Japanese Hospital: Caring for the Pre-War Nikkei Community

Project Coordinators: Vicky Murakami-Tsuda, Carole Fujita, and Eiko Masuyama

April 11, 2010
Japanese American National Museum

This public program, researched and organized by the Little Tokyo Historical Society and Discover Nikkei, recounted the Japanese community’s struggle for better medical care in the 1920s. For the early Issei immigrants, access to medical care was limited. Five Issei doctors sued the State of California after being denied papers of incorporation to build a hospital. Jordan vs. Tashiro was finally won in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1928, and Japanese Hospital opened in Boyle Heights in 1929. Keynote speaker Dr. Troy Kaji detailed the history of the historic case and the establishment of the Japanese Hospital. Special guest Janice LaMoree, daughter of J. Marion Wright (the attorney who represented the doctors in the court decision), spoke about her father presenting the case in Washington D.C. The event was moderated by Gwenn Jensen, author of Silent Scars of Healing Hands: Oral Histories of Japanese American Doctors in World War II Detention Camps.