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

Sumiko Kozawa

(1916-2016) Florist

Experiencing prejudice after the war

You know, for me it was the same. I didn’t have much problem. But you know, come to think of it. One time I took my daughter into Hollywood and we’re walking around Hollywood. And we went to a restaurant there. And we sat there, we sat there for the longest time. So I asked them, I said, “We’d like to get served.” So they give us a menu there, but they never served us. So I told them again. And then finally, I said, I guess they don’t want to serve us so we walked out.

But we must have been sitting there for over half an hour. We used to go there, you know, before the war. It was nice there. But things have changed. But then after that, people weren’t that bad, they were really nice. So that was the only bad thing that I had. Well. War is war and I guess that just happens.

discrimination interpersonal relations World War II

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)

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