{"url_title":"Japanese Hospital of Los Angeles","title_sort":"japanesehospitaloflosangeles","links":{"json":"http://encyclopedia.densho.org/api/0.1/articles/Japanese%20Hospital%20of%20Los%20Angeles/?format=json","html":"http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Japanese%20Hospital%20of%20Los%20Angeles?format=json"},"modified":"2021-01-22T01:50:23","title":"Japanese Hospital of Los Angeles","body":"
\n The Japanese Hospital of Los Angeles illuminates the local Japanese American community's determination to ensure that immigrant and American-born Japanese had access to adequate health care in the first half of the twentieth century when mainstream hospitals often discriminated against patients of color. In 1926, five immigrant Japanese doctors applied to incorporate a hospital, but the California Secretary of State denied their application. Despite not having the rights and protections of US citizens, the immigrant doctors challenged the decision. Their case ultimately went to the US Supreme Court in 1928. The doctors prevailed and the Japanese Hospital opened on December 1, 1929. For decades, it served the health care needs of the local community. Although the hospital is a reminder of the discrimination that Japanese immigrants faced, it equally symbolizes a significant civil rights victory.\n
\n \n\n Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Los Angeles's civic and business leaders touted the region's mild climate and abundant sunshine to health seekers. While Southern California became synonymous with health, access to adequate health care was not available to all. Public health officials associated disease with recent immigrants and certain ethnic groups, using race to determine how to administer public health programs.\n \n \n [1]\n \n \n Ultimately, civic leaders saw immigrant communities as a hindrance to Los Angeles becoming a \"modern city.\" This xenophobic rhetoric provided the justification necessary to deny immigrant communities from receiving public health services.\n
\n\n The early Japanese population in Los Angeles was centered mainly in Little Tokyo and nearby Boyle Heights. In 1913, several Japanese medical professionals established a facility known as the \"Japanese Hospital.\" It was also commonly referred to as Turner Street Hospital in reference to its location in Little Tokyo and later as the Southern California Japanese Hospital.\n \n \n [2]\n \n \n The hospital operated out of the home of Mary Akita, a Nisei midwife. Akita recognized the need for a maternity ward with the arrival of scores of\n \n picture brides\n \n .\n
\n\n While the Southern California Japanese Hospital served a critical need, it did not meet the medical care demands for the growing community. Japanese families continued to depend on itinerant midwives or traveling physicians.\n
\n\n Despite the relatively low number of influenza cases reported in Los Angeles between 1918-19, the most detrimental effects of the highly contagious illness were notably felt in immigrant communities. Immigrant and ethnic enclaves often had a higher population density and limited access to health care. The pandemic had an adverse effect on the Japanese population.\n
\n\n In the years that followed, Japanese physicians began thinking about how they could establish a facility that could more sufficiently address the community's medical needs. It was clear to doctors like Kikuwo Tashiro that a larger health care facility with dedicated surgical facilities was needed.\n
\n\n In 1926, Tashiro and four other Japanese doctors, Daishiro Kuroiwa, Fusataro Nayaka, Toru Ozasa, and Matsuta Takahashi, combined their savings to establish a medical hospital on land acquired at First and Fickett Streets in Boyle Heights. As construction was about to begin, Tashiro submitted articles of incorporation for the Japanese Hospital of Los Angeles. California Secretary of State Frank C. Jordan denied the physician's request on the grounds that the application conflicted with terms in the 1911 Treaty of Navigation and Commerce between the United States and Japan as well as the\n \n Alien Land Law of California\n \n .\n \n \n [3]\n \n \n
\n\n The doctors enlisted legal help from local attorney Jacob Marion Wright to challenge the decision.\n \n \n [4]\n \n \n Wright's extensive experience in defending the rights of Japanese immigrants in a variety of legal cases helped prepare him for one of the most significant cases of his career.\n \n \n [5]\n \n \n Together, Wright and his former law school classmate Sei Fujii prepared the legal challenge.\n
\n\n Tashiro's challenge to Jordan's decision resulted in a 1927 California State Supreme Court case, known as Tashiro v. Jordan. Interpretation of the 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation was at the center of the court case. Each side focused intently on Article I, which established:\n
\n\n\n\n Citizens or subjects of each of the high contracting parties shall have liberty to enter, travel, and reside in the territories of the other to carry on trade, wholesale and retail, to own or lease and occupy houses, manufactories, warehouses and shops, to employ agents of their choice, to lease land for residential and commercial purposes and generally to do anything incident to or necessary for trade upon the same terms as native citizens or subjects, submitting themselves to the laws and regulations there established.\n \n \n [6]\n \n \n
\n
\n Jordan claimed that the treaty failed to address whether Japanese nationals could simultaneously incorporate and lease land. In contrast, Wright and Fujii adeptly used the ambiguity of the language to form a counterargument. Wright argued that the language was all encompassing and therefore could be interpreted that Japanese nationals would be furthering trade through a broad spectrum of business activities.\n
