program. There was one in second year and third year. St. Benedict’s nursing school just started also. That was new. MF: That is true. ES: Their first class was also 1950. MF: Tell us what a typical day would be like at the hospital while you were in the training. Tell us about that. ES: It was a hands-on experience. We were actually “trained” to be nurses and not educated to be nurses. There is a difference. When we got through with the classes we were assigned to patients and we would stay. We had long days. MF: Your shift was usually seven to seven? ES: Yes seven to seven. MF: You had your classes in-between right? ES: That is right. 11 MF: Did you have some classes at Weber College? ES: They were on lower campus. MF: What were some of your classes that you took? ES: You had to have had high school algebra before you were even looked at. We had to take physics. I failed the first physics. That was awful. That was a blight in my schooling, but I made it up. MF: That is good, just those classes that would help you? Chemistry? ES: Yes there was that class. I was not a Home Ec. type of a person anyway. We had to take cooking. We had to take swimming too. MF: If you had a night off what would you do during the week? ES: A night off in the nursing home it would depend on, you could not go to movies or anything. MF: You had to live at the home, right? ES: At the home with the housemothers. We had two housemothers. MF: Tell us who they were. ES: Mrs. McGraw and Mrs. McEntire. MF: Did you get along with them? ES: Yes I guess, just as much as anybody with a guard standing by you. Mrs. McGraw was an elderly lady. She had been there, I guess, quite awhile. Mrs. McEntire came a little later on. MF: Did you have a curfew? 12 ES: Yes we did. We had to be in by a certain time. If girls’ boyfriends came in to visit them we had to go in to the sitting room and sit there and talk. We could not sit by each other. It was different. MF: Tell us about graduation. You graduated in 1950 right? ES: Yes. MF: Where was your graduation held? ES: Oh that was beautiful. We marched from where the nursing home was on 24th and Harrison and marched down to St. Joseph’s. Do not ask me why. I know St. Benedicts did it too but we went down there and I can just vaguely remember that. We had our capes on, and you know, I got rid of it and that is awful because I should have kept it. MF: A nice keepsake. ES: Yes. MF: How many did you say that you had in your graduating class? ES: You know I cannot remember. I should be able to. Look at it and see. . MF: Have you kept in contact with most of your nurses friends? ES: We still do as far as the classmates. We are not as close because as we get older… MF: It gets harder. ES: Yes. ES: How many did you see? SL: Thirteen. 13 ES: Yes, but it was not thirteen that went in. I thought it was only eight but then it seems like we counted more than that wasn’t it? Scholarships were given, two up north there, Bear River, that is the high school, and then Box Elder, Ogden High, Davis High, and Weber High. MF: Did they have any from Weber? ES: Yes, Weber High. It is ten. MF: Did you know any of the members of the Dee family? ES: No. MF: Did you stay at the Dee Hospital after graduated? What did you end up doing? ES: I stayed until I got my degree; we had to take a test in Salt Lake, and then I wanted to see the world. I got as far as Tooele, Utah. To the army base there, then I worked there for about six months and was able to transfer back to the Arsenal at Hill Field. MF: That is good. ES: When I go talk to the fourth graders and fifth grades. They want to know, “What did you watch on TV?” I said, “What TV?” MF: You talked about your work with St. Jude’s. Did you do that later on? ES: Quite a bit later on. It was after; I joined that organization in April 1959. It was called Epsilon Sigma Alpha or ESA. MF: You have done a lot of volunteer work with that organization. ES: Yes. I am really for volunteer work. Because I can still remember first Christmas, my brother, Bill, he was about, I cannot remember exactly how old he was, but anyway, he was afraid Santa Claus would not remember him. The Red 14 Cross came through. I saw the happy faces on my brother and my sisters and I thought, “When I can become rich,” that is what I thought you had to be, “I want to help out somewhere.” I kind of stuck to doing a lot of volunteer work. When I was elected as International President of the Epson Sigma Alpha I really had a lot of good experience. By then I was working for Weber State. I have also been to Australia. I went on first class and it was nice. I was able to go see Mrs. Carter because her husband was the President at one time when they initiated Pap’s Smear postage stamp. MF: Oh good. ES: I went to the White House for that one to represent our organizations. I am telling all this now but everybody did not know all of it. I had my sorority life, I had my professional life, and I had domestic life. MF: It sounds like you had a great experience. ES: I really have been fortunate to have so many people touch our lives. A lot of this I could not accomplish it without my husband. MF: I love that. ES: Thanks also that we have three great children too. Only they are not children anymore. MF: They are all grown up. They tend to do that don’t they? ES: Yes. MF: Is there anything else you want to share with us? ES: Let us see, your name was… MF: I am Marci. 15 ES: Farr? MF: Marci Farr. Yes and this is Sarah, Sarah Langsdon. ES: There was a Farr…Koster girl married a Farr. MF: Was it Gloria? ES: Gloria, yes. Did you talk to her? MF: We have not yet. ES: That is right, Helen Farr. MF: Yes. We just interviewed her and Faye Ball. ES: Faye, isn’t she a nice lady? MF: She is so kind. ES: I went ahead and got my Doctorate in education. MF: Oh did you? ES: Yes it is from BYU. That is what I started to tell you. I felt like we were being We talked to Helen Horne. Do you remember her? “trained” to be nurses. I thought that we really should be, to beat the modern world; we need to have people learn to be educated to be nurses so that you can meet any kind of situation. Ampicillin and Penicillin had just came in. MF: Oh okay. ES: I remember we had syringes filled with Ampicillin. Then we were giving it on their buttocks. MF: Did you teach at all at Weber State? ES: Yes, twenty-one years. MF: You taught nursing classes right? ES: Yes. 16 MF: That is how you knew Helen right? Did you teach together? ES: Oh yes. We taught together and Helen was also in nursing, you know? MF: Yes, she graduated in 1946. The year before you started, right? ES: That is right. I did not really know her until… MF: Until after in your professional life. That is great. I did not know that. Thank you Elsie, we appreciate you taking time to share your memories with us. ES: After you leave I am going to have one hundred and one things to say. MF: That is ok. Write them down and call Sarah. Well we appreciate you letting us come. 17