Interviews

1. Her early memories before the war

2. Learning English

3. Taking her father’s ashes, going back to Japan, learning the koto and culture

4. Sensing the war was coming

5. Coming back to America from Japan before the war

6. Working at the family flower shop, meeting Greta Garbo

7. Her experience of Japanese American Evacuation

8. Memories of Manzanar

9. Working in the camp hospital

10. Wind in camp

11. Her grandfather and Dr. Thompson

12. Her grandmother comes to Manzanar

13. Experiencing prejudice after the war

(1916-2016) Florist

Working in the camp hospital

I don’t even think we had flowers in camp. Maybe we did, I don’t know.

I was busy working at the lab at the hospital all the time, see. That was okay. I enjoyed doing that. In those days, we had nurse Akita. She was a wonderful nurse. But the doctors there weren’t very good. Anyway, nurse Akita was one of the head nurses at the Cedar Syanide when that was over here on Fountain Avenue. Nurse Akita. But she really helped me too, especially when you’re doing all that live under those microscopes.

We only received $16 a month. And if it’s a bit higher than that, it’s a couple dollars more. That was it.

California concentration camps hospitals Manzanar concentration camp United States World War II World War II camps

Date: May 24, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Sumiko Kozawa was born in 1916 in Los Angeles. The oldest of five children, Sumi spent three years in Japan before World War II, learning koto, flower arranging, and tea ceremony. Her family’s flower shop, Tokio Florist in Silver Lake, was popular with the Hollywood community because of its fresh flowers and reasonable prices. Sumi not only helped out, but also had the opportunity to meet many people, including famous silent movie star, Greta Garbo. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Sumi and her family were sent to Manzanar. There she helped care for the family, taking care of her grandfather and younger sister. She passed away on December 2016, at age 100. (December 2016)