\n\n On May 21, 1927, the California State Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the doctors. The 1911 treaty was interpreted to allow Japanese nationals to lease land for commercial purposes, which were medical services in this case.\n \n \n [7]\n \n \n Jordan appealed the ruling.\n
\n\n In October 1928, the US Supreme Court, under presiding Chief Justice William Howard Taft, heard the case. Chief Justice Taft was quite familiar with the 1911 treaty since he was president when it was enacted. A month later, the US Supreme Court announced its decision, which upheld the lower court's ruling.\n \n \n [8]\n \n \n
\n\n The State of California recognized the incorporation of the Japanese Hospital a few months later on February 2, 1929. The local Japanese community raised over $100,000 to build the hospital.\n \n \n [9]\n \n \n The doctors selected Issei architect Yoshisaku Hirose for the project. Hirose played a pivotal role in institution building within the Japanese community in Los Angeles.\n \n \n [10]\n \n \n Hirose designed the hospital in the Streamline Moderne style, which gave it a modern look. The modest exterior, highly sensitive to the economic climate of the time, also suggested that most of the money designated for the construction was spent on the interior spaces. The basement included a dining room, kitchen, and laundry room. The first floor contained exam rooms, a drug dispensary, nurses' dressing room, X-ray lab, chart room, lab, linen room, parlor, library, and waiting room. A major operating room, minor operating room, delivery room, X-ray room, nursing room, children's room, and doctors' dressing room were located on the second floor. Patients diagnosed with tuberculosis or other respiratory ailments could sit in the \"sun room,\" located at the top of the building, where they could take in sun and fresh air through large windows to aid their recovery.\n
\n\n On December 1, 1929, the 69-room facility opened to the community, signaling hope at the onset of the Great Depression. Despite the dismal economic conditions that followed, the Japanese Hospital remained in operation.\n
\n\n With the impending forced removal near, the trustees of the Japanese Hospital made arrangements with nearby White Memorial Hospital to lease the property and use it as a maternity ward. If the hospital had not been incorporated as a commercial entity, it would have been subject to seizure.\n \n \n [11]\n \n \n
\n\n Following the war, Japanese Americans returned to a hostile social climate in Los Angeles, relatively unchanged from the onset of the war. White Memorial Hospital administrators returned the facility to the Japanese Hospital trustees. The Japanese Hospital remained critical when it reopened on March 3, 1946.\n \n \n [12]\n \n \n
\n\n The Japanese Hospital also provided employment to Nisei medical professionals who continued to face discrimination. Dr. Sakaye Shigekawa acknowledged the racism and discrimination she experienced and the important role that the Japanese Hospital played in reestablishing the careers of Japanese American medical professionals. She reflected on the role of the Japanese Hospital following the war, noting: \"The hospitals didn't accept us when we came back here. When I came here, I couldn't get any privileges. So we were very fortunate to have a Japanese Hospital. At least we were able to deliver babies and do surgery there...We had a hard time in Los Angeles in the early days.\"\n \n \n [13]\n \n \n
\n\n Dr. Tashiro continued to lead the hospital's operations after the war until his retirement in 1950. Following his passing in 1953, the hospital was renamed the Japanese Memorial Hospital in his honor.\n
\n\n The hospital continued to serve the health care needs of the Japanese American community that resettled in Los Angeles. Yet, despite its ethnic-specific name, the Japanese Hospital developed a reputation for providing exceptional care, serving a diverse clientele within the East Los Angeles area.\n
\n\n By 1961, trustees of the Japanese Hospital decided to develop a larger, more modern facility. This facility, in neighboring Lincoln Heights, became known as City View Hospital.\n \n \n [14]\n \n \n The leadership of the Japanese Hospital sold the building on Fickett Street in 1966. Despite the change in ownership, the Japanese Hospital building has continuously operated as a health care facility.\n
\n\n In 2016, the Little Tokyo Historical Society (LTHS) submitted a nomination for a City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument designation. The Japanese Hospital was designated as the City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #1131.\n \n \n [15]\n \n \n In 2019, the LTHS submitted a National Register nomination.\n \n \n [16]\n \n \n Due to the owner's opposition to the nomination, the Japanese Hospital was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.\n
\n \n \n\n Hayashi, Kristen.\n \n City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument Nomination for the Japanese Hospital\n \n , 2016.\n
\n\n ———.\n \n National Parks Service National Register Nomination for the Japanese Hospital\n \n , 2019.\n
\n\n Kaji, Troy Tashiro. \"\n \n City View Hospital and the Japanese Hospitals of California.\n \n \"\n \n Discover Nikkei\n \n , June 11, 2010.\n
\n\n \"\n \n Japanese Hospitals: Caring for the Pre-War Nikkei Community.\n \n \"\n \n Discover Nikkei\n \n , May 11, 2010. Video in fourteen parts.\n
\n\n Okamura, Michael, Bill Watanabe, and Kristen Hayashi. “\n \n Japanese Hospital: Keeping the Community Healthy.\n \n ” Discover Nikkei. Apr. 7, 2017.\n
\n