Miné Okubo Civics Lesson
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Miné Okubo/Kazue Togasaki
Japanese Internment during World War II
The conditions of World War II Japanese internment were horrific, but Okubo was not the only the internee who made remarkable contributions during that period and beyond. Kazue Togasaki was one of the first Asian American female medical doctors in the U.S. Growing up in San Francisco in the early years of the 20th century, Togasaki overcame many challenges to attain this distinction; she was forced to change elementary schools because of discrimination against Japanese Americans.
The greatest adversity of her life came in 1942, when Togasaki was sent to Tanforan Assembly Center, the same detention camp that Okubo endured at the beginning of interment. Togasaki described the awful reality.
The relocation was war hysteria. They just told us, on such and such a day be ready to leave. .. .I just remember being busy all the time at Tanforan. I stayed there a month, responsible for setting up the hospital, trying to get everything organized. I had the head nurse and the instructor of nurses at Stanford University Hospital and a doctor, all Japanese, working with me at Tanforan. They learned a lot from me because I was the top dog . . . In that month, I delivered 50 babies in the camp. Sometimes I stood behind the doctor and taught him how to deliver.
Togasaki did such an exceptional job leading the all-Japanese-American medical team at Tanforan that she was assigned to other interment camps where she managed basic care as well as vaccinations and births.
When Togasaki was released from interment after the war, she returned to San Francisco and found her home ransacked. Her words captured the traumatic moment.
Everything was stolen. By the time I got back a year or two after the war, there wasn’t much left. . . . I just started over again. I set up practice here in this neighborhood, and everybody was happy to see a Japanese woman doctor.
Togasaki could’ve gone anywhere but remained and practiced medicine there for the next 40 years.
Heed the exemplary lives of Okubo and Togasaki. Rise above adversity, trauma and injustice to serve with compassion. Go to places where you can use your gifts to make the greatest difference.