In L.A., He was the 'Coroner to the Stars'
Forty years after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the man who met him after death talks about his career and chance meetings with injustice.
For over a decade, some of the world's most famous dead bodies came to Dr. Thomas T. Noguchi's doorstep.
Their names make up a who's who of tragedy and infamy: Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood and even Sharon Tate all found their way to the bowels of the old Hall of Justice building. And they usually arrived in a storm of controversy, shrouded in mystery and delivered into the hands of a man who was regarded as a gatekeeper to the truth.
For a while in the City of Angels, almost no one could be laid to rest without first meeting Noguchi.
"One person, one department that people can trust should be the coroner," said Noguchi, who occupied the post of chief medical examiner of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office from 1967 to 1982.
As chief, he was the first Japanese American to occupy such a high profile position. But by all accounts, being chief coroner isn't a job that reaps much glory. That is unless you're Noguchi and your notable cases include a U.S. president in the making.
There was a time when he couldn't walk down a street without someone stopping him to shake his hand. It was a title that the doctor used as a badge to fight like a scrappy Don Quixote for truth and honor - sometimes his own in the face of controversy.
Now retired at 81, Noguchi still seems to carry with him the same ideals of his youth. He likens himself to a samurai who perfects the art of tolerance, but knows when to strike back.
So many years after he turned in his chief badge, Noguchi sits in a disheveled office in the back of his Los Angeles home and reflects on the luxuries his career has afforded him.
"I never have to watch scary movies," he cackles while printing out his resume.
The Road to the Top
"I can't think of any other Asian American in a position of that stature before Dr. Noguchi," said John Saito, a former JACL PSW regional director. "He did break ground."
But the road to the top was twisted for the Kyushu-born Noguchi. It was from his father Dr. Wataru Noguchi that he learned his first lesson about the vulnerabilities of being a doctor. Young Noguchi, who often visited his father at the office, once walked in on Wataru unsuccessfully giving a patient CPR. At 13, he got his first glimpse of a dead body.
"In those days, instead of antibiotics, doctors swabbed the throat with an iodine type of solution - it's awful, but it helped sterilize the throat," said Noguchi.
Talk of malpractice soon began, and Wataru - who faced prison time if convicted - demanded an autopsy. There was no arguing with the vindication of science; the results showed the patient was unknowingly allergic to iodine.
It was then that Noguchi said he learned two important lessons. First, no matter how diligent a doctor he was going to be, there would be false accusations. And more importantly, he wanted to specialize in legal medicine. So Noguchi attended medical school in Tokyo during the day and law school at night.
"Forget about eight hours of sleep. You can sleep ..." he pauses and laughs at the irony of the statement, "later."
After a medical internship brought him to the U.S., Noguchi joined the Los Angeles County Coroner's office in 1961. Back in those days, it was crazy to work in the coroner's office, said Noguchi. The 60s ushered in a turbulent time of civil unrest - the Watts Riot, increased recreational drug use and murders. Needless to say the doctor was very busy.
When his boss retired in 1967, Noguchi became an obvious choice for a successor, but there were problems from the beginning with the county Board of Supervisors, the group in charge of hiring the new chief coroner.
"They didn't want a Japanese American," said his wife Hisako Noguchi, a Nisei who was interned during World War II at Amache. "They told him he was a good second man."
The board eventually gave in and at 40, Noguchi became the first JA appointed to the post. He was given a six-month probation period, after which he still believes he would've been fired had it not been for a turning point in American history.
"On June 4, 1968, something big happened," he said.
'Meeting' RFK
Forty years after Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel, the man who met him after death still sounds wistful about what could have been.
"If Bobby were not assassinated, he would've been president," said Noguchi.
Five years earlier, John F. Kennedy's lifeless body was taken to Washington, D.C. without a postmortem exam, fueling everlasting speculation about the president's cause of death. Noguchi did not want to make the same mistake.
The New York senator survived for about 25 hours with the head wound, said Noguchi, who met with the Kennedys and members of the district attorney's office at the Good Samaritan Hospital.
"I said you have to do an autopsy," but the family was too grief stricken to think about another procedure. "So I said 'trust me.'"
Death came at 1:44 a.m., said the doctor, who made the unprecedented decision to move into the hospital to conduct the autopsy.
"I think if I didn't move into the hospital to take charge, I think the body would've disappeared."
He describes the procedure by moving his arms around in the air. Was the senator shot three times? Was his arm raised? Noguchi put the senator's jacket back on the body to establish the position of his arm. It was a seven-hour autopsy, one of the most thorough in history.
"People in the county and around the world took notice. They could not fire me," he said with a smile.
We Had to Stand Up
Despite Noguchi's fame, it happened not once, but twice. He was demoted in 1969 and in 1982.
The first time, he had an inkling that it was coming, said Hisako. In 1969, charges of misconduct ranging from threatening another employee with a knife to enjoying publicity too much were levied against Noguchi. But neither the couple nor the JA community took the accusations sitting down. They won a spectacular battle in 1969 reinstating Noguchi's good name.
"I said we can't let it go. We have to fight it," said Hisako. "With the evacuation and all the prejudice against us, I figured we had to stand up some place."
"The charges were truly nonsense, but we battled it out," said Noguchi's longtime attorney and friend Godfrey Isaac. "There were a lot of racial overtones ... it wasn't too long after WWII after all."
But in 1982, a newspaper detailed evidence of mismanagement at the coroner's office and pointed the finger at Noguchi, who blamed it on lack of funding. This time he didn't have the same support from JA leaders, many who felt slighted that the doctor didn't give back to the community after his first decisive victory. So Noguchi permanently lost his chief badge in 1982 and moved to County-USC Medical Center.
He says he doesn't have many regrets. Today, he's actively retired and working on a new autobiography because he still has stories to tell.
Things have come full circle - Noguchi still actively chairs committees, teaches and meets weekly with the current chief medical examiner and former student, Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran.
"I came to the office because of him," said Sathyavagiswaran. "He put the L.A. County Coroner on the map."
But for a few years, he said he was not allowed to set foot in the coroner's office. "That's okay, I understand," he whispered. Looking back, Noguchi says he only remembers the good times.
"If someone asked would you do everything the same knowing what happened to you? - of course! It's a matter of dignity," he said.
And looking forward, the former "coroner to the stars" still has ambitious goals.
"I have every desire to live and work until 100."
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