Dr. James Goto, Manzanar's Medical Director
In 1925 the Goto family moved to Montebello and James Goto went to Garfield High School, from which he graduated with the Winter Class of 1929. At Garfield, he was President of the Achievement Club, in C.S.F., Captain of the Tennis Team, in the Debating Club, and in the Shakespearean Oratorical Contest. Jim Goto went to the University of California at Los Angeles from 1929 to 1932 and then attended USC's medical school from 1932 to 1937. He entered Los Angeles General Hospital where on the entry examination, despite facing racial discrimination, he finished and ranked number one among the 150 medical applicants. He would later become the chief surgeon at Los Angeles General Hospital for ten years. Unfortunately, during the war years, he was forcibly sent to Manzanar, one of the relocation camps that the U.S. government had set up for Americans of Japanese ancestry. There he would serve as medical director between 1942 and 1945.