Dr. Yoko Nagamori: The Woman, The Myth, The Legend
Fast talking, exploding with energy, and always smiling! The thrill of meeting her was like riding a roller coaster through hearts and teddy bears. Dr. Yoko Nagamori and I met during a volleyball meetup at Santa Monica beach. She has lived in not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 places that I’ve never considered visiting both in and outside of the United States.
Her name means Child of the Sun and she was born in Tokyo Japan. Yes, this year the Olympics are being played there while her family and the rest of Tokyo are in lockdown. This world amazes me. She is a diagnostic veterinarian specializing in the diagnosis of illnesses and parasites in dead animals. Picture a huge elephant shows up, not like cute dumbo but, more like an elephant that has been eaten alive by a flesh eating parasite. Call in Dr. Nagamori to search this 5+ ton body to figure out what’s going on.
First up, South Dakota! Here’s a statistic: there is a population of about 900 thousand people living in the state with only about 13 thousand Asians there. Let me say, I’m sure South Dakota is a great place however, never once have I thought to myself, well I’m going to live out my days in SD. I mean San Diego maybe, but South Dakota, WHAT? Well, Yoko came straight from Tokyo Japan to live in South Dakota and loved it! She picked South Dakota because she got into undergraduate veterinary school there and it had the exact major she was looking for. There were no other Asians in her class and I think the number was 2 or 3 other Asians in the school. I asked Yoko about discrimination and she said she didn’t pick up on anything. She went as far as to say that northern states seem to be less racist. She said she did not think that she could find another place as opposite of Japan but, everyone treated her respectfully and it was great.
Next up, Iowa! Home of sliced bread, the Hawkeyes and Corn. Loads and loads of corn. Oh and Yoko! She attended veterinary school here and let’s just say, she had an even better time than in South Dakota. She was the only international student in her program and at the school she went to, about 140 all together. Of the 140 international students, about 3 were non-white. But she explains, there are only about 30 vet schools in America and maybe half of those actually allow international students to apply. She didn’t notice discrimination here either. Though she did start to learn about parasites being brought from other countries and how easy it is to bring animals into America.
She explained that many of the animals that come into the US bring deadly parasites with them as well as other diseases. I looked up the requirements in California for bringing an animal in from another country and it only stated that in order for a dog to be brought in, it cannot have rabies. That’s it. She told me about a dog who came from Africa with a deadly tongue parasite. The parasite transferred eggs to its owner through the dog’s saliva when he licked his owner’s mouth. Eggs in the saliva hatched on the owner’s tongue and both the owner and the dog came close to dying. The reason they didn’t, parasites are smart enough to know that if they kill their host, then they both die. Actually, whoever the dog licked could have had eggs transferred to them which was another issue. About 1 million dogs are rescued from around the world and brought to this country. Imagine how many of them have serious diseases that are passed to humans without us even knowing it until it’s too late.
Anyway, after Iowa, Yoko landed in Oklahoma! The most southern state of the three and the only place Yoko experienced outward racism. Here is where she developed a keen interest in necropsy, which is autopsy for animals. She did her residency here and taught classes. She would see all types of dead animals; big or small and sometimes famous. She felt like a kid in a candy shop and was loving it. The more she lived in Oklahoma though, the more she realized it wasn’t for her. Apart from the racism, which there was a lot of, she thought people’s lives were boring. She said they all live the same; first they graduate school, then they get married, buy a house, have kids and die. It sounds like the dream that everyone wants but, what if you want to deviate from that life. She said she was out casted for not conforming and wanted to leave as soon as she could. Welcome LA.
She’s been in LA a few years now and has been loving it. She’s been working on a deep learning artificial intelligence microscope which can identify parasites found in samples on a slide. This process previously took hours and now takes a fraction of that time. It was so important during the pandemic because of the uptick in dog adoption rates. There was so much demand for a parasite diagnostician during the pandemic that her company funded this program to fill the need. This microscope can do triple the work Yoko can at a much faster pace. This will change the world which is something that she’s proud of. She said that LA has brought the change she’s needed and stay here for the foreseeable future.
